Mad Rush

Jennie and I are pretty tired at the moment. The last few days have been spent cleaning, and sewing. I have been taking advantage of endless water, and Jennie borrowed our neighbours SailRite sewing machine and took some oddly configured canvas and made it into simple sun/rain covers. Those SailRite sewing machines are pretty awesome, I think Jennie has now got it on her wish list. We managed to spend the last of our quarters doing some laundry, The boat will need a bit of organising before we head offshore, but so far the weather looks to be favourable.

We plan on spending the next week in Bocas, where we are getting our Padi Open Water dive certification. Maybe find somewhere with clean water to clean the bottom of the boat, and then make for the San Blas. It will be a pleasure to be back in town where we can go for dinners, provision with ease, and not worry that Dexter is barking at boats.

Our mile long to do list is getting shorter, and we are getting pretty stoked about heading out cruising again. It is always a bit unsettling leaving the security dock lines and unlimited electricity and water bring.

On an aside; the cruising world is very small once you get outside of the major hubs (San Juans/Desolation Sound, Florida, Bahamas, these are the places I am familiar with). We came to Bocas, mainly because it is one of the only places to stay this far south with marinas, but also we read a blog while we were living on the hard called The Salty Dog. They came to Bocas and it seemed like a decent place to stop and resolve any life and boat issues we rushed away from when we left. So we came here, and are tied up across from Gulaby, a boat that The Salty Dog Sailed with. After a few months John, a fellow Canadian, who read the blog send a few emails asking for advice on getting into it. He ends up buying The Salty Dog, and because he had trouble moving the boat to Bocas Marina he ends up at Red Frog. Small world.

Now it gets smaller. Our friends we met in the blogosphere, write a blog called Bettie Del Mar, they too ended up in Bocas and met up with us. I have a feeling that the Caribbean is like a drain, and Panama is the drain trap (even shaped like one). People heading south end up here. The cruising world is very small once you get a few days past the safety of marinas.