Getting Closer to Getting Ready

The Bow Sprit - newly sanded on the left - with the first coat of lacquer on the right

It has been long, hard and very hot work for the crew of Segwun.  Sanding, sanding, sanding and then more sanding.  The bright work is now getting a few coats of lacquer and is starting to look so very good.  Anna and Christian are tireless workers - on the job at 7AM and finally hanging up the tools at 6PM with only a few short breaks for lunch and an afternoon ice-cream.

Jens has been getting the sails back up and all the rigging installed.  It was much faster work taking them all off and takes a bit more work figuring out where all those ropes have to go.  Just a couple of coats of lacquer more, a couple more sails to raise and we'll be ready to set off.

Oh and not to forget one more trip to the grocery store to stock up and fill our now fully functioning freezer!  Hurrah!   I also will buy more flour and continue on my ambition to start making our own bread.  We have a hard time finding good tasting bread in this part of the world and Pat gave me a recipe that is supposed to be fool proof.  Hummm...  I'm sorry to report the first attempt was a bit weak.  Second attempt coming up soon.  I've not given up yet.  

SY Segwun is back in the water!

SY Segwun went into the water yesterday after spending the last three months on the hard.  We were able to get a fresh coat of paint on the bottom, polish the hull and start on the lacquer work.  Jens fixed the bow thruster and had adjusted the propeller when she first came out of the water in May.  So, in she went and the engine started without any problems.  A great start!  We headed over to the slip as we still have some other repairs to do before we set off to the San Blas for a week or two of enjoying paradise!   This gave Jens enough time to see if the bow thruster was working again (2 thumbs up ... bow thruster is operational!) and to see if the propeller adjustment he made was correct (another 2 thumbs up).

Then came the nagging issues.  Those ones that have been on our snag list for a long time.  We secured spare parts over the summer to see if we can fix the thermostat for the freezer and get the generator to produce power.  Jens started with the repairs to the generator with some doubts in his mind as to whether or not the new voltage regulator we bought would solve the problem.   Well, it seemed not to work, so we parked the problem.

Then he and Christian installed the new thermostat and that too seemed to work, but not correctly.  In the meantime, it was pouring rain and there was little for Anna and I to do other than tidy up the cabin.  To make things even more difficult, the marina is without water since a couple of days now.  A water main broke and they are in the process of repairing it.  We were told it would be a couple of hours before we had water, but by the end of the day, it was still not running.

After a night of sleeping on the problems and an internet search by Christian, they returned to the boat with some ideas of how to fix the problems.  I am happy to report that the thermostat for the freezer is now working!  Hurray!   The generator is still causing Jens some grief, but Fredrik has given us the name of a local contact that should be able to help us out if we really get stuck.

We decided to move onto the boat instead of commuting back and forth to Panama now that the boat is in the water and the air conditioners are working!  It is hot like heck here - about 30C and 79% humidity (feels like 42C).  The only problem is, we still don't have water.  We thought we had been very clever in May when we decided to store the boat with a dry water tank rather than a full one.  Which means, we have no water on the boat and have to fill our water jugs up at the Marina Hotel. They had expected to have the water back running today, but it is now 4PM and no sign of it yet.  We now hear it could be another "day or two"!!!   Washing and polishing the deck will have to wait a little longer.

Here you can see the difference in the bottom once it has been painted

The paint crew :  Our Panama host Fredrik helped us out!

The final result - painted and polished!

And now the Bright Work begins (in normal language this means lacquering all the teak)

We got the first coat of lacquer on the "rub rail" before she went in the water.

Anna is busy painting the inside of the Dorado's with a fresh coat of red.

Christian is doing an impeccable job.  We're just happy we don't have to pay him by the hour!

And the Captain is busy with the mouse sander.  

A little manual labour ... for Jens, a labour of love!

So, we have spent the first couple of days in Panama City, hanging at Fredrik's condo in the sky.  Not so bad; in fact it has been downright comfy.  Anna and Christian were up before dawn two days in a row eager to see as many of the city's sites as possible - up to Ancon hill to catch the sunrise - off to the national park to see the wildlife.  Oh, the energy these young people have.  In the meantime, Jens and I were dashing around the city picking up lacquer for the trim and hunting down new filters for the watermaker.  We made a quick trip to Shelter Bay to have a glimpse of Segwun and to watch her being moved from the secure yard to an area where we could have access to start the work.

After two days of sightseeing, Anna and Christian were whisked away with us to the marina on Thursday morning where we started the job of sanding the bottom of the boat.  For the non boaters out there, our boat has a fiberglass hull and the portion of the boat that is below the level of the water is painted with an antifouling paint.  Actually, regardless of the material, all boats are painted with antifouling paint.  This is a paint designed to discourage barnacles, weeds and other marine animals and plants from clinging to the hull.  This is important as a non-smooth bottom would severely slow us down while at sail and if left too long would corrode the boat.  Before repainting Segwun's bottom, we had to sand it to rough it up a bit and take off any loose bits.  This turned out to be a very messy job as the picture below will prove.  But we were done by noon and had to shower before we could do anything else.  After a good shower, swim in the pool and a little lunch, we started polishing the sides above the water line.  Ah, but it was not to be.  It is still the rainy season here so we were quickly interrupted with a heavy rain which continued for the next hour or two.   We decided to call it a day and head back to Panama City and our home in the sky.

Anna, Christian and Jens in front of Segwun, covered in the paint dust from sanding.  

We came back across to Shelter Bay early this morning to continue the work of polishing even though it was raining pretty heavily when we left Panama City.  It rained most of the way there, but luckily cleared up just as we arrived and we managed to get the boat nicely polished before lunch.  She's starting to look really good.  Tomorrow morning we start painting and I'll take a picture of her once she's freshly painted so you can see the hard work we have been doing.

A quick geography lesson for you :  Panama is a country on a fairly narrow strip of land and it is about 80 kilometres from the Caribbean sea to the Pacific Ocean.  Segwun is at Shelter Bay Marina which is on the Caribbean side, near the city of Colon.  We are currently staying with Fredrik who has a lovely condo on the 26th floor with a fabulous view of the Pacific Ocean in Panama City.  It takes us about 1.15 hours to go from point to point, not accounting for the traffic, which in Panama City is like in any large city - pretty miserable during rush hour!!

Segwun is scheduled to go back into the water early Monday morning.  Fingers crossed!

Season Two is About to Begin

We left Segwun on the hard at Shelter Bay Marina and traveled from Panama City on the 30th of May heading first to Sweden and Denmark before stopping in Canada during our break.  My last post was just after our visit to Denmark in the middle of June.

Since then, we have been at our cottage in Canada for the past 71 days and have enjoyed a fantastic Muskoka summer.  We hosted more than 36 overnight guests which meant a lot of trips to the grocery store and the LCBO, a very busy kitchen and BBQ and our coffee maker working double overtime.  Not to mention the piles of laundry, bed making, vacuuming and so on.  But all of this is overshadowed with the fun and good times we had.  It was so wonderful to have the chance to share a few good dinners and sometimes a few too many drinks with family and friends.

It was a spectacular summer weather wise - hot and sunny with very little rain.  The only downfall of that was the fire ban that was imposed on us so we missed our usual late nights around the camp fire for a couple of weeks.  But we made up for it with music on the deck.  Thanks to Jaan we heard some brilliant jazz on the saxophone; Michael chipped in with one of my favourites on the bagpipes (Amazing Grace) and we ended our season with a little Hotel California on the guitar by Christian.

Anna and Christian (Jens' daughter and her boyfriend) have both just graduated and are taking a year's sabbatical.  After a visit to the US West Coast, they joined us in Canada at the end of July and have travelled with us to Panama.  They will come along sailing with us as we travel down to Ecuador and Galapagos.  So we now have two new crew members!

After a few tearful good-byes, a last dip in the lake and one last evening around the fire it was time to pack up the spare parts we purchased, a few books, a printer for the boat and our clothes and head to the airport for the flight back to Panama City.

We are now guests of Fredrik, a Tetra Pak colleague who is based in Panama City.  He has an apartment on the 26th floor with an awesome view of the city and offered us to stay with him for a few days.  Seeing a friendly face at the airport on arrival to Panama made the trip so much nicer.  Jens and I will spend the next few days getting things organized while Anna and Christian do a bit of sight seeing before we head to Shelter Bay and back to SY Segwun.  This time, Fredrik has promised to come along to see our boat and go for a sail.

So, the big question - what are our plans from here?  I hesitate to be too specific as we have really embraced the idea that we will go where we want when the winds are right and when we have spent enough time where we currently are.  No more pressure to sail against the wind and in bad weather.  The big picture plan is to visit San Blas, traverse through the canal to the Pacific, make our way down to Ecuador and Galapagos and then across the Pacific to French Polynesia.   Stay tuned - season two is about to begin!

 

Other Photos from Denmark

The Aros Museum - Rainbow

The Old City Museum, Aarhus

A Taste of Denmark

Denmark is a country of rolling hills, beautiful farmlands and coastal shorelines.   Our tour of Denmark started with a visit to one of the highest points in the country.  Himmelbjerget, or Sky Mountain, is only 147 meters high (this compares to Mount Everest which is 8,850 meters) but provides a nice view of the countryside.  


After a picnic lunch, we took a small ferry boat aptly called the Viking which took us from the town of Ry through some lakes to the starting point for our walk up.  At the top we had an ice cream cone even though the weather was a bit on the chilly side.  It seems that Danes eat ice cream regardless of the weather. 

We had to visit the Moesgard Museum to see the famous 2,300 year old Grauballe Man, the world’s best preserved bog body.  The museum was a trip back to prehistoric Denmark with archaeological findings that took us through the iron age and the bronze age.
  

You can say that summer is not complete without a visit to a fair, adventure park or circus.  It was just my luck that the circus was in town in Aarhus.    It was the famous Benneweis Cirkus, which is celebrating it’s 125^th anniversary this year.  So nice to feel like a child again, watching the elephants, seals and horses coming into the ring.  What great fun!

Then it was off to a visit to the Glass Museum in Ebeltoft where we saw some fantastic pieces of glass art.  Danish design never fails to impress.  We took a nice walk through the old village and coffee at an inn and visited a traditional farm house in the town that has been kept intact.  It's so wonderful to see the history of Denmark.  The beautiful thatched roof houses, cobble stone streets, and the architecture that is so unique to this country. 

And to top of the week, we celebrated Inger’s 75^th birthday with  friends and neighbors who dropped in with gifts and good wishes.  Of course there was plenty of cakes, fresh Danish strawberries and coffee served. 

Inger's 75th Birthday, Afternoon Coffee and Cake

During the past week and a half, we took several nice drives through the countryside and up the coast.  We went as far as Aalborg one day where we met up with Mads and took a tour of the town and his university campus.  Along the way we stopped at places Jens remembers from his childhood - his Grandfather's farm, the sea side where he spent summer days and of course, a trip with a Dane would not be complete without a stop for some ice cream.  :-)  

Our trip to Sweden and Denmark

The Bridges to Aarhus

If you measure a straight line from Panama City, Panama to Aarhus, Denmark we have travelled 9,164 kilometres, crossed 7 time zones and have moved north more than 47 degrees.  The day time temperature has gone from 30+ degrees celcius to just around 15 degrees.  We are close to the land of the midnight sun now and it is light from around 4:30 AM to 10:00 PM.  

It has been such a good trip so far.  We've had the chance to meet up with dear friends in Sweden having no time to worry about jet lag with dinner parties lasting till the early hours of the morning three nights in a row.   A stay at the Hilton in Malmo helped to get us on the right track.  

On Monday, we drove from Lund, Sweden to Aarhus, Denmark crossing several bridges.  The newest of them is the bridge that joins Sweden's South coast to Copenhagen, Denmark.   The eight kilometer Oresund bridge was completed in 1999 and officially opened in 2000.    

This trip to Denmark, I hope to take some time to get to know the country of my partner a little more.  We'll have almost two weeks to visit with family and friends, celebrate my Mom-in-law's 75th birthday and explore the Danish countryside.  

Connecting Sweden to Denmark

The Great Belt Bridge

Lillebaeltsbro Bridge