Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaPacific
There are taxis hanging out at the marina parking lot. We met one who was very nice, with a/c taxi, speaks english. Ramon's cell is 6452-7157. It's $30 to the international airport. Ramon will do 'by the hour' taxi $10/hour and he knows most of the places that the cruisers want to go.
There are buses that stop at the marina but as yet do not have any experience taking them yet. We understand that the route here either ends near the Albrook Mall or at Centro Commercial.
Labels: PanamaPacific
Though everyone, including the cruising guides, refer to it as 'the Japanese submarine', we understand that it is really a 1860's pearl-diving submarine.
A marine archaeologist friend of Dave's by the name of Jim Delgado was here in 2001 and thought it didn't look very Japanese-like. He was very familiar with Japanese sub construction after spending years in the Pacific documenting Pacific WWII ship wrecks.
After encountering the sub on the beach while on vacation, he researched it some more and after spending time here again in 2002 and 2004 with several friends, including Larry Murphy formerly of the National Park Service, he eventually established that it was a "lost" pearl-diving submarine, 'Sub Marine Explorer', built by a German engineer in 1865. It is one of only 5 surviving submarines built before 1870. Read about the find here. Jim Delgado, the archaeologist, is a former historian with the US National Park Service, and is now the director of the Vancouver BC Maritime Museum. He and Dave worked together in the Pacific in the late 1980s, documenting Japanese wrecks.
To sum up the history of the Sub Marine Explorer... a German engineer, Julius Kroehl, built the sub in 1865 to do pearl diving in the Las Perlas islands. But they didn't know about 'the bends'... a problem that occurs when breathing compressed air at deep depths and then surfacing without properly decompressing. The boat arrived in Panama in Dec 1866 and did make several successful pearl dives to deep depths, but by Sep 1867 the engineer and all the sub operators died of 'the bends'. The next/last documented attempt to use the sub occurred in August 1869 when over a period of 11 days it recovered $2K worth of pearls (a LOT of money in those days). But again, soon after, all its crew died of the bends. The sub was then was abandoned, apparently beached on San Telmo and left for good.
The Bauhaus Panama guide book mentioned the sub, but only that it was a Japanese sub on the north side of San Telmo. So we got on the VHF and got a waypoint from s/v Carina. Our Tides & Currents 3.0 program seems to be pretty accurate, and it indicated that low tide was about noon. So we set out from the Punta Cocos anchorage (S end of Isla del Rey) and arrived right about noon.
The sub was clearly visible on the beach at low tide, but would be covered at high tide. It was shaped like a fat cigar and is pretty large. I am amazed at how well-preserved it is after sitting in salt water for 150 years. We took a zillion pictures and will post some here as soon as we get internet.
Sub position: 08-16.896N 078-50.743W
Our anchorage: 08-17.050N 078-50.801W (day anchorage only, in settled weather)
There is an uncharted rock/reef outside/north our anchored position that was visible at low tide at APPROX 08-17.136N 078-50.815
On a settled day with a fast dinghy, you could also dinghy to see the sub from the Punta Cocos anchorage.
Labels: PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaPacific
We have looked on all the used sail sites on and off for the past 2 years, and have been unable to find a used sail that would work. And by the time you buy it used and have it modified to do what we want with it... We talked to a few sailmakers at the last St. Pete boat show, and got some quotes. They were pretty expensive (in the $2000-$4000 range), so we put off doing anything.
But as the price of diesel fuel has been rising, and as we've been motoring around in light winds all summer long, we finally justified the expense by talking about cost savings at approx $4.50 per motoring hour here in Panama and probably more than that out in the South Pacific.
So with the ability to ship stuff to Panama pretty easily via Marine Warehouse, we went ahead and ordered a new Code 0 from Dave's favorite sailmaker (SuperSailmakers in Ft. Lauderdale, a Doyle loft). We took delivery of the sail in Colon just before we left... didn't even have a chance to get it out of the bag, though.
Finally, sitting on the mooring in Balboa, Dave hauled it out and he and Jim Yates (one of our visiting line handlers) rigged it up and got it rolled onto the furler.
With great anticipation, we rolled it out on our way to Taboga. It seemed the conditions were perfect... light winds on the beam.
It lasted about 10 minutes before the wind came up a little and broke the block at the top of the mast. Rats! And with the rise in wind came a wind shift... on our nose again.
The next day before we left the mooring, Dave found a replacement block and went up the mast to replace the broken one. (The cheek broke).
But on our way from Taboga to Contadora, the wind was almost on our nose the whole way. And, the distance was 40 miles to the closest anchorage, so we couldn't afford to stay out there messing around with sails all day. So we motored again. But we did notice that the lower attachment point of the sail, on our anchor tray, as far forward as we can put it, wasn't working out as anticipated. (the tray was lifting off the frame as we tensioned the luff).
So yesterday, hanging out at anchor at Isla Pedro Gonzales, Dave and Ron and Jim engineered a cobbled-up fix to the problem. I was busying doing other things, but there were sawing and drilling noises coming from the workshop. I'm sure Dave will explain the final solution when we have it working well. About dusk they seemed satisfied that what they had whipped up would work for now.
We are hoping to be able to sail today. We have 20 miles to go to the next anchorage.
Labels: PanamaPacific
We left Taboga about 8:30 for the 40 mile run to the Las Perlas islands. We had chosen an anchorage on the north coast of Contadora, because someone told Dave that there was good diving there. The guidebooks talk a lot about the winter weather, but they don't say much about the summer weather. And we don't know the normal weather patterns here.
We had a nice day motoring across. We trolled two fishing lines, and did get several hits, but all the fish we pulled in were Bonito, which aren't very good eating.
When we arrived at the anchoring spot, it looked OK. Here again there were moorings in the anchorage, but also a couple of anchored cruising boats. So we picked a spot between empty moorings and anchored in 25'. Checking my trusty electronic tide table, we were at high tide, with a 15 foot tidal range. That means that at low tide, our 25' depth will shrink to 10' !!!
During the evening, dark clouds started to build. We had a pretty good lightning show after dinner. We were a little apprehensive about what the weather might bring during the night. But the weather held until early morning, when we really got hit... hard rain and lots of lightning and thunder very close by. We filled our water tanks and put the valuable electronics in the oven. Fortunately, no direct hits from the lightning.
The forecast was for strong SWly winds, and we were a little exposed to the SW. We heard a couple of boats on the net talking about Isla Pedro Gonzales. We remembered reading an SSCA letter from another cruiser saying that Pedro Gonzales was the best anchorage they'd seen on the whole west coast of Central America.
So when the rain let up, we set off for Pedro Gonzales.
Labels: PanamaPacific
We arrived on Sunday afternoon, and understandably, the harbor and the beach was pretty full of power boats from Panama City. As far as we could tell, everyone was on a mooring.
We hadn't thought to ask anyone about Taboga specifically, though we had gotten several tips from some new friends on Rhapsody on where to go in the Las Perlas (Pearl) Islands. The only cruising boats we could see in the harbor looked unoccupied. Where there were no moorings, it was over 50 feet deep (at high tide). Even the outer harbor had 4-5 large (about 200 feet long) Tuna boats.
Finally we saw a dinghy coming out from shore to a power boat on a mooring. They looked like cruisers and not locals. We idled over nearby and asked them about anchoring and/or mooring. They recommended we call 'Libre' on channel 74 and ask about a mooring. We called a couple of times, but didn't get an answer. Then we heard Rhapsody, back in Balboa, calling us and telling us to go to 77. We still aren't quite sure exactly why, since Libre was close ashore somewhere, but Rhapsody (8 miles away)
could hear Libre answering us. So they relayed for us and directed us to a mooring.
Later, Chuy and Susan from Libre stopped by in their dinghy. They are a cruising couple from California who have put down roots at Taboga, and they now run 'Taboga Island Moorings'. You can call or email ahead for a mooring at 507-6442-5712 or chusanandlibre@hotmail.com. They also do 'boat sitting' for people who need to leave the boat for a little while.
We didn't go ashore. It looked like a small town with a resort atmosphere... there is regular ferry service to Panama City/Balboa, and cell phone service, and even wifi. It's very popular with the Panamanians on the weekend, but gets a little sleepy on weekdays.
It was a nice enough anchorage, but a little rolly (our mooring was pretty far out). The only really bad thing was that the tuna boats ran their generators and lights all night long.
Labels: PanamaPacific
A few facts:
- Only moorings there (no room to anchor right in this spot) - $22/night plus 5%
- Wifi available in the mooring field
- Free lancha, so you don't have to put your dinghy down
- Nice bar and restaurant
- BYC stands by on VHF 06
- The local cruisers are on VHF 74 and there is a net 8am every day except Sundays
- The HF net on this side is the Panama Pacific Net on 8143 USB, at 9am local time
We had to leave by Sunday afternoon, because Dave opted to check out of Panama at the Colon Yacht Club for Costa Rica (with intermediate stops), when we left Colon.
It was either that or check out of Colon for Balboa and have to check out of Balboa (another expense) later. What we didn't know when we made that decision was that we'd have to check out of Balboa, immigration-wise, within 48 hours of getting our Zarpe in Colon (or face a fine, or have to check back into Balboa). We were hoping the Balboa Immigration guy would let us stay til Mon morning, but no such luck.
So we left BYC yesterday and sailed 9 miles SW to the island of Taboga.
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, Provisioning
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib
Labels: USA 2008
Labels: PanamaCanal, PanamaCarib, PanamaPacific
We put Nicki and friend Phil on the plane from Porvenir last Wednesday. We had a great time and I think they did too. It was especially nice to have Mike and Sue's son Ty visiting on s/v Infini at the same time. The kids had some fun together without the old folks. It was a nice visit, but we were all ready for them to leave. They started talking about driving from the airport directly to a hamburger joint 2 days before they left! I'll get some pics posted soon.
We spent a few days lounging in the 'Swimming Pool' with Infini and about 10 other boats there. We took a couple of trips out to the Grottoes, showing others where they were. On the last visit, I accidentally put my hand down on a Scorpion Fish and got a really bad sting. Fortunately, Mike on Infini is a doctor and gave us some invaluable advice. (get her back to the boat immediately, take some Benadryl, and soak in hot water, start antibiotics). It hurt like heck for a few hours, but the hot
water soak (and a couple of Advil and a shot of rum) subdued the pain pretty quickly. My hand was very swollen for about 24 hours and then gradually returned to normal. It looks normal now, but still hurts a little. The 2 punctures on the palm just under the two middle fingers are looking OK. (Thanks Mike and Sue!)
Infini left the San Blas for Cartagena 2 days ago, and we left yesterday headed in the other direction... for Colon. We arrived this afternoon at the Panama Canal Yacht Club.
As we entered the breakwater at Colon, Dave said "Say goodbye to the Atlantic Ocean... we won't be seeing it again for a long time." Snif
We plan to go through the Canal to the Pacific about Sept 15. More details later when we have them.
It's a little scary contemplating the jump. Nobody else seems to be moving much this time of year, so we feel we are leaving all our friends behind. We know virtually nothing about the weather patterns or the radio schedules on the other side, and certainly will have a hard time getting used to the 10-15 foot tides. I'm sure we'll figure it all out, and find some new friends. But we do have a little anxiety over the change.
We'll be in internet contact til at least the 11th of Sep. (Anxiously watching a string of hurricanes zero in on our home in Florida).
Labels: PanamaCarib