Log 22 - Panamá

June 17th to July 16th 2004

Distance traveled to date from Portland: 7937nm
475 nm this leg.

Ah, Panamá!  Our favourite Central American country.  All cruisers we had canvassed beforehand loved Panamá, and for most, it was their favourite as well.  So it was with great excitement that we sailed out of Costa Rica.  On the way, we watched the DockWise ship - a float-on, float-off transporter for yachts - entering the Golfo Dulce to make her regular stop in Golfito.  It was quite a sight, and one huge yacht aboard even had her own helicopter on deck.  This successful organization transports yachts between Vancouver BC, south, through the canal, and over to Florida.  They also have runs to the Med and Australia, so if you don't want to sail or power your boat across an ocean, here is a way to do it (for a fee).

Panamá, as a country, is oriented east and west, instead of north to south.  We sailed an overnight passage to make our first landfall at tiny Isla Gamez, a perfect deserted anchorage off an island just like "Gilligan's".We dropped the hook in perfectly crystal clear waters, and spent several days here reveling in cruiser's paradise, along with our buddy boat, INDRA.  We swam off the boat several times a day, snorkeled around the rocky points, kayaked around the island to explore the other bays, strolled the white sand beaches and feasted on fresh coconuts from the shore side palms. This is what most folks dream of when they think "taking off and going sailing".  

Next we day-sailed , dodging fish boats, to Isla Cavado in the Islas Secas.  This large, multi-lobed island is now owned by an American couple who are building an eco-resort here.  The accommodations are in upscale yurts, all power is solar.  They are building a landing strip for small planes, too.  One day we went ashore and met the island caretakers who were overseeing the construction. As few cruisers come ashore, they were pleased to see us, and gave us a tour of part of the island. What a lovely spot for a getaway, and if you are interested, look them up on the web at www.IslaSecaResort.com.  

A few more days of sun, and we were off to our next stop, Bahía Honda, on the mainland.  En route we sailed through some narrow channels, and it was fun watching BREILA handle the back eddies and currents.  Bahía Honda is a huge bay with a narrow entrance, set amongst thick vegetation and steep rocky cliffs.  An Italian had built a huge house high on a cliff on an island overlooking the bay entrance.  We learned he helicoptered all the materials in, as the island's cliff faces are too steep to climb.  As there are no roads into this area, the locals are always eager to see visitors.  Within minutes of getting the hook set, we were visited by Domingo in his dugout.  Seems the land around our anchorage is his farm - quite a big piece of property, too - and he wanted to know what fruits and veggies we wanted.  In season were spinach, mangoes, cukes, cilantro, grapefruits, and onions, so he paddled ashore and returned 30 minutes later with a basket brimming with fresh produce.  He was most interested in trade items - not money - so we bartered with shampoo, soap, powdered milk, flour, laundry detergent, and fish hooks.  Domingo is especially talkative, and we got many chances to practice our Spanish. We made fast friends with him, and he visited us several times a day (sometimes for several hours) while we were anchored there. His son, Kennedy, showed up next, with a few more mangoes to trade.  We didn't need any more mangoes, but traded anyway. Mistake.  Seems Kennedy is a bit of a mooch, and always wanted to take way more stuff than the value of the things he had to trade. Live and  learn.  

One day Domingo took us up one of the rivers in the bay to a local village.  All the inhabitants were indígenas (natives), and it was really interesting to see their homes, how they lived, and their village.  Chickens and pigs strutted throughout the village, and Jay and Sara bought some eggs fresh from the chicken.  The cayucas (dugouts), in various stages of building and then rotting, were fascinating.   On the way back we stopped at the "town" of Bahia Honda, set on an island in the middle of the bay.  We could see why trading items are so important, as the contents of the store pretty much consisted of packages of crackers.  

We sailed out of the bay, after a farewell visit from Domingo, and he brought Cath a regalo (gift) of a dried gourd which he'd carved and sanded.  Next we sailed past the giant Isla Coiba - which is part scientific research station, and was a penal colony until a couple of years ago.  The  prisoners roamed freely on the island, so at night the guards locked themselves in their homes.  From time to time, the prisoners escaped to neighbouring islands, but usually ended up returning as they were starving, and the local fishermen knew enough not to feed them.  Our next passage was across the Azuero Peninsula, another of Panamá's remote places.  The locals here make and sell molas, the intricate reverse-appliqué tapestries, available only here and the San Blas islands on the Caribbean side. But our passage was rough and dangerous, so we did not get a chance to go ashore to explore.  We decided to keep sailing through two overnights to put some water under the keel.

It was still the rainy season, with nightly squalls, mostly with only moderate winds, but heavy rains and lightning.  While sailing along, we could see squalls coming, but one surprised us with the force of its winds and rain.  The wind speed crept up to 25 kts, then 30, then 35, then 40 in less than 3 minutes.  Of course, this happened while we were in a precarious stretch of water that shallowed quickly, and we couldn't even see BREILA's bows, let alone the many small fish boats surrounding us.  Our radar shows squalls as dark patches, and it is great to track their approach, but once the squall is upon us, we are now "in" the dark spot, and can't see any other targets around us.  We couldn't turn and sail out to sea, as we were inside of an offshore island and reef, which we definitely wanted to avoid. Quite a scary hour for us, but the horseshoes worked again. Jay and Sarah didn't have so easy a time of it; they were behind us and ended in a lot shallower water. They headed out to sea and by morning they were quite a way behind and offshore. The problem was now they arrived at Punta Mala during the flood tide, so they had several hours of rreally lumpy seas, reminiscent of the Straits of Georgia in BC.

Next we sailed across the shipping lanes for the Panamá Canal and made towards our destination of Isla Pedro Gonzales in the beautiful Las Perlas Islands.  As night fell, and we motored through one of the passes to the south of our targeted island, the raw water pump on the engine failed, and we had to go in under sail, or risk overheating the engine.  No problem, we had just enough wind to ghost along, and the almost-full moon lit our way.  We kept working our way up the channel, Cath steering while Mike worked on the pump.  As it got later and later, we ran through several squalls with low visibility, heading into the channels so as not to run aground, then back towards shore once calm returned.  Finally, we rounded the last point and headed into the bay.  As we had exact waypoints from our friends on SHE WOLF, we made our approach so we could anchor when it got somewhat calm and shallow.  Wouldn't you know it, just as we got close, a squall came through and we were plastered with wind and rain.  Finally, we just dropped the hook in 45' at about 3:30 am - to doze until daylight, when we could sail closer into the anchorage.  

We spent several days at various spots around Pedro Gonzales, putting off heading in to Panama City.  Finally, we sailed to Isla Contadora, the closest good anchorage to PC.  Here we went ashore to marvel at the vacation homes of the wealthy Panamanians - one of which housed the Shah of Iran during his exhile. Back at the boat, we met David from LA VENTOSA, a wacky "doctor of mycology" from Oregon, who regaled us with tales of spores, mushrooms and fungi.  We sailed early next morning to the Balboa Yacht Club, cruiser central for Panama City, at the entrance to the Canal.  The engine overheated again as we got in the channel for the Canal, so we had to tack back and forth up the channel to the canal to get into the moorings.  Thank goodness BREILA sails as well as she does! We loved watching the big freighters pass by, as well as the view of the Bridge of the Americas just ahead of us, from our mooring position at Balboa.  

Panama City is wonderful - and a real treasure trove for cruisers.  Everything and anything is available here, to the delight of those of us who have had very limited stocking-up opportunities for months or years.  In between multitudes of boat chores and shopping trips, we toured the Miraflores Locks, and marveled at the feat of engineering that is the Canal.  The Panamanians are doing a great job of running things now; they moved more tonnage, and made more money than ever before last year.  We also toured the zoo and botanical gardens, and thrilled to see a great collection of parrots, macaws, big cats like jaguars and pumas, and tapirs and peccaries, and the spectacular endangered Harpy Eagle.  Mike also completed some hefty boat projects.  We had discovered that, by running all our running rigging aft to the cockpit, we had pulled the deck away from the main bulkhead.  Mike found a shop to machine a special stainless plate, which he through-bolted to the underside of the deck, and attached a tension wire to pull the deck down to the mast step.  A little epoxy, and voilá - a perfect fix. We spent 10 days in PC, and finally got set to sail south to Ecuador.  As a treat to ourselves, we spent four more days in the Las Perlas islands, en route to our next destination - Ecuador.  

Mikey's Beer Index, a new feature for the website, is an  up-to-date status report of one of the basic food groups. Most popular local beer and prices in both a bar and in the tienda:
Panamá: Not quite a beer drinker's heaven, but as close as you'll get in Central America. The local brews are: Balboa, a lighter lager-style beer; Atlas, the Panamanian pilsner; Warsteiner, the German pilsner; and Guinness, the later two made under license in Panamá, and every bit as good as the original. You can also get  Grolsch in bottles and various other imported beers from around the world. All the local beers (yes, Warsteiner and Guinness are considered local) are $1:25 in a bar, $0:38-$0:45 in the store. Guinness was $0:59 in the store. Needless to say we stocked up on Warsteiner and Guinness, as who knows when we'll see these again? So drop by for a beer!