We were excited plus a little bit nervous for this passage to Las Perlas Islands. The reason being that we had to round the major headland, Punta Mala (Bad Point), which is known for its very strong winds and current (aka "cape effect" is how it is described) Actually most of books have been vague about this "cape effect" but later found out that they were referring to the winds being very strong with steep seas along the coast line on either side of the headland. Often the winds can be totally different in Bahia Panama versus what is on the other side of the point. It was not until we were almost around the point when we experienced this and of course the wind was right on our nose, so we had to beat into it. This is not the only reason that we were a little nervous about this passage but this is also the main shipping area for all the large ships coming and going to the Panama Canal. We had calculated that we had approximately 85 nm from Benao Cove to Contadora. We decided to start our passage in the late afternoon to give ourselves enough time to round Punta Mala before dark and then get to Contadora by early afternoon the next day.
Surprisingly as we motor sailed along the coast towards Punta Mala the seas and wind were fairly calm, it was eerie, almost like we were cruising in a lake .....definitely confusing but we were glad it was not the steep seas as expected except for the fact that we had to motor sail! As nightfall came, we were closer to entering the high traffic area otherwise know as the main shipping area of the bay of Panama. With radar this gave us a better viewing of what traffic we had around us and gave us the ability to track the oncoming or going ships. At one time we had parallel ships heading towards us. We were able to stay on our course as both ships cruised by us at a distance approximately 3 miles away, one to the port and one to the starboard. We had a very active night! We not only had several ships to be concerned with but we watch several storms develop around us then eventually we got caught right in the middle of it. Very scary, we could see the lightening in a distance and we changed our course a bit thinking that we could out run the storm. Silly because we are only traveling at 5 knots! Initially the storms looked like they were going to miss us because on the radar they appeared to be moving towards the north (away from us because we were heading south east) therefore thought they would miss us. We got a fair amount of mixed seas and the wind was changing directions making it hard to set the sails appropriately. We watched the radar develop a very large blob of yellow encompassing us, just as we started to feel the downpour of heavy rain. We were able to tuck under our dodger to stay dry. We seemed to be on the less windy side of the rainstorm and luckily did not experience any close hits of lightening. Yikes...not a place you want to be sailing with a tall mast out in the open water with lightening!! As far as we could tell was the lightening was several miles away from us in the opposite direction. With all this excitement who needs TV! We definitely were glad that we had radar because with the heavy rain this was the only way we could keep track of the ships. The rainsquall seem to have stalled right over us and lasted for several hours; needless to say Four Points was wet from top to bottom! The positive side is that her topside got a good rinse of fresh water.
The rain stopped well before daybreak. We seemed to have dried out before mid morning. We still had another 6-7 hours of sailing until we reached the Archipelago of Las Perlas. There are approximately 200 islands, big and small, with many reefs and beaches, however there are only a few of the islands that are populated. The TV series "Survivor" was filmed on a couple of the islands.
We stopped at one of the most populated or developed island, which we found out, that is a favorite weekend destination for the vacationers from Panama City. The island has a small airport, 2 resorts and many large mansions. We picked up a mooring on the south side of Contadora after being told by another yatista that the moorings are ok to use during the week but we would need to anchor on the weekend. (Owners with large yachts motor over from Panama City on the w/e). There were a lot of other sailboats (mostly from New Zealand & Australia) moored here too. Most of them had already gone through the Panama Canal and they were waiting for a weather window to sail to Galapagos or Marquesas. This side of the island had a beautiful white sandy beach and clear blue green water. There was a resort that just off the beach that we could pull up our dinghy. The island was very small. We decided to hike to the other side to check out the other anchoring area. The other side also had a nice white sandy beach and a resort/restaurant that welcomed cruisers. We noticed that the north side seemed much more calmer because the wind had switched (this made the south side bumpy). After enjoying a light lunch at the Punta Galeon Resort, we hiked back over to the other side where we had left our dinghy. Once we got back on the boat we decided to go around to the north side to anchor for a few days at least through the weekend since we needed to wait until the Port Captain's office was open in Panama City to officially check in to Panama.
While we were anchored off Punta Galeon Resort for the weekend, s/v 401K
(Jamie & Linda) came in to anchor. We were surprised to see them again. We had met them earlier in Costa Rico and knew that they were heading towards the canal but since they left earlier than us we figured that they had already gone through the canal. They told us that they had already checked into to Panama and have a later date in April to transit the canal, for they had to wait for their guest to come to help them line handle. They came out to Pearl Islands to explore the islands and wait for their guest. We were very happy to meet with them again because they gave us some very useful information about taking care of the paperwork ourselves vs. hiring an agent for transiting the canal. Up to this point Brian and I had planned to use an agent, but after seeing the cost vs. doing the paperwork (and leg work) ourselves, it was a no brainer!
As we were having sundowners on 401K, the wind had picked up a bit making this side of the island and anchorage very rocky! We decided to wait it out to see if the wind would die down. As the night progressed, so did the wind, and with the wind increasing to 20-25 knots, this made the sea very bumpy and uncomfortable. Finally after several hours and contemplating whether or not to stay here and have a very uncomfortable night or make the short passage around to the other side of the island worth the risk (since there are many reefs and shoals to watch out for....very difficult at night!) We finally had had enough of the roughness and made the decision to pull up anchor around midnight. We followed our GPS track around to the other side. We were so glad that we did because not only we were able to find an empty mooring buoy, but this side of the island was smooth as glass! We informed 401K via VHF and they came around shortly thereafter. We quickly got to bed for we knew we had to rise very early to make the passage to Panama City.