YES! The generator arrived. We (Linda and i with Lauren and Rob Dehaan) left Wed. July 9th taking two buses to Panama City (Puerto Lindo at 7:30 am to Colon and the express bus to the Albrook terminal in Panama City). Arrived at 11 am, went to lunch at a Carl's Jr. in the Mall and then headed for Cruisers' Casa by taxi as UPS was around the corner from there. I headed to UPS to begin the paperwork process which was completed with only an hour or so of sitting in the lobby. But I had to return at 4 pm for the final product. As I came back there was a huge crowd of people and police across the street. I found out in the elevator that the entire building was returning from a fire drill. Next morning after breakfast and a shopping trip with our favorite taxi guy, Jorge, we headed off to the Tocumen international airport to start the Custom's paperwork. Jorge called UPS and told them to have it ready. Paperwork done - lunch time for Customs so we went to lunch, too, and returned at 1pm. We had arranged thru a fellow cruiser in Puerto Lindo for a pickup with a 5 passenger cab. After more runaround with Customs, we headed out with another passenger, the Customs inspector, in the front seat. This meant that we had to pack the four of us in the three passanger back seat! Police would not let one of us sit in the cargo area of the truck and Customs agent (snotty young kid) said he must ride in the front. So Lauen sat on Rob's lap and when it was evident the agent was staying for the long haul, Rob got out half way back and caught a bus back. We then stopped in Colon where there was more paperwork . We arrived in Colon at 3:30. The agent got out and left. Yeah, we were happy. Wait, they said another agent would go the rest of the way but we also had to stop in Portobelo & clear there, too. All this because because Customs had to be absolutely sure the generator wasn't going to the black market instead of Kuhela. Stood around for an hour and the guy never showed. They asked me to pay an additional $42.00 (I got a receipt for $26.00) and then said ok, go ahead to Linton. We arrived at 6pm! We had a launcha and 4 strong men put the generator on the boat. I came back to the dock by 7:30 pm in our dingy & we waited for Rob, had dinner there and day over. Whew!
I had put the stainless mounting tray down (bolted, etc). Rob rounded up two cruiser guys (Fronk [French] and Nate [Texan] and the five (Linda, too) of us got the generator down below (wouldn't fit thru the hatch) using brute strength, a plank, and block and tackles. It took 2 hours. The thing weighs over 500 pounds. But it fit, first try!
If there is another time, I'll just sell the boat!
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