Yesterday I took the skiff to town and then headed a short distance to the Pickled Parrot on Carenero for the monthly third Saturday of the month pig roast.
After a few hours I headed back to town. I had to make an emergency turn to avoid a lunatic water taxi driver. I pushed hard to the left to turn right and was left holding air, by the time I turned around there were nothing but expanding rings were my new outboard had sunk to the depths. I was but a few hundred yards from my destination.
After travelling nearly a thousand miles in day trips of over 100 miles the shortest ride I ever took was shorter than anticipated. I took note of my position and called a friend who quickly arrived with his boat equipped with side facing sonar. We were pretty sure we saw the motor and a small plume of gas. As the 15 HP has an external tank there is not much gas in the engine. The coordinates were recorded and I was pulled to town.
"How's it going Jim?" "See my boat? Notice anything different?" Few people noticed that it no longer had an outboard. Ahh, well, what can you do? I chatted with people a bunch of girls who had gone on boat rides with me, some locals. The usual bullshit from uninformed residents born here, saying the water was only 20 feet deep. It was 52 to 60 according to the depth finder. Not bad, but I was in a muddy section.
After a while I just took a hotel room and went to bed early. I managed to convince the hotel to let me stay without ID or payment, "I'll pay you later." Don't forget my wallet was given to the sea a couple of days prior.
In the morning I contacted Tony Sanders, owner and operator of Starfleet Scuba. He agreed to help me and asked if I would help him with some plumbing problems in exchange. Nobody can plumb worth a damn in Bocas. It's going to be an easy job for me. The dive was delayed on account of rain. I wish we had had a lot more, remember my tanks were empty.
A boat was dispatched with four divers and a search was conducted but the motor was not found it is probably under a few feet of mud. He traded me the services for some plumbing work, calling it a more civil arrangement. I have about four hours of plumbing work to do, he offered me four hours of divers, with equipment and a boat.
Hopefully I can get some divers in the water at the same time as some guy with a side facing sonar and
I went to a chili cookoff, got too hot in the sun, and left shortly after the band started as it was too loud to talk so I walked down the street, hung out with some friends at a quiet spot where we could just hear the music. They were kind enough to give me a ride and drop me off on the way home.
What's next? I need a change. A big change.
First I will get the lower unit that I bought put back on my panga then I will probably only go to town to get groceries while I plan my next adventure. I really need to put that kayak to some use and I could use the exercise.
So, I have to prevail on some friends to give me some cash and I will pay them via paypal. Then I will cancel my debit card and order a new one. It will have to be mailed to Texas, then to Florida, then forwarded to Panama City and then to Bocas. It's a pain in the ass. I really don't want to book a flight until I have it in hand but that would put my flight out at least a month. I won't replace the outboard on the skiff as I might not be coming back. In any event it would just sit here, depreciate, probably get used without authority and possibly get stolen. I couldn't possibly burn up enough gas in a month to justify it.
But my days of hundred mile boating excursions for fun have come to an end. My panga has about two weeks worth of work to be done on it that I should have had done long ago, but it's Bocas, not entirely my fault, but mostly, I was just not up to it or having too much fun to deal with it.
After a few hours I headed back to town. I had to make an emergency turn to avoid a lunatic water taxi driver. I pushed hard to the left to turn right and was left holding air, by the time I turned around there were nothing but expanding rings were my new outboard had sunk to the depths. I was but a few hundred yards from my destination.
After travelling nearly a thousand miles in day trips of over 100 miles the shortest ride I ever took was shorter than anticipated. I took note of my position and called a friend who quickly arrived with his boat equipped with side facing sonar. We were pretty sure we saw the motor and a small plume of gas. As the 15 HP has an external tank there is not much gas in the engine. The coordinates were recorded and I was pulled to town.
"How's it going Jim?" "See my boat? Notice anything different?" Few people noticed that it no longer had an outboard. Ahh, well, what can you do? I chatted with people a bunch of girls who had gone on boat rides with me, some locals. The usual bullshit from uninformed residents born here, saying the water was only 20 feet deep. It was 52 to 60 according to the depth finder. Not bad, but I was in a muddy section.
After a while I just took a hotel room and went to bed early. I managed to convince the hotel to let me stay without ID or payment, "I'll pay you later." Don't forget my wallet was given to the sea a couple of days prior.
In the morning I contacted Tony Sanders, owner and operator of Starfleet Scuba. He agreed to help me and asked if I would help him with some plumbing problems in exchange. Nobody can plumb worth a damn in Bocas. It's going to be an easy job for me. The dive was delayed on account of rain. I wish we had had a lot more, remember my tanks were empty.
A boat was dispatched with four divers and a search was conducted but the motor was not found it is probably under a few feet of mud. He traded me the services for some plumbing work, calling it a more civil arrangement. I have about four hours of plumbing work to do, he offered me four hours of divers, with equipment and a boat.
Hopefully I can get some divers in the water at the same time as some guy with a side facing sonar and
I went to a chili cookoff, got too hot in the sun, and left shortly after the band started as it was too loud to talk so I walked down the street, hung out with some friends at a quiet spot where we could just hear the music. They were kind enough to give me a ride and drop me off on the way home.
What's next? I need a change. A big change.
First I will get the lower unit that I bought put back on my panga then I will probably only go to town to get groceries while I plan my next adventure. I really need to put that kayak to some use and I could use the exercise.
So, I have to prevail on some friends to give me some cash and I will pay them via paypal. Then I will cancel my debit card and order a new one. It will have to be mailed to Texas, then to Florida, then forwarded to Panama City and then to Bocas. It's a pain in the ass. I really don't want to book a flight until I have it in hand but that would put my flight out at least a month. I won't replace the outboard on the skiff as I might not be coming back. In any event it would just sit here, depreciate, probably get used without authority and possibly get stolen. I couldn't possibly burn up enough gas in a month to justify it.
But my days of hundred mile boating excursions for fun have come to an end. My panga has about two weeks worth of work to be done on it that I should have had done long ago, but it's Bocas, not entirely my fault, but mostly, I was just not up to it or having too much fun to deal with it.
No comments:
Post a Comment