We had an uneventful trip from the Chagras to Isla Linton. Wind again too light to sail, so we motored all the way (35 miles).

Today we are headed 45 more miles east, to the beginning of the San Blas. We'll probably anchor in Chichime tonight.

There's thunder rumbling in the distance, and we've had one light rain already this morning. But I think it will burn off as the day goes on.

Daughter Nicki and her boyfriend Phil arrived on schedule midday on Weds. They made their own way from the airport in Panama City to the Panama Canal Yacht Club (taxi-bus-taxi).

They flew on Copa (copaair.com) direct from Orlando, arriving at 9:30 in the morning. That makes the logistics much easier than Spirit's arrival at 1am!

As soon as they were aboard and fed, we fueled up (a staggering $4.80/gallon) and headed for the Chagras River. It's amazing that only 10 miles from the nasty smelly city is this tropical rainforest paradise. Yesterday we took them to see Fort Lorenzo (at the entrance) and 'The Pools'.

Dave also managed a little fishing... still looking for the elusive tarpon that Mike on Gilana promised. We did see a few tarpon 'rolls', but only hooked a big jack. It was fun watching Dave fight this strong fish on his little pole with 12 pound test line... until the fish finally got tired of the fight and broke the line.

The Howler Monkeys are very active where we are anchored. Parrots and lots of birds. Dave and I saw 2 toucans yesterday while we were out fishing.

Today we head 35 miles east to Isla Linton, and the next day we hope to be in the San Blas.

Wow we are actually here... in the Panama Canal. One of the 'crossroads of the world' for cruisers.

We managed to get dockage at the Panama Canal Yacht Club. The anchorage area, called "The Flats" isn't very safe. And it's exposed to the wakes of the ships and the tugs and pilot boats roaring around in the channel.

This time of year it is really dead here. All the people with plans to cross the Pacific this year are long gone. Since it is hurricane season up off the Pacific Coast of Central America, all the Californians are hunkered down somewhere for hurricane season (at least all the sane ones). There are still a few boats from the Eastern Caribbean dashing west, but not many. The Caribbean hurricane season is starting to come into full swing.

So, the Panama Canal Yacht Club seems pretty sleepy.

It's not a nice place. It is old and unkept. The water around us smells like old septic tanks. It is surrounded by major shipping docks... cranes, large ships, and stacks of containers. The people running the Canal Zone have been trying to shut the yacht club down for years... it occupies valuable waterfront space that could become another container terminal. So everyone knows it is living on borrowed time.




Outside the gates of the yacht club, we understand it's a war zone. Countless people have told us, "Whatever you do, don't walk anywhere. Even if it's only a couple of blocks, take a taxi." Too many cruisers have been accosted and mugged in the area just outside the gates (stabbed, shot, robbed, etc). I don't think this is unique to Panama...Just about any shipping docks in any major city in the world is the same... they just usually don't have a yacht club full of gringos in the middle of it.

We will only be here for 2 days... long enough to make a big grocery run and pick up Nicki and Phil. Then we're off to give them 2 weeks of adventure. We'll return in early September to actually make the canal transit.

We think we now know enough about the process of transiting the Canal to try to set a tentative date. We've got two friends who plan to fly down and make the trip with us in mid-September.

Labels: PanamaCarib

AIS stands for Automatic Identification System.

It is a relatively new thing on big ships, where a little black box transmits ship information on a VHF frequency. The information includes the following:

- Ship Name and Radio Callsign and MMSI
- Current Location
- Ship Type (Cargo, etc)
- Ship Dimension info (L,W,D,Dr)
- Current Speed and Direction
- Destination
- Status (anchored, underway)

This gets broadcast every few minutes and anyone with a receiver and a little software can pick it up and plot the other ships that are near you. It is mandatory for ships over a given size, and will eventually mandatory for most ships. It is currently not required (and maybe not desired) for yachts. A full-function unit costs a lot of money (over $1000). But you can buy a receiver only for a couple of hundred dollars.

We bought ours from Smart Radio when we were back in the States in June. Dave just now got it hooked up and working last night.

I had fun today playing with the programs that receive the data and plot on a chart or on a 'radar display' (see pic above). I've been playing with Ship Plotter (trialware) and Sea Clear (free).

It is a fantastic tool... significantly better than Radar for seeing other ships while at sea. With our mast-top VHF antenna, we can even 'see' ships on the other side of the Panama Canal, abourt 40 miles away (over land!).

I'll do a full detailed report in our Electronics section on the website soon.

Labels: PanamaCarib

We had a nice visit in Isla Linton with Mike and Sue and son Ty from Infini.

We last saw them in February in Honduras. They are headed out for the San Blas, and we hope to hook up with them again when we get there.

Mike and Sue had been in Linton before, so they showed us around. We first went to visit with Roger and Bennie, ex-pats who have a really nice place on the bay there. They are a rescue center for sloths, and have several sloths as pets. We got to hold and play with them. They are really cute (but weird) creatures.



We also visited Panamarina, a marina in the next bay over that is all moorings. We've been hearing people for months say they were leaving their boat in Panamarina, but hadn't ever stopped in for a look. To get there from Linton, you take a long dinghy ride through the mangrove tunnels. While we were on the dinghy ride, it started raining, and it never quit raining the whole day.




We also tried to go see the spider monkeys on the island. They are reported to be very agressive if you don't give them enough food. So we took several bananas and crackers. But the monkeys were smarter than we were... they had enough sense to stay in out of the rain. We never saw them. But we did get a great shot of the Florida State Research Center sign on the falling down building (just like their football team).


Finally, we went ashore for dinner at Han's little restaurant. Still raining, but we had a nice meal and drinks.

We kept telling Ty that it doesn't always rain like this.

Both of us got up early this morning... Infini and Hiatus heading east, Soggy Paws headed west.

Labels: PanamaCarib

Yahoo! Daughter Nicki graduated from college yesterday with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Magna Cum Laude (with High Honors).

Nicki, we are so proud of you!

Chichime Anchorage Position: 09-35.25N 78-52.84W


Yesterday afteroon as planned, we left the Holandes and moved around to Chichime, which is one of the western-most anchorages in the San Blas.

We had skipped this place on the way to the San Blas in March, because the anchorage had so many boats in it. It is a good anchorage, with nearly 360 degree protection, and the usual 'first stop' for boats arriving from the west. It has a deep lagoon between two picturesque islands, and surrounded by reef. We were surprised to only see one other boat there when we arrived.

The guidebook says that there is 'no permanent settlement' here, so we were also a little surprised to see all the Kuna here. There are at least 6 or so huts scattered across the two islands. It's probably cooler and less buggy out here during the summer months. And of course it is lobster season.


We had barely gotten the anchor secured when we were visited by an orderly procession of Kuna ulu's (dugout canoes). One of the ulu's was selling crabs for $3 apiece. Now these aren't small blue crabs... they are giant coral crabs, with a 'wingspan' (claw to claw outstretched) of about 18". Just one crab makes 1-2 meals for 2 people. We bought two of them. We took some great pics of trying to get the live crabs into the pot of boiling water.

Dave Wrestling the Crab Into the Pot
Another boat offered fresh lobster. Dave bought 3 'slipper lobster' for $5. He declined the smaller 'langosta' (basically, lobster shorts). I told him later that we should have bought them all, and 'liberated' the small ones, if they're still alive.

One of the boats asked us to charge his cell phone overnight, which we were glad to do.

We gave the lobster boat, who had 2 kids in it, 2 4-packs of Oreo cookies. Of course within 10 minutes we had 3 more boatloads of kids asking for cookies. Dave told them we were out, but we'd bring them more when we came back in a week.

Kuna girl delighted with our Oreos
The last boat was an old man asking for cooking oil. We gave him a cupful in a container.

We were also visited by Venancio, one of the more famous 'Male Mola Makers'. We already have about 4 exquisite molas by Venancio, but told him we'd bring the kids back to buy one from him.

The weather here has been really unsettled... overcast and stormy looking. We had quite a bit of thunder, some lightning, and threatening clouds last night. But it finally came thru during dinner and just rained a little. There doesn't seem to be much wind in these thunderstorms... not like the 45 knot gusts we get in Florida.

We feasted on crab for dinner, and cooked up the rest and put them in the freezer.

We got going early this morning enroute for Linton, a 45 mile trip. We plan to meet our friends on Infini there for a day. We last saw them in Honduras.

Of course since we are moving west, the wind has been out of the west for 2 days. There is a low above us causing a counter-clockwise circulation in the wind patterns. But even if the wind was in a good direction, it's so light that we couldn't sail anyway. So we are again motoring.

We've been dragging a fishing line everywhere we go, and have had some luck. On our trip from Colombia, Dave caught a nice tuna. We had 'seared tuna' for dinner that night. Today we have already caught 3 fish, but threw them all back, two bonito, and one big barracuda.

On Monday we head for Colon, where we think/hope we have a slip at the Panama Canal Yacht Club for a few days. They don't take reservations, but it's a slow time of year, and Infini told them we were coming. Colon is not a very nice city, and the Yacht Club is the only safe place to hang out in a boat. We need to provision and collect Nicki and Phil when they arrive on the 13th. Then we'll head out for the San Blas again.

Labels: PanamaCarib