Our second stay at La Playita was meant to be a productive one with lots of errands and chores. We made a plan for each day, then remade the plans each night. After all, plans were meant to change, right?
We arrived Thursday by mid-afternoon to receive our batteries. Our hope was to get the batteries, load them on to the dinghy at high tide, and get them on to the boat. Then either do laundry or squeeze in a quick trip to the marine store.
Our shipper, Coray from MailBoxes Etc. sent a text that he had picked up the customs agent and they were on their way to get the pallet of batteries. Sweet! We jumped in Sweetie and texted him that we were at the dock at 1145. Little miscommunication, they still had to load the batteries and would be at our dock in 30 minutes.
I’ll spare you the boring details, but it took Coray 2 trips to La Flamencio marina to meet with another customs agent there, 2 trips to the Balboa Yacht Club to meet with a different customs agent, and 4 trips to us before he could finally unload the batteries. Evidently, the invoice stated Amador Yacht Club as the delivery location as opposed to La Playita Marina. That small error was causing all sorts of problems, but Coray got it done, albeit 5.5 hours later.
At this point, it was low tide and raining. Yep, raining. It is dry season and has not rained in over 3 months. But, the day our batteries are delivered it poured. Matt loaded each battery, one at a time on to our dolly, and slowly walked them down the very steep and slippery ramp to the dinghy dock. I’m not sure how he did it, but they all made it safely into the dinghy.
Luckily for us, the dinghy is rated for 1200 lbs. With the batteries, Matt and I, we were pushing 1100 lbs. But, the extra water from the rain probably added another 20-30 lbs. We slowly made our way to the big boat where Matt rigged a pulley system. He was in the dinghy while I was on the big boat. As he hoisted the battery up, at a 3 to 1 ratio, I pulled it in once it was above the life line. Then he lowered it to the deck as I guided it into place.
IMAGE: If you look closely you can see the rain drops on the water. A soaked Matt prepares battery #5 for hoisting on deck and then all 8 batteries on board Sugar Shack.
Batteries on board, finally.
What does it take to deliver a pallet of (8) batteries from the U.S. to Panama? It takes 16 documents, 29 stamps, 1 vender, 2 shippers and lots of patience.
Battery paperwork, 16 docs & 29 stamps.
They are on the boat. But the day was shot as we waited at the marina office all day so as not to miss him. No laundry, no errands. Re-plan, re-schedule.
The next day, I got up early to use the awesome washer/dryer units. I had been bragging on how efficient these are to everyone and of course, this last time they sucked. Normally, the washers take 28 minutes, but for some reason, they took 52 minutes (at $2 for each machine). The dryers, normally take 42 minutes, but after the first run, everything was still damp. CRAP! Put $2 in each machine and start over. After 2.5 hours of trying to dry my clothes I realize that the gas must be off as there is no heat coming out of either dryer. I gathered my wet laundry, alerted the office of the problem, and went back to the boat to hang 4 loads of laundry. The perfect white trash vessel.
That took way longer than expected, so we changed our plans again. We decided to take a taxi cab to the health clinic, as opposed to the bus. We need to get a Yellow Fever vaccine in order to get into Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Peru.
Not a problem, a fellow cruiser told us where to go and what to do. We grab a cab and hurry to the facility as they close at 1400 (it was 1230p). We waited for 5 people to pay the cashier before heading to the nurse. When it was our turn, we dutifully hand over our boat paperwork and passports. She looks at me, then stands up and says, “no.” She did not like my shorts and tank top and told us that we had to come back with long pants and a short/long sleeved top. CRAP. As we headed to our cab, the security guard asked why we were leaving so soon. We told him what happened, he rushes inside, and comes out with a pair of men’s pants. It would work for Matt, but I was stuck. We thanked him profusely and left.
We had planned on leaving on Sunday, but now we have to come back on Monday to get the vaccine. Replain, now that we still had a taxi, we decided to at least do one of our errands. We hit Riba Smith, a super nice grocery store that has diet cranberry gingerale. My favorite. We grabbed 8 sleeves and headed back to the boat in time for Friday night happy hour.
The next day, we did some computer work (digital paperwork). We had to do return our damaged wind vang and broken Henckel knife, find a hotel for Matt’s mom who wants to visit us in Costa Rica, pay bills, and do our taxes. After a few hours, we headed to town for more provisioning. We hopped on the bus to Allbrook Mall, then hopped on another bus that dropped us off right in front of the marine store.
We stopped in for a $3.75 Chinese lunch (which tasted that cheap), then picked up some wire, cab vMs #ackle aIv=FoLT)t|O%c
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