Wednesday – Porto Linden, Panama
Well, it was an ordinary morning, I was a tad tired but after a basic shower and some very basic breakfast at the ‘hostel not so wonderbar’, it was time to sort some washing out. Nearly 7 days of riding with wet clothes makes for a bad smell, lucky they had a washer dryer here, even if they charged $5. You can see the eating area in front and the showers, toilets behind, like I said very basic.
After this it was time to ride the 300m to the beach to load the bikes, and yes that was the beach, not a dock! Most of the other riders came down for a decko, just in case we had some waterlogged bikes I guess 🙂
So the bike loading took quite a few hours, mine was 3rd to go and it was a waste of time Sylivia hassling me to hurry up and be down here because it just meant standing around in the rain for an hour, she has no idea! Anyway, it was finally my turn to see my bike loaded on board the tender after it was stripped down a bit. In fact I needed a long time to take the panniers off as one bolt had rusted on, but I managed it in the end. I must say, these chaps have done this heaps of times and make it look very easy, so I had no real concerns when they grabbed my bike and manhandled it into the tender.
Once I had loaded my un-needed gear, the stuff that needed to be stowed away and not accessed, it was off for a jolly ride out to the yacht. The chap sitting on the bike knew his job, so I let him do the balancing and soon after we arrived at the Golden Eagle where Vincent was, he had already loaded his and that is the skipper Peter on the left and Bernice on the right is crew.
There was a bit of preparation while lines were attached to the bike, these are attached to the halyard that pulls the main sail up via an electric motor.
Then it is time for the loading, I stood back out of the way and only had one small nervous moment while it was winched up, you can see which moment if you watch the video 🙂
So, the reason for the long delays between bikes is the frigging around while the bike is positioned correctly, so no damage to the bike or boat can happen, but also allowing for the additional 2 bikes still to come. This is me and the skipper who is also an Aussie, from now on and for the rest of the voyage called Bruce and Bruce 😆 That is after the Monty Python sketch about the Bruces 🙂
So, we had two more bikes supposed to arrive soon, so myself and Vincent had the job of covering the bikes that were on board before having a decko at the boat, which is a 62 footer, we found the fridge of course and waited until the food arrived, by crikey there was a stack of it and it all has to go somewhere!!!
So, the next half hour or so was spent packing the food away and as it was now lunchtime, soon after V and I headed back on the tender to the beach, we were starved and anyway, the other two chaps with their bikes can load their own 🙂
On the way back we went past this mouldy old boat that looks like it needs a bit of bleaching, mind you with this weather, everything would go mouldy!!
But, we were soon having a beer and eating whatever they had. The basic rule is you get fries, salad and a choice of fried chook pieces, chook without bones or a bit of fish(bone dry) or pork chops, so today I opted for the chops and they were great 🙂
During this time the other 2 bikes had arrived and loaded, but apparently not helped by the riders, the slackos, it was left up to Bruce! It was getting on for 5pm when Bruce came ashore for a passenger briefing, but that was held up while we jumped in and he took us to buy essential supplies for 5 days at sea 😆
He then took us for a decko at his house up the road and the next bay, a lot quieter here.
Once we got back to the dock and unloaded the booze into the zodiac we were told to get up to the hostel so he can give us a meet and greet chat. On the way I spotted this old chap who apparently looks after orphaned 3 toed sloths, this one was very cute and they really do blink at an amazingly slow rate 🙂
Good on him for doing this deed, it seems the locals catch the sloths and eat them, but give any babies to him to rear, seems harsh to me, like catching fish in a barrel, no challenge running one of these down! So, the briefing got under way and we were told what and how things would be done, Bruce seems a nice chap, but being Aussie, that is a given 😉
We would be leaving at 7.30am tomorrow and picking up two other back packers at the customs station the following day, so tomorrow would be a short sail and some fun while we got our exit papers stamped. After quite a few beers I was about ready to go to bed when Garret said it is his birthday and do I want rum, silly question m8, of course I will 🙂
Garret nearly came with us today, but because he had already paid a deposit to Silvia for the next boat, he was not allowed to go, that boat would only go with 5 and he was the 5th, bugger really he was a nice chap. Nice to meet you m8, happy birthday and hope we can keep in touch.
Day 0 miles and 0 km
Trip – 43,486 miles and 69,984 km
Salud
TravellingStrom
WORLD 
TravellingStrom 