Friends

Along "The Way", life gives you the opportunity to meet interesting people.  When lucky, the best of the best become 'Friends'.  In 2003, we met a couple Annie and Jurgen Hummel, who had bought the same model boat as ours, from another friend, Wilson Baysinger.

                                                                  " ENCORE  "
Yesterday, after 8 years, we got to share company again.  They called from out of the blue, said they were in Florida (their boat is located on the Caribbean Islands of St. Martin and they spend time in Europe as well).
Well, we instantly asked them to join us at our condo in St. Pete Beach if they wished and hours later we were sharing stories, a couple of sundowners and dinner at our place!  How nice and how unexpected!

In 2003, we shared the mooring field for cruising boats, in the Las Olas area of Ft. Lauderdale.  Annie and Jurgen were enjoying sharing the experience with their children Fabian and Mia.

 

 Sorry for the Boat US Towboat, but this is the best shot I have of Encore in the backround taken July 4th.

We were there for the 4th of July celebrations and ended up staying for a few weeks, enjoying the city life aboard our boat. 

This photo of the anchorage shows both our boats, "Encore" in front, with maroon colored shear stripe and sail covers and us, "Memory Rose" behind them in all white.  A great shot taken from the Las Olas Bridge.

Annie and Jurgen are now heading back to Encore in St. Martin but it was sure nice to have a visit with them.

A welcomed assist! Panama City, Panama

Anibal J. Morales....... at your service!
...........and Great Service it was!

We were looking for Abernathy's marine store in a mall here in Panama City, but were unable to locate it.  I began looking (profiling) for someone who I thought might speak English as well as Spanish.  Here in Panama sometimes you are in a crowd that is very bi-lingual and sometimes not.  On Friday we were not having luck.
The problem was we had come to Panama City, Panama to buy a new inflatable boat to replace our Avon brand tender to our Memory Rose mother ship.  The deal had been struck in person and confirmed by phone, so we thought, yet the company was either changing the terms, reniging or we just had a major communications error.  I felt it was the former, having several Spanish speaking folks in on the discussions.  Anyway. I was looking for some directions and asked Anibal, pictured above, if he spoke English?  Did he! (My Spanish is still minimal).  Retired from the U.S. Army and now living in Panama, he took us under his wing and aggressively tried to help us.  Not just directions, but called the store, discussed the deal and bargained for us, eventually even lowering our price.  He drove us to the store to make sure all aspects of the sale was correct and to our satisfaction, then drove us to our hotel.
Upon arriving, we invited him in to our hotels restaurant for some relax time and conversation.

Anibal J. Morales (*Primary cell*) 6616-0104
                               (Secondary cell) 6701-8282       email:    panamaparadisetours@yahoo.com
                                             (fax)       230-4168        email:    distribuidoraanalex@yahoo.com
                                                                       
 He spends his retirement quite busy, procuring anything you need quickly and very fairly priced, operating Tours,  transporting passengers, providing 'security' for anyone needing such services (last week acting for a movie company filming here in Panama-we did see photos of him with the main actor)
Anibal will basically find anything you need and    bring you to it, or it to you.


I recommend him for your Panama City needs!