Time To Say “Farewell and Following Seas” To Tulum-5

We were able to finally finish the engine re-install after nearly 5 months of work. Here’s the story of some careful logistics, patient and giving folks around us and the difficult time when you have to say goodbye to the home that has cuddled your children in challenging times and romped with baby whales on better days.

Yep, we’ve been working and waiting on Tulum’s engine to finally crank up and run for a number of months, but it’s done.  In late February, it finally happened.  We were pretty excited, as it had taken coordination and hard work to quickly get important diesel parts once more overnighted from Transatlantic Diesel, Virginia and then take the initiative to go get them from DHL Panama.  These last parts arrived and the mechanic came back and worked until the engine started.

Once the engine started, the HelmsMistress and I gave Tulum one last toast, as she had protected our family and we had traveled thousands of miles in all sorts of weather in our safe and reliable performance cruiser.  

But work wasn’t over.  We had already moved all of our stuff off the boat, but we had numerous discussions as we worked very hard to downsize and donate stuff we didn’t need, finally getting to a very small amount of personal goods that we decided were important enough to ship back to the United States.  So we loaded that small amount of our life into Mr. Rogelio’s van…and off we went to the shipping company in Panama City.

At long last, with Tulum’s engine running and after satisfying concerns from a buyer far away, Tulum sold.  We were living in the marina hotel and our stuff had gone to a shipping company to be shipped to the United States.  It was time for us to think about our next adventure.

But that last night wasn’t over.  During our move off the boat, we had taken a special family momento that had been passed to us from my parents.  This particular anchor is special.  At one time, it had belonged to United States Astronaut Mr. Wally Schirra and had been given to my family.  Then it was passed to us and we had kept it on the boat throughout our travels.  But we could not take it home because of the weight but didn’t want to sell or give it away.  The solution was to gift the anchor to the marina.  So the crew painted the anchor and we left that special anchor at Shelter Bay Marina, hopefully for a long time.  Thanks for the anchor, Mr. Schirra, we know it’s special. 

We were blessed to work with the General Manager of Shelter Bay Marina and have a place to stay for all the time we waited on final engine work.  A special thanks to Juanjo Buschetti and the entire Shelter Bay Marina Staff for all of the support and assistance. 

Tulum-5, Fair Winds and Following Seas, we’ll miss you.

PS:  Our adventure isn’t over….stick with us as the website is changing as we continue our traveling with kids….just in a different way.  It’s HUGE and FUN.  But that’s next Saturday.