Chris was right on the nose again with his weather report, we had a great sail for about 4 hours then the wind shut down and the iron jib had to be turned on. We had a quiet and calm night and both of us had restful sleep. After the sun came up she immediately was blocked out by dark clouds which grew darker and darker and the one behind us following us started to throw darts out of the sky into the water, one after another. We checked on the radar if there was a way to outrun it but it was heading our direction slowly. Luckily it changed course a bit and the lightning part missed us, we did get some hefty rain that seemed to last 2 hours. We had another two squalls approaching but all missed. We were visited by a fun pod of dolphins playing in the bow wake while at the same time a Bird of Paradise flew over us. We arrived in Portobelo early enough to relax for a while before an enjoyable sunset. Checking in is a breeze here but I was told I had to go into Colon to get a cruising permit, which now costs 193 dollars and is good for one year. The following day I took or was going to take the local bus into Colon but the friendly lady that was waiting for the bus her friend drove by and picked us both up. While at the office to get our permit papers I was told that I needed two copies of all our paperwork which I didn’t have, oh well. I immediately hopped into a bus to Panama City to get my passports renewed. It’s an hour and a half ride in very well air-conditioned bus, the AC has two settings: OFF and FREEZING. While freezing your butt off you watch a movie, it’s actually a pretty cool ride for $2.75. Back in Colon I took the local chicken bus for 1.75 and it took almost 2 hours to get back to Portobelo. This bus stops at every corner and fills up to the brim so that people hang outside the door. It’s fun though to travel as the locals do. While I was in town Portobelo had such a downpour of rain that the 70 foot boat in front of us created such an eddy to suck Paradise right into it. Luckily Sid saw what was going on, turned the engine on and drove out of the eddy.
Our third day in Portobelo we met with our friends Cindy and Reed previous “Sea Fever”. We had met them first in Colon at the Panama Yacht Club then in Cartagena and now here, wonderful people. They took us to the Panamarina Yacht Club for lunch and while we caught up on time we enjoyed delicious Osso Bucoo. Cindy knew I was going to pick up my cousin Gaby at the airport and offered to take me into town to show me the ropes again where all the good stores were. We had a blast and it was Merry Christmas all over again in every store we went. They had goodies in there I haven’t seen in years. She dropped me off close to the airport at a fun mall. I tell you Panama is the place to buy cloth, I found beautiful tops from 2.99 to 14.99, I don’t think anything on cloths cost more than that.
Finally went to the airport to pick up Gaby and meet her after 35 years; that was exciting. She likes roughing it so I took her back on the chicken bus and man did they pack it full again, but she survived and loved it.
Gaby and I had having a wonderful time catching up and especially talking about our childhood, so many things we forgot have come in to our minds again. It was really good to have her here.
Riding the bus into town is really a hoot. It is an old school bus painted with fun graffiti, the inside is also all decked out. Above the front window is always a mirror the width of the bus, for the driver to see how many seats are still open. This mirror is surrounded with colored feathers. Pink feathers seem to be their favorite. Of course the busses are very, very old and not sure how well they are maintained. When they step on the brakes they have to pump them while they squeal like crazy, worse than running your fingernail on a chalk board.
When all the seats are taken they stuff everybody into the bus like in a sardine can and who does not fit hangs outside by the door. The bus was so full before I knew it I had a baby on my lap and a broom in my hand.
Ever since we arrived in Portobelo it’s been nothing but rain, rain, rain and rain again with occasional thunder and lightning. Our neighbor got hit and was pretty lucky he only lost his VHF radio and GPS. Later when we finally left Portobelo we noticed that our radar was not working proper anymore possibly due to the lightning strike to our neighbor. By the way I have to add that the 10 boats we know having been hit by lightning all except one had a brush (static dissipater….) on top of the mast, our neighbor did too. I guess from now on we will have to check our neighbors first if hey have a brush on the mast and if so anchor way away from them.
Gaby was having a wonderful time and Sid and I decided that we will keep her on the boat, she did a wonderful job cleaning the water line and I don’t have to do any dishes anymore. After she had settled in and was used a little more of the motion of the boat we pulled anchor and left for the San Blas. The sea was calm there was not a breath of air so we knew we had to motor. As soon as we headed out of the bay and turned right the sea state changed. Huge (6 to 7) rollers fortunately far apart and a backwash from the shore turned it a bit too rough for poor Gaby. We assured her that green looked really good on her. We never had enough wind to sail but it was enough to motor sail until halfway when the engine over heated (hose clamp came off and ½ the antifreeze spewed out). As luck would have it, at the same time the wind started to pick up, we pulled all the sails out and in no time we were sailing 5 to 5.5 knots. It took our mechanic Sid about 15 minutes to fix the problem then we waited a little over an hour for the engine to cool as the wind died down again and we started the motor for the last 18 miles to Chichime in the San Blas. We watched as several clouds ashore started to rain and one started to follow us just about when we started up the engine again and we out ran it. But arriving in Chichime a huge system hung over there and poor Sid had to drop the anchor in heavy rain. We were not anchored 5 minutes when the first ulu (Kuna dug out) stopped to sell us molas. I told them to come back the next day. Early enough they knocked on the boat and we all had fun haggling with them for a few molas, a stuffed parrot and we even traded for reading glasses and big jars of glass beads.
Early in the morning already more ulus stopped with Kunas eager to sell molas and of course we got suckered into buying a few more. They truly are beautiful pieces of art.
What is a mola? It’s a beautiful appliqué shirt all woman wear and is made by sewing and cutting different layers of colorful cloth, all are hand stitched. Every mola is different but each one tells a Kuna story and shows birds, fish, crab, lobster, turtles, medicinal plants, villages, mountains any thing that is important in their lives. Not all ulus (dug out canoe) stop to sell Molas, some sell fish or lobster. I could not pass on the two nice slipper lobster and a good size crab, what a treat! There is a cute little island next to our anchor spot with three palm trees on it. Gaby fell in love with it so we ventured ashore with a Swiss and a Norwegian flag and claimed the island for her and toasted the event with a bottle of champagne. We named the island “Gabydup”.
Chichime is a protected anchorage and surrounded by several coconut palm overgrown islands with sandy beaches. Cruise ships used to come here but now they go to Carti which makes it again more cruiser friendly for us.
Just a little over two miles south are the delightful islands of the Lemmon Cays and also well protected from weather from any direction. The entrance was a bit scary to navigate as it gets very shallow. We managed to get the boat in reverse before getting stuck in the shallow. Two empty oil cans one red and yellow show the narrow and only 8 foot deep channel into the anchorage and there it is anywhere from 60 to 40 feet deep and hard to hook up. Finally on our third try the anchor set.
The names of the island are kind of funny: Ogopsibadup, Mandarraya, Kagandup, Tiadup, Koledup, Kuasidup, Miria, Nugaruachirdup, Tiadup, Kiledup and Kuasidup. The snorkeling here is incredible, Gaby and I were barely in the water when a friendly spotted eagle ray started to swim towards us then at close distance he started gliding around us looking at us as curious a we looked at him. What a beautiful animal. There is an abundance of coral heads and each one is the home of colorful fish. After the fun snorkel we went ashore on one of the islands and found some interesting seeds and many dried out sea bisquets and no-see-ums biting my ankles while mosquitoes sucked on my arm. We were out of there! This was the first day we did not receive any rain, the sky was hazy and we had a brisk wind out of the west. Great we can keep the hatches open over night. At 4am I heard the slamming noise of the hatches; Sid was busy doing the rain shuffle again. A couple of hours later a huge system hit us with gusts over 36 knots and lots of lightning.
Gaby was hoping no more mola ladies would show up so that she could spend some money in Portobelo. The mola ladies did stay away but an ulu filled with crab and lobster came buy. Although we just had some lobster we could not say no. I bought 3 big crabs (they are a type like a spider crab, body is the same size but the legs are only half the length that of a spider crab but still very meaty) for 2 bucks each and 4 little lobster for a buck. After 4 miles underway to the Swimming Pool we came buy some small islands part of the Eastern Lemmons which looked really inviting and so we went and checked it out. It looked like Paradise and Paradise dropped anchor at Banadup and settled right in. We were in 20 feet of water not the 40 plus we had been in the last two islands and were surrounded by small coconut palm overgrown islands and a huge reef protecting us. No bugs either and each island here has a family living on it. The island right next to us Nuinudup, two young kids, about 4 and 7, paddled in their oversized ulu out to us to ask for candy. We didn’t have any candy on board but they sure loved the Swiss chocolate. They were too cute. Every time we took a photo of them they posed with a big toothy smile and thumbs up. After they had left the other half of the family showed up in their ulu and wanted to sell molas but since we bought plenty already Gaby settled with another Kuna bracelet.
The weather is pretty unsettled or probably it’s the way it is at this time of the year; thunderstorms come at any time. Each day we do the rain shuffle and are getting better and better at it. The unfortunate thing is there are two directions NE and S where they can bring lots of winds just like that catching our sunshade and blowing us sideways. So now when we see one approach from these directions we try to roll up the shade as fast as we can.
After another squall drill Gaby and I hopped into the dinghy and ventured towards the reef and pulled onto an island with nobody living on it, walked around the islands and collected some beautiful shells.
Not long after we returned to the boat another one of those heavy wind squall came buy, of course exactly at the time again I was standing in the galley cooking, steaming with no windows open. Dinner was wonderful, sautéed lobster oven baked with a Béchamel sauce and topped with Parmesan cheese and 2 giant crab cakes each. There was not much talking at this table and when Gaby had her dessert (guava pie) in front of her she said she was never ever going to leave. How wonderful I never ever have to do dishes again!
Lots of thunderclouds came by to the north of us due to tropical waves which were now coming more frequently and the first storm of this season had just built. The mainland creates daily thunderstorm as well so we were always ready to do the rain shuffle. July 3rd was the first morning with no clouds in the sky.
Banadup is such a beautiful place making us feel that Paradise is in Paradise. All but one of the island are inhabited by a Kuna Family, which we learned stays for about 3 months to take care of the coconuts then another related family takes over to take care. One of the islands here is a little resort with a big thatched roof with tables and chairs (made out of tree stumps) a bar with two freezers, beer or coke only and on lucky occasions they have rum. Attached to this is a hut with a kitchen and I think I also saw a hammock in it. The owner a cute little old Kuna man lives with two helpers on the island while his wife manages another island with the same idea of a resort. Guests can either sleep in one of the many tents he has available or in a hammock. The island is oblong and Coco palms only grow on both ends in the middle is a nice stretch of beach with a volley ball net. We sat down and had a couple of ice cold beer while talking to the jolly little man and found out all kinds of things about their culture including that they only sleep in hammocks all in one room and yes baby’s are created in the hammocks. He snickered when he told me how well it works.
We had such a good time we decided to go back later on in the evening and play boccha ball. Several more boats arrived the same day and before we knew it we were 16 boats. Guess we found the right island for the 4th of July celbration. Bob and Jeannie on Island Dreamin’ we met in Puerto La Cruz arrived as well and we had a happy reunion at the resort, although we never played boccha ball, there was only time for beers while we swapped stories.
The fishermen come buy every day with either lobster, conch, crab or fish and it’s just so hard not to buy anything, today’s catch was a 3.5 pound snapper. Some come along the boat and beg for some fishing line with hook as they just had lost theirs with a big fish on the hook. Many bring their cell phones to charge. Yep this is the cell phone age even in Kuna Yala.
Gaby and I did a few snorkeling trips and each time we had found some beautiful coral reefs and sand bars which Gaby thinks is incredible to be in the middle of the ocean and just in ankle deep water. We also had a noodeling get together with Island Dreamin’ and Southern Bell right off one of the islands in crystal clear and shallow water. While sitting there and talking away, playing with our hands in the sand Sid dug up some clams, so we all started digging and decided to go clam hunting the following morning and indeed we managed to get enough clams for a wonderful appetizer.
We were going to leave for the Hollandays Cays but it looked like the whole fleet was going to meet here in the Eastern Lemmons for 4th of July and so we decided to stay a bit longer. 4th of July was celebrated on one of the islands. Volleyball was one of the activities along with slammers (Tequila/Kalua/Coke yummy) and jello shots. Connie on Better Days made sure that all had a wonderful time; I tell you she’s dangerous! The weather was perfect, couldn’t have been better as we could clearly see the coast of Panama, just beautiful.
We were going to leave on the 5th but a huge cloud moved the islands and into the direction we were going to navigate. It was a big system and we thought to better wait which turned out to be a very wise decision as a good size waterspout started sweeping the water to where we could have been had we left. Another day in this island group didn’t hurt and while Sid played volley ball, Gaby and I went hunting for some more of those juicy clams. While digging in the sand all of a sudden there was this blood curdling scream and all I saw was frothy water and on top of the froth I saw Gaby’s spinning legs as she was running backwards on top of the water. A crab had gotten hold of her finger, pinched it and drew blood. That was definitely the end of clamming and we ended this episode with a pipa (coconut water in the nut with a splash of rum and gin). Ahhh life is good!
On the 6th a hefty water shower greeted the day and made sure all was soaking wet. After all had dried a little we pulled anchor and motored the 10 mile distant to Hollandays Cays or also known as The Swimming Pool. The sea was flat calm but half way a huge thundercloud tried to threaten us, never made it but it did bring us heavy wind. Approaching the Swimming Pool a squall line from the opposite direction was now threatening us while the thunderstorm from shore still was sending heavy wind, we just knew that Sid would be on the bow again anchoring in a heavy downpour. Luckily the cloud decided to leave us alone and we anchored in 8 feet of crystal clear water and Gaby already saw her first nurse shark swimming underneath the boat. I think it will take a lot of convincing to get her into the water here LOL.
After we saw the nurse shark Sid notice a huge grouper, belly up and swimming in circles, floating towards us. Sid jumped into the dinghy with the gaff to see how much alive the fish was and when he gaffed him, oh my gosh Sid was yanked back and fourth and up and down. It took him a good fight to get the fish into the dinghy and still there this 13.5 pound adrenalin pumped fish was yanking Sid around. Later he told me that he pulled a muscle on his back, poor guy. All the cruisers swear by pouring alcohol into the gills kills the fish instantly, we never had much luck with that but thought to give it another shot, or two or oh well the whole 8 oz of alcohol went into his gills and it took a long time for him to die. We hauled him up on the bow where Sid then was filleting 2 inch think fillets of the bones. There was so much fish Sid brought a quarter of it to our new neighbors. The scrap we tossed into the water which brought 4 nurse sharks and huge trigger fish around. It was fun watching the nurse sharks circling like they were dancing with each other eating the scraps. About an hour later Gaby was ready to venture into the water (after not having seen a single nurse shark for a while). Barely in the water one swam right under her. We had fun following this 7 foot creature and watching it blow into the sand to find food.
After a wonderful grouper dinner we hung the light into the water and were entertained for many hours. First we had several spotted eagle rays swim under the boat, then a fairly good sized squid (big enough for my frying pan) floated by, a school of cobia amongst many smaller fish, but what topped it all off was 5 good sized Wahoo trying to catch needle fish which also scattered around the bright light. Next time we hang the light out we’ll be prepared for the Wahoo, frying pan is already on the stove and garlic is chopped.
The nice thing here is sitting in the shallow clear water the light makes it look as if we in deed are in a swimming pool with the turquoise blue hallow around Paradise.
While Sid did some maintenance on the boat, finding the impeller had lost 5 out of the 6 teeth, and other things to repair, the girls ventured to BBQ Island where we 10 years ago had fun potlucks on this cute island. In the mean time, a cruiser tried to claim the island and upset the Kunas. So now the island is inhabited by an elderly couple to protect what is theirs and the Kuna Congress created a law that now Kuna’s living on islands are allowed to charge 2 dollars per person to walk on the island. We talked to the very friendly elderly couple; they are still upset at the cruiser as he now is trying to claim another island. Another thing they were upset about is that some cruisers come onto their island and steal coconuts, which is their income (get 35cents per coconut). The friendly couple invited us to come ashore and enjoy their island at any time.
After we thanked them we headed to some other islands and walked around some on another Gaby walked into a thorny leaf of a coconut palm which punctured her just below her eye, she had a good shiner. Later on we snorkeled out by the reef and since there was a strong about 1.5 knot current I suggested we drift back to the boat towing the dinghy which really was fun we barely had to move our fins to get back.
Gaby hasn’t had sauerkraut in years and so I promised to cook some, but every time sauerkraut was on the menu some fishermen came by with some more fish, this time with crabs with the biggest claws, we all were drooling seeing those and sauerkraut was pushed off again. She finally had her sauerkraut 4 days later.
”Audrey Page” we haven’t seen in over 2 years showed up on our last afternoon in the Swimming Pool and we noodled behind their boat to meet their grandchildren, Gaby and also to catch up.
Unfortunately Gaby’s vacation was coming to an end and it was time to sail back to Portobelo. The motor sail back was bumpy and poor Gaby was feeding the fish again. But that went away fast after we had anchored as I had prepared one of her favorite dishes grandma always cooked for us, stewed rabbit, she was smiling from ear to ear.
Gaby’s last two days were spend in Panama City with shopping at Albrook Mall, the biggest mall I have ever seen; Gaby was dumbfound to see the prices, a pair of jeans $5.99, blouses and T-Shirts $ 2.99, shoes as low as 1.99 and not to mention the low liquor prices.
We enjoyed a bottle of bubbly in the pool on the top floor of the Costa Inn hotel with a magnificent view over all the high rise buildings of down town Panama and all the freighters anchored out in the bay awaiting their transit through the canal, enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Casa Blanco in the new-old town “Casco Viejo” which reminds me of Cartagena. Of course you haven’t seen Panama if you haven’t seen the Panama Canal so we went to the Miraflores Lock and spent almost all day visiting the museum and watching the big ships go through while having lunch at the restaurant, best buffet I have had in a long time. It’s fascinating watching the boats come through the locks and brought memories back from our Panama crossings. It’s definitely a different view from the visitor’s center than being on the canal itself.
We ended her visit to Panama with a Swiss cheese Fondue at the Rincon Suiza recapturing Gaby’s vacation. Gaby was a wonderful guest and we enjoyed having her and hope she will come visit us again. She truly enjoyed her vacation as she satisfied her curiosity what we do all day living on a boat.
A few months later I received an email from Gaby. She was contacted by a reporter who wanted to write an article about her vacation. Everybody was fascinated that she went on such a far trip by herself and sailed to the Islands of Kuna Yala. The article was printed in the Newspaper of Holmestrand in Norway.
A couple days later we invited Cindy and Reed over for dinner. Then we rented a car together with Jeannie and Bob on Island Dreamin’ and drove all over Panama City. Manuela did all the driving and luckily Bob knowing the city somewhat did and incredible job navigating her through the busy streets of Panama. We dropped our Radar off and a week later we found out that it was not hit by lightening there is nothing wrong with the radar it’s our ground plane that needs to be fixed which will keep Sid busy for a while (actually changing the ground plane did not change it, the radar is still not working).
We hit so many stores in Panama and were just fascinated how low the prices are in pretty much everything and you can find pretty much anything here. Two days of just shopping around finding parts and this and that we decided we needed a fun day and extended our car rental for an extra day driving to the Panama Canal where Manuela played tour guide and managed to get into the Miraflores visitor center for free while Jeannie, Bob and Sid paid half price for being old farts. They enjoyed the museum and we all agreed how incredible it is to watch the boats come through. Our fun trip ended having a gourmet pick-nick in Gamboa along the Canal and visiting the Gamboa Resort, wow what an incredible hotel.
Not a boring moment in and on Paradise. If I thought that we would have some relaxing days after the driving stress in Panama I was wrong. Cindy and Reed picked us up for a pizza lunch and then to their friend Binnie’s house where they all meet every Sunday for ping-pong. The coolest thing about this visit was getting a tour of her beautiful house to find she has 3 sloths. Where is the camera when you need it? They truly are cute, 2 of them are 2 toed and the little one is a 3 toed sloth. The 3 toed are very mellow and friendly the 2 you have to be careful they have some nice K9 teeth that can do some harm not to mention the claws on their toes.
We managed to rest for two days before heading to the Free Zone in Colon, wow that is like a city in itself. No wonder they give you a 3 day pass as one day is definitely not enough to see everything. Early the following day Manuela headed into Panama City with Cindy and Reed while Sid worked in the bilge redoing the ground plane and bonding wires under the floor and anywhere where it is hard to get to. Poor guy had cut up hands and nicks and bruises all over when I came home. But that didn’t keep him from joining us again for a Free Zone day.
And boom another week was over and the ping-pong game was on again.
The weather has been grumpy all this time, around 4 pm a nasty swell comes in from the west and rolls all the boats around and of course it rains at least once a day and we’re getting pretty good with the rain shuffle.
We have never seen soooo much rain in our entire cruising career. Wouldn’t you think that with all the rain the boat would be clean? Nope, the at times very heavy downpour just moves the dirt around. We have thought about painting the boat green and have green canvas so you don’t see all the algae growing everywhere. Daily mildew patrol is a must inside the boat. I use a Windex/Vinegar solution to rub down all the walls to keep up with the fast growing nuisance. Besides the nuisance this area is just absolutely beautiful and we both fell in love with it. Portobelo is located in the northern part of the Isthmus of Panama and has a deep natural harbor.
Today Portobelo is a sleepy town with a population of fewer than 3000 people. Portobelo was founded in 1597 by Spanish explorer Francisco Velarde y Mercado, but legend has it that Christopher Columbus originally named it in 1502 Puerto Bello, meaning Beautiful Port. It is also said that Francis Drakes died of dysentery in 1596 and was buried here in a lead coffin. Between the 16h and 18th century Portobelo was silver exporting port.
Portobelo was attacked by privateer pirate Captain Henry Morgan (still Sid’s favorite rum) in 1668. Despite the good fortifications he managed to capture Portobelo with his fleet of 450 men and plundered it for 14 days, stripping nearly all its wealth while raping, torturing and killing the inhabitants. Wow didn’t think he was such a mean dude.
After the British disaster in the Blockade of Porto Bello under Admiral Hosier in 1726 the port was attacked and catpured a new in November 1739 by a British fleet by Admiral Vernen.
In 1741 the Spanish defeated Vernen and recovered Portobelo in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias. Vernon was forced to return to England with a decimated fleet, he lost more than 18 000 of his men.
Portobelo is most famous for its gold and silver trade, there was at time so much gold in this town that silver ingots were stored on the streets.
Still today many sunken ships are found with gold and silver coins and some lucky folks find a silver coin now and then on the beaches.
Portobelo is also famous for the recently renovated Iglesia de San Juan de Dios which is the home of Cristo Negro de Portobelo a black Christ statue which has several stories how this statue got here. Each story dates back to the 17th century and each story has three parts, the arrival of the statue, the refusal of the stature to leave the village and its veneration. The version we heard is that it was found in a sunken ship. Regardless of which version, each story concludes that the statue is responsible for miraculous deeds in the lives of his devotees. Twice a year the robes of the Black Christ statue are changed, each is used only once. The Christ is adorned with a red wine colored robe for the Black Christ Festival which is held each October 21 and is changed to a purple one for Holy Week. Tens of thousands of pilgrims visit the church for the Black Christ Festival. We at the Festival 10 years ago but it left a bit of a bitter taste in our mouth as within the first 10 minutes we came ashore some hoodlum tried to pick pocket Sid twice, without success I have to add. Now 10 years later we find Portobelo to be safe and very friendly. Then we had less than 10 boats in the anchorage now there are more than 50 boats here and is now the main port for Back-Packers. There must be around 70 boats that shuttle Back-Packers from here to Cartagena and back and fourth. We call them cattle boats as they overload the boats with these young kids who have no idea about boat safety and how rough the waters in this area can get. A 40 foot boats takes on as many as 14 youngsters and the boats themselves look in pretty bad shape and just this year alone 4 Back-Packer boats ended on reefs in the San Blas. The most disturbing thing about them is that they take over the beautiful remote San Blas islands, don’t respect the Kuna Yala laws or the Kuna people in general, leave garbage behind and give us cruisers a bad name.
We’ve been enjoying Portobelo immensely and have gotten so busy that we hardly find time to keep up with the Blog. At least twice a week (mostly Manuela) takes the bus into Colon or Panama for shopping. The bus ride to Colon takes about 1 ½ hours and costs $1.60, to Panama from there another 1 ½ for 3.10 in an air-conditioned bus with movies, not bad at all. Since we have friends on the Pacific side anchored in the Las Brisas area overlooking the incredible skyline of Panama City we decided to go for a visit. It was really great to run into Lena and Larry on now Hobo, former Allonsy when we met in Mexico and realized it had been already 5 years since we last met in Jacksonville Florida. Not just that but Dona on Nintai, we also had met in Mexico, joined us for a delicious lunch and the whole fun day and not just that Giny and Werner on Ornen, we also had met in Mexico, were on their way on the ferry from the Las Perlas and arrived at 5, so we waited an extra hour for them and it truly was a great surprise for all of us. Hey three boats in one visit that’s amazing. Another visit we did to Panama was to see an old friend we had met at the Pedro Miguel Yacht Club 10 years back Carl Smith, doesn’t look a day older than when we met him and he still hast the same sense of humor, we had a wonderful day catching up and will have more to come as this is not our only visit to see him. There I said it we will stick around in Panama for a while.
All our friends on Puerto Lindo, keep us busy for the rest of the time, Thursday afternoon is girls domino afternoon. Saturday nights, Karaoke at Captain Jacks which the last one was a huge turnout and everybody had a wonderful time with the many talented singers, no seriously they all knew how to carry a tune. Sunday’s food and ping-pong affair at Binnie’s, which is always a lot of fun and I even managed to kick Reed’s butt in ping-pong.
And I enjoy most cuddling with the sloth.
The scent of tropical flowers that swept over our boats in the early evening and during the night drove Jeannie and me nuts so we went on a wild flower hunt and found an amazing array, which some were out of reach or between spider webs not to mention the huge spiders eyeballing us, a squeal here and there we managed to collect beautiful bouquets.
After all this time in Portobelo we finally remembered that there was a river to explore, Sunny and Blake on Slow Mocean joined us. We took separate dinghies and ventured up the river or rivers as there are three different rivers to follow. Since it was still fairly early in the morning we did see quite a few birds, but what we didn’t expect was instead of just mangroves the rivers snaked through jungle and fields with Brama bulls. It was a very scenic ride and the further up the river we followed of course the river narrowed, at some points it was barely just wide enough for one dinghy to pass but the amazing thing was the depth still was up to 10 feet. The lowest in depth we found was 2.5 other than the hump Blake got stuck on and the rocks we hit in the lagoon area. In those narrow parts the river bed was way over our heads and you just know you don’t want to be here in a heavy downpour. We rounded one corner along this high riverbed and it was a bit creepy having dozens of buzzards look down on you. The funny thing about this trip was Sunny half laying on the dinghy tube loosing her croc in the water and while retrieving it Sid jokingly said: “Oh look there is a croc in this water”, and we all had a good laugh until about 2 minutes later when we actually did see a croc. Yes, Gaby, sorry, we really didn’t know that they are here when you were swimming around the boat LOL!
Not just are crocs in these waters but now and then after a heavy rainfall snakes are washed out of the trees into the river end up being rescued by an anchor chain and so we had two neighbors with boas on deck.
A couple days later Sid and I were just going into town when we noticed this huge black wall of a cloud with an enormous foot approach. Whenever you see such a cloud you know that there is a lot of wind involved and so we decided to stay onboard, which was a good thing. The wind roared and Sid noticed that Slow Mocean started dragging and went on a walkabout. Sonny and Blake at that time were in Panama City and no-one was aboard. In heavy rain and lightning bolts hitting all around us we tried to rescue Slow Mocean. Sid could not start the engines and there was no way to hip tow a catamaran so I was towing in the dinghy in reverse (line was only on the bow of dink) into deeper water. It was tough going as the wind was still blowing hard and a dinghy just does not perform so well with the engine in reverse. Camille on Bohemia came and helped and it was easier to tow the boat with two dinghies. ½ hour later another boater came to see if he could help and ended up on the bow with Sid pulling the anchor up. About one hour later Slow Mocean was secured.
In the following days Discovery a Panamanian charter boat came in high speed through the anchorage and rocked everybody. He comes through here about every other week and has never left a wake like this, so many cruisers were upset especially the one where the wife fell down the companion way and the guy who was on the transom fixing his water pump which rolled into the water due to the wake. The captain was hailed on the radio by several boats and asked to please slow down, but no answer. He turned around in front of Portobelo with throttle slightly down but then pushed the throttle full forward and left us another nasty wake then anchored on the outside of the bay. Several of us jumped into the dinghy and went out to question the captain. We were told that the captain was not on board that he was in town checking in with the port captain. That’s funny the port captain was not in town anymore and his office closed as a cruisers had tried to call him. Anyway, we all contacted the owner of Discovery via email and the following day the port captain from Colon arrived to discus the situation and was actually shocked that nobody wanted compensation. We just wanted him to never do it again and maybe an apology. As a matter of fact the port captain asked us three times if we were going to sue, we did not want compensation. We all bought him drinks, fed him and he and his wife loved it so much they stayed for karaoke and he ended up singing “ I Did it My Way” five times to every bodies dismay LOL.
We left the following day to Puerto Lindo and picked up Binnie’s mooring which is tucked into the corner behind a reef. We had barely settled in when a dark, dark cloud was creeping over the hill and unleashed its fury. We had winds up to 35 knots and since we were bow and stern moored our sunshade acted like a sail and we had to hang onto it so that it would not get damaged. It was a fairly big system and brought a lot of rain. It was overcast for the rest of the day but that did not bother us as we had a fun afternoon again at Binnie’s for ping-pong and once more I managed to kick Reed’s butt!!!!
After a quite night in Linton and the sun started to peak over the dense jungle’s canopy on top of the hill we snuck out of the anchorage. We had little to no wind at first but with all the thunderstorms forming along the Panamanian coast the wind started to fill in to a nice 18 knots and had a wonderful and fast sail to Chichime. Fast was good then as soon as we were securely anchored a pretty good squall hit us with winds up to 35 knots. This is definitely the time of daily thundershowers, the rain we don’t mind so much, it’s the darts the angry clouds throw towards and around us we don’t like, but when they are over we love the fresh and cool air.
Enjoying our fresh brewed coffee and a quite morning, Sid mentioned that an ulu was already approaching, a bit early for 7 AM. The head of a young Kuna girl popped up over the lee cloth peaking right into the cockpit. Where are her manners and our privacy! She was forgiven right away then as soon as she saw me she yelled “Manuela”, wow, she still remembered my name from our 2 day’s stay 2 months ago! Melina, her sister Princelin, Calisto (not sure if he is the father) and the adorable grandma Sipu hung around quite a while to chat with us, didn’t even try to sell us anything which was nice for a change. They were so excited to see us again they came by at least twice a day to chat. Of course there is always something Kuna’s want, so we gave them some reading and sun glasses and they put in an order in for nail polish for the girls, cardboard box for Sipu, a T-shirt for Calisto, a tarp for their thatched roof and powdered milk. To our surprise Sipu gave us each a necklace she had made, that is unusual for Kunas to give presents they take them but rarely give them.
By the way Gaby your “Gabydup Island” is still here and we had Mama and baby dolphin play around the boat in the early morning, what a treat.
The joy of boating! We tried to send some emails out but learned that our SSB was not tuning at all therefore we were unable to transmit, always something to repair.
Three days later we motored to Banadup in the East Lemons and we anchored pretty much in our old spot. While in the process of anchoring a little boy stood on the beach in front of his hut waving and screaming ……uela. “Did you hear that”, Sid said”, he’s calling you!” – “Nah”, I said and pointed at the Kuna in the water next to our neighbor, “I think he’s calling “abuelo” his grandpa cleaning our neighbor’s boat”. But then again the kid was looking straight at us so I waved back at him and he started jumping up and down yelling “Manuela, Manuela”, wow a 7 year old boy remembers my name, I was flattered. An hour later the boy with his parents paddled their ulu out to Paradise, warmly shook our hands and told us how happy they were to see us on their last day on the island. All the San Blas islands are owned by individual families and each family rotates the guardians every 3 months. Their time was up but they assured us they would be back in November.
It was actually fun watching the changes of the guards the following morning. A big panga loaded to the hilt with people and all their belongings landed on the beach in front of the Kuna huts, where the family leaving was standing amongst all their belongings piled on the beach. The family exchanged a few words then the women went right to work and moved all their belongings onto the island. While then the women of the leaving party moved all their belonging into the panga the other women moved everything into the hut. I have no idea how they kept their stuff separated as everything is packed into the same plastic containers. The women worked their butts off schlepping everything into the boat including huge and heavy bags filled with coconut. The guys kind of just stood around letting the women do all the heavy stuff. Then when all was loaded we got a good chuckle out of them first chasing the dog, then the cat and the funniest the chicken. All took about 20 minutes and you would think after not having seen your relatives in months you would sit together for a while and chat, nope they barely said goodbye to the new family but they did wave to us as they motored by and away from the island.
We couldn’t pass up the waist deep water again on the little sand spit of one of the island where we found clams last time. Wanted to make sure we had left some behind and sure enough we found enough for a wonderful dinner again. After claming we went to the resort island for an ice cold beer to find that the friendly old man now wasn’t so friendly anymore and he had raised all his prices by a third.
Our second night September 1st, we had thunder and lightening all night long it was a noisy night but stayed off shore and away from us but it did leave us with a cloudy and misty day. Due to Hurricane Irene up north the air was sucked out of here and pulled the ITCZ (Intra Tropical Conversion Zone) up which was all the lightening we saw.
We were suppose to meet Roberto in San Blas on his backpacker run on his boat Manatee, but after postponing his trip for a fourth or fifth time we decided we could not wait any longer to deliver his new alternator in Cholon. We calculated that our 200 mile trip would take us anywhere from 40 to 48 hours and to time it right to arrive sometime after daybreak we decided 3 PM would be a good time for departure. We left behind the beautiful coast of Panama with clouds building up rather fast, some were towering clouds fully built to explode into massive thunderstorms. We watched them head out to see where we were going but realized that they headed in a NW direction and Paradise into a NE direction and were hoping that we missed them all. It came close but we never did get any rain or thunder but the clouds did send us some 15 to 18 knots of wind which we fully took advantage of sailing with 6 to 6.5 knots towards our next destination. 6.5 knots is fast for us and we realized at this speed we would arrived at 11 at night and that if it kept up we would eventually have to slow down as it was not an option to enter the reef in Cholon at night. But the wind only lasted as long as the thunderclouds did then the motor had to help as 2 knots would definitely get us behind schedule. We had a spectacular sunset with all the left over clouds. A tired booby managed to land on the bow of Paradise and settled in for the night. Sid took the first watch and a few hours later as I woke up he told me about this huge cloud exploding with one lighting bolt after another right in front of us, he assessed where it was headed and figured if he changed course 30 degrees to the north we might miss it. Good calculation on his part we did miss this cloud which was very active, but what we didn’t expect was behind that cloud was another cell, then another and yet another before we knew it we were in the middle of storm cells getting pelted with heavy rain and darted with lighting bolts, some hit so close to the boat we could feel our hair rise and smelled the ozone, it was not fun, not to mention we didn’t get any sleep for over 3 hours. Poor Booby was pelted by the rain but he staid through the night. What a relief it was to finally manage to get out of these angry clouds and were thankful that at least the sea was calm and the 4 to 6 foot swells we had prior were all knocked down by the rain. Irene had still her pull on the ITCZ and there was no escape from it. The rest of the trip went smooth we had wind enough to sail without motor on to just motoring but the sea stayed calm and the sky clear for the second night. On the second morning as the first sunrays blinked over the horizon we could recognize the Rosario islands and at 8 am we snuck through the entrance to the calm bay of Cholon. Hello World gave us a heartfelt welcome as we motored by their boat and later on that day spoiled us with a good cup of tea and coffee on their boat and we caught up on our adventures. But first we anchored, had a big breakfast and took a good nap.
You would think all the rain we had in Panama would keep the boat clean, absolutely not, it just moved the dirt from one place to the next so we decided it was time to visit a marina to give Paradise a well needed bath. Club Nautico was out of the question since it is first of all a very crappy marina and second of all gets waked all day long by the many pangas. We opted for the Manzanillo yard which has some med-mooring slips. Here we are scrubbing Paradise and I tell you a lot of scrubbing it is. Everything inside out is getting cleaned including all the walls which you can watch how the mildew grows.
