You may have heard of the genie, perhaps then her cousin ginie. Well Sasha found a strange lantern in Colon in 2008. If you read much of our web site and journal you may have picked up that Sasha and I are rather partial to the odd GnT.

 After rubbing clean her lantern ginie appeared in the form of one of the Shelter Bay taxi drivers, Stanley, who had looked after us when last here overcoming the lightning damage. We'd heard that booze in general was extra cheap when bought from the Colon duty free zone but that getting access as foreign yachty to buy and transport any quantity, not quite so easy. Our research showed we could come by reasonable French dry gin if purchased in the free zone for a little over $4 per litre. Now, with the watermaker, we only use the forward water tank. The aft one is left empty. It seemed a good investment to get a couple of year's supply of gin. Enter me old mate Stanley Sasha's ginie, yes he could pick some up for us.

Duly 9 cases, 108 litres, were delivered and emptied into the after water tank, gin on tap.

Believe it or not it kept us happily pissed for the next several years.