Shelter Bay Marina

Welcome to our Blog. Our latest entry always comes up first... 
Click this link if you want to start at the beginning:
FIRST BLOG ENTRY
If you want to start at the beginning of our trip:
START OF TRIP
If you want to see the story of our trip from South Carolina
(where we bought the boat)
 to Lake Ontario Click this link:
  SOUTH CAROLINA

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We arrived in Shelter Bay on Tuesday February 2nd...  On the 3rd, we lost our main laptop computer and could not recover the data so far.  We faithfully did back-ups but it seems they are not working.  So now after a few weeks we have a new to us, Panasonic TOUGHBOOK...  And boy, does it look tough!...  So hopefully now after days of replacing all that was lost, we can get across the Pacific with an in tact computer...

Life here at the marina has been FUN!  The last time we were here we had to rush home to Canada and while we were gone the boat was on the hard.  This time we have enjoyed a little "dock life"

The people here at Shelter Bay are friendly and fun.  We have enjoyed swimming, walking and cocktails every evening....

We were here for Superbowl Sunday.  What a collection of people!  Try explaining American football to a Aussie or Brit!

Shelley and Ginger

Here at the marina they hold a swap meet every Friday morning...  We took advantage of this to sell/give away a bunch of stuff we don't need anymore...

Shelley connected with some interesting folks who walk and bird watch.  She has become quite proficient at locating and identifying the many birds and critters here in Panama... She has also produced some beautiful photos...

Life here has not been all play....  We have now lowered the waterline by almost 2 inches with enough provisions for 6 MONTHS!  Think about how much we eat in a day, then multiply that by 180....  That's a lot of food....  We took the bus to Panama City and had our friend, Roger drive us home with a van full of supplies...  Our day in Panama City included a trip to the Albrook Mall with over 800 stores!  For people who have been in the jungle for almost a year, it is quite a change...

We also got a long list of boat jobs completed.  The biggest was the re-painting of our decks...  It is nice to have the boat looking so pretty...  (At least for a little while...)

One theme that keeps re-occuring in our life is AMAZING PEOPLE!  Over he last few weeks we have met some great people from all over.  Two couples in particular have been our new Australian friends, Chris & Margaret (S/V Storm Bay) and Bruce & Carrie (S/V Haven).  they have gone through the canal on their way to the Galapagos.  We hope to meet up with them in French Polynesia later...  Lanny and Ginger (S/V Swift Sure) who we met in the San Blas, are also on the same trajectory as us and are even helping us line handle through the canal...  There are so many others!

Michelle (from Oklahoma/Cozumel) has also joined us again for our canal transit.  We will post on the transit next...

The last big job we needed done was to replenish our school supplies.  Thanks to the generosity of so many, we found almost everything we need for our trip to the South Pacific.  For more on our work with kids, check out: www.righttowriteministry.blogspot.com

We are just now looking after the last minute jobs on the boat before we begin the journey that will see us move from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific...

Cheers!