Tempting as it was to turn left at the Panama Canal, book a spot and take Vanish back to Brisbane (or Chile), we felt we still have unfinished business here. These cruising grounds are spectacular and one could spend a lifetime discovering new peaceful anchorages while enjoying the constant change of weather and scenery, eating healthy food and snorkeling almost every day. We're still under 10 deg south and out of the official hurricane zone but the seasons are moving on with November 15 fast approaching and we need to position ourselves for the next phase of our trip. There's so much to consider and we are conflicted with our family and dog back home in Australia against Maynard's need to be in the US next year to oversee drilling a well in the Gulf of Mexico. Then there's the route to take; we can go back to Colombia and head north to Dominican Republic or keep heading west in Panama before turning right and heading north to Guatemala, Belize and Mexico. Either way, we are heading north but we have to avoid late hurricanes or the dreaded northerly Christmas winds. OR we can just keep Vanish in Panama at the Red Frog Marina at Bocas del Toro and spend another season in this beautiful country. Sometimes, humans don't do well if they have too many choices and we can certainly vouch for that. Many sleepless nights ahead I'm afraid.
Yesterday we departed Portobelo and headed west towards Colon and the Panama Canal, took a few happy snaps for our family and our readers and went onto our intended anchorage at the Chagres River which is the river that is the outlet of the Gatun Lake, a dam built specifically for the Panama Canal. We've crossed many river bars in our previous yachts but there were a number of challenges here. Firstly, there are few navigation aids in Panama, and none for this river. The entrance is shallow at 3 meters, and then there are two reefs we needed to pass between. There is also the issue with current coming down the river in the wet season with trees and debris and the river is 100 meters across and we are 25 meters in length so it is a bit tight but the sight of a wrecked yacht washed up on the beach at the entrance said it all. Normally, we would have dropped the dinghy in the water and checked out the depths ourselves but the swell was over a meter and it was too tricky to manoeuvre. Even though this may have been our best chance of getting up close and personal with the birds and wildlife, we all decided there were too many risks. Given the seas and weather were perfect for an overnight passage, we decided to go onto Bocas del Toro overnight, against a 2 knot coastal current in the Mosquito Gulf, a distance of 150 miles from the river to our current anchorage at Zapatilla Cay. Bocas del Toro is a sparsely populated province with a main town called Bocas Town and many islands covered in jungle with perfect beaches, wildlife preserves, national parks, Chirique villages and a few marinas including the IGY Red Frog Marina.