Panama to Ecuador

Feb 2 -- left the Flamenco Marina, Panama City for the Las Perlas Islands around noon.  The islands (the “Pearls”) are Panamanian territory and are covered by tropical, rain forest, unlike the San Blas archipelago on the Caribbean side.  The initial route from Isla Flamenco required us to thread our way through anchored ships, waiting either to load/unload at the port or for their allotted transit slots through the Panama Canal.  It is a busy port and it took nearly 2 hours to be clear of the commercial shipping.  Arriving towards sunset at the first large island of the Las Perlas group, we anchored at Isla Contadora.  It is an island within easy reach of Panama City and the locals visit their vacation homes by boat and plane.  Our anchorage is on the approach path of the airstrip.  We ate dinner on board and enjoyed a quiet night swinging on the hook with other visiting sailboats, including 3 from the WARC Rally. The next morning, a low flying airplane approached the airstrip.  It was interesting to watch it negotiate a windy final on a straight in approach.  It was a 8 to 10 seat single engined aircraft which we speculated was a Dornier. A radio call from our friends the MacKays on Voyageur told us they were headed to Isla Canas, another of the islands in the group.  It was a short 30 mile trip.  We left Contadora around lunch time and headed for Isla Canas.  The approach to Isla Canas is a narrow channel with a reef reaching from the left to about mid-channel.  The charts were somewhat misleading as it showed the depths to be greater on the left approach.  Fortunately, David MacKay had observed our track and called on the radio to warn us of the reef which we avoided in good time.  We anchored about 150 meters off the beach behind Voyageur.  Anumber of other WARC boats arrived shortly thereafter and there was a friendly community exchanging visits and having drinks on board. The tides at Isla Canas were swift and the beach appeared and disappeared regularly with the ebb and flood.
The Mackays hosted drinks on their boat and most of the ARC boats were at theirs.  The good parking spaces were gone after a while as Voyageur was surrounded by all manner of dinghies tied to her rail.  We were amazed that an Amel could turn into such a party boat - the MacKays are super hospitable - we must have run their alchohol stocks dangerously low.

At anchor Isla Contadora

Skylark at anchor, Isla Canas, Las Perlas Islands

Rocks on the beach at Isla Canas

Neighbours - Voyageur, the Mackays' Amel Super Maramu 2000

February 5 -- After couple of pleasant days at anchor and we were off again, this time to Bahia Pina, where a famous fishing lodge is located..  The lodge has a large fleet of sport fishing boats moored in front of it.  Sport fishermen from all over the world come to Bahia Pina for a hefty price for the privilege.  We anchored in the late afternoon off the fishing lodge.  The beach unfortunately was private and we could not land dinghies there.

The MacKays from Voyageur came over for dinner of salad, boeuf bourgignon and fish steak (fresh catch en route from Isla Canas).

February 6 –  We explored the river and mangrove banks and the village at the adjoining bay.  The river was a typical tropical eco-system with interesting plant and bird life.  The village however was a depressing place.  It was the weekend and the watering holes were full of people drinking away in the mid-day.  Children no more than 10 were sneaking cans of beer behind the shabby buildings along the footpath.  The local grocery store was stocked with aging vegetables and stacks of canned meat (mostly Spam) and other less recognizable items.  The floor of the store was strewn with garbage and dirt.  I purchased a can of luke warm coke the top of which was covered with black debris.  There is an airstrip at the village from which fishing lodge visitors are quickly whisked away from the squalor and taken by boat to the lodge.

Dick and Irene Craig hosted drinks in the evening on their Lagoon 440, a large catamaran. Dick very kindly allowed us to explore his boat.  It is literally a house afloat without the heeling motion of a mono hull.

going up river at Bahia Pina

Ed, driving the dinghy at the river

relaxing on the river bank at Bahia Pina

Friends from Voyageur, David and Susan MacKay

airstrip at Bahia Pina

February 7 – we hauled the anchor and set off for Ecuador.  Light winds with motor till the early morning hours the next day. Good sailing conditions for the next 12 hours or so.  We kept well off shore in hopes of avoiding the fishing boats and their long nets (some are 2 kilometers in length).  We encountered a number of fishing operations especially at night.  Their nets are marked by small lights that are very hard to see and their running lights are almost non-existent.  The VHF radio was busy with WARC boats passing on information on locations of fishing operations but they were moving targets.

Wednesday February 10 --- Crossed the equator at 1532 hours UTC, 1032 hours Panama Time or US EST.  Location was 0° 00’ and 080° 48.3’ West.  Skylark’s crew drank a toast to Neptune in the appropriate manner of seafarers as the photos below attest.

Neptune had to sit down after a couple of stiff ones....

 Neptune's whiskers had a difficult time -- gin and tonic kept destroying the adhesive

February 11 – in the wee hours we encountered a fishing operation with small boats flashing their lights at us.  As it was pitch dark on a moonless night, we opted for caution and slowly back tracked to avoid what was apparently a long net.  The fishermen were west of us and to move forward would have risked passing through their nets.  We did this for a couple of hours till dawn approached and we could see them better.  By then Voyageur and caught uo with us and we motor sailed together to Puerto Lucia at La Libertad.  Skylark arrived at the marina around 10:30 am and berthed stern-to at the rickety pontoon with her bow tied to a mooring buoy.  The space was tight and full of mooring lines and other objects in the water.  More on the experience at La Libertad in the next blog.

pontoon at Marina Puerto Lucia, La Libertad