Punta Cocos, Isla Del Rey
21 April 2010 | Las Perlas
Cornelia
Monday we left Contadora Island and headed to the southern most tip of the Las Perlas island chain; the 'jumping off' place for the Galapagos. We motor sailed until mid afternoon, and then the wind shifted to the south, so we took our sails down. It was nice to sail a bit. Once we were anchored, Amelia from Artemo, paddled over to visit, joined us for dinner and stayed for the long awaited sleep over. Our girls had been asking for some time to have Amelia over. Tuesday, was cloudy and rainy with a front blowing in, in the afternoon. Around 9am, a man in a dug out canoe came by asking if we wanted to buy some fruit. He had already sold what he had to Artemo, so he took our order and paddled away. An hour later, a small local fishing boat came along side and asked if we wanted some fish. We bought 3; one mid sized and two small, about 5 pounds, for 5 dollars. We don't know for sure, but we think they were red snapper. What we do know for sure is that they were delicious! While our business of buying fish was taking place a small Panamanian helicopter suddenly swooped around Gromit, twice. One of the fisherman was holding the fish we were going to buy as he bounced around in his fishing boat, and I guess this satisfied the people in the helicopter, because they flew off. Meanwhile, a Panamanian sport fishing boat was also circling around and the fishermen were yelling at them to wait, but they didn't. The fishermen seemed concerned about this sport fisher and at one point said to us that they would come back in a minute to sell us our fish and began pulling away. The sport fisher hadn't waited, so the local fishermen came back to us. I asked the local guys if the helicopter was the police and he said yes. Maybe they thought we were doing some sort of drug deal. The Columbian coast is only about 30 miles away! We've heard that the new Panamanian government is cracking down on drug smuggling. So, who knows? All I know is that is was a bit of a crazy moment with a helicopter, sport fisher and local fishing boat all around Gromit. Things were pretty quiet around here after that! We did some school, ate some yummy fish, took delivery of our fruit: 3 mini pineapples, 2 small papayas, a stock of bananas and about 10 fist-sized mangoes. Liam, Maia and I played a short game of monopoly in the cockpit. Late afternoon, the Gromits went to the Artemos for a visit. We talked about the plans for leaving for the Galapagos. We checked the weather and there doesn't seem to be the perfect weather coming any time soon. With it being an El Nino year, the winds are very light. We may have to do more motoring than we'd like. And, as we don't have any control over the weather, we'll just go with it! Today, Wednesday, we will get ready for going off shore tomorrow. Everything in and on the boat needs to be tied down or stowed. I'm going to cook a few meals and put them in the fridge. Michael will do system checks and some last minute prep. It would be nice if the fishermen would come by with their 'catch of the day'! But no helicopters, please!