Once we had possession of Morning Stars we quickly got to work and oh there was a lot of work to do. My ‘project manager’ brain had me creating detailed spreadsheets of all the work, timelines and additional costs we needed to manage. The biggest, and most important, project we needed to undertake was new rigging and roller furling. Working with the local rigger, Steve, Jas got focused on quoting out the materials. Once the materials arrived, Steve and Jas spent three days getting everything in place as I happily checked that big task off in my spreadsheet.
Another big project to do was the canvas work. The original dodger and bimini fabric no longer kept the rain out. Canvas David was referred to us and we began the process of having him and his mom sew our new dodger and bimini. This is very exciting as we also had him make clear strata glass (clear vinyl) surrounds. You guys…this is huge…this means no more wet sailing! No longer would we have big waves landing on us in the cockpit like they did on our passage from Jamaica! He also sewed in sun shades that we find work really well at cutting the heat. The next important task on the list was new mattress toppers. After that they replaced all sixteen curtains then reupholstered the settee and chart table cushions. Morning Stars had quite the nice little makeover thanks to David and his mom!
Boat projects continued and so did marina life for us. This meant Jas worked hard on various boat systems, I did my remote work, Dylan did his schooling and we spent time with friends. Some friends we had known for awhile and others had recently sailed into our life!
We had the honour of being a part of very important birthday festivities for our little friend Stella from Beso Del Viento! Silke, our birthday girl’s mom, organized a scavenger hunt using the online app called Actionbound and it was an absolute hit with the kids! Fedi, our birthday girl’s dad, put together this super video from that fantastic day! 🎂
A handful of days after the birthday party, friends Crissy and Chris (SV Far Out) were going through the Panama Canal and they asked Jas, Dylan and I to assist as line handlers! What an incredible experience that was. Dylan is actually too young to be a line handler so he was our onboard photographer and videographer that day. The opportunity to do the canal on another boat before taking ours through was fantastic. We now know what all to expect when we go through with Morning Stars in February.
It was a very early start that day as the goal was to go all the way through as opposed to anchoring half way for a night. At about 5:00 AM the three of us stepped onboard and within moments we pushed their beautiful catamaran off the dock. The first step was to motor out into the bay so that the canal advisor can find us and hop onboard. The cost for a sailboat to go through the canal is about $3,000 and that includes the expense of an advisor to help with navigation and communications with lock staff. Our advisor was Moses and he was wonderful! He works weekends and we really hope he will be assigned to us in February so we will book for a Saturday and cross our fingers. One of the many responsibilities of the boat owner is to provide the advisor and crew with three hot meals that day all including protein. Chrissy handled that task perfectly with pastry beef patty’s, BLT’s, two types of pasta dishes, chicken wings. drinks and snacks. This gave me lots of great ideas for what I plan to prepare when it’s our turn.
We had often heard the Panama Canal referred to as one of the greatest engineering achievements in history and it was incredible to experience it! We had some previous practice with locks as we had gone through 27 of them during our travels through the US river system but this was very different. Instead of wrapping a line around a bollard, canal staff would throw what is called a ‘monkey’s fist’ to us onboard. A monkey’s fist is simply a big knot tied at the end of a long rope to make it heavier and easier to toss. Once you have the monkey’s fist on board, you attach it to your line and the canal staff pull your line to them. It was very impressive to see Chrissy actually catch one of the monkey’s fists mid air with one hand! Once the four canal staff (two for the bow, two for the stern) had our lines, they simply walked the boat into the lock then tie them off to a bollard. Once the lock doors close, our job as line handlers was to keep adjusting the line to maintain tension as the water drops or rises depending on where we were in the series of six sets of locks. That task, at times, is not easy. In one lock we had a massive ship ahead of us and when it started its engine, it created a four knot current in the water. Right then I went to pull some slack in on my line and it got away from me! Jason and Moses quickly came to my rescue and were able to get control of the line before it fed out entirely. Whoa, that was crazy and I was so glad all worked out okay. I know what I did wrong in my technique and I am so thankful to have had that experience for when I line handle on Morning Stars.
With the incredible efficiency of Chris, Chrissy and Moses, we made excellent timing! By 2:30 PM we were on the Pacific side making our way to the anchorage. After well deserved rest and refreshments, we were ready to start our way back to Shelter Bay Marina. Chris and Chrissy covered our taxi fare and we said our good-byes and set off along with our friend, Mitch. We were all happy but exhausted and it was an easy decision for the four of us to go to the marina restaurant for dinner that night. With all that Chrissy had fed us that day, I am surprised we were still hungry!
After our big canal adventure was over we refocused our efforts back onto Morning Stars. One by one the jobs were getting checked off on my big spreadsheet. There was more fun to be had though before we sailed off – Halloween! We actually got to celebrate Halloween twice at the marina. Friends on the boat Lady Penelope organized an early party as they were leaving before the 31st to go through the canal. For the official day, a few of us moms created a WhatsApp group and started party planning. The kids carved pumpkins and we decorated the BBQ area. That night a gaggle of a about a dozen excited, costumed kiddos set off trick or treating boats in the marina! After that we all partied into the night together!
With Halloween festivities behind us, we were getting very close to setting sail! It was time to provision. First we did a massive load up of non-perishables. A few days later we bought our fresh food then fueled up on gas, propane and diesel. At that same time the rainy season felt like it abruptly stopped. Just when we thought the rain and humidity would never end, the skies cleared, the air felt more tolerable….and Morning Stars was finally ready to set sail! 🥂
The blog below talks about why we have decided to add the above Ko-fi button. 😊
Random acts of kindness
The Big Trip 