The time in Germany was quite busy with many visits to my mother in Heiligenhafen, several visits to John’s sons in Manchester, many visits to friends, a bike tour from Hamburg to Heiligenhafen, a ride on the Harz Railway, and many other activities. Of course, John ordered many spare parts for Maya again.
Fully packed and full of anticipation, we headed to Hamburg Airport. But there was also some worry about how much work would be needed to get the Maya back in shape.
Upon arriving in Panama, John first had the interview at the French Embassy to finally get his visa for French Polynesia — thanks to BREXIT, English citizens need a visa.
In good spirits, we then drove to Vista Mar Marina to finally see Maya again. Since we are not allowed to live on the boat while it is on land, we had to rent an Airbnb very close by.
Victor from the marina greeted us immediately and helped us bring our bags on board. It felt good to be back on the boat, even though Maya was really dirty and sitting on the land.
Damasio (Yacht painter) had almost finished the antifouling that we had ordered in early March for November, and the hull looked really good. But the problems didn’t take long to show up. We reinstalled the hydraulic cylinder for our boom which we had also sent to Protecsa in Panama City for service. But as John quickly noticed, gas bubbled out again with every operation, and our boom kept sagging lower. Very annoying, because the service was not cheap. So back it went to Wikus company, who handle such tasks in the marina.
Before we could go back in the water, John had to cut the badly corroded and jammed toilet valve from our toilet from the outside and then install a new one with a connector from the inside. But as always, the size of the hose was not compatible with the inner valve and we needed another connector, which was not available here. My friend Uwe, who would come to Panama in January 2026 and sail with us to the Marquesas, was our savior. Uwe was supposed to receive several more packages from us in the coming weeks. Luckily, the exterior valve was water tight, and on 18th November 2025 we went back into the water.
Next came our radar, which John had already ordered in the USA in September. It hadn’t arrived, and neither had some other stuff. After extensive research the shipping company (Shipex) located our three missing packages in the warehouse in Miami. We’d found them and two weeks later they were in Panama City and delivered to us at the marina. We were so relieved because it would have been expensive and not easy to order another radar again.
When attaching it to the mast, we discovered that the new radar cable was much too short, and John had to solder part of the old cable onto the new one. It would seem a European “Standard length” is much longer than an American “Standard length”. Anyway the joined cable worked just fine. Phew!
While checking the rigging, John noticed that the cable for the wind instrument had split in two places and our VHF cable also showed a split. The wind meter worked and then promptly stopped working the next day. It was cursed!
With the help of Wikus again, we removed the wind sensor and took a much closer look at the cable – several individual wires in the cable were split and had corroded, which John then had to splice. The sun is merciless and the 20+ year old cable was suffering UV damage.
We had to order a new VHF cable and new antenna, which would take 2 – 3 weeks. To get a little relief from the boat work, we went for five days by local bus to Valle Anton. It’s a bit cooler there and wonderfully green with many beautiful little Valleys where you can go on wonderful hikes. Here the Christmas lighting and decorations could already be seen.
Back on the boat, the work continued, and we also started shopping to provision Maya for her long journey to the Marquesas. First, we calculated how much muesli, powdered milk, flour, and canned goods we would need for about 5 months. The shopping and the smaller repairs seemed endless. And on top of that, we had to properly clean the entire boat and take everything out. There were quite a few canned goods that had not fared well in the heat, cola cans that were corroded and floating in rot. Yuck!!!
But luckily no cockroaches on board. In the meantime, the marina was also filling up, and we met Mickey and Sheila, who were also working on their boat “Loulou”. On Thursdays, there was always a fun BBQ meeting with the other sailors. We were then very happy when,we were finally able to sail from the marina to the nearby island of Otoque on December 18, 2025.
It was such a beautiful sailing day, but John heard a noise in the engine room and found that the propeller shaft seal and bearing were getting extremely hot. He suspected that the propeller shaft might be bent. The joy was gone, because that meant we had to go back to land to possibly fix the propeller shaft. What a nuisance! We decided to go to Marina Flamenco and get lifted onto the hard there.
Fortunately, we still had a contact with our Belgian friends. Thomas immediately helped us and gave us the name of the engineer. We spoke to him and he said, ‘You can come on December 26, and we’ll try to fix the problem as quickly as possible.’ We then spent 2 days at Marina Playita so that John could collect his visa and then we went to Taboga Island for a few days. The anchorage is a bit choppy and tour boats come by during the day, but the island has a beautiful village, and we also went on a hike up the mountain and had a fantastic view all the way to Panama City.
After relaxing for a couple of days we went back to Flamenco Marina and were out of the water in 30 minutes. The lift and the whole process were absolutely great, but unfortunately, the price is also super huge, more suited for motorboats rather than sailboats. Our propeller shaft was removed the same day and taken to a specialist engineer. We were back in Panama City at a hostel for 4 nights and went back to Maya the very next day. The propeller shaft was fine and not bent, but there were a few irregularities in the bearing housing and on the shaft itself, which John then fixed.
On Monday, we went with our hydraulic pump for the third time to Protecsa, this time in person, and spoke with the manager and chief engineer. John explained that the hydraulic cylinder needs about half a liter of oil in the gas side, before filling with gas. This makes an oil seal so that gas cannot escape. It was obvious that this had not been done; we had already had the same problem once in Turkey. After a long discussion with both the engineer and the manager, insisting “..could they please..” just do it our way, they were finally agreed to put the oil there – we even volunteered to pay for the additional gas fill
The next day, they brought the hydraulic cylinder to us at Marina Flamenco and had to admit that we were right. We didn’t pay anything extra, but what a struggle!
Sometimes we really ask ourselves why we have a boat, because it always seems to be about repairing things. Okay, of course, Maya is already 22 years old. And the other sailors are dealing with the same problems as we are. Back in the water, we went for a few more days to Taboga Island to celebrate New Year’s Eve there. What a surprise on New Year’s Eve when our French friends Mickey and Sheila sailed to join us in the bay. So I cooked a delicious dinner for the four of us, and we had a wonderful, enjoyable evening with plenty of red wine and 12 grapes at at New Year, following Spanish tradition.
The next day we sailed back to Otoque Island with BF5-6, and the following day we returned to Marina Vistamar. Our VHF cable had also arrived in Coronado in the meantime, so we were able to pick it up at the parcel station the next day and took the opportunity to do some shopping at the same time. As a reward, we went once again to our favourite sushi restaurant. Over the next 10 days there were quite a few minor repairs, shopping trips, and one last cleaning of Maya, both inside and out. Fortunately, Uwe’s cabin is now ready, and I hope he can manage with the limited space in the cabin. His bunk bed is on top, and the lower bunk bed is filled with boxes of coke, beer, beans, vegetables, etc…
