In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle

Sometimes you find a place that speaks to your heart. For me it has been hiking in the jungles of Panama, just outside the Shelter Bay Marina. The access is wonderful, the jungle begins right across the street and the paths are easy and plentiful. This is a sampling of some of the things we have been enjoying in the jungle. 

Things Happen... part 2 Through the Canal

 Transitting the Panama Canal is certainly an accomplishment to add to my life list of things to do and i have now been fortunate enough to do it three times. I was informed that I was not so special because I was not the first in the family to do so, my grandmother did it in 1914 when she travelled from Nevada to Massachusetts to christen the USS Nevada.

My grandmother, Eleanor Siebert christening the USS Nevada

Things happen.. (part 1)

 "Things happen" said our Panama Canal advisor shortly after he boarded Rhapsody at 5 AM for our canal crossing and we told him the engine wasn't running.

I didn't want to tell him just how often "things" have been happening!

Moises, our Canal Advisor, safely on board

A bolt, a bolt, my kingdom for a bolt!

For want of a nail the horse was lost...

What other nursery rhymes fit the bill?

Following up on our previous post of our aborted jaunt to the Galapagos...

We made the assumption that when the chartplotter gave us the message : "No Autopilot computer" that it meant our autopilot computer was not working. Silly us! Apparently the issue was simply a broken bolt. A very important bolt, but not an electronics issue. The bolt was the connection from the hydraulic autopilot arm to the steering quadrant, and it sheered completely through. 

Well, that didn't work...

 When you tell a lot of people they can follow your track while making a passage, it falls somewhere on the spectrum between "Hold my beer, I got this" and "Mommy, mommy, watch me do this" often the result is not quite what was expected.

Both Fred and Frieda have been re-homed!

For several years we have had one or more geckos living on our boat. We suspected more than one, but only recently did Bob see two together. We have enjoyed their company, watching them dart around the boat, hopefully munching on any unwanted insects we have aboard. We were sad that their lives were in danger because we have to get the boat fumigated before we go to the Galapagos, and we were even sadder when we heard that geckos can live up to 15 years. They certainly do no harm to us, and they eat bugs, so we appreciate them being aboard. We have tried to catch them in the past, but they are very quick and very elusive. 

Raccoon Picture test

This is one of the many raccoons in the marina. 

When we first arrived in the July 

it was the height of the lockdown. 

No one was about and the raccoons

 were running rampant.

 Up and down the docks, onto boats, 

up on top of buildings, 

there was no stopping them.