On Island Time

Panama has been a great, great sailing experience so far. We have been sailing the Pacific islands of western Panama on our way to Panama City and the Canal. The islands, bays and the Panama mainland are blissfully quiet and very beautiful. Few people live in this end of Panama. We see lots of green hills and blue water as we sail the coast, and the seas have been flat and the winds light. It makes for good sailing and even better anchoring.

In the 400 miles between Golfito and Panama City we will find only anchorages, no marinas, and in most of those we are the only boat there. We even visited one bay that had a small village with no overland road access where we traded tools for vegetables. The farmer we traded with did not want money because he had no place to spend it, but tools and an old tarp were much more valuable to him. We have definitely gotten away from it all.

We left Costa Rica in our wake spending our first night out anchored near the famous surf break at Pavones (8° 23.930'N 83° 8.280'W, Google Earth latitude/longitude).

Pavones is the longest left hand break in the world (whoop-de-doo), but this is a big thing in the surfing community and we wanted to see what all the excitement was about. Also, since Pavones was only a 15 mile sail we could leave late, sail slowly, check out our engine repairs, and still find a safe place for the night.

Two more day sails and we found ourselves in an island anchorage at Isla Gamez (8° 7.708'N 82° 19.017'W) which may be one of the prettiest spots in the world. This was our first glimpse of palm trees on the beach and turquoise waters. Add in gently lapping waves and we were in heaven.

Sailing Panama one of the attractions is that the spots available to drop anchor are much closer together, and we avoid the long sails and overnights that are much less appealing. Yes, it rains in heaven too, so we are still getting our regular PM showers, and it is very dark at night with no lights ashore or on the water, but the scenery makes it all worthwhile. (We were a little spooked one night when the cloud cover obscured the stars, there was no moon, there were no lights, and we realized that we could stare into the night with no hope of seeing anything more than two feet from the boat. Definitely an eerie feeling.)

We crossed over to the mainland to explore the small town of Boca Chica (8° 12.684'N 82° 12.450'W ) and to get some fresh fruits, and we found an extremely pleasant restaurant high on a hill overlooking the harbor entrance. A fellow from Vail, CO had just opened for business, and he served some great seafood dishes for very few dollars. Panama is much less expensive than Costa Rica which is also one of its appeals. A large and delicious fish dinner cost us $6.50 (no tax) with $1 Panamanian beers to wash it down. In general Panamanian beer is pretty bland, but when it’s hot… Boca Chica was also the first place we had seen any other boats on this trip and we enjoyed the opportunity to share sea tales at the bar.

 

Isla Seca (7° 59.600'N 82° 1.900'W) was the next island anchorage and my first opportunity to clean the bottom of the boat after months of sitting idle in the Golfo Dulce. Swim fins, mask, snorkel and a good paint scraper were all I needed, that and the ability to hold my breath for several minutes at a time as I scraped sea grasses and barnacles from the bottom. I wanted to throw this in so you will know that even out here we are working hard. Isla Seca had some canvas tents on the hills that we could see from the anchorage, and we understand that for $300 a night you can occupy one of these tents while visiting these islands from the mainland.

 

Bahia Honda (7° 45.849'N 81° 32.281'W) was where we got to meet Domingo and his son Kennedy and his granddaughter Lacy who provided us with spinach, limes, bananas, cilantro and peppers in exchange for our small tools. What they really needed was fishing lures and lines, but the fish had already stolen most of ours. Buying fish from the locals is lot more reliable than dragging a line. Also the local fishermen can catch lobsters which have completely eluded me so far.

 

Santa Catalina (7° 37.400'N 81° 16.350'W) was our second surf stop and already I am wondering why I don’t surf. These are supposed to be some of the best waves in the world and most of the breaks are very difficult to reach by car or bus, but they are right there on the boat road south. But at least the surf breaks attract enough traveling surfers to warrant small bars, restaurants and hostels nearby.

 

We are spending an overcast afternoon in Benao Cove (7° 25.362'N 80° 11.296'W) which is another surf spot, a long, long sand beach with gentle breakers. We are just 24 hours from Panama City and will probably make that jump in one quick sail either tomorrow or the next day stopping at an island near the city to rest and relax and re-acquaint ourselves with civilization before we visit “the big city”. Benao has a small palapa bar and restaurant with internet access (first internet since we left Costa Rica) so we are taking advantage of their hospitality while we catch up on news from home.

 

 

Hope you all are well and enjoying our trip as much as we are.

Tom and Andrea