Shelter Bay

We bid a fond farewell to our friends and helpers at Marina Carenero on Saturday afternoon, leaving somewhat later than we had anticipated as we discovered the engine's alternator had seized and needed replacing. Not a huge problem as we had a spare alternator available, but a hot and sweaty job for Ivan as access to our engine is verrrry squeezy. Anyway, a few hours and many curses later we were on our way.

Leaving Marina Carenero, Bocas del Toro

We hadn't planned on going too far anyway, just a little closer to the open sea to be able to leave reasonably early the next morning. We motored over to Isla Bastimentos and spent the night anchored off the village there. For dinner we hiked up the hill by torchlight to the Thai restaurant only to find they were ully booked. So we hiked back down the (very muddy) hill and ate in Ca Venice, a place that focussed on Italian style food because that's where the proprietors are from.

We left Isla Bastimentos at around 9.30am the following morning heading towards Shelter Bay at the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal. We had a "jolly lively time of it" as Dick from the Famous Five might say as the winds were fair and there was a bit of swell. I think we were averaging 6 knots over the 130 mile passage. We arrived at Shelter Bay somewhat bleary eyed as we had to hand steer all the way because the tiller pilot and the wind moitor both decided not to work.

Tomorrow we haul Brio out of the water to remove the seafood salad that has grown on her in the past 6 months, put a new coat of anti-foul on her and do a few other out-of-the-water jobs.