December 12 2007
Location: Bocas del Toro, Panama
Nautical Miles Traveled: 0

Okay, so it’s been two months since we’ve done an update and many of you are reminding us of that. To be honest there hasn’t been much to write about, it’s hard to find different ways to write about the same thing. But there have been a few things happening around here.

In October I flew back to Kemah Texas to help our friends on Liberty get their boat ready for their three year cruise. Dave, Nancy  and their two boys Josh and Chris had a lot on their to do list so I flew up for two weeks and had a great time. We got in some new electronics and fixed up some electrical and plumbing issues. I stayted with them on their boat where they did an excellent job keeping my belly full. The boys were well behaved and shared with me their fishing knowledge. I stayed with the Liberty crew for two weeks. While I was in Kemah it was great to see a lot of old friends that we hadn’t seen in three years. While in Kemah our friends Bill and Shelley convinced me to stay an additional two weeks to help them with some boat work, installing some new electronics and moving others around. They have a beautiful Caliber 40 that was comfortable to stay on. After two weeks on their boat it was time to head back to Bruadair.

During my absence from Bruadair David took advantage of the time and got all the wood varnished, the boat washed and waxed and a few other projects done. Since I was gone for a long period of time we thought it was best to put the boat up in the marina. In the past couple weeks we’ve been working on small boat projects, equalizing the battery, ordering bottom paint and ordered our new electric Lofrans Tigres windlass. Can’t wait to get that installed!

So after two months in the marina we’ll pull out and head back to the anchorage tomorrow morning. Aside from a scheduled trip to immigration around the 20th of the month we hope to take advantage of the free time and do some gunk holing around the area again. We’re putting off our trip East until the end of January as I have a trip to California planned the middle of next month. We hope to be in either Colon or Cartagena by the first or second week of February to do our haul out. We really need to get a bottom job, fix a couple blisters and replace our cutlass bearing, which will mean getting the engine realigned again.

Other than that we’re reading, fishing, snorkeling and just kicking back. There are still a lot of boats here in Bocas, more this winter than any in the past. The weather for the most part has been pretty good. No one told mother nature that the rainy season is over as we’re getting some pretty good down pours every few days. The days here are in the mid 80s now and at night in the mid 70s.  Very comfortable.

Copyright S/V Bruadair 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.
No reproduction with out expressed consent in writing.