Howls of Joy
08 October 2013 | Isla Linton, Panama
Vicki – Air 27C/80F, Water 29C/84F, Cloud 8/8, Wind 5kn W, Storms Lurking
It’s hard to believe, but we’ve spent an entire month in Kuna Yala. The weather was ideal, the snorkelling was fabulous and our anchorages were calm and stress free with few boats to bother us. The Panamanian authorities are used to cruisers not clearing into Panama from Colombia in the Kuna Yala region straight away so we knew we had time to enjoy it all. However, needing our sat phone working, we headed to El Porvenir early in the morning, anchored off the island and went ashore where we were cleared into Panama within an hour while thunder rolled and boomed outside the immigration building. We paid our fees in US Dollars, the official currency of Panama and left the building. The storm was very close so we raced back to Vanish, lifted the anchor and headed out to sea where we skirted the back of the storm to avoid the lightning. The sea was less than a meter and quite comfortable. Panama runs basically west to east so we headed 60 miles westward and passed between the mainland and Isla Grande. Isla Grande is one of Panama’s favourite surf spots and many competitions take place here although they must occur in the dry season when the swells are large as there was barely a ripple when we entered. We then moved down to an all-round protected anchorage Maynard had researched called Isla Linton, one of the best anchorages in this part of the coast.
Isla Linton sits a few hundred meters off the Panama mainland and is privately owned but uninhabited, except for a few monkey families who are the real owners of the island. We were warned to be very cautious as they appear friendly at first, sitting on you and eating out of your hand but as soon as they realise you intend to leave, they become upset and may bite. They also throw their do-do at you which I thought must have been a joke but it’s true and is not a pleasant thought on a hot steamy day, well any day actually. We decided not to visit the Isla. When entering the anchorage, we also needed to avoid a fish farm producing cobia. There were three large circular cages in the middle of the entrance with vessels nearby and also another fish contraption covered in a towering net. We also passed a thick coil of anchored rope floating on the surface near the fish farm which we saw just in time to veer away. There’s no way we would enter this anchorage at night.
We dropped anchor near a few floating plastic drink bottles and later learned it marked a wreck underneath. Lucky again. Once we’d turned off the motors and gensets, the first thing we heard were the howler monkeys calling each other from Isla Linton to their mates on the mainland. The calls sounded quite unreal as we’ve never heard such sounds in an anchorage in our lives. We could also hear many bird sounds and finally realised we could hear and see macaws in the jungle covered hills. We all just looked at each other and grinned as we all felt we may as well be on another planet. There were a few houses on the water’s edge and a road with a few cars. During the night wave after wave of thunderstorms passed us out to sea but the thunder was almost constant. The mountains further inland reach around 900 meters (3,000 ft) and are often covered by rising mist and a dense layer of cloud on top. Around 9 am a roll cloud came in and drenched the boat, sending the howler monkeys into vocal mayhem. Either someone was messing with their bananas or perhaps they love heavy rain. Again, we waited for the storm to pass and headed out to sea this time travelling just 11 miles west to the town of Portobello which sits on the Bay of Portobello, discovered in 1502 by Christopher Columbus. We’ve received confirmation that our satellite equipment has arrived in Colon so we are only 40 miles from our precious package.