It was a dark and stormy night

 

The next leg of the trip was to be a 24 hour sail from Benao to Panama (Panama City is referred to as Panama much the way NYC is simply New York). We got underway about 11 AM figuring that the 24 hour sail would have us arriving safely at mid-day on the Island of Taboga ( 8° 48.000'N 79° 33.250'W) just 7 miles from the Balboa Yacht Club and Panama. The first 6 hours were great as we sailed merrily along rounding Punta Mala (Bad Point) ( 7° 25.000'N 80° 0.000'W) mid afternoon. Just before dark the storm clouds appeared on the horizon and the skies blackened appreciably.

 

Then the storm hit. We were sailing on a moonless night, pitch black, pouring rain, moving along at 7 knots under sail, and we could see about 3 feet ahead. We were wet and blind. It was very much like driving through a large cow pasture with your headlights turned off. You’re pretty sure there was nothing in front of you, but you can’t tell for sure. God forbid one of the cows got left out. We had planned our route to avoid the shipping lanes for the big freighters exiting the Canal so our chief worry was the smaller fishing boats. I will only say that it was not a pleasant night, but we did arrive safely at Taboga, in a driving rain, almost exactly as planned.

Taboga is a residential island with small homes and weekend homes. It is only a short ferry ride from the city but with only one ferry a day each way it is not suitable for commuting so it has retained its island atmosphere. We had met one of the residents of Taboga in Puerta Vallarta two years ago who runs a small mooring rental business on the island, and as soon as we arrived we hooked up to one of his moorings for our stay. We took time to explore the town, the beach and the bars, and we took advantage of the ferry to cross to the mainland to find a hotel and to explore the city.

 

This was our first glimpse of the city and we were impressed. Panama has a skyscraper skyline. There is a lot of new building going on and the country appears to be thriving. We walked the Casco Antigua (Old Compound). Casco Antigua was the center of the city during the canal building of the late 19^th century and the area very much resembled the architecture of New Orleans with two and three story buildings with elaborate iron balconies. We also visited two impressive shopping malls: Multi Plaza was a decidedly upscale mall selling a lot of goods we could not afford (think Neiman Marcus, Tiffany, very chic) and Albrook Mall was the largest mall I have ever seen anywhere. No, I have not been to the Mall of America in Minnesota, but we have nothing in CA to rival the size of this mall. There must have been over 100 eating places in the food court alone. The place was packed on a Monday afternoon. Panama is indeed experiencing a thriving economy right now with an impressive standard of living.

 

 

Panamanians are very friendly and seem genuinely happy to see visitors. There is not as much English spoken here as I would have expected since the Canal Zone was under US control until 2000, and we understand that the education level is not as good as that of Costa Rica, but the petty crime is not the problem it was in Costa Rica and the availability of goods in Panama is incredible. I can think of nothing that I could find in the US that is not available here from food to clothes to electronics to whatever. If you need it you can find it in Panama (albeit with several bus rides involved).

We moved the boat from Taboga to the Balboa Yacht Club where we are hanging on a mooring within 100 feet of the ship channel, and we can watch the big, big freighters slide slowly by on their way to the first of the locks. The yacht club is in a beautiful park like area that was once the site of a US Army base. We have seen pictures of the area in the 1930s that show barracks and drill fields where there are now trees and walking paths along the shore. We are getting a chance to meet cruisers from all over the world. Our trip down the Pacific Coast of Latin America has crossed paths with several boats making a trip similar to our own, but here in Panama we are at a crossroads for boats sailing north from Ecuador, west from Europe and the Carribbean and east from, well where we came from. There are many, many people in all stages of their voyages that stop at the BYC for a while (and stay even longer).

Trivia item: The Panama Canal runs North to South (not East to West as we might think in moving from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean) for the 50 miles across the Isthmus of Panama. This is the shortest distance between the seas in all of the Americas. When Balboa crossed this narrow isthmus heading south from the Caribbean he “discovered” this huge southern ocean which he named the Pacific. Since that time mariners have generally referred to the Pacific as the “South Seas” even though we all see the Pacific as an ocean west of the Americas

We have visited the Miraflores Locks (which are three of the 8 locks in the canal) and we have watched the big boys transit the locks. The Panamax ships (maximum size for the Panama Canal) squeeze into the 110 foot wide locks with less than 3 feet to spare on each side. Our own transit is still up in the air. We first need to decide when we would like to go through and then we have to go through some red tape to get measured and scheduled.

 

We are anxiously looking forward to exploring more of the Pacific Panama Islands, in particular the Las Perlas Islands which are just 40 miles from Panama. We are told that beautiful anchorages, white sand beaches, great fishing and good snorkeling are waiting for us in Las Perlas so we are delaying our canal transit until we have fully explored this side of the canal.

Fact: Assuming we do not change our minds and continue on to Ecuador we have passed our furthest point south on this trip at about 7° 10.100'N. We were about 430 miles from the Equator at that point.