Our Archive

Like Cath said last week, the gang is all here, except for her of course, and hard at work. The engine had been looked over and a new cutlass bearing put in. It took the whole gang, a two inch solid stainless shaft and all our force behind it to shove it in. But, we […]

Sorry we didn’t post the last two Throw Back Thursdays. We were out…gasp, SAILING! Had a great time seeing western Panama and the coast between Bocas Del Toro and Colon. Check out our Facebook page at Sail Joana to see the pictures. Now, we will go back in time, many many years ago to resume […]

There’s an indescribable feeling that a boat owner gets when you find a hole in the hull. Obviously it is better to find it when you are on the hard, but that horrible pit in your stomach is still there. Worse yet is that feeling wasn’t letting me enjoy my lunch. It wasn’t just the […]

Ah, nothing like the fresh smell of old diesel in the morning. I was able to get all 25 annoyingly placed bolts off of the two by two man hole for the fuel tank. After hand cranking about 50 gallons out that had been sitting in there for five years or so, I was ready […]

“Man, I got absolutely no sleep last night. Not sure if it was the nor’easter working on blowing Joana over or the strange picture of the previous owner freaking me out in the glow of the flash light when I got up to check on things.” My dad gave a chuckle. “No, just the feeling […]

    There we were, back in the day, when we were immature and naive. Don’t get me wrong, we knew about boats and the work that comes with them. But we were still driven by dreams, not yet tainted by the expense of it all.   Maria and Cathy at a Tarts and Vicars […]

It was such a mad rush getting ourselves out of yard and Shelter Bay marina that we left the blog writing to be done back here in San Blas, allowing what stress was built up to flitter away with the tropical breezes.  There were many times of discouragement in yard, feeling there is no end […]

Our days of yard work can be long and tiresome, so it has been quite the treat to have unlimited access to Panama at its best – jungle entertainment.  Shelter Bay sits on a national park, once occupied by the American military. As with most of Panama, the signs of the American past are throughout […]

Well the fun has started and we are officially land lubbers. We expect a month of work but as boats go, add a few weeks on to any plans. Our list seems to be forever growing. Soon I will have to start hiding all the pens and paper on the boat so Cath can’t make […]

Well the time has come.  We made our way to Colon to stay the night in the Flats (anchoring area) before we were hauled out in the morning at Shelter Bay. It is always an entertaining trip through the fleet of tankers moving in and out of the Panama Canal. It has been awhile being […]