July 14th, 2015– Flew home from Panama City                                                                         October 6th, 2015–Returned to Panama                                                                                   November 18th, 2015–Departed Bocas del Toro, Panama

After two and a half months in the States (July, August, September), Kassie and I returned to Bocas del Toro, for the next chapter of our adventure. We spent the two and a half months seeing family and friends, partying for Lotawana Day, attending a couple weddings, trips to Michigan to see Kassie’s family, a trip out to Dodge City, KS to see my grandpa, and a roadtrip out to Nevada to attend Burning Man. With all of the road trips, mixed in with replacing parts and planning repairs for Winnie, the time flew by quickly. We were ready to get back to Panama and our boat as Missouri’s fall weather set in. We packed our heavy baggage, stuffed full of boat parts, a new sail cover which we sewed while home, a few tools, and some sheets of Lexan (similar to Plexiglas, but made of polycarbonate instead of acrylic making it stronger and lighter than Plexiglass) to build a new spray windshield for Winnie.We were ready to get back to Panama and our boat as Missouri’s fall weather set in. We packed our heavy baggage, stuffed full of boat parts, a new sail cover which we sewed while home, a few tools, and some sheets of Lexan (similar to Plexiglas, but made of polycarbonate instead of acrylic making it stronger and lighter than Plexiglass) to build a new spray windshield for Winnie. Once again, we were able to pass through Panama City, spending a few nights hanging with our friend Jonathan and visiting the Miraflores Locks and Panama Canal Museum before taking the long bus ride to Almirante, and then the boat ride out to Bocas del Toro. Winnie, as well as Dylan and his friend Chelsea were waiting for us. Dylan and Chelsea were staying in Bocas over the past few weeks and preparing for a backpacking adventure north through Costa Rica, so our time overlapped by only a few days.

A few sailors had come and gone while we were away, but we got to catch up with some old friends who were still around. Winnie was safe and sound at the marina, with just some scum on the hull and a seized up alternator from sitting in one place for too long without starting the engine. Both easy fixes. We started in on our project list, which consisted of hoisting our newly repaired mainsail and trying on the new cover, adding 3 new fans to the interior, fixing interior lights, taking apart and cleaning the carburetor on our outboard engine, doing fiberglass work where our backstay attaches to the boat, and building a spray windshield out of Lexan.

The largest and most important of all of these projects was the backstay repair. Before we left Winnie, we noticed that the backstay chainplate had started to pull away from the fiberglass transom. The fiberglass had cracked, and if it failed, the whole mast could fall down. Winnie would not be able to sail safely until this was fixed. It took nearly a week to complete the entire project. It involved grinding and chiseling away the old fiberglass while inside a small compartment aft of the cockpit. Once the fiberglass was ground down and smoothed out, new fiberglass layers could be laid in its place, making it stronger than it was back in 1963. It was a miserable week of fiberglass dust, sweat, and the smell of acetone and resin, all while curled up sideways in the aft doghouse. It is satisfying that the job was done correctly, and hopefully I won’t have to crawl back inside anytime soon.

Aside from the vigorous boat projects, we took trips into Bocas to watch the Royals play the Blue Jays in the ACLS championships, and watch my home team beat the Mets for World Series Champions! We spent a few days walking around Bocas, making good meals, and sightseeing. Once the backstay was securely in place, we finally took Winnie out for a day sail. We took Winnie to Starfish Beach, at the Bocas del Drago entrance channel. It is a popular day trip to a really nice beach. We dropped anchor for a few hours just 100 meters from shore, walked the beach, swam, and checked out some starfish. We were able to make it back to the marina before dark, satisfied that the engine ran well and all of the sails and lines are in working order. We continued completing a few smaller projects, and began provisioning the boat for our soon departure.

Our plan was to sail to the San Blas Islands, located 200 miles east as the crow flies. They are a group of islands self-governed by the Guna Yala Indians. We had heard amazing things about the beautiful islands, and were excited to see it for ourselves. Along the way we made stops in Laguna de Bluefield, a mostly uninhabited island named Escudo de Veraguas, and then further east to the Rio Chagres, which is the river that was damned to form the Panama Canal.

Time at Home

 

 

 

 

Spray Shield

Building the frame for the spray windshield in the work area at Marina Carenero. Multiple layers of plywood staggered and epoxied together.

 

We used the adhesive 5200 to attach the wooden frame and then screwed the Lexan to the wooden frame and the aluminum solar panel.

 

Fiberglass Backstay Project

This is where the backstay attaches to the deck.

 

The “before shot”.  This is underneath the deck, where the stainless steel chainplate was loose and the fiberglass cracked towards the top and along the side.

 

I used a Dremel tool and grinder to cut away the old fiberglass, and remove the water-saturated wood piece inside.

 

Once I removed the cracked fiberglass, I scraped out the rotten wood from before. Water likely caused the damage and with the structure of the wood compromised the fiberglass shell was taking too much of the load from the chainplate causing the fiberglass to crack.

 

The mulch like wood cleaned out.

 

Time to start grinding.

 

I was in awkward position after awkward position to grind away all of the old fiberglass.

 

I am covered in fiberglass from grinding away the old stuff.

 

Grinding complete. Ready to start glassing.

 

Work complete. No pictures of laying the fiberglass because it was a two man job. I used a wooden board cut to fit and covered it in resin to strengthen it and then laid fiberglass matting and roving while Kassie mixed two part Epoxy. We had to work quick in the tropical heat, so the Epoxy wouldn’t kick off and set before we had it smoothed out over the matting and roving. We laid a total of 10 layers of fiberglass, alternating between matting and roving.  The backstay is now reattached and I feel confident it is stronger than when she was built in 1963.

All of the other projects were less interesting and pretty straight forward, although time consuming.  We spent just over a month in Bocas this time, and we were ready to untie those dock lines and get moving again.