Panama: Day 12 - Water Maker

Today was a really productive day. We dinghied over to the dinghy dock because we needed to grab a cab into town to buy some supplies. I have never in my life seen anything as sketchy as this dinghy dock. It is a floating dock loosely attached to a couple vertical i-beams (that keep it from floating away) and crashes and slams into them with each wave. Remaining in a standing position is a real accomplishment on this thing. The entire dock was rust, a real tetanus breeding ground. If that wasn't enough, there is no bridge to land from it. You have to step off the crashing/slamming/rusty dock into this half-bouyant, tiny, plastic "toy" boat and pull yourself along a rope to get to land over chest-deep water lined with jagged-rocks and jellyfish.

Jan and Gary went on this little boat first, and came SO close to falling out. Gary got in okay, but just as Jan was stepping in, a huge wave came in and slammed the dinghy dock so hard, which LAUNCHED Jan into the little toy boat. Gary and Jan struggled to keep it balanced as it swayed back and forth, the sides dipping under water and filling the boat. I was so sure they were going to fall, but it never happened. They had their laptop and cellphones and whatnot in their backpack, so that would have been disastrous. Minnie and I learned from their mistakes and got across with little problem.

We spent the afternoon on the boat and got a ton of jobs done. Gary fixed the GenSet, so we have a working generator for power underway. Minnie and I ripped up all the floorboards in the boat and traced out the whole water maker, so we could figure out exactly how it worked.

This was necessary because Gary and I will be at sea for 30-40 days crossing the pacific and will need to make our own water to survive. We're going to stock a ton of water too and rig up a rain-catching system. But having a water maker that takes sea water and converts it to drinking water at a rate of 40 friggin gallons an hour would make things easier.

I have been sleeping in the cockpit and have been waking up to fireworks in the middle of the night over the Panama City skyline. It is quite the sight.

Panama celebrating our departure!