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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Carol
08/11/2009, Panama

We left Portobelo on August 2 and decided to split the trip to the Rio Chagres by stopping at Isla Naranjo Abajo for the night. We put up the mizzen, main and jib and had a brisk sail to the anchorage between the island and the mainland. It was so beautiful and completely sheltered by surrounding reefs. We were only 10 miles from the Canal and there were huge freighters and tankers anchored right outside the reef waiting to transit. That night we could see the loom of Colon and the Canal. The next morning we motorsailed between the anchored ships and Colon. We had our Panama Canal beer as we passed by the breakwater opening and the tall concrete red and green channel markers. We saw a very large tuna boat (see picture) come out of the Canal. Even though it's been 32 years for me and 17 years for Ron, the Canal is still an impressive sight.

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Carol
07/28/2009, Panama

We motorsailed out of Chichime (E. Lemon Cays) leaving the San Blas Islands for mainland Panama. It was about a 60 mile sail, so we decided to stop at Isla Linton to break up the trip. the anchorage was in a channel between Linton and the mainland and was so pretty. The island is uninhabited except for a family of monkeys (which we never saw) and the jungle was lush and green. The fishermen had several net-like structures anchored nearby which we learned later they were "farming" cobia. The next day's motorsail (the wind was in our face again) was only 10 miles along the coastline to Portobelo (named Puerto Bello, beautiful port, by Columbus and also spelled Portobello).

Portobelo is a huge natural harbor and has quite a history. It was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1502 on his fourth voyage. It was used to transfer tons of gold and silver to Spain. Between 1574 and 1702 there were 45 fleets of galleons sailing with at least 30 million pesos each onboard. The Real Contadurin Customs House was used to store these riches traded between the Americas and Spain. In one century a THIRD of all the gold IN THE WORLD passed through this building. I'm impressed! So, of course, they needed defenses against pirates (Henry Morgan, Sir Francis Drake, Johnny Depp) and there were three forts built. We were anchored just below the Bateria Santiago with it's many cannons pointed at Alaunt. There was another fort, San Fernando, across the bay. The above picture was taken at Fort San Jeronimo right in town. The present Portobelo is constructed into some of the ancient coral walls of the forts and outlying buildings. The town was small enough to walk everywhere (Ron's foot is feeling better) and we found internet access and many grocery stores to supply the boat for our sail to Rio Chagres and Bocas del Toro. We caught a bus to Colon yesterday ($1.30 ea) and shopped in a huge supermarket. What a culture shock for us after 2 weeks in the San Blas Islands without even seeing a car - roads, cars, trucks, buses, and a train to the Panama Canal. It looks like we're leaving in a few days and will be out of internet service until we get to Bocas del Toro - our final destination in Panama.

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Carol
07/27/2009, Portobello, Panama

I discovered zip lock ice for our Alaunt Happy Hours. I have an aluminum ice cube tray that takes up too much freezer space and only made 12 ice cubes in 2 days. So I started filling quart-sized zip locks with water and fitting them into my freezer like a jigsaw puzzle. I ended up with a nice sized block of ice that freezes in a few hours. I just use my ice pick and fill my Happy Hour cups.

The price of alcohol in Panama is very inexpensive compared to Colombia. We'd tried some box wine in Colombia that was "almost" undrinkable. In Panama we found Concha Y Toro box wind from Chile that is very good for $2.40 a liter. Of course this discovery came about through rigorous testing. Ron's gin in Colombia was $35 a bottle, but in Panama he found "Caballito" and "Champion" gin for $1.25/250 ml. He bought both brands for a taste test before blowing $4-$5 on a whole bottle. The label said they were bottled by the same company, so there's no apparent difference between the two. The local "Balboa" beer is $12/case. We're going to be here for a long time.

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