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Happy New Year! 

We hope that 2010 starts as well for you as it has for us.  Finishing 2009, we had an excellent dinner party at a restaurant in Spokane to celebrate the engagement of our daughter Shev to Matt.  Joined by Randall’s sister, Martha, we then had a wonderful Christmas, spent with our extended family in Spokane, Washington.  It was particularly splendid to see Heather with our grandchildren, Kaeden (6) and Atleigh (5), who have inevitably grown up a lot but who are still thrilled by all the Christmas activities.  Of course, the rest of us enjoyed the friendship, food, gift-giving, etc, too!  We also had the treat of looking after our lovely dog, Roxy (13), for a few days thanks to Shev and Matt having driven from Duluth to Spokane with the dogs.  Everyone (people and dogs) seemed to be in good health which was especially good.

We had a great time around the New Year visiting various friends and relations in Bellingham, Seattle, Bainbridge Island, and Olympia before we loaded our hideously large amount of luggage for the return trip to Panama.  We had bought many thing for us and the boat during our trip and were only just able to pack the large suitcases (that we had bought at a charity store in Seattle) in such a way that we did not incur any fees for excess baggage.  Even more amazingly, all our luggage arrvied on time, intact, and with no customs fees assessed (even though we noted on our customs form that we had things to declare, being over the $2,000 limit)…did they recognize us as boaters-in-transit or did the x-rays of our chaotic luggage look too daunting?

After leaving Seattle on the evening of Jan 5th we arrived back in Bocas on Jan 9th after spending a couple of nights in Panama City and one in David, where we changed buses.  Tregoning was waiting for us patiently at Red Frog Marina and other than a light coating of mildew over many surfaces and a few ants (hopefully this will not become a bigger problem), she looked good.  The charge on the house battery bank was a bit lower that we had hoped it would be (we had left the fridge running on low with one solar panel generating power).  It may not have been as sunny as we expected it to be so we hope that the batteries will be all right once we have given them a good charge up from the engine and/or from shore power.

After thanking the cruisers who had kept an eye on Tregoning while we were away, we left Red Frog Marina this morning to anchor off Bocas town.  After getting some fresh food supplies and filling up with diesel, we plan to start making our way east tomorrow as we aim for Shelter Bay Marina in Colon where we will arranage our transit through the Panama Canal.  Initially we may only make it as far as Laguna de Bluefields(about 20 nm away) because a cold front from Canada is predicted to reach all the way down here during this week bringing 30 knot winds and large waves.  It should only take us about 24 hours to reach Colon if conditions are better than that so we do not mind waiting until the front has passed.

Once in Shelter Bay we will be kept busy: arranging our transit of the Panama Canal, trying to get our dinghy fixed or replaced, looking for a replacement outboard, getting the auto-helm repaired, and numerous other things that benefit from being in a marina and near a big city.  I will also try to finish this blog, start a new one for 2010, and reply to all the unanswered emails waiting in my inbox…please be patient! 

We had a wonderful time during our visit to the USA but we are now glad to be back on Tregoning.  Despite realizing that we have a lot of work to do during the next month, we are excited about the prospect of heading towards the Pacific.  We will have another vacation from boat tasks when my brother Mike joins us in February…so (all being well) life is not going to be too taxing for us for too long!