February 16, 2006 – Passage Across the Gulf of Panama

On February 11, we learned that N winds are expected Monday and Tuesday but that it should be calm today and Sunday. Going around Punta Mala into the Gulf of Panama to Panama City can be very tough in N winds. We decided to take off as soon as possible to take advantage of this quiet weather and perhaps make it to the Perlas Islands in 24 hours. If not, we can decide to take cover at Bahia Benao, some 72 miles away. We left at 3:00 pm and sailed for almost 2 hours averaging 5 knots in 9 to 11 knot westerly winds (following winds). Steve rigged the jib for the line to go back to the port stern to the block which we usually use for the gennaker; and then rigged a small block on the port shroud to keep the jib line off the solar panel. It worked quite well. After sunset, the moon was almost full and brilliant.

We passed Bahia Benao at about 3:30 am and Punta Mala at 5:00 am. We continued east toward Las Perlas Islands. The seas became bumpier and bumpier with 25 knot winds from the N. After 12 miles from Punta Mala the square confused waves were very uncomfortable and seemed to be getting worse. When we hit the waves, we slowed to 3 knots. At 7:30 am on February 12, we decided to turn around and head back to Punta Mala and possibly Bahia Benao or head north up the mainland coast to Panama City. We angled NW toward the mainland. The swells continued to be 4-5’ but not as squared or confused and the winds were still 20-25 from the N. Once we made the coast we motored straight north along the shore in 16-28 feet of water, trying to get some relief from the current and waves. We were heading to Bahia Parida where we hoped to either take shelter at Aguadulce or continue to Panama City or the near island of Otoque.

When we were about 20 miles north of Punta Mala, Adventuress who was 5 miles behind us told us that they had just discovered that they were almost out of diesel from a fuel leak. We immediately turned around and Steve siphoned 15 gallons into jerry jugs. Adventuress tacked back and we met in 20’ of water. Andy back winded Adventuress’ sails, pointing into the waves and with a long rope let their dinghy float back about 60 feet. We carefully motored to the dinghy directly behind Adventuress and Steve lowered the 3 jerry cans into the dingy using a rope through the handles. The waves were still 4-5’ and 20-25 knot winds. This maneuver was tricky to hold the boat next to the dinghy but not hit Adventuress and to drop the jerry jugs over the side railing into the surging dinghy. We pulled it off as if we had done it many times before. Andy pulled the dinghy to Adventuress, climbed into the dinghy and hoisted the 3 jugs to Nanci on deck. Mission complete. What a nerve tingling experience!

We then continued motoring north trying to stay close to shore. It was rough. Adventuress continued sailing, tacking back and forth. Their engine kept dying and Andy worked on it trying to find the problem. Apparently it ran sporadically. We were some 10 miles ahead of them, about 30 miles north of Punta Mala, when they told us that the seas were not so bad off shore and that they were heading toward Isla San Jose (the Perlas Islands) since their engine was still acting up and they had the wind abeam. It was about 2:30 pm. We turned east and put up our sails to see how it would be for us. We flew. The seas were much calmer and with our sails up and moving through the waves, it was comfortable. We made 9.3 knots and averaged 7 to 9 knot speeds for about 4 hours. We decided that 74 miles to Isla San Jose would take us about 10 hours, getting us there around midnight. While we were making 9 knots, Adventuress who was just 10 miles south of us was in calm winds. We were so close that we had Adventuress in sight, yet we had 20-25 knot winds and they had 5-7 knot winds. We could see the edge of the wind and we would speed up when we were in it and then slow down when we would get ahead of it. We did this for a few hours. Approximately 4 hours from San Jose, the seas got bumpy and when we hit some of the swells we would slow to 3.5 knots. We turned on the engines and powered forward. We arrived at Isla San Jose at 3:00 a.m. still with the full moon, and dropped our anchor in 20’ of water. We used the radar, charts and our eyes to avoid the rocks at this anchorage. We were very happy to be here. Adventuress arrived an hour later.

The next day we listened to the Pan Pacific Net on our single side band radio to get the weather which indicated that Northern winds will increase but will lessen in a few days. We relaxed on board and took naps. On the beach we saw lots of crocodile tracks coming down the sand to the beach. We walked behind the beach where there is a river and saw even more crocodile tracks. On the high part of the beach there were large holes where iguanas live. As we walked near the tall grass we could hear numerous iguanas running away. We did not snorkel here either!

On February 14, we would have forgotten it was Valentine’s Day if Adventuress had not reminded us. Without the usual bombardment of advertisements, we miss these specially designated dates. We decided to make the sail 25 miles north to Isla Cantadora. There was 20 knots of north winds. We sailed for part of the time tacking back and forth. Steve had fun doing this. We mostly motor sailed and arrived at Cantadora in mid-afternoon. We rode Adventuress’ dinghy to shore to look at the Restaurant and Hotel Romantico. Nice place with unusual but beautiful shell walls and vistas of the ocean. The food was good. Valentine’s Day dinner at the Restaurant Romantico!! Lucky timing.

The next day after doing some chores in the morning we dinghied in with Adventuress with our diesel jerry cans. The Hotel Romantico’s taxi took us to the gas station to get diesel and also provided us with some extra jerry cans so we would not have to make more than one trip.

On February 16, at 4:00 am, we pulled up anchor and headed toward Panama City, 38 miles away. We had heard that the weather was going to be quiet and that the trip to Panama City should be good. The weather man was right. We motored in very quiet waters and light winds. As usual we travel faster than Adventuress so we were a mile or 2 ahead of them. The skyline of Panama City is pretty amazing. Large tall buildings and huge tanker ships lined up to go through the canal. We had to detour around some of the ships as we headed toward Balboa Yacht Club. There was no room at the Balboa Yacht Club so we got a mooring at La Playita Marina.

We checked into the Playita office and while walking to the Immigration and Port Captain’s office, there was a mother and baby sloth moving down the road by hanging on the telephone/utility lines. It was amazing seeing them just hanging upside down slowly moving above the road. After checking in at the various immigration, customs and Port Captain’s office, we went to the Balboa Yacht Club which is just a bar with plastic chairs and tables set on cement, but it is where all of the cruisers meet. We used our computer to check our email by wireless connection, met some new cruisers and visited with many cruisers whom we already met.

We spent the next 3 days buying and ordering boat items. We dined at some nice restaurants and prepared our boat to be left alone for a month while we return home to do some skiing, play some tennis and prepare our taxes. One evening in old Panama City, we could hear the beautiful music of a wedding taking place in the adjacent cathedral as we dined on tapas while seated in a small park with the moon glowing overhead. What little we saw of Panama City, we liked very much and will look forward to exploring it further upon our return in a month.

February 11, 2006 – Western Islands of Panama

On January 28, we left Golfito, Costa Rica. Just 45 minutes after leaving the dock we caught a 4 foot Dorado (Mahi Mahi). What a great way to start a trip, with fresh fish in the refrigerator!

A current sped us along as we made 8.1 to 8.6 knots for a few hours. About 5 miles from Point Burica (and the Panama border), we caught a Big Eye Tuna, about 1 ½ foot long, 8 pounds. We like to fry this tuna with plenty of garlic powder and salt after which it makes excellent tuna salad mix. Now we had more than enough fish. 1 mile from Point Burica the water changed to a light aqua color. The island on the end of the point is covered with palm trees as is the shoreline and marks the boundary for Panama. We are in Panama!! We are definitely in the tropics.

Past Point Burica we anchored and shared our fresh fish with our “buddy boat,” Adventuress (Andy and Nanci from Juneau, Alaska). We have been enjoying DVDs of television series like “Dead Like Me” borrowed from fellow cruisers. The next day we saw locals obviously riding horses for transportation and locals in pangas coming close to peer at our boat. I guess we are a bit unusual in our catamaran. We pulled up anchor and 5 hours later we arrived at the NE end of Isla Parida. It appears to be sparsely inhabited. With Adventuress we took our dinghies to look at a small lodge with buoy balls out front in the water and a roped off area as if for swimmers. There is a large palapa on the hill. We beached our dinghies and walked up the stairs to a beautiful pool, round with water spilling over the edge. Lovely view. There were a man and woman and 2 younger women in the palapa. They gave us cold beers which we happily drank while sitting near the pool. When we told the man that we would like to take a walk, he led us down the driveway and into a teak wood forest. We walked for about 20 minutes until a man zoomed up on a 4-wheeler after which we immediately turned around headed back. A second, very fat man, named Jorge zoomed up on the 4-wheeler and introduced himself; he was apparently the son of the owner. Upon our return to the palapa, Jorge explained that this is not a public resort and that the man should not have taken us on the walk. He said that if we need assistance to come back but we will probably be the first and last visitors allowed on the property. The other man had told us that this property was owned by the son of an oil dealer. We thanked Jorge and left. It was a very strange visit as the property obviously was, at one time, a resort of some sort complete with hotel type rooms, but it was not a very private non-public resort.

We are just getting used to being in another time zone, Eastern. We seem to be sleeping later than usual. The next day we motored to Isla Gamez, maybe ¼ mile away. The white beach on Isla Gamez is beautiful and the other 2 adjacent white beaches on Isla Parida form a beautiful area. Isla Gamez’ white beach is fringed with palm trees and it is only a few feet to the other side of the island. We took our dinghy and Adventuress, theirs, and went around to the NE side and snorkeled. Although visibility is not real clear, about 15-20 feet, we saw large turtles, 4 feet long, swimming under us. There were lots of fish and a beautiful spotted ray, about 2 ½ feet span, swooped right in front of us. There are plumeria type trees in bloom, trees overladen with bromeliads and orchids (blooming with orange and red spike flowers) and red wood (manzanita-type) trees. The trees are definitely thick and lush.


On February 1, 2006, we sailed to Isla Cavada in the Islas Secas Island Group, a 15 mile sail. We anchored on the northside in front of 2 beaches on the SW island, between 2 small islands. What an idyllic setting. Beautiful water. Steve and I snorkeled from the boat between the 2 beaches. We were anchored in front of the east beach and Adventuress anchored in front of the west beach. At 8:30 pm, after playing gin, Adventuress hailed us on VHF (we monitored Channel 22 to communicate with each other) that they were going to move to the SE anchorage because the wind and swells were pushing them onto the beach. We thought about it and looked at our position. The winds was blowing at 14 knots. We decided to follow fearing that conditions might get worse. We had trouble pulling up the anchor because the chain kept fouling. We bought 270’ of new chain in Bahia del Sol, El Salvador, but it was not the correct size although it appeared to fit perfectly when it was first installed. The links do not quite fit the gypsy on the automatic winch (windlass). It kept fouling and Steve had to pull on the chain at the front to make it slack so I could unfoul it. With the wind blowing and the fetch bouncing us around, it was a bit frantic. We discovered that our flashlights were all weak; the spot light was dead and it took a us awhile to find the DC plug for it. Adventuress motored ahead of us as they had saved their GPS track and could follow it back to the last anchorage in the dark. We had on our radar and we followed as close as we could. It was stressful as we did not know where hidden rocks were and it was totally dark with only outlines of islands barely visible. There was a fishing boat already at anchor when we arrived so Adventuress anchored south of it and we anchored south of Adventuress. We dropped a stern anchor off our port side to keep us away from the shore. It was much calmer in this cove.

The next day Adventuress picked us up in their dinghy and we went to the east point of the island just south of us. Andy had 2 tanks so he and Steve scuba dived down to 50’ while Nanci and I snorkeled. There were different hard corals on the rocks on the point and south of it. We saw lots and lots of fish. Schools of larger fish. Moorish Idols, multi-colored wrasses, large colorful parrot fish in vibrant fluorescent blues and greens, large triggerfish in varying colors, numerous cabrillas (bass) hiding under rocks, a zebra moray eel, a large green moray eel, sergeant majors, hogfish, puffers, large angle fish, pompanos, yellowtail surgeon fish, damselfish, needlefish, hawkfish and our favorite small bright blue fish with fluorescent light blue spots. This is the best snorkeling spot since we left California. Steve spotted a lobster while scuba diving and Andy was able to catch it.

We discovered that the yurt looking structures which were erected here and there are part of the Islas Secas Resort which rents them out for $1000 per night. There is a landing strip on the hill. The owner who is from San Diego owns the entire 16 islands of Islas Secas and has for 4 years.

On February 3, 2006, we sailed through the Las Islas de Contreras to Bahia Honda (on the mainland), some 34 miles away. Adventuress was successful with their mode of fishing, paying a few dollars for local fish from fishermen. During the seven hour sail, Portia worked on the ship’s log and Quicken (financial) entries. Two large porpoises (with remoras attached) joined us for a few minutes frolicking in front of our bows. When they are on the surface in front of our bows they are less than 6 feet from us.

At Bahia Honda., we anchored in the north anchorage, and some locals came out in their cayuga (canoes). There is no store in this area. We bought papayas, plantains and a pineapple from them. They returned much later with small red and green bananas which we had earlier requested. For the entire next day, it rained. We put up our rain catcher and filled our tanks with approximately 40 gallons of fresh rain water. Wewere surprised to see a large cruise ship (600’) in the bahia. It is a condominium cruise ship named “he World.” Steve called them on the radio and was told that there are a few units available for sale. (We later found out that the sales prices are from $2 to $7 million.). Throughout the day locals in their small canoes came by and sometimes asked for batteries, clothes detergent or other items. Some just sat in their canoes and said “hola” as if waiting for something. We were happy to buy or trade for something in return but did not like being asked for handouts.

On February 5, 2006, we made the short 14 mile trip to Isla Coiba, a National Park island. We anchored on the south end of Isla Rancheria and snorkeled at the outcroppings just south of where we were anchored. On the southeast side of the outcroppings, there is coral and we saw lots of fish: Barberfish, baby King Angel fish, yellowtail, triggers, large parrotfish, eels, cabrilla, Moorish Idols, Convict Tangs. When a 2 ½ foot white tipped shark cruised through we thought it was cute, but when two 4 ½’ white tipped sharks cruised by, Portia became uncomfortable. We really enjoyed watching the Barberfish hang out in one area usually by a rock or coral and clean parasites from larger fish who allowed this cleaning process.

The next day after we walked on the white sand beach of Isla Rancheria which is now part of the Coiba National Park Area, we motored a few miles south to Granita de Oro, a small island which is mostly white sand beach. There were 2 cruise-type ships there all day and just as we anchored the last one was loading its passengers and leaving. We anchored right in front of the beach. When we dinghied to go snorkeling, two fellows on the beach who appeared to be checking the beach for garbage after the big boat’s departure told us that we had to move our boats to where the large boat had anchored. We guessed it was because of the coral. Although we were not anchored on coral and our anchors were in sand, we moved both boats to the side anchorage. By then it was 5:30 pm and not much light left, but we snorkeled on the south side of the island. It was a bit murky but there were lots of fish. It was low tide. Steve saw a Spotted Eagle Ray and lots of coral very similar to the outcroppings at Rancheria. The solid tan coral looks as if it was poured that way covering large rocks and making large mounds of its own. Some of them have red “blooms” on the underside. The tan coral reminds us of some of the small fake coral props used in fish aquarium tanks. Now we won’t think they look so fake.

The next day after checking in and paying out $10 per head fee to the park rangers, we motored around the corner to the NW anchorage (Coiba) of Playa Rosario and dropped anchor in this pretty bay. We snorkeled on the north point and found lots and lots of fish in good visibility (40’+). There are rocks and coral 30’ out from the point which looks like a good area to scuba dive. Hundreds of fish in schools were hanging out: Yellow Tangs, 10’ silver fish all swarming around us, large angelfish with triggers and Moorish Idols here and there. It was a beautiful spot. There were lots of jellies in the water about 1’ from the surface, 1 ½ inch round, pinkish, globs. Luckily we did not get stung as we our diving skins, gloves, hood and booties totally covered our bodies except for Steve’s head and my cheeks. We snorkeled inside the point and found lots of coral and a variety of fish.

Andy and Nanci of Adventuress came over and we made pina coladas using fresh pineapple and coconut crème with ice in the blender. Yummy. Andy then cubed and sautéed our dorado in Mongolian hot oil and sesame. We had white rice and coleslaw with cabbage, purple onions, carrots, the green part of the napa cabbage for color and almonds. Dessert was Bailey’s and Oreo cookies.

On February 8, 2006, we sailed 29 miles south to Isla Jicaron. As we were anchoring, we saw 3 white-faced monkeys sitting on the beach in the shade. So cute! They were only there for 10 minutes or so. After Adventuress anchored we dinghied to the beach for a walk and to chop open some coconuts. We walked along the beach. This is an uninhabited island with crocodiles reportedly in the estuary on the interior. We decided not to snorkel here. We saw monkey tracks and what looked like numerous iguana tracks.

The next morning we left the anchorage at 7:00 am to head north to Isla Cebaco. The sea was immediately bumpy and got worse as we cleared the southwestern tip of Coiba. The weather report is for 15+ N NE winds for the next 72 hours with 20-30 winds at Punta Mala. After slowing to 3.5 knots and having crashing waves get us a little wet, we decided to turn around and seek some quiet waters in southern Coiba. Adventuress who was ½ hour ahead of us reported continued square waves and 18-20 knot north winds. They turned around too. The morning had started nice and cool, not too bumpy so Portia had started on a batch of brownies and a batch of bran muffins. Despite being in the oven during the bumpiest times, they all seemed to come out okay.
We decided to head north around the west part of Coiba to avoid the N NE winds and swells, hoping to make it to Rancheria for the night which should be protected from the N NE winds and swells. From there we will hopefully have a better angle to head east to Isla Cebaco. We rounded the point with no problems or bumpiness and arrived at Isla Rancheria .

The next day we sailed NE toward Isla Cebaco and ran into squarish shaped waves (4’) which made it very bumpy. We arrived 6 hours later. About an hour before arriving at Isla Cebaco, the seas flattened out some and it wasn’t so bad. We dropped anchor in 25’ in the middle of the beach. We called Arctic Ark, a wooden sailing ship from Anchorage, Alaska who was anchored next to us to say hi and they offered brought over some excess Red Snapper that the fishermen had given them. This family of 9 children, 3 teenage children in wheelchairs, have been sailing for 2 years learning how to sail on the way since they were not experienced sailors when they started.