Many of you have read that we had a part of our rigging fail on day two of our Pacific crossing. We limped back to the Las Perlas islands to lick our wounds and make some decisions. Yves and Marta on Breakaway are always lovely and even more so as they gave us a proper homecoming. It was Easter and lots was closed in the Catholic Panama so we waited in the islands. Jon spent a lot of time up the mast which is a little perilous and quite uncomfortable as well as nerve wracking for the winch wench at the bottom. Our time in las Perlas was full of measurements and research and bless Simon who came over to offer advice and moral support. Also a big thank you to Jamie from Totem for the countless emails backwards and forwards to discuss our options and find the right balance of what to fix and when to fix it.

Also, it took a lot of strength to return to back to Panama City. There is no good choice to make as to where to spend time there. The staff of La Playita marina are horrible and charge crazy money to just use the dinghy dock and the fishing boats going in and out of the marina show no consideration for other mariners. An alternative anchorage is Las Brisas which has a wonderful view of the skyline but can be really windy and the dinghy dock is dangerous. Finally there are mooring balls at Balboa which costs money and is very bouncy. We didn’t even consider the marinas in the city that are already over 100 dollars a night. So we weren’t excited to return, plus we were just past ready to leave when we set off so we had to get our emotional strength up first.

There are two local riggers, but neither of them do their own work, getting parts shipped from the USA. We were warned not to use one of them and the other one did come out to have a look but it seemed that he was a lot of talk and not much action. He did not seem on top of his game either. In the end we ordered from Sweden and we are very happy with our choice. Daniel, the awesome rigger from SpinSail in Sweden is going to support us as we do most of the job ourselves. A few days later the the local rigger came back with an offer but the USA suppliers seem to be out of the correct type of wire so we would have had to wait a month for the shipment. The extreme hurricane season seems to be good for the rigging market.

Thank goodness we have Swedish contacts to love us and will help. This lifestyle makes you dependent on people who have good control of logistics. Carl and Anna at Adams Boat Care keep coming to our rescue and they put us in contact with Daniel at SpinSail who has been working around the clock to help us and has the patience of a saint dealing with all our questions. Carina and Tommy have also come to our rescue when our DHL experience turned into a major project. We love them to the moon and back. 

One of the biggest troubles we cruisers have is getting parts from shiny places on the internet or shop floors into our sweaty little hands. By far the best thing is muling, getting people to visit to bring you the coveted morsels. Chances packaging, striking baggage handlers and picky customs officials are dangerous even to this plan. Deliveries are by far more complicated. Friends of ours orders a propeller from FedEx and it never did show up. UPS managed to deliver only one of our two packages when we bought the water maker. So we had our fingers crossed for DHL.

HA! HAHAHAHA!!

Here is the story! First of all there is limit to which post codes they would accept for a pick up order. None of ours were one of them. This means that we had to get someone to drop it off at the cargo area at the airport.

When everything was completed and boxed up, Jon could use the measurements to enter all the data and make the DHL order. He had researched and double checked everything at least twice in the week leading to this step. He was not allowed to complete the order because of failure 1040 or was it 1265F? After much fiddling with the orders, trying 12 or 15 times, it turns out that each box could only we 70 kilos each. Our was 80 kilos. ONLY in Sweden is there a cap of 70 kilos each and it is only mentioned briefly in the sidelines and none of Jon’s new friends at DHL mentioned this to him. The box had to be opened, 10 kilos of stuff removed and second box packed.

One of Jon’s many new friends at DHL advised him to put a pick up time for a random post code from the and drop down list and order for the day after and drop it off at the airport. Sounds like a reasonable workaround, but a little out of the ordinary and therefore not very traceable, no record of receipt process exists.

Both boxes were driven and dropped off at DHL cargo on Monday lunchtime. Our lovely family need treats for helping us sort out this mess!  Hope they do come to see us somewhere so we can spoil them rotten. We were nervously checking before we went to bed but the tracking system was still saying that the paperwork was received but nothing about the packages. We called a few times but they told us not to worry, it was fine.  On Tuesday they tried to  pick up the packages at the place in the post code they refused to access. We were up at 4am explaining. It took them another sweaty EIGHT hours before the tracking kicked in and we could see how well traveled our parts are. Tommy and Carina did a fabulous job and we needed heavy duty tools to get into the boxes. We could not have done this without them retrieving boxes, repacking them and dropping them at DHL. Thank you very much, we owe you big time!

One of the reasons that we have moved around to Vista Mar marina is that they are helping us manage the “Yacht in Transit” paperwork so that our packages don’t end up stuck in customs for ages. We have everything crossed that they know what they are talking about and that we have done it correctly been in contact with the people they tell us and hope that all the t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted. Ding DING DING Round TWO begins.

There was a lot of screaming into phones in rapid Spanish especially when the guy sent to retrieve the package was sent away. But we really have to hand it to the marina staff who sent someone new back to the free port on a Saturday and we were very pleased when it arrived on Saturday afternoon. Both boxes arrived and everything was there and we were happy to gear up for the installation work.

We started with the forestay because it is the hardest bit to do. It has a different fitting to the others and it has furling gear as well which meant Jon did the trickiest bit first. Daniel, our rigger in Sweden, has been an incredible help! We owe him dinner and many drinks for all his help. Not only did he work late into the nights to get everything completed but he was there for us every step of the way over the phone, often with simple ideas to fix each problem. We owe Carl and Anna too for putting us in contact. Thank you very much everyone!

Jon made a few attempts before it was sorted and Matt from Sugar Shack was a great help. John and Becca from Halcyon came over to lend a hand too and In the end we were seven people involved getting the forestay attached at both ends. There was a great sigh of relief as it was completed, even if the top bits were on the bottom and the bottom bits on top. Matt and Christine  delayed their departure to give us extra help, so lovely of them and what a difference it made to morale! By the time they left us, the back stay was installed and glue was drying.

We plodded along trying to get work done in the morning before it gets too hot and the wind picks up. The wind always seems to pick up in the afternoon and sometimes we would also get a really strange swell build up and the movement is exponentially worse up the mast. There was a nervous moment as one of our measurements was wrong and frantic phone calls were made. Luckily it was too long and not too short and it was too long in just the correct amount and can be remedied later.

Tina put the last shiny wires into place on Friday and we were ecstatic, there were many high fives and whoops and maybe even a cocktail in the afternoon to celebrate. Jon did the tensioning the next day and we drilled out deck fittings to accommodate thicker pins. All that remains is a final inspection and a test sail. We are turning our attention to provisioning, studying the weather and making Itchy Foot ship shape.

One month after we returned to Las Perlas we are once again ready to go and the Pacific awaits.