1/21/2018
After two days of working on the starter and finally getting it to work, we left the Rosario Islands of Colombia and
headed out to Panama. Josh and Suzee on Think Good Thoughts had left the day
before but Lequesteau with guests, Kevin and Denise had waited for us. We
hauled the anchor up and headed out under power. There was very little wind and
we motored until about 1515. The seas were rolly and we had put up the main to
decrease our rolling. About 1515 we put up the jib and were able to turn the
engine off and still make 4.5 to 5 knots. We lost the wind around 2300 and had
to motor once more. Though we much prefer to sail, we are not purists and will
use the engine to make decent time or to get to an anchorage before dark or for
other safety reasons. At 0300 on the 22nd, we were sailing again in
light air. But this only lasted for a couple of hours and it was back to
motoring. At 0900 we spotted Panama and we were anchored in Obaldia by 1000.
The anchorage here was very rough and rolly. Greig and Caroline put their
dinghy in the water and picked me up so I could go in to check in. Greg stayed
on the boat to keep an eye on things and to add some diesel to the tank from
our jerry cans on deck.
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| Sunrise as we approached Panama |
Panama has
been the most expensive country to check in, by far. It cost $200 for the boat
and $105 per person. A total of $410 for us. And that only gives us 90 days in
the country. And we can’t extend the visa either. This does not include the
$60/ month ($20 for the boat and $20 per person) that the Kuna Yala, the
indigenous people of the San Blas Islands charge to cruise in their islands
which is the main focus of our cruising here.
Anyway,
after getting all checked in, we returned to the boats and hauled anchor once
more to head to Puerto Perme about 10 miles away. The anchorage there was much
calmer although small with a lot of shallow spots. We used the Panama Guide
by Eric Bauhaus throughout the San Blas and other parts of Panama. It was
indispensable! There are no other accurate paper charts for the area and the
Navionics and Garmin electronic charts are so far off, they are dangerous. We had
gotten most of the Bauhaus charts on open CPN format and used a program called
Sea IQ on our ipad to navigate in Panama. We would use Bauhaus’ waypoints and
put them into our chart plotter and plan our routes accordingly. Then with the
program on the ipad, we could actually see where the boat was on Bauhaus’
charts. Often the chartplotter showed us going over land or a reef when we were
just easily cruising along in the clear on the Bauhaus chart. We could have
just used Bauhaus’ waypoints and used the chartplotter as several friends did,
but we found it disconcerting to look at the chartplotter and see the track
going over a reef or land. With his charts in our ipad, we could tell how much
room we really had and were more confident anchoring and going through cuts in
the reef. Best of all, we did not run aground or damage the boat.
1/23/2018 We
left Puerto Perme the next morning and did another overnight passage to Linton
Bay, bypassing the San Blas islands. Though it meant we would have to turn
around and head back into the wind to get to the San Blas, Kevin and Denise on
Lequesteau had to get to Panama City to fly home and since Greig and Caroline
had been so kind to wait for us in Rosarios, we figured we would stay with them
on this part of the journey. We motored a good part of the way again. There was
a lot of debris and Sargasso in the water and at one point we hit a submerged
log. We had to reverse the engine to clear the prop but it ran fine. We made it
to Linton Bay just after noon the next day and anchored in the Bay near Puerto
Lindo. We had dinner at a little restaurant there that evening. We hit the sack early and got up the next day to take the bus to
Colon to find an ATM and check out the city. Kevin and Denise got off the bus
in Sabanitas to change buses to go to Panama City. We continued on to Colon.
The parts of Colon we saw were definitely not inviting. Of course, we were near
the bus station which is not usually the good area of town. But what we saw was
filthy, crowded, run-down, and rather scary. We did find an ATM and a place to
eat lunch which was nothing memorable. We got the bus back to Puerto Lindo and
were happy to be back on the boat. The next town of any size from Linton Bay
area is Portobella which has a pretty harbor but tends to get swells in there.
You can get some basic groceries there but there is no place to get cash. So every
time we needed to do a more thorough grocery trip or provision for a few weeks,
it was another trip back to Sabanitas (1 ½ hour bus ride) or in to Quatro Alto
on the edge of Colon (1 hr 45 min. bus ride) which had a cleaner grocery and a
hardware store and a minimal marine store (mostly fishing stuff). We visited Portobello to see the fort and the church and a little museum there. Christopher Columbus discovered Portobello in 1502 on his fourth voyage to the New World. It soon became the center of transshipments between Latin and Central America and Spain. At least 45 Spanish galleons loaded with millions of pesos of treasures left from Portobello between 1574 and 1702. Because of this, it was often the target of pirates such as Henry Morgan. Thus, the fort...
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| Our bus from Linton Bay to Colon |
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| Some of the other buses at the bus station in Colon |
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| The inside of our bus from Linton Bay to Colon |
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| The church in Portobello |
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| The statue of the Black Christ of Portobello. Many people from Latin America make a pilgrimage here in October. |
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| The old fort |
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| The harbor of Portobello |
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| An old stone in the fort with the date of 1758 |
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| There were actually 3 forts. One at each end of town and another across the bay |
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| Wonder whose old bones this vulture has spotted |
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| It was interesting to see how they built the walls with what they had on hand...old coral |
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Some of the weapons in the old museum
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| Priest's garments |
We stayed in
Linton Bay for almost three weeks before we got a good weather window to head
back to the San Blas Islands. We found we could get wifi at Marina Linton and
found an ex-pat lady named Sarah who did laundry (wash, dry and fold) for $5
per load. She also cooked lunches and would bring them over to the marina to
sell several times per week. We heard howler monkeys every morning and evening
on the mainland side. To me, they sounded like a cow in distress.
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| A stray pig looking for a snack under the bridge in Puerto Lindo |
We visited
Isla Linton to see the monkeys. These weren’t howler monkeys, but I don’t know
what kind they were. BIG MISTAKE!!!! Several people had told us we really
should go see the monkeys on the island. Friends posted photos of feeding the
monkeys. So… we went. We took the dinghies over to the island and looked around
the shore for signs of the monkeys. We didn’t see or hear any monkeys so we
walked along a trail that took us to a clearing in the woods. There, a little
female monkey came out and we fed her apple slices. She seemed quite happy with
this until suddenly she heard something and ran back up a tree. Soon there was
a male and another female that came into the area. He wanted nothing to do with
our apples and jumped on the bamboo causing it to hit Caroline in the head. We tried
to walk back out of the area but he kept circling us and wouldn’t take any of the
apple slices I tried to give him. Everyone else had picked up a big stick and
he stayed away from them. He kept getting closer to me and the more I tried to
back away, the closer he and his friends got. Finally, I turned and ran (and
screamed like a girl!) as he grabbed my leg and I fell into the muck. Grieg and
Caroline waved the sticks at him to give me a chance to get up and I kept
running all the way back to the dinghy. Poor Greg was stuck in the back behind
everyone else but he had a big stick so the monkey didn’t go after him. The
monkeys followed us all the way back to the shore and sat there watching us. I
had a scratch and a big bruise on my calf for weeks afterward. Lessons learned:
1. Don’t go to the island looking for the monkeys. 2. If you do go, carry a big
stick and wave it over your head if they come too close. 3. Stay near the shore
so you can make a quick escape and not get surrounded like we did.
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| The friendly female we met first |
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| In a palm tree near the shore, watching us get in our dinghies. |
2/11/2018 We
finally got a decent weather report (seas less than 8 feet and wind not
directly on the nose) and headed out from Linton Bay to Chichime in the San
Blas. We left at 0400 to be sure we
could get there before dark. At least we had our GPS track to get us out of
Linton Bay it was dark when we left there. We had to motor into the wind
for a couple of hours then sailed with a reefed main when we got off the wind a
bit. The wind decreased later in the day and we were able to shake out the reef
and make 5 knots. We anchored in the Chichime Cays just south of Uchutupu
Dummat at 1445. The names in the San Blas islands are in the Kuna Yala language
and many are a challenge to pronounce. The Kuna Yala official boat made their
rounds while we were in Chichime and we had to pay our $60 for the next month
in the islands. Panama officially says this is an illegal charge and the Kunas
do not have the right to charge people to cruise or anchor in the waters around
their islands. But what are you going to do when they have official little
books and papers and tell you this is the rule of their Congresso (Governing
body) and you have to pay? I suppose we could refuse but we didn’t want to
start trouble between the cruisers and the Kuna Yala. There was already much
trouble with the Kunas refusing to allow charters in their islands and blocking
the roads so people couldn’t get in to the boats to be picked up.
Unfortunately, this also prevented people who wanted to pick up family or
guests from getting their friends onboard even though it was not a hired
charter.
The next day
we went ashore with the crews of Lequesteau and Think Good Thoughts and had
lunch on the little island around the lagoon. We were surprised to find that
there were many people camping on the island and the locals had bult little
food huts and even had portable generators. Sort of spoiled our vision of
primitive island paradise. We spent several days here and re-anchored in a more
protected area after the first day because some increased wind was predicted.
We had a visit from Venancio, a local mola-maker and, of course, I had to buy
some molas. Molas are the traditional clothing for the women of the Kuna Yala. It is a top which they wear with a blouse underneath and a long skirt. The mola is handmade with many layers of fabric cut and stitched so that a multi-colored design is formed. A good one is a work of art with very tiny stitches and inventive designs. It was really hard to choose and I wound up with 8 molas!
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| The restaurants at Chichime |
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| The lagoon at Chichime |
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The former Grand Manan (Canada) ferry which had been purchased to run as a ferry in Panama and ran aground in the San Blas islands on its maiden voyage.
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| Suzee, Caroline, Greig, Greg and Josh waiting for our lunch on Chichime. |
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| Venancio showing off his molas in our cockpit |
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| Venancio explains the symbolism on some of the molas. |
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| Our mola collection |
After a few days, we motored over to Banadup
in the Eastern Lemon Cays about 3 miles away. We were in an area surrounded by
reefs in 22 feet of water. We went over to Dog Island in the dinghy and snorkeled
the wreck near the island. Again, a local Kuna man came out in his boat and
said we had to pay $3 each to snorkel the wreck. Greig and Caroline had gotten
out of the water first and he approached them in their dinghy and they paid for
all of us. If it had been us, we would have just refused. We had no money with
us anyway. We always paid if we went on
their islands or at least bought drinks or food but to charge people to snorkel on a
wreck we felt was ridiculous.
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| Sign on Banadup says welcome to Frigate Island |
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| A Kuna home. Most of the ones we saw on other islands were more substantial than this one. |
We dinghied over to Dog Island and snorkeled the old wreck there.
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| Part of the old ship encrusted with coral |
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| Bowl sponge |
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| Brown bowl sponge |
We moved
over to the Western Lemon Cays for a couple of days and snorkeled a bit but didn't find any fish and not much coral. We did see quite a few starfish.After a couple of days, we decided to go to the Hollandes Cays. Coming out of the
Lemon Cays, we had the wind and a strong current against us. It was reminiscent
of the cuts in the Bahamas. But we made it out just fine and motored into the
wind to Waisaladup on the western side of the Hollandes Cays. We had to anchor
in 25 feet and actually moved just at dusk because we decided we were too close
to a reef. But this was the first place in the San Blas that lived up to our
pre-conceived ideas of what it would be like. There was a family living on the
island who were friendly and welcomed us to their island. There was a reef all
along the southern shore of the island that we enjoyed snorkeling on several
times. We saw a nurse shark, sting ray, lots of coral and some squid. We also
walked all the way around the island one day and met some of the people living
on the other side. The children tried to sell necklaces and molas but we had
been swimming before our walk and didn’t have any money with us.
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| A bit of coral in the Western Lemon Cays |
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| A cushion sea star. We found many starfish in shallow water. |
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| For some reason, this one was flipped over. |
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| An island in the Western Lemon Cays with one hut on it. |
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| Several huts on another island with a shell wall dividing the private area of the island from the public area. |
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| Two local men going by in their ullu, basically a dugout canoe with a sail. |
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| A hut on the island of Waisaladup in Western Hollandes Cays. This is where we really started to fall in love with the San Blas islands. The water is as beautiful as the Bahamas but the islands are prettier: more trees and more white sandy beaches. |
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| Not sure what this huge green coral is |
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| Another stingray |
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| The beautiful beach of Waisaladup |
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| The local family rakes the beach every morning. |
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| Their bar hut where they serve soft drinks or beer to visitors |
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| Some nice elkhorn coral |
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| Maybe a massive starlet coral. It was in very shallow water. |
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| Nice big plates of elkhorn coral |
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| Massive amounts of varied coral |
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| A nice blue tang |
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| If you look closely, you can just make out the moon high in the sky between the palms. |
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| A family hut on the island |
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| Hundreds of little fish feeding on the growth on the bottom of our hull. Time for a bottom job! |
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| A nurse shark on our snorkel around the reef |
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| Unusual to see a trumpet fish in blue |
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| Fields of coral |
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| Lots of grunts |
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| A couple of blue chromis |
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| No idea what this fish is |
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| A brown trumpet fish blending in with the coral |
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| Some type of encrusting sponge? |
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| Possibly sea urchins |
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Finally got a clear shot of that trumpet fish
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After a few
days, we moved on to the Eastern Hollandes Cays (about 2 hours away)and anchored in the “swimming
pool” anchorage between Banedup (a different one from the one in Lemon Cays)
and BBQ island. This is the most incredibly beautiful anchorage we have ever
seen. There was an island to our right and one a bit ahead of us to the right.
To the left farther out was the reef which protected us from the seas. We had a
breeze all the time and could watch and listen to the surf on the reef. The water
was turquoise, blue, green and yellowish brown depending upon where you looked.
It was amazing. We had a great snorkel spot just behind the boat and a half
dozen more within a 5 to 10 minute dinghy ride. We snorkeled almost every day;
had island clean-up parties and pot luck parties. A veggie boat came every week
to 10 days so we got some fresh veggies although pickings were slim. Once a
month a grocery boat would come and even brought meats and things people
pre-ordered from Panama City. We got an order in one time and got some meat,
flour and yeast. We had run out of flour and yeast and needed to make some
bread as there was nowhere to buy any.
For us, this was our idyllic cruising life. Nothing we HAD to do. Just swim and snorkel when we felt like it; read , cook simple meals, and look and listen to the sea. The beauty was astounding. It's not the ideal for everyone; few conveniences... no laundry, no wifi, very little in the way of groceries. You have to come prepared if you want to stay a while. But we LOVED it.
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| Greg enjoying his morning cup of coffee while at the helm on the way to the "Swimming Pool" anchorage. |
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| Our view |
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| Christmas tree worms on mustard hill coral |
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| Sea cucumber |
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| Close-up of sea rods |
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| Another type of sea rod |
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| We saw lots of beautiful purple fan coral |
Another day we snorkeled the wall off the island of Kalugirdup and the reef between there and our boat.
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| Indigo Hamlet |
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| Not sure what this guy is |
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| A stoplight parrotfish |
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| Corky Sea Finger coral |
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| Blue headed wrasse |
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| A branching vase sponge |
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| Magnificent feather duster: when approached (as in if you poke your finger at it) it pull itself into the stalk at its base |
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| Blue Tang |
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| Three spot damselfish, juvenile |
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| Brain Coral |
We snorkeled on a reef to our northwest and then on a long reef south of Tiadup.
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| One of the largest trunk fish we have seen |
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| a grunt |
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| A squad of squids. We saw about 9 of them swimming together this day. |
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| a cool arch/hole in the reef wall |
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| Pretty sea plume |
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| We saw quite a bit if this lavender-colored sea rod type of coral |
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| four eye butterfly fish |
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| a really big plate of elkhorn coral |
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| Looks like black sea rods according to the pictures I found. Why they are called "black" when they are lavender, I don't know. |
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| If you look closely you can see the outline of the flounder on the bottom of the sea |
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| A really nice cushion sea star |
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| red heart urchin |
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| A Magnificent feather duster |
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| Spotfin Butterflyfish |
We left the "swimming pool" and went to Nargana which is an island very close to the mainland. There is a town there and we were able to buy some more food and a chicken and get a Digicel data card for our phone (found out San Blas is one of the few places our google fi pone has no service) so we could have some communications and get our taxes done. Not what we really wanted to do or even think about in “paradise” but some things couldn’t be avoided. While in Nargana, we caught up with Jump and found they had rescued and adopted a little dog that had been dumped on one of the islands and left to the crocodiles. We also took the dinghy up the river and washed clothes in the river. Felt like a Pioneer Woman! No sightings of crocodiles or snakes, thankfully.
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| On the way to Nargana. |
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| Nargana town. You can get the basics here but that's it. |
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| Pulling the dinghy over the shallows at the entrance to the river to go upriver and wash clothes. |
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| It was a beautiful tree-covered waterway |
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| Lots of mangrove roots |
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| A local cemetery |
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| The locals from Nargana come up the river every day in their canoes to work on their farms |
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| The washer |
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| The rinse cycle |
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| Locals carrying bamboo poles back to Nargana for construction |
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| Work is done. Heading back to the boat. |
After
leaving Nargana, we headed for Green Island, only about 6 miles away and very
picturesque. We anchored just behind the island on the south side. This
protected us from the wind but did make it warmer without the breeze. We walked
on the island and just enjoyed the scenery. We tried snorkeling in one area
near the boat but there wasn’t anything to see there. There were several boats
in this area and it sometimes gets a bit crowded as there isn’t a lot of room
to anchor without being on top of one another or on a reef. Lisa, a well-known
Kuna Yala mola-maker and transvestite came by selling her molas and I just had
to buy a couple more.
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| Christmas tree worms |
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| Not sure what this guy is but he blends in so well he would be hard for a predator to spot. Nature is so amazing! |
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| A large school of blue tangs going by. |
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| Lots of beautifully colored Christmas tree worms on this coral |
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| Orduptarboat, the island in W. Coco Banderos where we anchored. |
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| The matriarch of the family on the island in traditional dress with her mola over a blouse, a wrap skirt and beading on her legs. |
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| The baby of the family |
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| One of the family's huts |
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| The other hut was a kitchen and working area |
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| He shows us how they smoke their fish over coconut shells. This preserves the fish and they don't need refrigeration. |
We made another
trip to Nargana for more data cards and some provisions. Then we headed back to Green Island. This time
we anchored just south of Green at Waisaladup ( another one). It was a bit
tricky getting into the anchorage here and we were glad we had the Bauhaus charts
on the ipad. Even so, there were several boats there and we didn’t have a lot
of swing room.
The next day
we returned to the Swimming Pool anchorage and spent several days snorkeling
the “Japanese Garden" reef and the Sandy spit just to the south of it. We also snorkeled out beyond BBQ island
near the outer reef. We found there was a very strong undertow out there and
did not stay very long. But we did see a nurse shark and a stingray. Snorkeling
Barracuda reef, just behind the boats in the anchorage, we saw schools of
squid, several rays and a couple of porcupine fish. Gris Gris, another New Orleans
boat came by and gave us some grouper fillets one day. Greg cooked them up and
they were delicious.
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| Some type of rope sponge? |
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| Corky Sea Finger coral |
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| Some type of squirrel fish |
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| Butter Hamlet |
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| Redband parrotfish initial phase |
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| Greg swimming behind some giant elkhorn coral |
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| Schoolmaster Snapper |
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| A log on the sandy spit near where we snorkeled reminded us of an alligator. |
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| stingray |
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| a sand diver |
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| Not sure what this white coral/sponge is |
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| This stingray has done a good job of camouflaging himself in the sand. |
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| A Porcupine fish. This is probably the largest one we have seen and he was on the shallow reef right behind our boat. |
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| These fish will puff up when threatened and then their quills stick out so they are less likely to be eaten. We haven't ever seen one in that condition. |
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| Lots of rays on barracuda reef just behind the boat. |
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| And lots of squid |
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| This really huge ray came swimming right past me as I was filming the squid. He was missing his tail. |
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| Saw a squad of 11 squid that day. |
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| Some local men sailing their ullu, a type of dugout canoe. |
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| Arkin proudly displays the flag his wife sewed for us. |
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| A father and son paddling for home |
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| The mists in the mountains and all the way to the shore were constant while we were in Snug Harbor. |
After a
couple of dreary, cloudy days, we headed back West to Niadup in the Devil Cays.
We sailed with all 3 sails up, making 7+ knots. Niadup proved to be a bit
tricky to enter and anchor in but Lequesteau and we both found a spot. The
anchorage was rolly and uncomfortable.
A local man from Niadup came out and charged us a $10 anchoring fee. We asked
about a Kuna Yala museum we had been told was located there and he just kept
nodding his head, yes. We thought we might try to go in the next morning to the
museum but it was still rolling and uncomfortable then so we decided to just
move on. We raised the main and jib and sailed back to Green Island in just
over 13 knots of wind and making 6.8 knots. So nice to have a clean boat
bottom!
When we got
to Green Island, we anchored just to the East of the island where there was
some breeze to keep us a bit cooler. We found Slow Down and Slow Dancing both
there already. Jump came in a day later. It was like a Grenada/Colombia boat
reunion. Magique, a Canadian boat with Brian and Paula aboard (who are friends
of Greg’s sister and brother-in-law) were also there. We snorkeled together one
day on the north side of Green Island and over near Waisaladup. The highlight
of the day was a huge Grey Angel fish we watched for quite a while. We walked
around Green island the next day and burned some trash we had accumulated.
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| Happy hour on board catamaran Think Good Thoughts. Greg, Josh, Ed, Cheryl, Greig, Caroline, Dan, Melissa and Suzee |
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| A couple of trumpet fish gliding by |
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| The spectacular variety of coral and undersea life! |
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| Greg swims past a really large coral formation. |
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| A juvenile yellowtail damselfish.... love those iridescent blue spots |
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| It looked like this coral was splitting in two. |
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| Lots of those little Christmas tree worms on this yellow coral |
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| A sergeant major swimming past some sponges |
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| A really large sponge formation. Not sure if this is a vase sponge or tube sponge. |
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| Such colorful coral! |
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| A beautiful, large grey angelfish |
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| We watched him for a long time. He didn't seem to be bothered by our presence at all. |
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| Social Feather Duster |
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| Some brown tube sponges among fire coral and massive starlet coral |
3/27/2018 We returned
once more to the Swimming Pool anchorage and spent a couple more days
snorkeling, showing Melissa and Dan our favorite spots. Then we headed back to
Linton Bay and took a slip in the marina there. We planned to go to Panama City
before our 90 days were up and needed to leave the boat in a secure spot.
Our last day of snorkeling in the San Blas:
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| A foureye butterflyfish |
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| Some beautiful rusty red and black coral |
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| One last squid........ |
The San Blas Islands of Panama should definitely be on everyone's bucket list of places to see. The water is so many amazing shades of green, blue, turquoise, etc.... The reefs are just incredibly beautiful and easily accessible without diving. In fact, diving is prohibited in the San Blas. The islands themselves are so picturesque with their palm trees and sandy beaches. We were overwhelmed with the variety and beauty of nature here. The Hollandes Cays and the Coco Banderos and Green Island areas were our favorites. The enjoyable sailing from one island to the next, often just 2 hours away and the ability to swim and snorkel every day just made it a wonderful place. We were awed by nature's beauty and bounty and content to listen to her sounds and rhythms on the sea.
To be
continued in Panama, Part II: Panama City and the Panama Canal…….
