What David does!

The skipper on a vessel most know his boat and always be prepared for anything. Here some seagulls had taken a rest on the solar panels and were making an awful mess, which made the skipper angry!

Seagulls resting in the solar panels.

David taking aim with  a catapult.

Weighing the dinghy with the help of block and tackle and fish-scales.

The anchor chain is on the fore- deck being painted each five meters to mark the length of chain being used.

Going away from the boat in bear buff.

Going up a river in  the dinghy in The Pearl Islands.

There was a problem as the tri sail halyard was stock in the reefing slit on the mast.

The skipper is up in the top of the mast to make sure everything is okay.

In the cockpit having lunch.

He is in the forepeak painting.

Painting

At the workshop doing some maintenance.

In the cockpit doing a whipping.

Doing a whipping.

doing wiring at the chart table.

Diving with Hooka to clean hull.

After the dive.

Taking a photo of a nice sunset.

Plans! after Panama.

We just had 10-15 small stingrays around the boat and around in the anchorage, but  difficult to photo, as only the tip of the fins came up like sharks fins .

 I am busy .............knitting socks for Thomas and then Anna. I am about to sow some covers for the  helm and winches. The bimini is to be renewed but that is to be done professionally. David has  just re-wired the water pump so that the water comes freely and does not stop half way through a shower!
We met up with the other cruisers last night, as always, on Thursday night for pizza and cheep beer at a palata (palm-hut) restaurant near by.
It is very windy most of the time from the North, which is nice as the temperature is around 30 degrees C with a humidity of 75-80%. At night it is cooler and comfortable with a sheet as cover.
We have porridge for breakfast and eat a lot of fresh tropical fruit.
There's a boat near us from sunny Aberdeen, must go and meet them.

You know, I can drive the dinghy myself, mind you, I nearly tumbled out the back of it the other day as I gave the outboard a bucket of coal..... too much and too fast, and the boat flew forward, but I stayed on board and did not become shark-food this time. 
When we have got the new dinghy, the new generator, the plate for the  freezer fitted, completed fitting of new navigation instruments  when the boat comes up on the hard for antifouling..... when all that is done we will move on. We plan to go back to Ecuador. On the way there we hope to visit the Darian rainforest and up a river to visit a primitive tripe of Indians.
We leave the boat in Ecuador as we did last year before we come home. As always, our plans are written in the sand at low tide below the high tide-mark.

The Queen went through our anchorage!

 When The Queen Elizabeth went through the anchorage the other day, the boys went up to have a  look.

David at the top of the mast.

this  wee fellow had a good look.

At anchorage at La Plaita,Panama City. February 2014

Since Jane left us 18th January life has been quiet here at the anchorage.

Well, we are bobbing up and down all the time due to passing of traffic to and fro the Panama Canal and closer to home the supply vessels and pilots passing close to the boat and giving us a 'wash' every time they pass. Some of them do not slow down going through the anchorage.
When we arrived in beginning of January the anchorage was almost empty, as most boats were anchored on the other side of the causeway, The Amador, which runs from the mainland out between the islands, the last one being Isla Flamenco.The Amador was built with left over material from the canal project 100 years ago. Now the anchorage is full as the season is well under way. Also, this anchorage is protected from the strong northerly winds, which dominate at the moment.

Life here is not boring, but it seems to be slowed down. If you go shopping it is a day-project, as you leave the dinghy  at the dinghy dock,

See theboats at the dinghy dock!

well locked up, and making sure it is not in the way of the Toboga island ferries , or ends up under the pillars to the pontoon on a changing tide. Then you march up to the main road in the Amador to catch the bus ($ 0.25 per person). You get off the bus at the shopping mall, The Albrooks, which is absolutely enormous and the largest mall in the whole of Central America. Inside the building you walk a mile in the air-conditioned atmosphere to the grocery shop, do your shopping, wait in a long queue at the check out  and get back to the bus stop.

Now you wait for the bus in the baking heat. The bus could be there at any time, but mostly you have a long wait. When you get back to the boat it is probably after lunch and you are exhausted and it is steaming hot.The afternoon will be spent relaxing in the cockpit in the breeze under the bimini or on the bed with a fan cooling you down. At sunset , 6.30 pm we have our sundowner.  This is a lovely event of the day, and we always look forward to  watch the sunset with a cool drink at hand.