Panama City

Hello from Panama City

This should really be titled welcome to the land of currents and tides and northerly winds but we’ll get to that later. For right now, though, we are anchored along with about 50 other boats in the Playita anchorage opposite the Flamengo Marina in/near Panama City. In the old days there were two islands about four miles off shore from the City that the City fathers decided to build a causeway out to and then turn the new connection into a tourist/Panamanian weekend retreat. Thus, this is the best anchorage to avoid the north winds but also means all supplies, etc. are in the City – a $4 taxi ride away and then pay again when you get back. But almost no one does the taxi in and out routine. The standard is to rent a taxi by the hour; go where you need to go; and then come back. The taxis go for $10 per hour. We usually go with another couple and so can split the cost but that does add to number of stops, etc.

Panama City is huge! The skyline looks like New York and there are skyscrapers going up all over the place. There is, naturally like everywhere else in Central America, a huge discrepancy between the rich/middle class and the working poor. There are neighborhoods where you simply don’t go – the locals will even stop you on the street and tell you not to go any further. Reminds me of areas of Stockton, Ca. But other than that fear thing, the people have been very friendly and helpful. Prices are about 20% higher than in the States for boat stuff and groceries are about the same except for locally grown produce. Meat seems to be cheaper; we had a great filet minion steak last night for $10.

The last update had us waiting out a big rain storm in a remote spot named Boca Chica. The storm passed but in its place came three days of 30-50 knot winds plus enormous tide changes of 12-15 feet that then caused swirling currents in the bay of up to 3 knots. A big 100 footer power boat almost swung into us in the middle of the night, so we moved to a new spot the next day. When the winds stopped on a Saturday, we had to keep waiting until the following Tuesday to rent a taxi for the day ($70) to get us to the City of David to reprovision because that is when the stores restock! So after a week of rain, wind and waiting we were finally able to leave Boca Chica and head back out for good warm water and snorkeling.

We enjoyed a day of good diving and that night with new friends on board, we heard a loud bang. Could not locate the source of the noise so thought it was a ray that had jumped up and into the bottom of our boat. Not so! It was the sound of our new dingy davit welds popping open. We got the dingy on board, and decided to head for Panama City to get it fixed. The next night while anchoring, our anchor board (holds the bow roller over the end of the boat) broke. So now we had to come up with a different way of anchoring. Well we figured it out and made our way to the dreaded Punta Mala (bad point). But, for us, it was a piece of cake as we had no wind and stayed in 10 meters of water to avoid the northerly current that has litterly pushed boats out to sea. It did take 18 hours of sailing and motoring to get into the next port – Isla San Jose – in the Perlas Islands. We anchored in the dark at 11pm and immediately fell asleep.

The Perlas Islands are touted to be absolutely wonderful. Again we got duped by the tourist industry. The waters of the Perlas are apparently actually wonderful in the rainy season, not the dry season when everyone comes. While the water temperature was 85 in the Western Islands, it was only 70 in the Perlas just 200 miles away. The very cold Humbolt current comes up from Chile and ends its journey in the Gulf of Panama. The big current at Punta Mala is the remnant of the Humbolt current returning south. So, west of Punta Mala the water is warm and east – well it’s chilly (assuming you are used to 85 that is).

We only stayed long enough to rest up and then sailed (8 knots) into Panama City. It was overwhelming the number of freighters, cruise liners, military, car carriers, etc. that come here and wait their turn to go through the canal. We counted over 50 at one time and that was all we could see due to the haze in the area. We dropped sail and motored through the maze of ships to get to our little anchorage. The water is calm here except at 5 am and 5 pm when the wakes from these ships heading thru the canal arrive to wake us up! We’ll be crew on a friend’s boat going through the canal in about two weeks, handling lines and keeping the boat from crashing into walls or other boats. It should be fun.

Our list of things to fix or repair is at 30 and now steadily dropping as we get ready for a projected March 20th departure for the 700 mile trip to the Galapagos. Everyday we get up and try to beat the heat and humidity and check stuff off our list. Haven’t really had time to do museums, restaurants, etc. but will get to that as the list gets really small. For now though, its time to work.