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| Sunny Boy having a good time at Ron Azul |
Bocas del Toro, Panama
Friday, May 25, 2012
What happens in Bocas, stays in Bocas! There is so much to do here! Mostly, party. Good food (Ultimo Refugio, The Wine Bar), good music (Casa Verde, Lily’s) and sing-alongs (Calypso Cantina), weekend fun (Ron Azul) and a very friendly boaters community.
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| Bocas, general anchorage |
After a 40-hour, 450 miles passage from the Hobbies, we dropped anchor by the Bocas Marina, did our entry in Panama (1-year cruising permit, 6-month visa) and I hopped on a plane to Cali. JP was left to his own device and fiddled with the boat. Re-painted the aft-deck sink, added a ventilation hatch on the kepi, replaced the hoist cable, made a bypass for the engines’ bleeding lines, managed to blow both alternators, and re-built the side deck steps to improve drainage and eliminate standing water. That should have kept him busy enough, you’d think…
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| That little trap? Lots more air in the cabin |
But noooooo! He ALSO managed to meet the outstanding Dr. Ben, his sister Sky, and the entire Floating Doctors team. Soon, he was volunteering with them, offering free medical care in the local villages. Indeed, the Floating Docs is quite a marvelous organization and I’ll write more on that on my next blog; they deserve a whole chapter!
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| Dr. JP still loves doctoring |
Well, I’m back in Bocas and what fun it was to meet my old sailing buddy, Melinda McCoy. Twenty years ago, we were learning to sail with the WORSA girls in Newport Beach. Today, we’re full-time cruisers, Melinda and Georges doing charters on their Venezia Cat “SouthernBelle,” happy, happy, happy!
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| Having a good time with Georges: I won the poker tournament! |
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| Sunset in Bocas |
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| JP re-builds the steps |
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| All done! |
More on this next time
Until then,
Until then,
dominomarie
