Pitufa.at

The last few days we’ve been terribly busy mounting new solar panels, running through chandleries, buying provisioning–something seems to be weird with the time in Panama, it flies by and the days are never long enough for everything we want to do. Today Christian’s sister arrived and we have a good excuse to have a break and spend some days off swimming (last time we… Continue reading »

This year we didn’t get into a christmassy mood at all–Panama’s just too tropical for our associations of snow, red noses and stiff half-frozen fingers holding on to mugs of mulled wine… We’ll make an effort today by baking Christmas cookies, if that doesn’t help we’ll start singing carols We’ll spend a quiet Christmas eve aboard Pitufa, and maybe it’ll be cool enough in the… Continue reading »

Today we ventured into Panama City for the first time and even though our quest for an evaporator (for the fridge) and electronic parts lead us to the non-touristy, less pretty parts of the city we’ve decided that we like it here. The bus system is very convenient (you have the choice between comfortable but awfully cold metro buses and loud, packed old schoolbuses) and… Continue reading »

Going through the Panama canal is quite a complicated procedure. First every boat needs 4 lines 125 feet long and as many tires as possible (as fenders). Then 4 linehandlers have to be on each boat (usually fellow cruisers) + the skipper. Our linehandlers from “Zenna” and “Tagtraeumer” will arrive tomorrow in the afternoon at Club Nautico. We’ll then go over to the Flats anchorage,… Continue reading »

At least for us just about everything’s complicated and a pain in Panama. Today it started pouring down as soon as we started filling up our diesel tanks (very convenient), then we discovered that our cruising permit (valid 1 year, costs 200 usd) accidentally got into the papers the port captain in Portobelo took from us on arrival there. We desperately made phone calls until… Continue reading »

We’ve finally got a date for the canal transit: Saturday, 15.12.12. We’ll spend the rest of the week in Colon, doing shopping and getting the boat ready for our linehandlers. At the moment fitting 3 overnight guests into Pitufa seems quite a challenge, the forecabin’s stuffed with all kinds of things up the ceiling, but we’ll find space for all the stuff somewhere

The sun’s out again (soon we’ll be complaining about the heat and empty water tanks ) and it seems our luck has turned as well. A fellow cruiser will come to our boat to weld the crack in the boom today, we’ve borrowed a welding machine from another boat and a generator from yet another. Spending time in a big anchorage like Portobelo feels like… Continue reading »

Ever since we got to Panama life has become difficult. Before we got to Portobelo we made a short to-do list: repair refrigerator, weld boom, do provisioning, order electronic equipment, organise canal transit. Now we’ve almost been here a month, each day busy from dusk till dawn, but we’ve managed to accomplish hardly anything. Just to give you an idea: yesterday we had an appointment… Continue reading »

Last night at 3 o’clock Leeloo woke us with her triumphant howling announcing a successfull hunt. I reluctantly got up to check what she had, when I lifted her up she let go of the black shape in her mouth, who fluttered excitedly into the aft cabin–a bat. I opened the hatch, but the poor guy desperately flew round and round without ever looking up… Continue reading »

It’s been raining constantly since Monday, the longest “dry spells” lasted about half an hour. As soon as the rain stops or eases up a bit dinghies start buzzing over the bay full speed in order to get to the village or back without getting soaked. We stayed under deck for three days, only venturing out to dry off the cockpit occasionally and to fill… Continue reading »