Final Prep in Full Swing!

Date: 29th March, 2024

Where am I? 

Latitude: 09°22.1N

Longitude: 079°57.0W

Berthed at Shelter Bay Marina, Colon

How is the weather?

Little wind and very hot – the air conditioning is getting a really good workout!

What am I feeling?

Anticipation is building with our friends Chris and Ian having arrived, Anne & Per arriving tonight and final prep in full swing.

What has happened this week?

We arrived back on Fujin on Saturday after our 3 week visit to Mexico City, Oxaca and Huatulco.

Mexico was a real surprise for me – it was my first visit and I’m sure we will return to see more of this fascinating country. I didn’t expect the level of sophistication of Mexico City – clean, dry and warm climate, welcoming people and excellent restaurants. I’d always thought of Mexican food as barely edible stodge such as refried beans. But actually, we ate many fantastic meals at top restaurants at reasonable prices. There is definitely such a thing as Mexican fine cuisine! Our friends Christophe and Alicia made us very welcome in the the city and helped enormously with tips and suggestions, not to mentioned a very fancy upgrade at the Hyatt Regency Hotel!

Oaxaca, being the centre of the Mezcal industry and one of the oldest cities in Mexico, was also really interesting and we could have spend several more days there. Again, great food, lots of history and interesting colonial period architecture, ancient archeological sites and friendly people.

At Huatulco, we stayed with our old, old friends Mark and Virgie, at their home overlooking the bay. We hadn’t seen each other for some years – the last time we were all together was at our launch party for Fujin II back in 2015. It was a lot of fun to catch up as though we’d just seen them yesterday. We look forward to seeing them again in Yorkshire, France, East Hampton or Malaysia before too long!

Somewhere along the way, under the shade of a jacaranda tree, along the wide boulevards of Mexico City, I finally accepted the irritating delay to our planned transit of the Panama Canal. Were it not so, we would not have discovered Mexico and we would not have reconnected with old friends. And the further one travels, the more one realises that family and friends are beyond value. There’s always a silver lining and, in sailing, one has to accept the rough with the smooth.

Since we have been back aboard, we’ve been fixing things and commencing our final prep for transit next Monday, 1st April.

We had to fix the fresh water pump which had decided to stop working – that was the first hour back aboard. We then tested all the other pumps and found that the automatic bilge pump was not working. After another couple of hours, we had replaced the impeller which had lost 5 of its 7 rubber paddles (after 7years of use!). The port side forward saloon hatch was stuck down fast and we couldn’t open it – this is now sorted after a lot of careful persuasion! 

We also took delivery of an order of spares from Oyster. Some of the items came as ordered, but we also received items we did not order and did not receive items we did order. Also, we received the wrong gas struts for our aft deck locker lid – mainly because I was not clear enough which aft locker I needed the parts for – there are 2 and they have different gas struts! So now we will need to have this sorted out by sending out more spares, probably to Papeete…

We’ve had the hull professionally cleaned below the waterline and we will shortly be issued a certificate to this effect which we will need to show the Galapagos authorities when we arrive. And we’ve had an electrician aboard to replace the heating element in our hot water tank.

The first rounds of provisioning was completed on Monday and Thursday and the freezer is now struggling to cope with the sudden load! 

We’ve also emptied our black water tanks outside the 3 mile rule – this gave us a chance to give the engine and water maker a good work out and to fill up to the brim with diesel back at the marina.

For the rest of the week, our friends will settle in and we will finish up pre-departure check list items such as more provisioning, fumigation (required by Galapagos authorities), etc

Our next blog will (hopefully!) be from the Pacific Ocean!

Fujin out!