Panamá vs Twig

The saga of getting a newly purchased Leopard 46 catamaran fixed in Panamá while we’re in Denver.

Right now it’s a frigid -17 degrees where I am in Denver.  That’s not terribly unique, the entire country is in a bit of a winter wonderland right now.  However, it does make counting the days until we board Twig and head to the Bahamas a bit of a bear.  Couple that with the fact that I’m procrastinating one of my last (and least favorite) tasks at work (writing end of year reviews), and I’m in a bit of a funk.  I’m staring at the screen trying to make something interesting happen out of sheer will.  

I’ve checked all my socials.  (Yes, I’m back on social, but only for boat stuff).  Two of the sailing families that we follow (Sailing Banana Pancakes and Sailing With Six) just met up in the Bahamas.  It great to see paths cross like that, but I’m pretty sure they’re going to eat up all the Lobster before we get there.   Nothing really new on the Facebook.

I should get to work writing those reviews, but my brain just isn’t in it.   Then it occurred to me that I haven’t done a real update here in awhile.  Being that the purpose of this blog is to help our friends and family understand our new life, that seems like a miss.  Maybe writing about our experience so far will un-jam my mind to get those reviews written before I go on vacation.

Here goes….

Backstory

It has been exactly two months since we closed on the purchase of our 2008 Leopard 46.   She was (and still is) in Panamá for the purchase.  She was the first boat that we fell in love with back in the early summer.  A bit longer (we naively thought 40 ft would be enough) than we thought we were going to get, but loaded to the gills with all the goodies we’d need to get started.  

While she was our first love, we were intimidated by a purchase out of Panamá, so we cheated on her.  We talked ourselves into a Lagoon 450 that was chillin’ in Ft Lauderdale…which was much more accessible.  So, we became “Goonies” and bought the Lagoon, and attained resting boat face (RBF).  We thought.   We got the financing set up, arranged the insurance, and I headed down to Florida to do the survey (the nautical equivalent of a house inspection).   By the hand of God, It didn’t work out. We passed on that boat, and fired our broker.

Back to our first love.  We made an offer on her directly with the seller’s broker two days later, and were under contract a day later.  I flew to Panamá for another survey and another whirlwind three day weekend two weeks after the Florida trip.  

This survey went much smoother.  Our new broker Kevin went out of his way to make everything happen.  He even gave me a ride across Panamá and let me stay in his guest house.   The biggest hitch of the day was that when we pulled her out of the water, another boat pulled in behind us and started filling their gas tank.  Tanks.  Actually barrels.  What should have been a quick haul-out turned into hours and hours of waiting for this commercial vessel to fill barrel upon barrel on their deck with diesel.   For those of you who haven’t ever pulled a boat out of the water, I’ll paint the picture for you:

You pull into a dedicated slip that has a giant hoist on wheels positioned over it.  They strap the boat in, lift it up, and drive it onto land.  So, when I say “another boat pulled in behind us”.. That means we’re absolutely stuck up in that hoist until they move and we can go back in the water.   It turns out that there was a little bad blood between the marina (Shelter Bay) and our particular boat.  The marina had done some pretty shoddy work on the boat, and the previous owner (PO) pushed back.  Due to that bad blood, they went ahead and let that boat fuel up, knowing full well (imho) that it would delay our day.  All’s well that ends well.  We got out after a few hours (past closing time) and called the day a success!

The report came, and there were some things to fix.  This was as expected, and there was nothing earth shattering that we didn’t already know about.  We negotiated a credit with the seller and closed on our new boat about a week later.   We had her moved to a more friendly marina (Linton Bay), put her on the hard (pulled her out of the water and up on blocks), and arranged to have some things fixed.

This is where the fun begins and we start our little game against Panamá.  The guy doing the work is French, and is also fluent in Spanish (but not English).  I speak neither, and don’t live in Panamá.  We hire a project manager/translator to be our go between.  Every question has to be translated and sent between 3-4 people across thousands of miles. Keep that in mind.  Also keep in mind that I know very little about boats, so I am placing almost total trust in the crew doing the work. What unfolds is a series of unfortunate confusions second only to the Oz scarecrow giving directions.

The following is a list of the major work that we’ve been tracking.

Windows

There are two windows on the left (port) and right (starboard) sides of the living room (salon) that need to be rebed (they’re leaking badly).  This we knew.   It has to be done every 7-8 years, and our boat is 15 yrs old.  That means it was done at least once already.   Boats move around a lot.  Waves and tides and such.  That means you want to stick (bed) those suckers in with something that will be a strong bond, but have some flexibility.  You also want the glue (sealant) to be somewhat removable for when the job is done.  What you absolutely don’t want to use is a sealant that is designed to never be removed and has almost no flexibility.  So, of course that is exactly what they used the last time they did the job.  The stuff is called 3M 5200, and should only be used for jobs that you anticipate never having to do again.  Like sticking the deck (top) onto the hull (bottom) of the boat.

The labor to get the windows out was intense and took about 6 weeks.  Did I mention that they thought the whole repair list would take 3? They get it done, and send me pics.  Looks great.  Now let’s put them back in with the right sealant.  It turns out that sealant is almost impossible to get in Panamá… unless you want the 5200…which we don’t.  They do some research and make a recommendation.  I do my own research and debunk their recommendation.  The right stuff is called Sika flex.  It’s really expensive, and takes 10 days to be fully dry (cured).  The second best stuff is Dow 795, which is about a third of the cost, easier to install, but takes 30 days to dry.  We don’t have 30 days. Our delivery captain is scheduled for three weeks out, so we go with Sika.  I need to buy it in the USA, and have it sent to a freight forwarder that then brings it to Panamá. This is something that I’ve become quite adept at doing (see “liferaft”, “epirb”, and “batteries”).

As of today (12/22) the goods are in Panamá City, the crew is picking them up, and reinstalling the windows in time for them to dry before the captain gets there on the 7th.  We hope.

Panamá gets one point for getting that 5200 off of there, Twig gets 2 for solving the problem

Round 1 Score:  Panamá: 1 Twig Crew: 2

Keel bolts

Remember that shoddy work that the previous marina did?  Here’s where that comes into play.  The keel of a sailboat is a large protrusion under the boat that has weight to it, and plays an important part in how a sailboat can move through the water in a direction other than with the wind at their back.  It’s like a fin on a paddle board, but more.   On our boat, it is a separate structure than the boat, and is bolted on.  That separates the keel from the main boat, and prevents a leak in the keel from putting water in the boat.   That’s  good thing, because the marina had done some work on the bolts and sealed them with entirely the wrong stuff (again) and they are leaking.  This time they used something not designed to be underwater on a part of the boat that is ALWAYS underwater.   The crew does some research on the right stuff, and I do my own.  I’m learning entirely too much about marine sealant, and getting quite adept at finding factory specs on a 15 yr old boat.

Similar to the windows, the job takes a lot of labor.  They are able to source the right sealant in Panamá, and the job got done after a few weeks.

Panamá gets two points here for causing the problem. Twig gets one for grit.

Round 2 Score:  Panamá: 3 Twig Crew: 3

Batteries

I don’t want to write this section.  I really don’t.  But, I’m trying to be honest.  One of the biggest selling points of the boat was that it has 1200 Amp hours of newish Lithium Ion batteries (4 in total) on board.  That’s enough juice to run all our stuff for a couple days.  There is also over 2000 watts of solar, which is enough new juice to keep those batteries topped off and the crew serving cold drinks and ice cream.

However, something happened in Panamá over the summer while the boat was sitting at the previous marina.  The batteries won’t hold a charge now.  The crew attempts to charge them.  Nope.  They send them out to get charged.  Nope.  They call in an expert.  When will the expert be there?  Mañana.  Mañana.  It takes about six weeks to test the batteries.   We need batteries to get the boat back to the US.  You can’t get these batteries in Panamá (of course), so we buy two new ones and have them sent to a freight forwarder to send to Panamá.   The freight forwarder charges by the pound, and batteries are heavy.  And expensive.  About $3k.  Each. And $300 shipping.

The old batteries are now all tested, and verified… to be dead 🙁  Except one of them.  One works, and we’re working with the PO (previous owner) to process a warranty claim on the other three.   If the claim goes through, we’ll now have three days of capacity (1800 amp hours).  If it doesn’t, we’ll have 1.5 (900 amp hours) on the one working battery and the two bought.  If that happens, we’ll be hoping for sunny days to keep that juice flowing through the solar.

This one probably won’t resolve until sometime next year, but Panamá has clearly taken the lead with two more points.

Round 3 Score:  Panamá: 5 Twig Crew: 3

Liferaft

There’s a 6 person offshore life raft on board.  It needs to be serviced.  We knew this, and planned on having it serviced in Panamá.  Guess what nobody in Panamá that can do?  Service life rafts.  There was a guy, but he either died or retired and nobody can find him.

Why do life rafts need to be serviced?  Well, they have things like food on them, and food goes bad.  They also have to be check for leaks, and upgraded every few years.  To do this, they have to be completely unfolded (unpacked), tested, replenished, and folded back up (packed).  If you don’t do this on the right schedule, you have no confidence that the raft will work if/when it’s needed.  The delivery captain would like to know that it will work, so this is a problem we have to solve

Sigh.  We wanted a bigger life raft anyway (we are a family of 5 with a dog and cat), so we bought a new 8 person life raft.  Guess what else you can’t buy in Panamá?  So, we bought one in the US, had it sent to a freight forwarder…yada yada.

Twig totally lost that round. 2 points to Panamá

Round 4 Score:  Panamá: 7 Twig Crew: 3

Gauges

There are gauges that read out what’s going on with the engines on a boat, just like in a car.  The gauges on one of our engines (we have two, one on each side) don’t work and they don’t know why.   An expert needs to come take a look.  When will he be there?  Mañana.  Mañana. Old story new again.   He finally got there five weeks later and decided that the alternator isn’t sending the data to the gauges.  The alternator needs to be looked at by a specialist (I guess a specialist is better than an expert).  The specialist is in Panamá City, which is on the other side of the country (3 hr drive).  Yesterday the alternator was finally taken out and sent for service.  Did I mention that the captain arrives in about 2 weeks?

Waiting to see how this plays out, but Panamá gets a point for the inconvenience, and Twig gets a point for all the stuff Dad just got to learn about Marine electrical systems.

Round 5 Score:  Panamá: 8 Twig Crew: 4

EPIRB

An EPIRB is an amazing safety device that sends out a signal to the coast guard if you end up in an SOS (Mayday) type situation.  The battery on ours needs to be changed.  No big deal, it’s just a battery.  Nope.  Not that easy noob.  Guess what you can’t get in Panamá….

We also found out that our EPIRB is a bit old, so we talked ourselves into upgrading instead of replacing the battery. We bought a new one and had it shipped to a freight forwarder, who….you get the drill.

An hour after we ordered the EPIRB, we discovered that the battery on the old EPIRB had been changed the prior year, so we actually didn’t need a new one!  Excellent, let’s cancel the order and save some $$!  We try, but West Marine doesn’t let us cancel.  I guess we should have bought on Amazon.

Panamá gets another point for being a pain in the ass, but Twig gets two points, one for each EPIRB we now have on board. One in the ditch bag, and one in the galley. Double safe. 

Round 6 Score:  Panamá: 9 Twig Crew: 6

Growth

That’s all the big things we’ve been working on (except the radar, but I don’t want to talk about that), and based on the score you might be thinking that Panamá kicked our butts.  Not so.  Like Dumbledore, I have a few last minute points to award.

For attaining amateur level knowledge of marine sealants, marine electrical systems, and marine safety equipment:  Twig, 2 points

For learning what it means to be patient across cultures, and how to get things done with pure grit and What’s App:  Twig, 1 point

We’re all tied up at 9 points each!

For doing all of the following from a computer in Denver:

1. getting a captain scheduled to deliver a boat from Panamá to the US
2. arranging different captains to get us certified to sail our boat for insurance purposes
3. Arranging a slip in Georgia to receive the boat on arrival (we called about 20, and there was no room at the in)
4. Arranging for new standing rigging (the big metal wires that keep the mast up) to be installed on arrival to the US
5. Registering a dingy with the state with no title and only implied proof of purchase
6. Learning to provision (stock up) a boat with food, and where to put it
7. And many, many more things

Twig:  5 points

Final Score:  Panamá: 9 Twig Crew: 14

You see, this is a lifestyle, not a vacation.   Things are going to be hard, things are going to go wrong.  The only thing that we can do is rely on each other, persevere, and focus on the amazing adventures that await us.  Hundreds (if not thousands) of other families are living on boats and sailing the world.  Their kids know about the world.  Their families are close.  They have fun and take on new challenges together.  Their kids can spear a lobster for dinner while dad is fixing the engine (again).

Panamá has been an adventure.  In two weeks Twig will make her way up to the US, and about two weeks after that we will join her for the adventure of a lifetime.

Update 2/3/2023

We got the final bill today.  It was in French.  There was a line item for $1000 for “quilles”.  According to Google, “quilles” is french for bowling.  So apparently we now have a bowing alley on our boat. That could be fun.