Back to Bocas

We caught buses back to Almirante and then a water taxi to Bocas and another water taxi over to Marina Carenero to be reunited with Brio. We were surprised, after all of the rain we had been experiencing, to find the marina in drought. They had not had rain for two weeks and the beautiful basil and other herbs in the kiyuka gardens was dying off and the laundry had been closed for a week to conserve the precious rainwater.

The kiyuka herb garden before it dried up

We had a week to pack up the boat before leaving her for 6 months. It will be an experiment to see just what state she is in when we return. There is all sorts of advice available about how to leave a yacht in a hot, humid environment – foil on the windows, kitty litter in trays, shade cloth over the top. In the end we didn’t do all of these things, although I did try to store things so that air could circulate and cleaned the inside surfaces to try to reduce mould growth. Ivan was busy oiling tools to prevent rust and covering the propeller to prevent barnacle growth amongst other things. We will see when we return!

The day before we left, the rain came in the form of a wild storm. The timing was outrageous – we had just received word from Daniel, Ivan’s son, that Tanya, Daniel’s wife was in the final stages of labour with their first child. The storm caused a power outage and the internet was also out. It was another 6 or 7 hours before we could log back onto the internet to find out how Tanya and the baby were and in doing so we received the great news that she had had a boy and all was well. Of less importance, but also something we were keen to finalise, was our washing that was half done, but now with the power back on could be dried before the morning.