Helocopter Gun Ship
| By dawn things seemed to have quieted down. In fact, Lois thought I missed my chance to get a picture of our little war when I didn't leap up with the camera as a 'copter wooshed over our boat about five thirty. Although we could still hear a boom now and then, the activity seemed to be centered on the far side of town and a line of heliocopters rotated like a giant merry-go-round out near the breakwater. It must have been near eight o'clock...we had listened to Bush and General Powell explain that the invasion was complete and that all that remained was "mopping up"...when the merry-go-round moved over us. Around and around they went, about twenty of them, most a small vulnerable looking machine which I thought was an observation platform (how wrong I was) with several mean looking Cobra gunships acting like shepards of the flock. |
Helocopter Gun Ship |
We could hear lots of small arms fire as the rotating line drifted slowly toward the yacht club and the administrative buildings in Christobal. Then, all at once it seemed like they found what they were looking for. There was the chatter of machine gun fire and I saw a couple of puffs of smoke come from one of my "observation" 'copters and, for a second, thought it had been hit; then a tremendous explosion came from the direction of the Navy building where I had planned on going this morning to get our clearance to leave...the wisp of smoke was a rocket being launched! Four or five more of the 'copters in the circle launched rockets into the same building, each making a mighty boom as it hit, then the whole circle broke and headed back across the harbor leaving only the Cobras to see to the finish. The Navy building soon had flames pouring out of its roof and, during the rest of the day burned steadily until there was nothing left but the concrete hull of a structure. The wind was directly from it to the anchorage, so we had smoke and ashes most of the day.
The next bit of fun (although that's hardly the word for any but we who had a front row seat to this little war) we heard mainly on the radio, although we could see some of the action in the distance. A big landing craft came across the bay escorted by two of the Navy gunboats. They approached the Christobal piers very cautiously, moving in then backing away, appearing to be looking for something behind a big Russian ship moored on the first pier. They kept trying to call the "Asian Senator" on Channel 16 but got no answer. Finally the landing craft turned sideways and started lobbing mortars...we could hear the "Poof- poof" followed by the "Boom-boom!" This went on for quite a while before there was a plaintive call on the radio. The Asian Senator's captain said that the people on his ship were unarmed and that there had been several bullets go through his cabin windows...would the gunboats please be so kind as to stop shooting at his ship. In answer to a question from the gunboat skipper he admitted that he had several PDF people on his ship, but he insisted that they had surrendered their arms to his crew. It turned out that thirty or thirty-five PDF people had commandeered his ship but, once the shelling started, he had been able to talk most of them into leaving and the others into laying down their arms. After much discussion, including one in which the gunboat skipper talked directly to the leader of the PDF people telling him that failure to follow instructions would be "hazardous to their health", the gunboats stood by at the ready while the landing craft approached the pier. The gunboat skipper had the Panamanians come down the gangplank one at a time and lie on their bellies while they were frisked by the U.S. soldiers. We could see as the bunch of un-uniformed people were herded aboard the landing craft.
While all this was going on the circle of heliocopters had reformed over our head. This time they seemed to be concentrating on what appeared to be a large vacant area to the southwest of the anchorage. I didn't see it but Lois saw a heliocopter go down just behind our boat...a plume of black smoke arose from behind a little rise. For several hours after that dozens of 'copters circled the area, some landing near the site of the crash but most just going round and round, as if they were searching for something or somebody. We never did determine waht it was all about.
We spent the day watching television...the Southern Command Network carried the CNN news all day long...and taking our own videos of the things going on around us. I managed to get a call through to Nan and asked her to pass on the word that we were safe to the rest of our families and friends. We had Doug and Gayle over for dinner...they had cleaned all of their food out of their boat, planning on flying out today. The night was relatively quiet, although until dawn we could occasionally hear small arms fire.
It wasn't long this morning before the looters were at work on the big containers stacked along the waterfront wharves. They were operating the big fork lifts and container handling equipment, moving containers around, opening them, and hauling away merchandise on foot, in automobiles, and trucks. They seemed to be in a festival mood, helping each other in distributing TV's, radios, refrigerators, clothing, etc. to all. What a Christmas party! For a while there must have been a crowd of over a hundred visible to us and, from what Wayman told us on the radio, hundreds more whom we could not see, then one of the Navy gunboats made a few passes along the shoreline firing its machine guns and also lobbing a couple of heavy shells in the water near the shore. That thinned the crowd a little, but it was obvious that the Navy wasn't going to hurt anyone so the people soon were back at their work, dozens standing on top of the containers where they could watch the action as they stolethe goodies. From time to time we could hear heavy firing coming from the general direction of the city and new plumes of smoke rising, but the looters didn't seem to pay any attention and we never knew what it was all about. This is going to be the tough part for the armed forces! Getting rid of Noriega and his PDF is a simple matter of shooting them or taking them prisoner, but the U.S. can hardly go around shooting thousands of unarmed civilians even if they are stealing stuff. Somehow Panama has to have a police force and Noriega's hoods were all they really had...the few non-PDF, blue suited guys we saw around were really only traffic cops.
We spent the day watching the looters and the television. The status according to the Navy gunboat seemed to vary somewhere between a "War Zone" and "Restricted Waters", but the chatter of machine guns and automatic rifles would have discouraged us from leaving the boat even had it been permitted. It also made it hard to take a nap. Surprisingly, even with all the shooting we've not seen any sign of any stray fragments coming our direction...no splashes in the water or things rattling on the deck. Wayman did say that after the rocket attack yesterday the people at the yacht club picked up brass shell cases. Near the end of the day we heard a boat called the "Quitasueno" talk to one of the canal pilots who said that, even though some traffic was moving again, the whole PCC was in a state of confusion. I talked to Fernando, skipper of the Quitasueno, about the possibility of us going through rafted together. Quintasueno is a large Columbian sportfisher from Providencia with a crew of four aboard...that might solve our linehandler problem if we could go together.
The pattern of yesterday was pretty much repeated...long periods of relative quiet with just a little small arms fire followed by a sudden noisy firestorm lasting a few minutes. Sometime in the late morning or early afternoon (I'm loosing track of time) heliocopters launched another rocket attack in the same general vicinity as that of the first day. This time we couldn't see the building attacked, but the smoke from the burning building poured down on us for most of the afternoon. In the late afternoon a jet aircraft, A-7 I think, started flying over the city. He would make a high speed pass at low altitude, then pull up to four ar five thousand feet into a wingover and come screaming back. He alternately circled and made his passes for nearly two hours while Cobra gunships hovered around the area. We were expecting another air attack but when it came it appeared to come from the ground. We had Doug and Gayle over for dinner again and, we'd just finished eating when the heaviest bombardment yet arose in the direction of city center. It was just after dark, about 7:00 PM...we would see the flash in the sky then the boom would come, about two seconds later so it wasn't more than half a mile away. The big booms were interspersed by heavy machine gun chatter and tracers visible as they arced through the sky. At one point the little red fireflys started arcing toward us and we quickly got under cover. Then suddenly it was over and the night was quiet...for the rest of the night we heard none of the small arms fire which has been almost constant for the last three days!
During the day an interesting picture has started started to emerge. Then Navy kept the canal open during daylight hours and has let ships and some small craft move in Christobal Harbor, but the waters around Colon, which is built on what is almost an island connected to the mainland by a small neck of land less than 500 yards wide, have been totally sealed off. The Army has the land bridge closed and all roads blocked; so no one can get into or out of Colon without U.S. permission, and they are not giving it to anyone! The skipper of a Peruvian ship on the fuel dock, Pier 16, pled with the Navy gunboat skipper to let him go to sea...he said he had 22 crew aboard and that they were out of food. The gunboat skipper was sympathetic but ummovable. We know that Mr. Noriega was in Colon on Monday...we're beginning to suspect that Colon is still high on the U.S. list of possible locations. It is also very hard to otherwize explain why there should be such strong resistance in the face of overwhelming odds. One look at what those gunships can do should make even the staunchest "Dignity Battalion" member decide he would be better off dropping his gun. In any case, it appears that it will be some time before we go anywhere.
In between battles we also also set up our Christmas tree today. I got out a coffee tin of sand that we'd been using for non-skid on the deck, stuck our many-pointed staghorn coral in it, and we decorated it with ribbons and gayly wrapped candies which Bob had brought down. It looks pretty neat...certainly a unique tree. Lois and Gayle started planning for Christmas dinner...looks like we'll probably be right where we are, either that or in at the yacht club. I think they would let us move in there and it is on the neck of land being guarded by U.S. troops so probably almost as safe, but you can't see what is going on from in there. From the anchorage we can see almost everything.
We spent the day on the boat again, even though Wayman said things were getting back to normal at the yacht club. The problem will be provisions...all the grocery stores have been looted. Wayman said that someone was offering tomatoes at $1.50 each. A few people went into town and reported that, while the town was totally trashed, the owners in the Free Zone had managed to do a pretty good job of protecting their area. The whole district is surrounded by a high wall and they had stacked big steel containers at the few entrances and used their private guards to keep the looters out...they went instead to the easier source of goodies, all the unprotected downtown stores and the containers sitting on the wharves.
Our day was spent reading, watching the news and football game on the TV, and doing little things around the boat, pretty dull entertainment after the last few days.
| About ten o'clock the Navy and Army got through with the yacht club and, as we had expected, turned their attention to us. The two patrol boats plus a landing craft came out to the "flats" where each patrol boats picked up several army guys from the landing craft, then proceeded to board each of the yachts in turn. They were very polite, but also very business like, with mean looking guns always at the ready. We stayed on the deck talking to the leader while four of the camouflage suited troops went through the boat. They weren't very thorough...I don't think they ever found the engine room, chain locker, or center bilge, any one of which large enough to hold several people. I got the impression that they were really just going through the motions. The leader asked if we had seen anything suspicious on any of the other boats and we told him that we'd been cruising with most of them for weeks now. |  U.S. Gunboat Search |
Once they were finished with us they said we were free to go wherever we wished: to the yacht club, to sea, or to another anchorage. We decided that we'd go in to the club, fill our water tank, and maybe spend Christmas with the folks there. That we did, mooring on the fuel dock and settling down for the day. The yacht club didn't appear to have been touched, and there were no signs of the battles which had raged near here earlier in the week. The only evidence that something had changed was the lack of people. The bar and restaurant were both closed and only a few employees were on the grounds. The gate was also closed, with a single guard who unlocked it for the few people going in and out. Winsome Flyer came back into their slip, and soon a dozen or more boats from the flats and the anchorage across the harbor at Fort Sherman were arriving.
I guess it was about noon that the word of the day came over the television...Noriega had turned himself in to the Papel Nuncio asking for political asylum! As the word spread we could hear cheers from the city and even some fireworks going off...real fireworks this time, not the nasty stuff. Guess our little war is about over, although we still got a few reports of roving "Dignity" bands during the day.
During the afternoon we had a visit from the people on the Quitasuena: Fernando and his wife Merce, their daughter, Juliana (they also have two boys named Patricio and Camilo, plus an eighteen month old which they left at home), and their friends, Ronny and Pili...all very nice folks who are on a long vacation with only about a month to go and who are somewhat upset by being stuck here. Fernando had planned on fueling Wednesday but of course missed that, and doesn't have enough to go back to Cartagena or Providencia. He said the yacht club hasn't been doing any fueling since the start of the shooting. We talked about the possibility of our rafting together for the transit ...that would sove our line handler problem.
I got a call through to Mom and Dad on High Seas radio to let them know we are OK and wish them a Merry Christmas. They both sounded good and were happy to hear from us. The rest of the afternoon was spent watching a football double header. I somehow came up with a sore back so I decided to make like a couch potato for the day. SCN had a couple of very good games on today: Giants vs the Raiders and Denver vs San Diego.
Chistmas dinner was a potluck at the club outdoor barbeque shelter. It was pretty good, in spite of the fact that many people are getting short on food supplies and, with it unknown how long we will have to stretch what we have, all conserving. There was quite a variety of dishes representing a similar wide variety of nationalities. John's mother, Toni, made a huge pot of a good tasting rice dish with pork and chicken; Lois took a tuna casserole; and there must have been a dozen or more other tasty things. There were people from France, Germany, Sweden, Columbia, Ecuador, the U.S., and of course, Panama. One young gringo from a fishing boat called the Diamond Blues has been looking for his skipper for the last several days...the skipper went to Panama City last Tuesday and hasn't been able to get back. Another interesting young man is from Sweden; he is working on another fishing boat, actually a packer, which he says is owned by a bunch of crooks. They tried to walk out on a half million dollar outfitting bill in Sweden but were stopped here in Panama. He has been here for three months while they were getting that situation straightened out then, when the owners finally coughed up the money and they were free to sail, the canal closed.
Fernando from Quitasueno said he had gone into town this morning and had checked on our status with the PCC. He found that neither Quitasueno or Sea Raven was in the computer! Somebody goofed! He and I will take our papers in tomorrow morning and se if we can get some kind of a schedule. Today was also Fernando's birthday...he is 47 years old, quite and interesting guy with an outgoing manner and a great sense of humor. His family has been raising bananas near Cartagena for many years and is obviously very well off. He says he is the only one of several boys who stayed with the business, and he is ready to sell out and go cruising.
After our dinner Doug and I showed our videos of the war then everybody sat around and compared notes. We all felt fortunate that there were no casualties in the boating community. The action today was limited to a few heleocopters buzzing around. Fernando said some of the U.S. service men were taking a bit of guff from kids on the street, but it was all verbal. Among the Panamanians at the club the feeling of relief at getting rid of Noriega was unanimous.
With the U.S. military having replaced the everpresent PDF forces on the street corners, the city seems to be getting back to business; and the first business is cleaning up. Already most of the streets are passable, and hundreds of people were in the streets engaged in the process of salvaging what the combatants and looters had left. We drove up and down, getting a better look at the city now than I'd ever had before. Interestingly enough, the better part of town, an area of nicely built and painted houses on the east side, seemed to be almost untouched. The damage and garbage was worst in the poorest sections of the city, both residential and business. The general mood everywhere we went seemed to be sort of an acceptance of things as they are...groups of men standing around on the corners in friendly conversation, pretty young ladies of the street in miniskirts flaunting their fannies in front of the U.S. soldiers, street vendors selling what little was left to sell. We stopped and bought some fairly good looking bananas for five cents apiece.
Over on the northeast shore of the Colon pennisula where the northeast wind has a good shot the seas were really raging. After two days of thirty knot plus winds the waves coming over the breakwater are huge. A two hundred foot tuna boat was bouncing around like we do in a rolly anchorage. Even on our side boats anchored on the "flats" are having trouble staying put. We're glad to be on the dock today. At least at the moment, on one seems to mind that we are tied to the fuel dock. We stayed there even while Quitasuena moved over and fueled up, rafting to us while they took on several hundred gallons. I think we may just go ahead and finish filling our tanks...with the big freeze in the States fuel prices may be going up anyway and I'd just as soon have full tanks while we have the chance.
The club restaurant re-opened today, serving from 9:00 to 4:00. We went over and had a hamburger for lunch. So far the bar hasn't opened, but I suspect things will be approaching normality before the week is out...it's as good a place as any to wait out the storm.
Just then several more employees showed up saying that the Port Captain was close behind. We met him at the door and he wasn't much help. Captain Rainey is a very tired man, probably in his early sixties but today looking much older, who is friendly but firm. In answer to my question concerning our possible transit he said that he had over a hundred ships waiting and that he had no idea when it would be possible to start handling small boats, but that it would be at least a week and probably more. Much to the distress of Fernando whose Plan B is to return to Cartagena, he also said that no small boats were being allowed to leave the harbor. That should probably change soon though.
With no encouragement on leaving, we decided to see what was available at the market in the way of food. Surprizingly, the central market was open and had quite a good selection of produce was being offered by vendors who appeared to be mostly of Chinese ancestry: oranges, bananas, onions, potatoes, lettuce, cabbage, celery, peppers, and more...some the best we've seen for a while. The market was not particularly crowded and there were no long lines...prices were perhaps a little higher but otherwise it was much like a normal business day. We loaded up with fresh vegetables and headed back to the club with our bad news. There, I paid our mooring fees through January 1st and ordered enough more diesel to completely fill our tanks.
The wind was down today, and the seas calmer, but we still had some very heavy rain squalls; and, as the day wore on, it got colder and colder. By evening the temperature, which normally hovers around 85, was down to under 75 degrees. People were breaking out the new jackets which the looters had been selling for $5.00 apiece. We stayed on the boat. I pickled our watermaker, Lois got out the sewing machine and made a shirt, and later in the afternoon Juliana came over from Quitasueno to watch a movie. She's a pretty little girl of about 10 and wanted to get away from her brothers for a while. Another quiet day in the War Zone!
While Lois was finishing up the wash I went into town shopping again with Fernando, his family, and Norm Bennett, manager of the Club Nautico marina in Catagena, who finally managed to make it back to Colon with a borrowed car and is staying on Quitasueno ...he and his son had been stuck in Panama since the hostilies began. We went again to the central market where they seemed to have a better supply of produce than they had yesterday. We also got eggs at a poultry store called Pio Pio, and beer from a big coke and cerveza distributor. Some of the other stores were open today and the city seems to be getting back to normal. So far at least, there seems to be no general shortage of food.
PML "Echo" was changed to PML "Delta" today (Personnel movement limited to approved routes but not forbidden) and the canal was open for 24 hours today for the first time since it closed last Wednesday. Hopefully they will get enough of the backlog worked down to let us go through next week. We may have to hire line handlers if Fernando decides to bag it and go the other way.
Called Nancy on High Seas and told her to send our next mail to the Jungle Club in Golfito. We are still trying to find someone with access to the U.S. mail here in Panama so we can send mail north. I think Doug and Gayle have just about given up the idea of flying back to the States even though we hear that the airport may be open soon. They may just stay here and have their boat hauled before heading for San Andres in the Caribbean. We also tried to call Kristie (It's her birthday) but got just the answering machine...'bout the only way we can reach her is to get her out of bed before seven in th morning. We'll try that tomorrow.
After about ten minutes Colonel Brooks arrived, a slim, slightly greying man of about fifty walking through the room in his khaki shirt and camouflage pants. He said, "I'll be with you as soon as I get my jacket.", and was back a moment later neatly dressed in his multicolored, camouflaged battle jacket. I'd been elected spokesman for our group (Although Fernando was the real initiator of our meeting he evidently felt that a U.S. citizen would be more convincing) so I explained that we represented some sixteen boats flying flags of eight nations all of whom felt caught in a web with nowhere to go...we'd like him to put in a good word for us with the PCC where we had been unable to get any information on when we could either cross the canal or leave the port. Col. Brooks was very friendly. He asked each of us where we were from and seemed a little skeptical when Jack from a boat named Sea Horse said Montana. "Do they have any lakes in Montana?", he said. He also raised an eyebrow when Rudy from Donna Rose told him with his heavy German accent that he was from San Francisco, but he ended up saying that he would call the PCC and see what he could do. He said that at least he could make sure that it was alright for boats to leave the harbor if they wished to go to the San Blas or Isla Grande.
Since this was going to take a while, he suggested that we leave one representative and that the rest could leave...again I was elected, retiring to a comfortable couch along the wall while the officers of the Task Force took the chairs around the tables for their morning status meeting. It seemed like old times as I had used the same format for years in my morning "Test Status Meetings" at the Boeing Comany. As Col. Brooks listened and occasionally asked questions the chairman, a Major, questioned the Health, Supply, Security, etc. team leaders on their activities of the previous day and night. It seems that each team leader has a Panamanian counterpart with whom he is working as a part of Operation Cooperation. The supply team, for instance, is headed by a Panamanian doctor who, with the support of the U.S. team and dozens of volunteers, is putting together bags of food for distribution to those who have no other source. The military medical team is getting lots of what the medical officer called "good training in gunshot wounds", but is trying to move most of the followup into the Colon Clinic run by Panamanians. When one of the officers reported that the Minister of Agriculture and the Chairman of the Panama Chamber of Commerce were coming to Colon and wanted a presentation on the rebuilding operation, Col. Brooks directed that the U.S. officers stay in the background, letting the local Panamaians do all the talking. It was for me a very interesting session!
Almost a half hour passed before a Major Tom Ryan came to me and said that they had contacted Jim Cramer (43-5294), head of Canal security, and had confirmed that there was no problem in boats leaving the harbor. For information on scheduling of canal transit he said they could do little, but gave me the personal phone number of Captain Rainey (46-7637) with whom we had talked on Wednesday and suggested that we try him again. He then called his driver, a young GI named Scott, to take me back to the yacht club. Before we left Scott had to get out his cosmetic case with its little mirror and three colors of makeup to paint his face black, green, and sort of a sickly tan. While he was doing that Col. Brooks called me over to the head table and told me that their first priority here was protecting Americans so if we needed anything to let him know. I rode back to the club in style in one of the new wide bodied jeeps, and there called Captain Rainey who confirmed that boats were free to leave the harbor and promised that by next Wednesday he would be able to give us a schedule for transiting. My guess is that it will be at least two more weeks.
The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Fernando gathered up his family and headed Quitasueno out for Isla Grande, so we moved the Sea Raven over to his slip on the main docks. That was just a bit traumatic...Lois and I are out of practice in dockside landings so it took us two tries, and of course the only rain and wind of the day came as we made the move. We're now all settled in for as long a stay as necessary. I caught Bill Speed on the dock and he agreed to drop our mail in the U.S. postal system, so the last two updates to the log are on their way...no telling when we'll get mail from the other direction!
For the record Fernando's address is:
After that I cooled off and replaced my lost body fluids by going through a sixpack of beer (The beer here is less than 3% alcohol, almost like drinking water) while watching the "John Hancock" Bowl football game. It was a well fought game between Texas A&M and Pitt, but John Hancock Bowl (?????). I suppose next we'll have a Coca Cola Bowl and a Pepsi Cola Bowl, and how about a Kentucky Fried Chicken Bowl?
Enough! I had promised to meet Fernando on Six Charley at nine this morning but when I tried I could barely hear him and he couldn't hear me at all; so I went over to Winsome Flyer and used their radio...it was like he was next door! For some reason our radio just isn't doing well at the lower frequencies. So after the football game, when clouds covered the blazing sun for a while, I climbed the mast to see if I could improve our antenna connections. I did find that there was corrosion between the attaching ring and the wire running up the big fiberglass antenna so I took it down and resoldered it. I also polished and put Never-Seez on all the other connectors. If we still have a problem it must be in the radio or antenna tuner. I'll know in the morning when the regular net comes on. Winsome Flyer has only a single long wire running to the mast...I could probably try that. Radios are strange and wonderful things!
That's about it for the day...it was a hot one but along in the afternoon a few clouds came over and the breeze picked up. It looks like we really are entering the "dry" season. Sure wish we could be on our way!
We had a super good potluck at the club this afternoon. The club provided barbequed pork loin and we all pitched in something else. Must have been about 50 people there...nice party. Nothing like a little war to bring folks together!
Back at the boat, the rest of the day was one of those where nothing goes quite right. I fussed for a while with the HF radio again, checking continuity of my feed lines and playing with the grounds...I do that every time I get around one of these other boats which have mush better reception and transmission than we do. It's probably a characteristic of our whole system, but I keep hoping I can find some little thing that I can fix and get lots better performance-a vain hope I'm sure! I did a few maintenance chores, checking all the engine zincs (all less than half gone) and the sea cocks, then worked for a while on the stobe light fixture which I found hanging by its wires when I went up on the mast to check my antenna connection. I resoldered the broken connections and applied power but got no flashing. I'm afraid it is beyond repair...no telling how long its circuit board has been hanging out there in the weather. We don't ever use it so it's no great loss.
I haven't yet found any 8D batteries so I bought a couple of dry charge 4D's from Johnny (probably hot but brand new). The problem came when I tried to buy acid for them. Johnny said he could get it but, when he brought it this morning, it was in old Clorox and cooking oil bottles and tested at a specific gravity of 1150 as compared to the 1250 recommended for the tropics. When I told him about it he called the place where he got it and in only a few minutes was back with a guy named Sabu who ran the shop. Sabu is a very earnest young black kid who said he was going to satisfy me as a customer. After much discussion (I was surprized to find that he didn't know how to read a hydrometer) he took me and my battery to his shop. There he had the floor covered with buckets, pails, and all kinds of plastic bottles filled with acid, all of which I found to run from 1125 to 1175 in density. The place wasn't clean and I saw no sign of distilled water. When I said I'd like my money back he didn't even argue. I think the kid is honest...he just doesn't no any better. So now we have two nice dry batteries...we may be better off to salvage the acid out of our old battery than to trust the kind of electrolite that Sabu could offer.
Phil, Marty, and Russ from the Flying Turtle stopped by for a drink. They started the check in process today and said that the admeasurer would be here tomorrow. Maybe we'll even get a schedule.
After doing my regular weekly battery check this morning I decided to try a new arrangement for our 12 volt supply. For four years now I have been drawing off of a center tap of our 24 volt house batteries to get 12 volts. It has worked, but isn't really the best thing to do...one of the house batteries is always being overcharged. This morning I removed the center tap and tied the 12 volt buss to the Onan start batteries which are a pair of 12 volt auto batteries in parallel. I then took our little 12 volt battery charger and hooked it up to the pair, plugging it into the engine room 110 volt circuit. Now I can charge those batteries any time we have 110 volts from either shore power or cruise generator. Should work better...we'll see. I also decided that, if I can find an 8D battery, I'll just stow the dry 4D's I bought from Johnny as spares. While Lois was doing the wash I walked up town and found that the Texaco station has 8D's. They're pretty proud of them though, asking $172.00 as compared to the price I got in Panama of $140.00. I think the Free Zone may be opening soon...I'll check there before buying.
Doug and Gayle left today, taking a taxi to Panama where they will stay overnight in a hotel. The travel agent here told them that all passengers would meet at the Eastern Airlines downtown office four hours prior to departure and would be taken to the airport...no private cars are being allowed into the airport facilities. We sent a bunch of mail with them.
It was about 9:30 and I'd just gone down to bed when all the horns started blowing, people were yelling, and even firecrackers were going off, something which has been a no-no for the last couple of weeks. Five minutes later came the TV announcement that Noriega had given himself up to the U.S. Smart guy...he knows that we'll screw around spending $10 million in trying him and then let him off easy. If his friends in Panama had gotten their hands on him, I suspect he wouldn't have lasted long!
They had gotten to Panama City alright, checked into the hotel, spent the night wondering what all the celebrating was about because the TV in their room didn't work, and had gone to Eastern Airlines this morning at 5:00 as directed...only to be told the flight had been cancelled! Eastern gave themn some story about Panama not letting more than 150 people a day out of the country, a story which just won't compute. Whatever the reason, there was no flight and the next they could get was on the 10th so back they came, livid at the treatment by Eastern; and, incidentally, bringing back all the mail we'd sent along with them.
We sat in the air conditioned bar listening to their story while one o'clock came and went, then two o'clock, then two thiry...no battery. I fussed, then called. They didn't have a car...they'd have it here by three for sure. Three o'clock came, then three thirty and, just as I was about to call a taxi and go get it, the man from Texico showed up. I'd offered Wayman the acid from our old battery, so he came over and we did the change. I was sure happy to have his help...the 8D's weigh about 150 pounds and juggling them around with just Lois and I is tough. As it was it went nicely. We took the old battery out on the dock, drained the acid into the battery box then into a couple of jugs, washed everything down with the hose, then maneuvered the new one into place under our bed. Even then, it was five o'clock before I had everything hooked up again and operating...the whole day was gone. Oh well, one more nasty job done, even if it took all day.
We had Doug, Gayle, and Wayman over for dinner. Lois outdid herself with a super meal of roast pork, applesauce, scalloped potatoes, and carrots. Gayle brought a salad and for desert Lois broke out the last box of the Frangos which Nan sent us for Christmas. It was a real feast! Looks like we'll be in pretty good shape for line handlers...Doug, Gayle, and Wayman have all volunteered, plus Roger is still talking like he'd like to go. We'll firm up a plan when we get a final schedule.
With that problem worked (We'll know for sure tomorrow morning), we went grocery shopping again. The big El Rey store at Rainbow City is almost restocked and we managed to spend $287.85 for two carts full of goodies. While we were in the store it started raining and hardly stopped at all for the rest of the day. We only got a little wet getting our bags to the club...the taxi drove right in under the roof...but were soaked by the time we got it onto the boat. Our "dry" season seems to have taken the day off. We went back for lunch at the club, then spent most of the afternoon finding places to stuff our stuff and getting the boat ready to go. I spent a little time over on Three Diamonds going over charts with Roger and Carol...I tried to give him a few things to at least consider.
Called Nan to let her know we now have a schedule. No news yet on just when Bob and Kris will be coming...they said sometime in February. It looks now like we'll make it to Costa Rica before then. Splurged and also had dinner at the club ...it'll be the last chance until we hit Golfito to eat out. I lucked out in ordering their "Sizzling Steak" which turned out to be a really good filet, the best I've tasted since the restaurant on the river in Costa Rica.
The transit up the Gatun locks went well. After a little confusion about who would raft with whom, we ended up tied to a big tug called Racon. That made the whole thing easy. He tied to the side wall and we just let him move us from chamber to chamber so, once we had the lines on him, we had nothing to do but watch the fun. There were eight sailboats in our locking, two rafts of three and one of two boats. It was almost 1:00 before they finally closed the gates and started to fill the chamber, and 2:30 before we got through the final lock. By then we knew that we'd be spending the night on the lake...they don't run "handlines" through after dark. Every boat had at least four line handlers, a skipper, and an advisor so there were quite a bunch of people who were going to be spending the night at Gamboa. We were the first of the yachts there, beating the rest to the anchorage by about 45 minutes. It's a pretty place, and much quieter than Christobal harbor. A pilot boat picked Rodrigas up immediately and we settled down for martini hour. On the way Lois and Gayle had served monster sandwiches and potato salad with brownies for desert so somehow our martini hour turned into two or three as we rehashed the war and our experiences of the past few weeks. Nice crew of people!