Mouths of the Bull!
02 February 2013 | Red Frog Marina, Bocas del Toro, Panama
Gail
Mouths of the Bull! - We left Shelter Bay headed west about 150 miles for Bocas del Toro. The winds were forecast to be north at 15-20 which would put us on a nice beam reach. But first, pulling out of Limon Bay, we encountered large swells and nasty chop as we cleared the breakwater (which, by the way, is made of specially formed concrete blocks that look like giant jacks (like the child's game). Their interlocking shape makes them create a strong breakwater.) After clearing the breakwater, turning west and setting the sails, things smoothed out considerably!
Of course, the other interesting part of leaving was seeing the ships that either had just transmitted or were about to transit the Panama Canal. Seeing those ships was cool. It is amazing to realize that even larger ships will be coming through when the new canal section is completed. (Now scheduled to be ready in 2015)
Once we were out and had maneuvered around the many ships, we headed northwest. We pulled out the sails and were actually on a comfortable beam reach (yes that point of sail does exist). We settled in for our first 100 mile leg to Escudo de Veraguas. We were actually going too fast! We were clipping along at 7.5 to 8 knots which was going to get us there too early and arriving in the dark. But one thing that we learned crossing to Panama was not to slow down because the situation could change, and it did. About 2:00 am the wind died and the current grew stronger against us, so we turned the motor on for the last 6 hours and pulled in just before 8:00 am.
After a few hours of sleep, we put the dink in the water and went to explore the south side of the island in search of baby boobies mentioned in the cruising guide. We did not see any but the island is very intriguing with unusual rock formations and very clean beaches. However, the wind stayed west and had clocked further south making the anchorage very rolly, so we decided to leave the next morning. We may try to go back as we leave this area if the weather permits.
We headed another 30 miles to the west to Laguna Bluefield (named for the Dutch pirate Blauvelt), a much more protected bay. We spent two nights there and then headed on toward archipelago of Bocas del Toro near Bocas Town. The wind was light and the current strong so we basically motored across and ran the fridge!
We are planning to return to Miami for the Miami Boat show and needed to check out where to leave WD while we were gone. We anchored near one of the marinas, in a very calm anchorage surrounded by mangrove islands. So calm and peaceful! We were just about to head into the Red Frog Marina to check it out when we heard our name being called. Our friends, John and Cyndi from Cynergy, who we had left in Turtle Cay marina last week and had pulled into the Red Frog Marina the day before, were coming back from a local restaurant. We took the opportunity to catch up with them and to check out the Red Frog Marina.
We decided to go back to Los Secretos for pizza with them and to watch the pro bowl. Well, we ended up with rum punches and a few slices of the owner's pizzas, since the pizza oven closed before we got there. The owners were very gracious and have taken us under their wing providing us with info on area, including which are the best grocery stores, and with a personal tour of town.
The next day, we took the dingy across the bay, about 4 miles, to check the other marina near town and to catch up with Peter and Gail from Jabiru and Bob from Spirit, who we had traveled with from Colombia to Panama. We also checked in with the port captain and did our first tour of Bocas Town.
Our friends Mike and Kay from Finisterre also came in this week, as did Chuck and Deb from Neytiri. So we have spent time exploring the local beach, finally going back to Los Secretos for pizza, exploring in town and now we are about to pull into the Red Frog Marina to get WD settled for our departure and some much needed laundry cleaning.
We are here in what is supposed to be the dry season. Not sure what the rainy season would be like since it has rained (sometimes two or three times) every day that we have been here. But there has still been lots of sun too. It is a beautiful part of Panama.
Our next challenge it to get back to Shelter Bay, transit the Canal, visit the old city of Panama, and catch our flight back to Miami. Seems simple? Wait and find out!
A couple of other quick notes: 1) Sometime in the past week we crossed 80 West which is only significant as that is the same longitude as Miami. So we were directly South of there. But at about 9 North we were still about 1000 miles from home. 2) We also keep a daily log of our trips and adventures on WD which inlcudes a rough estimate of the miles traveled. We bought her in November, 2002 and sometime last week we turned the odometer over 10,000 miles. We think of it as a major milestone.