Today Was Our Day------
10 March 2014 | Portobelo, Panama
Pleasant, Skies Clear/Wind Fresh
-------to live.
Turtle Cay Marina is about 45 minutes by bus to Portobelo (means beautiful port). Portobelo is historically significant as the storehouse and port from which Spanish gold was shipped to Spain in the 16th century. Of course the gold attracted English, Dutch, and French pirates, the most infamous of which was Henry Morgan, who sacked Portobelo and burned it to the ground. James Michener in his book Caribbean provides an excellent account of this period of Caribbean and Western Europe history and interaction.
We decided to take a day and stay on land by making a trip by public bus through the mountains over the Costa Arriba to Portobelo. The Costa Arriba, or upper coast, was settled by former slaves, many of whom escaped prior to the abolution of slavery in 1850, and has a distinctly Jamaican flavor to its culture and music. Once arriving in Portobelo, we wanted see the forts the Spanish had built to repel the Pirates, and also the Church in Portobelo which is famous for its Black Christ. The church is also a pilgrimage for the faithful each November.
We also wanted to see and lend some help to our friends, Mark and Eileen on their boat, Wave Length, who were having some mechanical problems with their starter. They could not resume their trip to Colon until they could get their engine going again. After walking around and visiting the San Geronimo fort and the Spanish customs house and museum, we hitched a ride with another cruiser on their dinghy out to Wave Length.
Mark had already isolated the problem with the starter, so we simply reviewed what he had done, repeated a few tests, and at that point concluded that the starter and/or solenoid were kaput, and needed rebuilding or replacement.
Because it was Sunday there was nothing more we could do, so all of us decided to go back to town, about a half-mile away, for lunch in Mark and Eileen's very nice and comfortable rowing dinghy. The dinghy is equipped with two sets of oars, so Eileen took the front oars, and Mark took the second set, sitting in the middle of the dinghy, with Karna and me sharing the third seat in the back as passengers enjoying the fruits of their labors. We were looking forward, while Mark and Eileen were both looking backwards as they rowed.
The anchorage was crowded and it was a strenuous upwind row, so I was guiding them between boats as they rowed. At one point, I alerted them to a large panga water taxi with a 50 horse Yamaha and a covered awning that was starting to build speed as it entered the anchorage. The panga was coming in our general direction about 300 to 400 yards away.
Eileen joked that surely we had rights (which we did), and I joked back that we do if he doesn't hit us.
About that instant the panga turned to port just enough to point directly at us and it was continuing to accelerate. I could see then that the the bow of the boat was sufficiently out of the water that the driver could not possibly see us. As the panga continued directly toward us, I stood up and started waving my hat and my hands toward the panga hoping the driver would see us, and yelling -Hey-Hey-Hey at the top of my lungs. The panga taxi was definitely going to hit us head on at about 30 knots. At the very last minute, the driver saw me waving, and he veered sharply to the left, missing us by just a few feet as he sped past us. We all knew what the outcome would have been had he not swerved at the last minute.
We shared our lunch at the dockside restaurant with more than a touch of left-over adrenaline, realizing that in the grand scheme of things, it was our day------to live.
Afterwards, we took a taxi to the small village of Puerto Lindo and took in the last day of carnival, with congo drums, costumes and masks, and more than a few dressed up "devils". We then ended our day to live going back to Turtle Cay Marina.