Coopers Quest

[David Fox]

I haven't mentioned the Palenquera that we came across, these ladies are the fruit sellers who carry their fruit in baskets etc. on top of their heads, they are dressed in very bright, colourful outfits which they will show off to you for a photo (and the purchase of some fruit).

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There are lots of them in and around the walled city and also through the back streets of Getsemani. Their story started in San Basilio de Palenque, a village southeast of Cartagena ruled by runaway African slaves, who signed a royal decree stating independence from Spanish colonial powers making it the first free town of the Americas - from this came the name Palenqueros (men) and Palenqueras (women).

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The town was poor but had an abundance of fruit growing locally so the women took the fruit into Cartagena to sell to improve the wealth of their village. The tradition has continued and become one of the iconic sights around Cartagena to this day and whilst they still sell their fruit it would appear that they make more money from posing for photos with tourists than selling their fruit.

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From the colourful to the gruesome, look away if your squeamish.

Palace of the Inquisition had merged with the museum of Columbia. We asked if the exhibits were still in place as we had visited the Palace of the Inquisition when we were here last time and found it extremely interesting, quite eye wateringly gruesome and guess what - we hadn't taken photos last time so we wanted to do that this time around.

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The lady told us that there were "a few" exhibits from the Inquisition and a whole lot more about the settlement of Cartagena so we paid our money and made our way inside with camera in hand.

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The building was much the same but we were so disappointed to find that there were only 3 small exhibits from the Inquisition, none of the racks, and more unusual things that we saw last time

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[David Fox]

Arrival Panama

08 April 2021 | 09 22.025'N:79 56.642'W,
Weather; dull and overcast, wind 11 - 15 knots aft, waves 3 feet.


Shelter Bay Marina, Cristobel, Panama

Hand steering for 11 hours.jpeg (16.02 KiB) Viewed 23055 times

Here's Gerry a surprise email I received this morning, not expecting anything until at least Sunday 10th April.
But no passage is free of surprises.

Swift first day sailing with 184 miles on the clock, which included a slow harbor departure plus the time taken to gather in and rehoist the jib.

2nd day with lighter winds and falling seas but autopilot issues meant we had to hand steer for 11 hours. More on the autopilot later. Gerry.

To break up Nicky's interesting account I will add 5 images from Cartegena.

Back to Nicky.

To repeat that often quoted Captain Ron saying "if it's going to happen, it'll happen out there" and it's official we must now be in another exotic place as we have stuff to fix - boat ownership is so much fun said no one ever!

Well here we are sitting in Shelter Bay Marina, Panama, we arrived in Panama at 3.30am after another exciting day on the water. When I left off yesterday we were making incredible progress to the point that we had reefed in just about everything in a bid to slow us down somewhat. As the day progressed we continued to make good speed until the point where we had to make a slight turn towards the land which had the effect of bringing the wind directly behind us, we had to start up the engine as the wind was now dropping in speed so the rest of the day was spent motor sailing, we even took the reefing point out of the main sail to try and get us moving along a bit better.

Nothing very exciting was happening so I decided to go below and see if I could grab a couple of hours sleep as neither of us had slept enough in the first 24 hours. I stopped to have a shower as the water was really hot from having the engine running and then headed to our forward bunk to lay down. I kid you not, I hadn't been there for half an hour when Gerry yelled down to me that he was going out on deck, saying that I could stay put - this isn't in the agreement, we always have 2 people topside if anyone is going to do stupid stuff like go out on deck, so I hauled myself out into the cockpit to find out why Gerry needed to go out on deck. Arriving just as he was attaching his harness to the jack line I quickly got the word that he was going to take the preventer across to the other side and gybe as the wind had veered further to the opposite side. Whilst it was true that I didn't need to do much, I think he felt safer knowing that I was topside ready to sail away without him if he went overboard or attempt to save him, depending on how I was feeling in the moment! Once the gybe was completed and we were settled back into the moving forward I took myself back down to the bunk for a second time to try and get a nana nap in. I didn't get to sleep but made the most of laying down and doing nothing until about 3.40 when I returned to the cockpit and wished that I hadn't.

Student by Edgardo Carmon.jpeg (108.85 KiB) Viewed 23053 times

I was greeted by Gerry saying that George (our auto pilot) had spat the dummy and was playing up. What could he possibly mean I was stupid enough to ask - well the auto pilot had suddenly stopped steering us on our course line and had taken off and was trying to round us up into wind.

Gerry had corrected the error and was watching it only to see it repeat the same action a couple of seconds later. This was not a good thing as we still had 65 nautical miles to go at this point, all of which would be during the evening/night and it was probably going to mean that we would have to hand steer for the rest of the way unless we could work out what was going on with George.

Gerry ran through all the easy testing and fault-finding stuff but we still had the same result - the auto pilot would engage for a few seconds and then grind to a halt, rounding us up into wind rather than keeping us on course. Having done all of the easy stuff it was time to consider the worse-case scenarios, none of which could be sorted out and fixed whilst we were underway, we were down to having to hand steer for the rest of the trip - oh rap with a silent C!

Seamstress by Edgardo Carmon.jpeg (145.18 KiB) Viewed 23053 times

And so began the very long night of hand steering to get us to Panama. The sea had by now dropped away to almost flat calm so at least we weren't having to deal with horrible wave action but trying to keep the boat on track is much harder than you would think.

Our wheel is 4 foot in diameter which is pretty large to keep having to turn and correct all the time, Gerry has it a bit easier than I do as he is tall enough to hold on to our overhead rails with one hand whilst the other is turning the wheel, this way he can stop himself from stumbling as the boat rocks with the wind or the boat needs to change direction. I can't reach the rails so I have to brace hard against the seat behind my legs and hope that the boat doesn't jolt me too hard or I end up flying across the cockpit.

Why don't you sit down is the next obvious question - well you can't as the wheel is just a little too far from the seat to be able to control the movement so you really do have to be standing, plus you can't see the readout very well from a sitting position - certainly not well enough to quickly react to the slightest change of course. Add into the mix that night was now upon us and there was no moon to give us any visual help and it was a recipe for something to go badly wrong. Gerry, love him, took more than his fair share of the hand steering, we both took power naps in the cockpit alternately for the entire night and relived each other as the need arose with the steering rather than trying to do set times.

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Try as I might, I fought to keep the track at 238 degrees which was the one to get us into Panama, in the blink of an eye (or the puff of a wind gust) the track would be up to 260 or down to 210 degrees which I would then overcorrect - it wasn't a fun time!


I've mentioned that it was pitch black and you couldn't see a thing, not helped by staring intently at the bright screen of the chart plotter and the readout of the track, but you have to also appreciate that we were approaching one of the busiest shipping areas in the world with the most huge super tankers and cargo carriers imaginable moving along in front and to the side of you looking like black blobs with a couple of navigation lights on them - it was the stuff that nightmares are made of! At least we know our AIS was working well, as at times it was the only way we knew that something was getting within range of contact and I think we would have come off worse than they would have done.

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We slowly watched the miles count down and were quite relieved when we got to the point where no more super tankers/cargo carriers were allowed, at least if we hit something it would be smallish but there seemed to be very little other small traffic on the water at this point. We radioed the Signal station from 8 miles out, as per directions from our agent and told them of our impending approach, they just told us to call again when we were 2 miles out.

At this point Gerry though it would be prudent to try and put the main away as there was plenty of space and not too much movement around us from other boats. This is another one of those proceedures that George normally takes a starring role in by keeping us pointed into wind whilst I let the main down and Gerry, out on deck, stuffs the sail into the sail bag and tidies up the lines on deck.

We had to rethink the entire process as I was going to have to keep steering the boat and keep it into wind whilst Gerry took the sail down by himself. We had a quick discussion as to the best way to do this and then set about carrying out the plan.



I have a new-found appreciation for the work that George does at this point in the process, it was damn hard to keep the boat into wind as it was blowing at 17 knots and we were going up and down like a fiddlers elbow (or those other things that do in Panama and South American ports ) at this point.

The sail made it into the bag but unfortunately Gerry's hand slipped off of the halyard as he was bringing it back to tie it down and it shot up in the air and wrapped itself around the backstay, Ho Hum, nothing we could do about it for the moment so it stayed there as we turned back on track and headed towards the breakwater entrance.

We called the signal station again once we were close and got the go ahead to proceed along the wall (don't make the mistake of hitting that in the dark) follow the channel marker lights, turn right at the end and head down towards the marina where we had a booking.

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There was no way we were going to even consider trying to get into the marina in the pitch black of the night so we chose to anchor off just outside of the marina channel for the remainder of the night, get some sleep and then head into the marina in the morning. We headed to the anchoring area, which skirts an area set aside for cargo ships that are carrying explosive material, just to make you feel even more uncomfortable! Anyway we found a spot and dropped the anchor which Gerry didn't think set the first time around so we repeated the whole anchoring process and he was happy with it the second time - just as well as we were both getting quite ratty with each other by now.

Everything got powered down and it was time to crack open a beer before having another shower (yes 2 in one day - oh the expense!) before dropping into bed for the rest of the night.

After 4 hours sleep we were up and tidying away the mess we had abandoned last night, putting stuff away, getting out our Quarantine flag and lowering the Colombian flag - which was filthy, then cable tying a couple of boat hooks together to be able to reach the halyard which was wrapped around the back stay at a height that we couldn't reach - it worked and we managed to get the halyard back down to deck level and fastened off, all before we stopped for breakfast.

It was then time to contact the marina and advise them of our early arrival, get ourselves into a berth and hooked up to power and water.

We had to wait for a short while before going into the marina as there were another couple of boats going in at around the same time but they accommodated our request for a side tie up and were on the dock to catch our lines as we approached, it was a thousand times better than our last tying up and we were soon hooked up to power and water.

All wasn't quite as we had expected though as we apparently have to have 2 covid tests each and 5 days in quarantine on the boat which means that we will be here longer than we originally thought as we have some "fixing" stuff to do - well this must be a really exotic place!
Already Gerry has spent the day pulling the autopilot pump out - this is where he thinks the issue probably originates and apparently one of the brushes is worn and is stuck, we will be needing to replace that at the very least but we will probably try to get an electronics guy check it out for us as we will not be doing the next leg of our trip without the autopilot working properly.
The health person has been down to the boat and swabbed our brain cells via our noses so we are now stuck on our boat for the next 5 days, I'm not sure that we have enough alcohol to get us through the boredom of not being able to do stuff as we can't get to a shop to buy any spares we might need however I'm sure there will be plenty for us to do as the boat is just filthy from our extended stay in Cartagena. I made a start on cleaning our stateroom this afternoon, I've never seen so much dust and dirt, you would think we hadn't cleaned for months!


So now Gerry has just got a sim card sorted out via our agent and we have internet access so we will be binge watching Netflix for the next 5 days before we can get the work done that we had planned for here.

It's 5 o'clock so time for an adult beverage. Oh and by the way our second day ended up with us covering 110 Nautical miles in 18hours - not bad going considering we expected to be at sea for 2.5 days and ended up only taking 42 hours from go to
wo!

It will be FWE for a while now, the job list is calling.

Just hope the old Welly boot is not opposite Gerry and Nicky as when I was on her, between the j/e and the pool 4th they managed to add a coating of HFO as boot topping to all the white hulled yatchs in the marina. I suppose it acted as an SPC and also prevented marine growth creating a light brown wave effect to the hull. Very dashing.

On this day HRH the Duke of Edinburgh crossed the bar. A keen yachtsman and an Honorary Past President of the Institute of Marine Engineers.
We send our sincere condolances to HM the Queen and the Royal Family at this sad time.

[David Fox]

First Rain in Six Weeks
8th April 2021 Day 2 of Quarantine .
09 22.025'N:79 56.642'W,
Shelter Bay Marina, Cristobel, Panama

Telemotor brush failure.jpeg (12.71 KiB) Viewed 23045 times

Looks like Gerry found the culprit, a broken brush wire that would make and break as it wished giving intermittent service of the telemotor. If that is one of the original brushes on a 30 year old motor then it doesn't look too bad, but chafing due to
vibration and recent heavy weather would do it. Lucky George decided to have his tantrum when it was smooth sailing weather, it would have been heavy going for them both through the storm prior to Cartegena and almost Chinese watches.

Bunting and umbrellas overhead Getsemani.jpeg (14.89 KiB) Viewed 23045 times

Only a further 3 days to go (we are assuming that our Covid tests are negative, not that we have heard the results as yet, interestingly the dock master told us yesterday that since March 2020 they have had 3 boats where the crew have tested positive and they all arrived into Panama from Colombia - uh oh keep those fingers crossed for us). It was dull and overcast yet again when we got up today, we know that we are in that central American tropical wet zone for certain now! Although we had slept quite well both of us were feeling a bit under par today - nothing serious, just the sudden relaxing and coming back down to earth from the excitement of our passage across to here. It was hard to get any motivation to do anything even though there is stuff that we can do whilst imprisoned on our boat. Gerry asked what I wanted for breakfast, he didn't like the answer of champagne and orange juice, fruit salad, a full cooked breakfast and toast with freshly gathered honey, gallons of freshly ground and brewed coffee so he just went ahead and put coffee and egg on toast with bacon and sausage in front of me - which was what he wanted, not that I was going to complain, anything would have done.

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Gerry spent a couple of hours on his electronic devices, I had no idea what he was up to but he had the brush from the Auto pilot on the table in front of him, a pair of digital callipers and a diagram with dimensions of the brush and pump on it which he was referring to. I was stupid enough to eventually ask what he was doing and got told that it was looking like the brush was the culprit of our George's spitting the dummy.

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May be a bit of candle lighting is required to see them through safely to Tasmania.

All Gerry needs to do now is source replacement brushes and fit them - yes he will be replacing both as we can only guess that the pair of brushes are of the same vintage so if one has failed it might be only a matter of time before the other brush gives up the ghost and causes another failure. Next was the searching on line for replacement parts, there is an assortment of brushes to choose from apparently but getting the size right might be the next hurdle as we don't know if our brushes are the "unused" measurement or if they have decreased in size over the course of their lifetime of use - it's a conundrum!

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It looks like we will be ordering a new pump as well as the brushes in case the size is different and the brushes don't fit the pump when they arrive then we can just change out the entire unit. If by some miracle the brushes do fit then we will have a spare pump - which we will never need of course!

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Eventually Gerry got himself moving and went outside to start hosing down and washing the deck, I went back to my dust bunny hunt in the salon but quickly decided that I wanted to do a bit of cooking instead, the dust bunnies are safely in hiding for the moment. So I made up some brie and balsamic caramelized onion tarts and a turkey hotpot so we have a choice for dinner tonight. Gerry came down for some lunch and whilst he was below it began to rain, the first rain we have seen in 6 weeks, putting an end to his cleaning of the deck - he had completed one side and now the rain was washing all the dirt and dust off of the mast and sail bag onto the newly cleaned deck. If it rains enough maybe we will be able to get rid of most of the grime from the entire boat with just a small amount of effort on our part. Back in the nav station for the afternoon and Gerry has been further researching the replacement brushes, I'm loath to ask how that's going, I'll see the bill when they arrive!

[David Fox]

Courtyard Palace of the inquisition.jpeg (10.24 KiB) Viewed 23044 times

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[David Fox]

Running a new jib halyard
11 April 2021
Weather; dull and overcast,

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Diagram for the top of the mast.

The good news is that our Covid test results came back today, no surprise they were negative however we still have to remain in quarantine and have a second test at the end of the 5 day period.

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Gerry was out on deck early to continue with his deck scrubbing mission, I studiously ignored him and concentrated on chasing the dust bunnies around in the salon and galley which took most of the morning and I'm glad to say that the boat interior is looking so much better for it. Gerry finished with the deck scrubbing and has most of the grime removed for the time being. It was almost midday when he decided that it was time to move on to the next job, replacing the jib halyard that had broken on our way to here. Of course this is a two-person job so I had to go out to help.

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We had a brief discussion on how we were going to carry out this operation as the jib halyard has to be threaded through a block at the top of the mast then dropped back down through the centre of the mast to a point on the side of the mast where a small exit panel sits, the halyard has to come out through this exit and then go through a jammer. The hardest part was probably going to be getting the halyard out through the exit plate which is only marginally bigger than the thickness of the halyard. We thought about how I was going to be able to "fish" it out through the exit plate and what we could use to do this, we discarded the idea of using a couple of zip ties as this would require the halyard to drop through the middle of them and there was no guarantee that the halyard would oblige and do this.


Now I'm sure all you armchair sailors are thinking "why don't they just use a bent coat hanger" we would however we don't have a thin bendable coat hanger on the darn boat this isn't the first time that we have needed this essential bit of equipment but we still haven't acquired one! The brain trust went into top gear what could we use to fashion a small hook out of that we have to hand?

Gerry came up with the fid from our rope splicing kit which he bent the tip of making it into a hook which would fit through the exit plate and hopefully be enough to fish the halyard out with. We did a dry run of putting the hook into the exit plate and seeing if it would work, the only thing we were concerned with at this point was that getting the hook out once the halyard was through the exit plate was looking more than a little difficult, not totally impossible, just difficult.


Gerry threaded the halyard down the mast and kept asking me if I could feel it yet. lol: As the Bishop said to the actress.

Palanquera in scrap by Edgardo Carmon.jpeg (6.86 KiB) Viewed 23030 times

I couldn't feel a thing to begin with and then suddenly I snagged the halyard and dragged it towards the exit plate where I could glimpse it but I couldn't pull it out. I got Gerry to slowly pull the halyard back up the mast so that I could find the very end of it without letting it get away from me, this was a very delicate and precise manoeuvre and eventually I could see the tip of the halyard. With the hook just behind it I got Gerry to inch the line back down whilst I pulled it towards the exit plate and wiggled it enough to get the tip of the halyard out through the hole, then it was time to wiggle the hook out of the way, it came out after a couple of tries and then I could pull the rest of the halyard down though and tie a knot in the bitter end as the last thing we needed was for it to vanish back inside the mast.
As we used to say, put a bit of hair round it and you'll get it in.

Palanquera by Edgardo Carmon.jpeg (83.04 KiB) Viewed 23030 times

[David Fox]

More on the telemotor pump motor.

RP160 ASSEMBLY.jpeg (126.14 KiB) Viewed 23024 times

Gerry spent sometime on the internet trying to find brushes for the motor. It seems there had been a few different suppliers of the motor with their changes. Perhaps the brushes came part and parcel of the end cap and bearing, knowing that most yatchties are not as handy as Gerry and always want a plug and play solution.
Gerry ended up buying a new pump and motor assembly , just a mear $1000, after all its a BOAT - BUNG OVER ANOTHER THOUSAND.

When Nicky put the above in the Gallery I saw the make and decided to contact by email a couple of places in the UK see if they could help, with supplying the brushes.
He can always sell the new one when they get home, if not used.
Being 20 years old the motor has been supplied by a couple or three manufacturers with different size brushes. A pair of brushes if they can be sourced will cost less than shipping them.

Gerry wasn't happy with the re-reeving of the new jib sheet, so the following day he was up the mast again re-doing it to his satisfaction. Its no good finding out once mid ocean. Luckily time is on their side.

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[David Fox]

13 April 2021.

Still in quarantine , so it was a Main Engine fuel filter changing day. Of course this means removing the ladder to deck trapping them both inside the cabin and it was at that point the Dockmaster decided to call to have his paperwork signed. This involved replacing the deck board and steps to the cockpit. No doubt there were a few "Oh! Dear me's" or words to that effect, Gerry sprouting horns. .
Fuel filter changed , crank up the engine. Turning , not firing. A bit of bleeding required, success eventually.

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Rest of the day trying to find these motor brushes, seems some US companies are not set up to export, then trouble with the bank and their new regulations sending you a code number, but as they have changed their sim card at every country rather difficult for banks to send their code numbers. Obviously the banks didn't think this one through. They assume you have a mobile phone. And to assume makes an Ass of U and ME.
No doubt Gerry's blood pressure went up a few more mm of mercury, good job Nicky is a Nurse.

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[David Fox]

14th April 2021

Out of quarantine at last

The Admeasure man cometh, to measure the yatch for the transit.
Gerry tells me that had they been East Bound they would have had to go through without stopping but they are West bound. Can they maintain 8 knots, No. So they are anchoring halfway through in one of the lakes. 4 rope handlers going through the locks, she will be well down to her marks with 6 people on.
May hear Thursday on the telemotor saga. They must be either having a quiet day or a very busy day with the man with his tape coming down and maybe able to get ashore as their tests results came through -ve.
Here are a few images to amuse you from Cartegena.

Looks like I spoke to soon. Nicky has just put a blog up.

Clock tower old walled city.jpeg (78.89 KiB) Viewed 23007 times

Weather; dull and raining lightly.

So today we should be able to go ashore and run free, as long as our second PCR test comes back negative.
Gerry started off with changing out the generator oil and cleaning out the oil strainer and replaced the generator fuel filter so that all the fuel filters on the boat are now in pristine condition and should be good to go for a while yet.

Getsemani Street art.jpeg (9.94 KiB) Viewed 23007 times

So today we should be able to go ashore and run free, as long as our second PCR test comes back negative.
Gerry started off with changing out the generator oil and cleaning out the oil strainer and replaced the generator fuel filter so that all the fuel filters on the boat are now in pristine condition and should be good to go for a while yet. I spent the morning doing the boring cleaning and tidying stuff in the cool interior. We waited patiently for the entire morning for the dock master to show up with the health nurse to take our second lot of swabs, by lunch time and having heard nothing from them Gerry called the office and asked what was happening about letting us out of quarantine. We got a muddled sort of answer saying that they would call our agent and see if he had managed to get us an exemption from the second test as our first was negative and we had no signs or symptoms of Covid - he would call us back. After an eternity we finally got a call to say that he would be coming to our boat now with the health nurse to do the test, not a word about the agent and the possible exemption! We didn't care as long as we got cleared today, this hanging around for no reason is getting a bit frustrating. We made our way out to the side of the boat where we were met and had our details taken (again) and the few brain cells that we still have were swabbed via our nasal passages (again), the dock master indicated that the results would be back in an hour, yeh right!

League of displaced women memorial plaque Pala.jpeg (9.25 KiB) Viewed 23007 times

We had lunch and then Gerry decided the best use of his time was to spend it having a nana nap. I went out into the cockpit and made a start on cleaning the isinglass enclosure which had become covered in salt water and was smeary, making it difficult to see through, following our passage to here. I was a little surprised to find that it was as difficult to clean as it was considering that we had taken them all down and given them a good spit and polish in Cartagena, I wasn't going to do that again in a hurry so I just cleaned off the salt spray and used a soft polishing rag to bring them back up to standard. I managed to get both sides done but it was starting to spit with rain so I left the back 3 windows for another day along with the hard windows which make up part of the dodger - they had their covers in place and I wasn't about to remove covers, clean the windows and then replace the covers, it was all too much for one day!

01Street art Getsemani.jpeg (14.3 KiB) Viewed 23006 times

So much for the results being back within an hour, by 4 pm we still hadn't heard and I went to have a lie down and read my book, then at about 4.30 Gerry got a message on the phone to say the results were back and we were clear so we could end our quarantine. Gerry was all keen to get ashore and go for a walk around, I couldn't be bothered at this point and said let's wait and go ashore for an early drink followed by dinner at the marina restaurant, he obviously agreed to this plan as it was what we ended up doing. He did rush outside to take down our quarantine flag and replace it with the Panama flag to indicate that we are free of disease and can now wander ashore at will to catch Covid from the locals who haven't been tested or cleared (sarcastic much? you bet!). Just after 5.30 we headed to the marina and as we stepped off the end of the dock, with our trash bag in hand met a couple of yatchies from Cartegena.

02Street art Getsemani.jpeg (11.43 KiB) Viewed 23006 times

It was good to bump into a friendly face who gave us the rundown of where to find things around the marina and how to get stuff organised - like the free bus to the supermarket where you have to put your name on a list and only 10 people can go at a time but there are 2 buses each day which seem to be well booked out. The same thing applies to laundry - you have to book to have it done, necessitating some planning ahead on our part or there will be nothing to wear!

05Street art Getsemani.jpeg (14.19 KiB) Viewed 23006 times

Gerry dumped our trash and we headed into the bar/restaurant and had a drink and a good meal which turned out to be quite cheap. I know it sounds nuts but I was tired as all hell so after eating we headed back out to the boat, which by the way is at the furthest point away from the marina and we settled in for the night with loose plans to find out more tomorrow.

[David Fox]

Here are a few more street paintings for your amusement. If there is a blog later today I will add paragraphs between the images.

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07Street art Getsemani.jpeg (10.01 KiB) Viewed 23000 times

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09Street art Getsemani.jpeg (11.55 KiB) Viewed 23000 times

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[David Fox]

The Canvas saga in Cartegena.
During the passage up to Cartegena it was high winds and rough weather and following previous cleaning of the cockpit canvas covers with a bleach type cleaner adding to old age it no doubt weakened and caused rips.

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Here you can see the wheel in the stored position whilst in port.

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Port side

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Midships

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Now that the Gvt. has let us out of exile I will be going up to Hull next week so there might be a dip in the Coopers Quest, but I will see what I can do, I will still have Wifi access at night at the Ship Inn, but no chance of a sarsaparilla unless I buy some at the supermarket and put them in the fridge.