View of the Pacific.

Looking back at the fading skyline of Panama City filled me with a bitter sweet sort of feeling.
The city was exciting and full of life; it exudes a kind of energy that can't be escaped, even out in the anchorage. That energy drew us in and we fed off of it to a degree, but it also drew energy from us.

We had been anchored at 'La Playita' anchorage and found it to be quite rolly. This was a good thing. The never ending motion, between sea swell, wind driven waves and incessant boats blasting by, kept our 'sea legs' under us. In the past, we have all suffered from different degrees of sea sickness and it usually has taken about 2 -3 days to abate when we've headed off shore. It comes from the inner ear sensing an imbalance. Well, our balance never became balanced, due to the way we were moving around. We hardly even noticed the movement after a few days.

So, now, on April 12, 2010, Artemo and Gromit motored away from beautiful Panama, and the canal which makes it famous.
There was very little wind so, we couldn't sail. The current was incoming, so our progress was slow. But, we were very excited. We were heading out into the Pacific Ocean!
To help us celebrate this momentous occasion, came a herd of dolphins so large that we couldn't even begin to count their numbers.
They were jumping out of the water, two body lengths high and falling back in with enormous splashes. We could almost feel the joy. They raced back and forth across our bow and frolicked in our bow wave. As they glided through the water, they turned onto their sides so that they could look up at us as we looked down at them. There were squeals of joy coming from both our boats, adults included! No better welcome into the Pacific could have been had! And then, as quickly as they had come, they were gone. We were left on our bow breathless. WOW!

Before we set sail from Canada, we had read many books about families who had done the same thing as we are doing now. After the dolphins left, I looked over at Artemo, 200 feet away. I felt I was looking at a snapshot in a cruising book. Julie, Graham, Alex and Amelia all standing on their deck, excited and still energized. Then, slowly, this unanimated image melted away and became reality; like the opening scene of a movie where the camera shot of a photograph morphs into a moving picture. It was a bit surreal. Our sailing had, so far, seemed separate from what we had read about in books. I believe that is partly because we couldn't see ourselves, both physically and emotionally. Then, I looked over at Artemo, and through them, saw us. We are now the family I saw in the cruising stories.

What a huge shift. We have arrived. We are not waiting to be cruising, we are cruising!
For so long, we worked toward this life. I didn't realize we had arrived. It is hard sometimes to change direction or the way you think, when the momentum moves you forward. I'm hoping to do more 'here and now' living. I'm hoping we all will.



Our goal for this first day was to sail to Las Perlas Islands.
This archipelago is made up of 90 named islands and more than 130 unnamed islets.
'Perlas' in Spanish means pearls. When Vasco Nunez de Balboa crossed the south sea, he conquered these islands, wiped out the islands' indigenous population, but brought back, to a very happy king, precious pearls.

The islands are covered with lush forests, sandy beaches and healthy coral reefs. The reefs attract a wealth of brilliant small fish and larger creatures too, including sea turtles, manta rays, white-tipped reef sharks and moray eels.

We arrived at the top of the island chain at around 4pm and found a place to anchor on the eastern side of a small island. All day, there had been no wind and as we were anchoring, within 10 minutes a wind from the east whipped up to such a degree that we had to leave. We motored around to the other side where we would be sheltered from the wind, only to find that the water was much too deep close to shore, so we could not anchor safely. We checked our distances and decided we could make it to a sheltered anchorage at Contadora Island before night fall. Full throttle ahead! At 6:15pm, just as night was falling, securely anchored, we turned off our engine.

Contadora Island (1.2 square km), is named for its role as a counting-house island for the Spanish pearl trade. It is the most developed and visited of the islands in the chain. Wealthy Panamanians have their beach homes here and this is the island where the exiled Shah of Iran stayed in 1979. For those of you who watch the reality show 'Survivor' (we don't/didn't), one of the islands on which it is filmed is just south of us less than a ½ mile away.

Over the four days we've been here, we've relaxed and explored some. Michael has gotten couple more jobs crossed off his list. The biggest was to get the stack pack installed. This is a system which, essentially is like a long narrow bag that is open along its top edge. It is attached at its bottom edge to the length of the mainsail boom and when we lower our sail, it will simply fall in and then we zipper is shut. Before, we had to lower the sail, tie it down with sail ties and then put an unwieldy sail cover over its 18 foot length to keep it in place and protect it from the sun's UV.

So today, Friday, April 16, 2010, our last day here, will be spent exploring Contadora Island and then preparing for tomorrow's departure to the Galapagos.
We still have internet here, so I'm hoping to do a few final posts with pictures. In the future, my posts will be made via our SSB radio, so they will be text only.


More blog posts to follow with pictures of provisioning at the market and the actual transiting of the canal. Stay tuned!!!!