Preparation

New moon high tide at 8:30.  Off with the three volunteers to Nuthing Wong.  Clive was aboard and had two Ngobe teenagers working with him.  We brought breakfast burritos.

Marlin a well respected local for many reasons, not the least is his knowledge of many things was the fourth to attempt the effort to get the boat off the sand bar. He had secured three anchor lines off the starboard bow and was winching on the lines in order to pull the bow in the direction of the nearest channel.  Forty tons of steel, with a six foot long steel keel and two steel skegs and six tons of lead were buried in the sand.  

The boys tried to pull on the lines.  I directed them to get them taught and to pull perpendicularly,  the leverage advantage is enormous.  Every time an inch or two was gained an Indian re-secured another line and the process continued, a couple inches at a time for about an hour.  We swung the bow about four feet.  A three ton winch was employed, but taking in the slack was painful.  Every time the limited travel of the load chain was reached a hundred feet of work chain had to be pulled backwards, a new knot tied in the anchor rope to hold the hook and the chain had to be worked out to the rope again.  All in all we swung the bow ten feet before the rapidly subsiding tides frustrated further efforts.

Marlin secured his massive cayuca, a dugout canoe thirty two feet long with four inch thick walls, with the stern but four feet from the bow and ran his reluctant forty stroke outboard at full throttle for hours, the prop wash blew away large quantities of sand, fortunately, away from the reef.  This had been attempted before but weather washed away away progress.  

The boys, Clive and I went to town. Clive had to provision and had no tender, the boys, well, something is always happening around me and they didn't want to miss anything.   We took a taxi to Saigon, an isthmus that separates the peninsula that is Bocas Town from the bulk of the island and I led the way to Marlin's house.   The five of us walked up to the boat house and two of the boys jumped up and monkeyed their way across a beam to reach another winch used for lifting the cayuca.  Marlin's son Noah came out.  I'd never met him before.  "Hi, we are just getting one of these for your dad. Can you get us a plastic bag to put it in?" Nothing like carrying a large amount of rusty chain covered in used motor oil.

We returned to the boat, turned over the winch and decided to snorkel.  Sam saw a couple of nurse sharks. I was told they were always hanging out in the mangroves there.  Enough, to be continued tomorrow.  We headed home.   Leaving Marlin and his crew to continue blowing a channel. Tomorrow, my buddy Chris is bringing out his sixty foot trawler and we are going to try to pull this boat off of the sandbar.  If it doesn't work this time, I guess we'll have to wait for a full moon tide.

Hell, we blow off most of the day, why stop now? Sam and I went snorkeling.  I saw barracuda after barracuda.  Most likely it was the same one.  Curious creatures.   I dodged the giant moon jelly fish.   I avoided the box jellies, they sting.   I was swimming for exercise, not pausing to inspect.   I saw that barracuda again and then a big one.  A big pull in the crotch of my pants. WTF?  I spun around.  No blood.  No pain.  I spun around again.  Whew! It was my dog, a quarter mile from home who thought he'd join me on my swim.   I wasn't quite done yet, but I returned home.

Shortly thereafter, Sam returned with a nice Spanish Mackeral.  He had been pursuing fish for an hour and was just standing to rest and this fish swam up to him, asking to die and Sam fulfilled his wish.

First coat on the floor of the  guest bedroom, the hall, the guest bathroom