Tuesday, May 4, 1993

Picture of Jofian anchored in a port in Mexico.

Bagged up the most essential dirty clothes--sheets, towels, under-
wear, etc. Also wrote the report on Trigana for the yacht club.
When we got to the laundry room, another woman was just starting on a huge pile, so we left our laundry and soap there and took the report to the office. Then we took a cab to the Port Captain's office. Got there at twelve. They were just going to lunch. Our timing is terrific.
We walked down the hill to where there were a few shops. Found a little ice cream parlor that was run by a guy from the U.S. We each had a slice of pie and two scoops of ice cream, but we were disappointed; it wasn't very good.
At one o'clock, we returned to the Port Captain's office. Guess what--we had to go to the Admeasurer first. He said it was just a few blocks and gave us directions that were rather vague. We promptly got lost. Found ourselves at the Panama Canal College. Went inside and talked with a professor who spoke flawless English. He drew us a little map of where the Admeasurer's office is, and we set off again, back down the hill towards the Y. Took one wrong turn but finally found the place. It was a clean, modern office building like any in the U.S. We had to sign in at the front desk and wear visitors' badges. Most impressive building we've been in south of the border.
When Roy bought the Jofian, there was a Panama Canal license on her from her 1981 transit of the canal. He was told it was valuable, and it really was. The Admeasurer found her old records and filled out the forms using the old data, thereby saving us the time and expense (approximately $200) of having her measured from stem to stern.
Since it was nearly 3 o'clock when we got through there, we grabbed a cab to go the few blocks back to the Port Captain. (Only cost $1.) The Handline Transit Coordinator completed the paper work for our transit, explained the procedure, and billed us $70. What a pleasant surprise that was! We thought we'd have to pay $200 or more. That $70 includes the fee for the Transit Advisor. Every small boat going through the canal has to have an Advisor, four line-handlers, a helmsman, and four 125-foot lines. Our lines are only 100-foot, but he let us go through anyway. However, it's at our own risk; I had to sign a form absolving the Panama Canal Commission of all liability. As the Coordinator pointed out, the canal was built for freighters and other large ships, not for little sailboats. Small boats can easily be damaged and often are.
We're scheduled to go through Thursday--day after tomorrow!
Our paperwork completed, we turned to other important matters. Roy is still trying to fix the generator. He needs a 15-amp circuit breaker. When we were at the Rey's market on Sunday (the first one), we had noticed a Radio Shack nearby, so we wanted to go there. Problem was, we didn't know where "there" was. We asked a taxicab driver to take us to Radio Shack and drew a complete blank. Then we told him it was near Rey's. That was a mistake. He took us to the Rey's in downtown Panama City where we went yesterday. No Radio Shack in sight. We told him it was the wrong Rey's; we wanted to go to Radio Shack. He took us to another Rey's. Wrong again. He talked to his dispatcher on the radio, but apparently didn't get much helpful information. Finally, however, he took us to the right Rey's, and there was Radio Shack. We asked him to show us on our street map where we were. We were in an area called El Dorado, so at last we knew where we were.
After all that, Radio Shack didn't have a 15-amp circuit breaker. Neither did another electronics parts store nor any of the hardware stores we went into, so Roy finally decided he'd bypass the circuit breaker.
Bought a few more groceries and took a cab back to the yacht club. The woman in the laundry was just finishing. Perfect timing for once. I did the laundry while Roy took the groceries back to the boat and did some things he wanted to do.
The washer only used cold water, but most of the stuff came reasonably clean. Cleaner than they were, anyway.