Carol
09/06/2009, Bocas del Toro, Panama

We're giving Alaunt a vacation from us for 2 1/2 months. She's tied to the dock at Bocas Marina and looking forward to a rest. We'll be visiting family and friends in Arizona, California, Oregon and Washington plus attending Ron's son Paul and Jennifer's wedding on October 9 in Phoenix. Somehow Ron's sailblog "San Blas/Kuna Yala - The Sailing" was posted at the beginning of our sailblogs in 1969(?). I have edited the date and it is now under July 14, 2009. Ron spent a lot of time on this blog, so please take a few minutes to read it. The picture is a traditional Kuna dugout under sail. We're putting our sailblogs on vacation hold and will continue our adventures in mid-November. Thank you for your comments and interest in following our sailing trip.

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Carol
08/30/2009, Panama

We finally received our DHL mail (2 1/2 weeks) and repaired major leaks in our hatches - time to go sailing! Of course the wind was coming from the direction we wanted to go, so we motored out of the Bocas Marina anchorage. We followed the southwest coastline of Isla Colon in Bahia Almirante. Bocas del Toro town is at the southern end of a peninsula connected to Isla Colon.

Our first anchorage was only an hour away in Big Bight. The 3 fingered bay was completely surrounded by mangroves and there were no other boats. We dinghied around the shoreline enjoying our solitude. We were going to go swimming but noticed a large number of jellyfish. The sunset was enjoyed sitting on the deck, listening to the howler monkeys, birds and insects. Ron was in his Chef Demento mode and prepared a lobster stirfry for dinner (lobster meat is $4.50/lb.). Surprisingly there was a minimium of bugs.

There was so much rain, lightning and thunder the next morning, we got off to a late start to the next anchorage. Conch Point is about 2 miles from Big Bight (think Hawksnest to Francis Bay). The Punta Caracol Resort was just at the entrance to the anchorage. The Resort was out on the water on stilts with thatched roofs, solar panels and a large bar and restaurant. Conch Point was a very narrow bay and we anchored in the middle close to the mangroves (see picture). Still no boats. We dinghied all the way to the head of the bay (too shallow for Alaunt) and followed a river almost a mile through the mangroves and forests until a tree blocked our way. We tried to sit on deck for the sunset, but the wind had died and there were too many bugs. In fact, the bugs were so bad we couldn't sleep and left Conch Point as soon as we had coffee the next morning. That will be a lunch stop next time.

We motored along the coast to Punta Rancho, an open roadstead the local cruisers call Starfish. There was a large resort at Lime Point and we saw many guests walking along the beautiful narrow, white sandy beach. There were 2 boats in the anchorage, the first we've seen on our cruise. After we anchored in 17 feet of water, a storm kicked up and swung us around towards the beach and we were in 2 feet of water! We reanchored further out and waited for the rain and swells to abate before we began our dinghy exploration. The nearby anchorages were Knapps Hole and Ground Creek and we thought about moving if the weather picked up again. We cruised along the shoreline towards the resort and the water was so clear we could see at least 100 starfish. After dark there were channel markers that blinked in unison to mark the Boca del Drago channel for the banana boats and freighters. The next morning we walked along the sand towards the resort, went for a swim and actually went for a sail back to Big Bight. The wind was behind us and we sailed with our awnings up and the jib out. We spent the night in Big Bight again (our favorite anchorage) and motorsailed back into the Bocas Marina anchorage. What a nice getaway.

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Carol
08/30/2009, Panama

This picture was taken at the Thursday Ladies Lunch at the Calypso Cantina in the Bocas Marina. There was a hat contest and I thought about my Carnival hat in storage in St. Thomas. Oh well, I had to get another one together for this lunch. I found a variety shop in town and I purchased the hat, blue fringe, a yellow feather boa, ribbons, fake flowers and a feather mask. It turned out pretty good and I was in the finals with 6 other girls. I had so much fun meeting other cruisers and laughing at our funny hats. The buffet lunch was only $8.50. The Calypso Cantina has a special menu and entertainment on Friday nights. We enjoyed a $10 plate of ribs to die for and the owners, Dillon and Darrian, performed a fire dance. I was impressed! They only perform every 2 weeks as it takes them that long to recooperate from their burns. There was a singer who did Buffett, oldies and sailing songs. Too much fun!

Another outing was a Thai restaurant on Isla Bastimentos. We rented a launch with 3 other couples that dropped us off at a dock. We had to walk up a hill with most of the path in deep, slippery mud. We were asked to wash our feet and leave our shoes at the door before entering the restaurant. The wooden building was on stilts overlooking a lush ravine and the ocean. Their specialty was red and green curried chicken (although I enjoyed the teriaki chicken) in various degrees of spicy from #1 to #4, with rice, for $6 each. They had $2 special rum drinks and only one gal fell on the way back down the hill.

Restaurants and bars are so cheap here. Another night we took a launch with 2 other couples to Isla Careneros. The restaurant was called the Cosmic Crab and their 3 course dinner was $7.50 with $3 margaritas.

We also visited the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institude just 2 miles out of Bocas town. It was so interesting. There were displays on plants, birds, sloths, and mangroves, just to name a few. They had their own docks with research boats, plus aquariums and a touch tank. They had just caught a lionfish and were quite concerned as there had been 8 more sightings in this area. The lionfish have a voracious appetite and totally destroy all the fish on a reef. There was also a display with the tiny poisonous red frogs. The poison was used in the past by the natives on their spears and darts. Our guides were excellent, spoke both English and Spanish, and the facility was visited by more than 175 scientists a year.

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Carol
08/13/2009, Panama

Yeh! We're finally here! We weighed anchor on August 8th from Laguna del Bluefields. The sun was out and we motorsailed with jib and jigger between Cayo de Agua and Cayos Zapatrilla. Ron had done his homework and we decided to use the inside passage where there were shallow shoals and mangrove cays. He used two GPS's and "clothespin navigation" (clothespins to keep our cruising guides open) to get Alaunt to the deep water channels. The Bocas del Toro area is a big tourist place so we saw pangas full of snorkelers and quaint thatched hotels off of Crawl Cay. We anchored right in the anchorage next to the Bocas Marina that afternoon in about 36 feet of water (the shallow part). We stayed on the boat to make sure the anchor set and had ourselves a great welcome party. That night there was torrential rain, lightning and thunder. It rained all day Sunday and Monday morning. We finally got a dinghy in the water and checked into the Bocas Marina for WIFI internet, laundry, trash disposal, book exchange--all the necessities. The Bocas Marina is beautiful with manicured grounds, lots of trees and flowers and a bar/restaurant called the Calypso Cantina. We dinghied over to the town and Ron described it "as a resort town for off the beaten track travelers. There are many funky (some nice) waterfront hotels/hostels, bars/restaurants/cafes, lots of backpackers, people on bicycles, many Europeans, many locals speaking English..it's like Key West 40 years ago." Trish and Tracey - the happy hours are 3:00-9:00 with 99 cent beers!

There's a cruiser's net every morning at 8:00 VHF Ch. 68 and there's so much to do here: Volleyball, poker, Thursdays Ladies Lunch, Trivial Pursuit, happy hours, etc. etc. How can we work on the boat? We'll be here for a month exploring the islands and cays nearby. Keep checking our blogs for more.

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Carol
08/11/2009, Panama

Why can't we have a comfortable overnight sail? All our overnighters have been terrible, especially trying to sleep off watch. We started out sailing from the Rio Chagres on August 4th, then the wind died and the swells kept hitting Alaunt sideways. Ron finally turned the engine on, but had to call me up when a sudden squall came up with wind and rain from the West - that's where we want to go! We spent the next day tacking towards Escudo de Veraguas, the closest island. We were cold! We can't believe we're at Latitude 9 and it's been 77 at night and only the mid 80's in the day. Are we in the tropics? Want to buy an air conditioner? We did see 3 pods of dolphins that day, the most we've seen on the entire trip. It rained so hard (plus lightning and thunder) we couldn't get dry. We finally anchored off a fishing village on the West side of Escudo de Veraguas in 25 feet of water. It was so rough we thought we were in Red Hook with a norther coming into the harbor. We left very early the next morning as it was calmer at sea than at anchor. Of course, the wind was in our face, again, and we had to motorsail with the main and mizzen to steady us against the swells. It was still very dark and gloomy as we rounded Cayos Valiente and entered Laguna de Bluefields. Now it was flat calm and beautiful. We anchored around 2:00 near a small village on stilts at Punta Allegre (see picture). Nap. Shower. Happy Hour. We stayed in Bluefields for an extra day waiting for weather to pass. The villagers paddled out in their dugouts to visit and try to sell us shells and lobsters. Apparently the cruisers coming before us gave them food, clothing and even money. Most of them settled for a glass or water. The weather finally broke and we left Bluefields for the final leg of our trip to Bocas del Toro.

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Carol
08/11/2009, Panama

Kirk on Gallivanter had told us about how he, Cath and Stuart enjoyed the Rio Chagres on their trip to Panama, but the entrance was so tricky that we were going to pass it by if the swells were too high and the breakers blocked the mouth. We were in luck as the weather cooperated and we easily hugged the tall cliffs with the ruins of Fort San Lorenzo on one side and the Lajas Reef on the other. The mouth of the river was narrow but deep and the river was 100 to 200 feet wide and 50 feet deep in places. We meandered along the turns of the river through unspoiled jungle listening to loud insects and howler monkeys. The scenery was gorgeous. There were towering hardwood trees, ferns, pampas grass, palm trees, flowers and grass islands for 6 miles up to the Gatun Dam. The Dam is right on Gatun Lake in the Panama Canal. We even saw a cruise ship go by behind the Dam. We anchored in a basin next to the Dam but Ron was worried they might lower the level of the river and it would be too shallow for us to leave. So we reanchored about 3 miles down river. We hadn't seen another cruising boat since Naranjo Abajo so we didn't worry about anchoring near the middle of the river. The howler monkeys were so loud for exactly 1 hour (4:30-5:30) that we figured it must have been Howler Monkey Happy Hour. There were pairs of parrots flying through the treetops, more insect noises and not as many bugs as we thought there would be in the middle of the jungle. We fell asleep under a beautiful full moon and flowing river. The next morning we dumped buckets of fresh water over our heads before we picked up our anchors and motored the rest of the way out of the Rio Chagres. Now we're ready for our final overnight sail.

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