Vista Mar is an affordable marina some 40 miles west of Panama City, making it an ideal base to prepare the boat for a Pacific Crossing. There was even a well qualified and resourceful South African diesel mechanic and general marine engineer, Ollie, who is highly recommended by us all.

The haulout was a dodgy work in progress but will no doubt improve.

We decided to remove the varnish from Windward’s woodwork and replace with Teak Oil, which has worked out well. Help from John gratefully received. Graham also helped with rigging review and an improvement to the Preventer system.

There was time for pleasant socialising but as you can see, marina life drives some people up the wall!

As we would be slower than the catamarans and more experienced sailors, we left earlier than most of the others and were treated to a very posh send off party by the others.