Have you heard the one about the couple who tried to leave Panama?

Well, they did set off, but they had to turn back. Hotel Panama: you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

As I type this we’re on a shared local minibus to Panama City to check back in again and pick up a car. Deafening music, a stop every 2 km, a genuine local experience!

But let me rewind to last Wednesday. After 16 wheelbarrow loads, 5 supermarkets, 3 “watersports” shops (… well, what passes for them around here) and 3 hardware stores, we were ready to go. On Sunday evening and Monday evening, mechanics Milton, Eddie and Xavier worked on the engine to fix the leak around the coolant pump. By Tuesday it was sorted. So a relatively quiet day, and off we’d go the next morning. To get across the shipping channel a bit faster, we ran the engine as well. After half an hour it started beeping that the temperature was climbing too high. Underneath it was a puddle of salt water, oil and, yes, coolant again….

So we quickly shut it down again, and the suspicion all three of us already had but didn’t dare say out loud was confirmed: this engine isn’t good enough to cross the Pacific with. After Panama, the availability of parts and mechanics only gets worse. And it’s 6,000 miles to New Zealand, where there are (proper) facilities again.

For Damaris and Rudolf it really is “Hotel California”, because last year things already went wrong at launch and the boat fell off the slipway. The engine ended up underwater, which obviously didn’t do its condition any favours. But all three of us agree this is the sensible decision.

After a night at anchor off a little island, we returned to home base yesterday. We’re now discussing the options with Milton for a new or second-hand engine. No more Volvo Penta, but a Yanmar or a Beta. No turbo, and preferably no electronics either.

All in all that’s going to mean a delay of a few weeks, so I’ve decided not to sail on with them. I’ll spend another week here doing fun things with D and R and helping choose the engine, and then later this month I’ll fly home again.