Shelter Bay Marina - Sewing Projects and Thanksgiving

Busy cutting material

It's hard to believe we've only been back in Panama for 5 weeks.  It's seemed like never-ending work -- well, at least for Dennis!  He's in the process of making a new dodger, bimini  and side curtains and doing an amazing job, but been very frustrated at times.  And this from a man who has patience!  Unfortunately, with the work he's doing, and all the rain, I haven't been able to do any woodwork.  Guess that will be my project for the new year in the San Blas.  Having the common room upstairs, with air conditioning, has been great for Dennis and Deb, from Sea Cycle, while they've worked on their projects and kept each other company.

And sewing

I've been cleaning and resting, still recovering from my episode with pneumonia.  Very frustrating to be so tired all the time.  We've been able to get a bit of walking in, but not as much as I'd like, mostly because of the rain.

Steve from LiWard (white hat),
recruited Frank, the Dock Manager
to play guitar and entertain us

Dylan and Mauricio before the
craziness of Thanksgiving dinner

Chris, Dylan, Mauricio and Gina


There's new management in the marina and hotel/restaurant, and the difference is unbelievable!  Chris Young is the Manager for the restaurant/hotel, with Gina as his Assistant Manager. Customer service is amazing with the wait staff of Rosa, Mauricio and Dylan.  Dennis said the other night that we might be spending more money on meals and happy hour, but at least we're having a great time.  How true.  They put together a Thanksgiving dinner, where The Dock Restaurant supplied turkey, gravy and cranberries, and the rest was potluck.  There had to have been at least 60 people up for dinner, if not more, and the food was fantastic.  What a fun, fun night!  Then, the lunch special the next day was open faced turkey
sandwiches with gravy -- well, who could pass that up?  Certainly not us!!

I'll post more photos when Dennis finishes his project.    ~~~_/)~~~

Back in Panama

Early morning flight, so up at 3 a.m., made sure the condo was all winterized and ready to go, and now we're back to the boat in Panama.  Flew home in July able to check 2 bags, and now American has changed their policy?  Had good flights, a short connection, and our driver picked us up and had us at Shelter Bay Marina by 5 p.m.

The Panama Canal entrance

We've booked the hotel room for a week so that we have an air conditioned place to collapse after cleaning, and Chris upgraded us to a marina view.  We're happy, especially after going down and looking inside the boat.  Well, the outside was pretty bad too.  We were supposed to be gone 5 weeks and ended up 3 months away.  Never left that long without an air conditioner in.  Green and white are lovely colors -- just not inside my boat.  Met up with Mark and Deb on Sea Cycle and Brian and Sue on Darramy for drinks and dinner.  Up early to clean!!!


It was a lot of work, but by the time we checked out of the hotel room, everything inside and outside was clean.  There are little things left to do inside, but they're things that can be done while we're on the boat.  Dennis has started his sewing project - a new dodger and bimini.  On top of this, we met up with Matt and Jean on SuperTed and told them we'd help out with their canal crossing if they needed us.  They did, so we got ourselves ready for a Saturday/Sunday crossing.

Ready to go!

Woke up Saturday with a bit of a cough, but it will go away.  Had to be out at the Flats for 1 p.m., which is frustrating, because the advisor kept changing the time he was coming out, and made it to the boat around 6:30, in the dark and the rain.  Supposedly we were to go through at 7:30, but it ended up being closer to 8:30 ... in the dark and the rain, behind a tug and a Navy boat puking diesel fumes!  My cough got worse!  Everything went great, although the advisor was not happy that Matt wanted to center tie instead of tie off to the Navy boat and let them do all the work.  Let's see ... newly painted 57' Beneteau next to a beat up Navy boat.  No brainer as far as we were concerned.  Finally tied up in Gatun Lake around 10:00 p.m., had one drink, and off to bed.

Jose, Jean and Matt

Crew underway (sorry Sue)

Well, on Sunday the advisor was there bright and early at 6:00 a.m. and we were underway.  It's at least 4 hours across the lake, so I went back down below to have a rest.  The cough kept me awake most of the night, and the slapping of the waves against the side, since we were side tied to the buoy.  Went through the Miraflores Lock around 12:30, and anchored in the Pacific Ocean by about 2:00 p.m.  That was cool.  Staying on SuperTed one more night since transportation is easier on Monday than it is on Sunday.  Jean kept telling us she couldn't cook, but that wasn't true.  We had some great meals.  Thanks Matt and Jean for the great adventure on SuperTed.  What a beautiful boat!

Jean on SuperTed

Matt dropped us off at the dinghy dock Monday morning and we walked over with Sue and Stefan, their other 'crew', to Abernathy's, and then a cab to Albrook Mall, look around and take the bus back.  Picked up some cough syrup at the Farmacia and that seemed to control the cough a bit.  Back at Quatro Altos in time to catch the 3:15 bus back to Shelter Bay.  Didn't go to happy hour because we were exhausted.  An early night.

Still feeling really bad, with my temp going as high as 101.8, so decided on Wednesday to head into the Emergency Room at the Hospital.  Blood tests, x-rays, and I have bronchial pneumonia in both lungs!  No wonder I felt so horrible.  Penicillin shots for 3 days, oral antibiotics, pain meds for the coughing and cough syrup -- hospital visit and all drugs, $150.00 U.S.  Guess I have no choice but to relax now!

I'll get photos of  Dennis' project for the next blog.


                                                              ~~~ _/) ~~~

Time To Head Back To Panama

Celebrating my birthday with
Kelly and Charlie

Apollo, the best dog ever

Well, it's been an eventful summer, what with buying a condo, gutting it, putting it back together and buying furniture, but it's time to head back to the boat and do all the cleaning and painting (woodwork) all over again.  Had a wonderful summer, and Kelly and Char,  Shaun and Kali were great for putting up with us for the two months until we got into the condo.

It was a ton of work, but we love our new place.  Got into our old condo complex, buying a ranch instead of a townhouse.  Let's eliminate all the stairs we can!  The basement is huge, and with all the kids bringing old toys over, we lose them down there and have peace and quiet on the main floor.  And, I have to say, I love my new queen size bed.  That's not to say we don't love the boat, but since we've been living aboard full-time since 2005, with only a few breaks, it's a nice change.  The boat is for sale, but we hope to get one more cruising season out of her.  If it doesn't sell, we'll sail back to the States in April, put her on the hard in Georgia, and winter in the Bahamas until she sells.  We've done that before and loved it.

Heading back to Panama in a couple of days, not too soon for Dennis who is craving the heat!

Up on a ladder - I hate that!

Cody, I thought you were working

The living room before

The living room after

Dennis scraping the kitchen vinyl

Relaxing in his new lazy boy
with the dining room in the background

The Murray family

The Piehler family

My birthday necklace with
all the grandkids

Brooklyn wasn't tired

Parker and Brooklyn
ready for school

Parker is in there somewhere

Brooklyn, Madison, Ryenn, Taylour, Parker and Emmy
with Avory in front

Home For The Summer

I'm not quite sure where this summer has gone ... all I know is that we've been really, really busy.  The first couple of weeks back was catching up with family and doing all that babysitting, then getting ready for Kelly and Charlie's wedding.

This is what we wake up to when
babysitting!

New bedroom set

New couch

In between time, we were spending a lot of time looking for condos.  We had a price range, and it was getting a little frustrating trying to find something in that price range.  Put a bid in on one place and got overbid with a cash offer.  Then, nothing else seemed to measure up.  We'd been driving around our old condo complex hoping to see if something came up, but no luck.  On our fourth trip through, we stopped to see one of our old neighbors who was sitting on his porch.  He told us about a woman who died in one of the condos behind him, that the daughter was putting it up for sale, and she lived in the homes behind the complex.  We knocked on the door, 'Sorry about your loss, but do you want to sell the condo?', took a look through and shook on the deal.  Unfortunately, we had changed our flights too early, and now we'll have to change them again!  But, we've got the place we want, near the bike path and the beach!  Now, spending lots of money on paint, flooring, carpeting and furniture ... but spinning our wheels waiting for the closing date.


Kelly and Charlie got married on Friday, August 12th, and then there was an open house on Saturday.  Busy, busy time, but lots of fun.

Charlie, Kelly, Parker and
Brooklyn

Family photos

Nikki, Tara and Tania

Avory. Emmy, Brooklyn and Ryenn

With Tania and Kelly

Shaun and Kelly

After Parker's football game (photos next time!), we headed over to Tania and Rich's with Zack so that the boys could spend time together again.  After swimming and dinner, we went back to Kelly and Charlie's, and after a lunch at White Castle, the boys dropped me off at Shaun's for a couple of days while they spent guy time together, going to the gun show and then, supposedly to go shooting.  Well, I guess the law has changed and you have to be 18 now.  So, after I got back, we headed out to pick the boys up and Dennis took the gun to Chris and MA's, where they have targets set up.  The boys had a blast shooting, one more night at Kelly and Charlie's, and then took Cody home the next day.

Cody shooting

Zack shooting

Can't believe it's back to school time already.  Here's Shaun's girls, first day going to school!

Ryenn, Avory and Emmy