Panama – The Beginning

February 21, 2024

For the first time in a very, very long time I am sitting at anchor, with nothing on my agenda (well, except cleaning and cleaning, and cleaning). I have found a nice little spot where the waves are 1mm high and the wind is mostly blocked by a nice hill. I am alone except for a few local fishermen and it is so very relaxing.

My last post referred to some of the path over here, but I will review a bit again anyway. I departed Club de Pesca around 4pm, headed to the fuel dock and put 400 gallons of diesel in the tanks. I should have put in more, but I second guessed myself and went with a lesser amount.

With a great weather window through the weekend, I wanted to get moving and so at 5pm I got underway and headed for Boca Chica channel. I did try to anchor just before the channel (Castillo de San Fernando), but I couldn’t get a good hold, and so decided to keep moving. It was very dark and so I went as far as Pendales, just behind Punta Gigantes on Isla Baru and found a nice spot to anchor with mostly sheltered waters.

In the morning I did my first attempt at cleaning the bottom of my boat. I wasn’t very successful because I couldn’t get my breathing apparatus to work and couldn’t find my weight belt to neutralize my buoyancy.

I moved on to Isla Grande (about 3 hours) to try again because my engine was running really hot. I figured out the diving gear and was able to clean the prop and some of the gunk off the bottom for about an hour or so. After that, my engine was behaving much better and the boat was a lot faster. (Notably, the dirty bottom is a bad thing, but a dirty prop is way, way more relevant to boat speed when that is the primary drive system.) I did get underway again relatively quickly and made it to Isla Fuerte for the night, arriving just before dark.

The winds were from the North and I was tucked in on the south side of Isla Fuerte, but it is pretty open and not a proper bay, so it was rocky. At 2:30am I woke up to the boat rocking more than I feel comfortable with. I also knew the next leg would be 15-16 hours and so decided to move on.

It was a very pleasant day at sea until I was about 10 miles offshore, then the winds and waves started making the ride a little bumpier. I pressed on, knowing that I would arrive well before dark and looking forward to spending more time cleaning the bottom of the boat.

I dropped an anchor in a little bay with just one other boat and what a treat it was. I provided a brief review in the previous post so I won’t say anymore here, but its a quiet little spot.

I was up and on my way early from this anchorage, with just 50 miles or so to go, I thought I would be taking it easy. I did mention those blue areas in my previous post and the uncertainty associated with going through an uncharted area. On my way in, those blue areas were always over 100′ of water. On my way out, when I cut a corner to get North without wasting a lot of time going ‘outside’ of the blue, I found areas of water that went from 100′ deep to just 20′ deep in what seemed like an instant. Certainly it adds gravitas to my story about the volatile nature of this poorly documented areas. One needs to be very diligent.

I did make it to my second anchorage in Panama though and the ride was rough. Not only did the winds pick up, but that water is being pushed ashore and in areas where the depth changes rapidly some large and unpleasant waves can come along very fast. A lot of items were knocked down and there will be clean up from all of the wave action. Still, this little spot was awesome. There were three other boats in the anchorage, but I started working on cleaning my hull more as soon as I dropped anchor, so I didn’t make any new friends here.

Another key feature on this East coast of Panama is clouds! It hasn’t really rained yet, but there are clouds here and it helps to keep things a bit cooler I suppose. Of course the land just to the west of the sea is thick rainforest, and so rain should be expected, but after my time in Cartagena, I was just pleased to see the cloud cover.

Both of these anchorages have been easy to access, quiet and flat sandy bottoms. On my final day of transit, things didn’t go so smoothly on the water, and I have had to anchor a few times. First along the water, I mentioned water getting pushed up, but for the first 20 miles of my last day underway (Tuesday) I was subject to a lot more of these underwater canyons/mountains pushing water and sending the boat flying. It was unpleasant in a few spots until I arrived in the San Blas bay proper, then things calmed down for the most part.

By this point I was still flying a Q flag (quarantine flag, indicating that I am not signed into the country) so I was in a bit of a rush to make it to Isla Porvenir where there is a customs and immigration station to check in.

I arrived and dropped anchor in 15+ knots of wind and due to the number of anchor symbols on the chart, I was expecting it to be an awesome anchorage. Nope. It was bumpy, poorly sheltered and really untenable for any length of time. I ran to the customs/immigration office and checked in (it took two trips because they didn’t have enough power to operate their photocopier). The excitement was dropping anchor three times trying to find a good hold, and the fact that six canoes full of locals all rushed out to greet me and try to sell me their wares. Nothing like trying to anchor a few times while being watched and then dropping your dinghy single handed with 15+ knots of wind blowing it around like a toy!

In any case, as fast as I checked in, I was ready to go again. It was clear that the water here was too bumpy. But there is a nice bay just a mile or so from Isla Porvenir and I decided to go there and try to find some calm water.

Changing locations is just swapping out one problem for another though. This spot is AMAZING, but getting the anchor down is a bit tricky. I did talk to a Canadian Sailor (Amouri) when I was checking in and he said it was too difficult here. I did take a look at his anchor which was the size of a saucepan and who knows how much chain he was carrying. In any case, the water comes up from about 80′ to about 3 feet and its a wall of sand and grass all the way down. I have my anchor in about 20 feet of water and then proceeded to put out 200′ of chain, just in case.

The beauty is that there is nobody else here, the water is almost becalmed (despite the wind coming over the hills) and other than a few fishermen, it is a very quiet and wonderful spot.

I have spent a couple more hours under the boat, cleaning up the mess from being at the dock in Cartagena. As well, a couple of hours cleaning the decks of all the dust left while at the dock in Cartagena and finally, I am starting to feel like the boat is almost clean. Not quite pretty, certainly not Bristol clean, but it is better than it has been in weeks.

When I am finished typing this note, I will finish cleaning the bottom and then perhaps the boat will move so much faster when I head to Colon on Friday.

One other interesting tidbit . . . this place is not so hot that being outside is unbearable. It is hot and sunny, but sitting at anchor with hatches and doors open makes the boat downright comfortable and bearable. The solar panels cover much of my power needs (I will run the generator for a few hours tonight to charge batteries) and other than the fishermen working and the odd one coming over to sell me things, there is no activity here other than fish and birds.

Finally, worth noting, the fishermen here are mostly in true dugout canoes. There are a few boats made from lumber and some of the canoes have small sails (about two square meters of sail cloth), but for the most part they are dugouts with hand made paddles, made with crude tools. It is certainly a step back in time. They speak Spanish and I now am comfortable enough to offer small niceties, if not engage in conversation, but mostly I just have to say that I don’t want anything.

Tonight, the drone will go up, so look for some video for tomorrow.