Picture this, we are drifting in the Caribbean Sea about two nautical miles off the east coast of Panama. We are surrounded on each side by vessels of all sizes and types – tankers, cargo ships, cruise liners and fishing trawlers all waiting to enter the port of Colon or begin their journey along the designated shipping channel towards the canal. We had never seen so many vessels in the one place at the one time, stretching all the way to the horizon and everywhere in between. Our intended path led from our current position across both inbound and outbound shipping channels to Shelter Bay Marina.
While we drifted off the coast with the engine in idle, Peter attempted to contact Christabel Signal Station in Colon on Channel 12 to get clearance to enter the channel and head to the marina. That’s when Major Warranty Issue Number 2 struck, the VHF radio was not working. When attempting to make the call, the radio just went into reset mode over and over again. There was no way we could contact the signal station or in fact anyone using this equipment.
Luckily, Peter’s planning and forethought saved the day. You know how some people have to have two of everything, just in case? Well that’s Peter, and I (Sandra) have to confess that we had many a ‘discussion’ about this need to have ‘back up’ equipment. In this instance, I was honestly so grateful that he pushed to have a second battery operated VHF radio onboard. Without this we would have been stuck up the creek without a paddle (pardon the pun). In this instance drifting in a sea which had numerous ships also drifting, anchored or moving in and out of the main shipping channel with no way to communicate with any of them was a disaster waiting to happen. Well that’s not entirely true, as a precaution Peter had brought flags, you know as in semaphore flags. Seriously, I am so glad we didn’t have to go down that path. Could you imagine it, one of us standing at the bow trying to work out which flag was A and which one was B. By the time we strung a sentence together, it would be lunchtime. And does anyone actually know how to read these things nowadays? Actually, the more I think about it the more hilarious the image I get. Of course our other major concern was that without a working VHF radio we would not be allowed to go through the canal. Anyway if you’ve read our other blog you will know the portable radio worked a treat and and we made it to Shelter Bay marina with no problems. Check outhttp://seagoddessadventures.com/sailing-martinique-to-panama/. And there was an all round collective sigh of relief onboard.
Once we were settled into our marina berth, Peter emailed The Multihull Group (TMG) and Windcraft (TMG’s warranty arm) representatives advising them of the VHF radio issue and requesting urgent assistance. A working integrated VHF radio was an absolute must for us, a critical piece of safety equipment since Sea Goddess does not show up on AIS without the integrated VHF radio working and turned on. Our electronic chart plotter still captures other vessels who have AIS capability, but without the radio we are essentially invisible to them. Yes we could rely on other vessels conducting regular visual checks which is part of our own watch keeping protocol, but we are realists and would rather have the AIS working than not. And we still had a lot of sailing ahead of us, and we wanted this fixed asap.
We received an email from a Windcraft representative providing the contact information for Narval Marine in Panama City, which we actioned immediately. We received a quick email response from Amarand, the manager of Narval Marine, advising that technicians would be out to check the radio issue on our arrival in Panama City. In the meantime, as a contingency, he had ordered a replacement radio from the distributor to be forwarded to the Narval Marine office. Wow, what a totally different response when compared to the freezer debacle, this business was both positive and proactive. Brilliant!
We docked at Flamenco Marina, on the outskirts of Panama City, after safely transiting the canal from east to west and utilising the portable VHF radio we had on board. We weren’t overly concerned about the AIS issue during the canal crossing as there were physical and electronic eyes on us at all times. The marina was about an hour’s travel time via motor from the canal, so we kept a solid look out and arrived at the marina with no issues. For details of the canal crossing click the following link http://seagoddessadventures.com/panama-canal-crossing/.
We had just got back from a shopping trip on Friday afternoon when two technicians arrived. The guys ran a number of diagnostic tests which confirmed the problem. As to the cause, three possibilities were in play – the antenna, the cabling or the radio. The cabling was checked and got an Okay. The guys then got a portable antenna and connected it up to the radio and tested it, the radio failed. So that left the radio, and the guys via Google Translator told us they, subject to the radio arriving from the distributor, would be back on Monday to install it. Bright and early on Monday morning the guys arrived, and within 20 minutes the new B&G radio was installed, checked, and paired with the B&G portable handheld radio.
Given the ongoing saga with the Vitrifrigo dual drawer freezer unit we were so impressed with the response time, standard of workmanship and professionalism of the Narval Marine team. Two main reasons for this, firstly there was no argy bargy about proving there was a problem or who owned the problem, and secondly Peter took charge of communicating directly with the manager of the relevant company. That said, we don’t believe it is our responsibility to do the running around associated with equipment that is clearly faulty. In our view this is a warranty issue, and the warranty team need to take charge and coordinate rectification of such issues. To date we have been unimpressed with the response by TMG’s warranty arm, Windcraft, and given that we have only had the boat for three months this does not augur well for the future.
Case in point, our warranty woes didn’t end here. In Warranty Woes Part 3 the watermaker conks out on Day 7 of the Pacific Ocean crossing causing all sorts of angst. Click here to read about what happened, and the strategies we put in place to mitigate the impact on us and our crew http://seagoddessadventures.com/warranty-woes-watermaker/ .
PS If you need any supplies or maintenance while in Panama City check out Narval Marine, they have a chandlery and office located at Causeway Boulevard Ciudad de Panamá (next to Flamenco Marina) and website http://www.narvalmarine.com