Monkey Bay Marina

Well it's been all change this week. On Sunday we had another run in with the rogue jetskiers, this time they dumped water all down the galley hatch, a mess but nothing was damaged. Boy was I mad... I got on the VHF to ask other boaters to look out for these bastards and then watched carefully myself to see where they were headed.
The manager of Monkey Bay Marina very kindly called the Navy patrol for us and within minutes they were alongside.

I had seen where the skis went and with a broken Spanish conversation the Naval guys invited me into their lancha and off we went in hot pursuit, AK47's bristling!

After one false sighting we found the jetski's, no people of course. A large motorboat that was hanging around said they were theirs but they hadn't been used that day and there was only the two of them at the property. Hum 3 jetskis and a large boat out for the use of two people. Well what do I know? I got a bit suspicious when the boat owner told me to be careful as I wouldn't always be surrounded by men with guns! Ah the joys of Central America!

The 'lads' took me back to the boat and we filled in a little paperwork, they were delightful throughout and told us they would keep an eye on the boat whilst we were at anchor.

Needless to say we immediately left the front of Mario's Marina, evidently not a very safe place to be...

So back to Shell Bay and the realisation that our batteries were in appalling shape. We are loathe to buy new ones as the kind we like are not sold here. We needed to get to some mains power and run a long recharge programme, that's if the smart charger still worked after the lightning strike.

We discussed which marina to go into. Mario's has declined rapidly in our opinion so we didn't want to return there. We decided on Monkey Bay, if they had room, it has a good reputation and I had been impressed at the response of the manager, John, during the jetski incident. TBH hopped in the dinghy and went to have a chat...

So up came the anchor again and we headed the short distance downstream to come into Monkey Bay Marina. It is a narrow slip with a small dock and pilings at the rear of the boat. Like the well oiled machine that we have become(!) we glided in with minimum fuss and made off the lines. I must say it's a relief to be sorting some of our problems out whilst alongside. I hate the feeling of vulnerability at anchor when bits of the boat aren't working.

So here we are, slowly and painfully restoring the batteries, we hope, to a better state. The boat is a tip, stuff everywhere.

But the marina is charming, friendly, clean and private. A bit like being a guest in somebodies garden...