The quiet life…   Wednesday, 18/01/2023

I have not been doing very much… Day follows day and I am either reading, talking to various people around the marina or walking 45 minutes along the coast to the beach, something I do almost every day. It’s good exercise, a one and a half hour round trip, plus a decent swim. 

There’s a constant turnover of boats in the marina. A few are charter boats that come in for a couple of days, before heading out again with new people on board. One – a relatively old metal boat, a repurposed fishing trawler I think – left this afternoon with a good dozen guests on board, headed to the San Blas Islands along the coast and then over to Cartagena. It was struggling to get off the dock against a moderate wind and current (it seemed to be very under-powered) and I joined the few marina workers pushing it off, trying to ensure that it didn’t scrape its stern in the process. Jumping up and giving assistance is frequent – my current Australian neighbours came in a few days ago with one of the two engines on their catamaran having failed. Having two marina guys present wasn’t really enough – everyone was very happy when I joined in too. I caught a line and secured it when we’d pulled them in enough. 

The locals are a very pleasant lot. Even walking to the beach I’m greeted frequently, and because I often walk that way I greet the householders who I pass on the way. Everybody’s quick with a smile  – especially the small kids, who seem to take great delight in greeting the old gringo who walks past! A few days ago at the beach a man who was part of a large party engaged me in quite decent English, enquiring where I was from etc. – and finished by saying “Thank you for coming to our country”! You really can’t get nicer than that. And all those around him were smiling and nodding.

I get on very well with the guy who has a fruit and vegetable truck and comes to the marina in the early afternoon six days a week. He speaks a little English so we converse in a sort of Spanish/English mix. He’s not local I’ve discovered – he’s from Nicaragua. A country that clearly is in quite a mess (a lot of Nicaraguans are crossing Mexico and trying to get into the United States). He’s a big, well-built guy, always smiling and provides a great service. A typical example of the enterprising immigrant, making a real effort. His name’s Charlie – it’s really Carlos of course, or if you like, Carlitos, which is the diminutive. I think he likes Charlie because it’s more English, more “international”. Such a nice guy, and one who will certainly have a successful life… You can see him in 30 years, prosperous and well-regarded. And people will come to him and say “It’s amazing, you were an immigrant, you were so lucky”. And he will pause, and think back to all those hours of hard work, and then smile and say “Yes, I guess I was lucky…”

I’ve had a few conversations with the people from the sail shop. They’re fixing my foresail and making a new holder for the mainsail, but can’t repair the rather stretched mainsail because it has a radial rather than cross cut. But fortunately I can deal with that – I dug out an older spare mainsail that I have had on the boat in case of emergency and discovered that it is in very good condition – better than I recalled (it’s probably just that I’m a better judge of sails now than I was before I set out!). Digging through all the old invoices I have from the previous owner, I discover that it was bought in late 2016 and then replaced in 2018, so appears to have had relatively little use. Why he retired it when it was still very good I don’t know, but he spent 50% more on the replacement (which I’ve now worn out). The sail came from a UK company that has its workshop in Thailand (to cut costs), and is not regarded as premium quality – although the sail is made of perfectly decent cloth that is 9 ounce (about 400 grams per square metre), a weight that’s suitable for offshore sailing, so it seems fine. Much easier – and cheaper – than getting a new sail made (in Hong Kong, which is what the sail shop guy recommends) and then shipped in, at a cost that would easily be $3-4,000.

While waiting for the sail shop to do their work, I think I’ll go down to Panama City for a few days and look around – so I’ll have something a bit more varied to say in the next week or so…