When we made the reservation for Marina Bahia Golfito, it was in part because they assured me they had an electrician who could get my shore power working again. When we showed up they promptly sent the electrician, who assessed the problem and then told me he was not authorized to work on private boats! He works for the marina itself, not on boats… But he knew a guy! Literally 30 minutes later the second guy showed up and spent about an hour poking around before telling me he really couldn’t help because he’s actually an outboard motor mechanic… But he knows a guy! Sigifredo showed up an hour later and, not only is he an actual electrician, he has college degrees in electrical engineering. He was able to diagnose and fix the problem along with a few other issues over two days. Of course, Bella supervised the work closely.
Paige then sailed with us from Golfito, Costa Rica to Boca Chica, Panama – her first overnight. And a long, tough night it was. Multiple squalls and a very rolly boat as the south swell was on our beam the entire time. We could not get our code 0 sail back down as a squall approached (at dusk of course), so we lashed it to the forestay/jib sail and carried on. Caught our first ever tuna! then stopped at Isla Parida in the morning to catch up on some sleep and John went up the mast to untwist the halyard and bring the sail down. (A new halyard is in the works as this is not the first time we’ve had this problem.) After a couple hours of sleep we carefully threaded our way through the many beautiful islands and very narrow/shallow channels into the protected waters around the little town of Boca Chica.
Boca Chica is not for the faint of heart as the water gets down to inches under the keel and the twice a day tidal current through the anchorage will get your attention. We managed to arrange a driver into the city of David to pick up a rental car for a few days. Got our Panama cruising permit (super fancy paper and stamps!) from the port captain‘s office as well as one for our neighbor. The actual check-in to Panama, done at a restaurant, entailed the most paperwork and was the most expensive yet with the various officials getting $20, $35, $45, $70 and then the cruising permit at $185. Enjoyed hanging out with Rusty on Pitu and found a great hotel/bar up on a hill. Paige left our mark behind and yes, there are large crocodiles everywhere in this area.
Paige flew home with a bunch of warmer clothes that we are never going to use again and even a few blankets that we somehow thought might be necessary. We did a bunch of provisioning, picked up a few parts and then John‘s parents arrived the next day along with a brand new boat BBQ! Headed out to Isla Canal de Afuera for the night and then a longer sail to a couple of islands in the Coiba group, a world heritage site. We did a bunch of snorkeling, to include Isla Granitos de Oro which had wonderfully clear water, many schools of very large fish, half a dozen turtles, white tip shark and very healthy coral – something we see very little of. The huge island of Coiba is in fairly pristine condition because it was used by Panama as a penal colony for about 100 years, finally closing in 2004. The old crumbling prison buildings were fascinating and one had some very interesting prisoner graffiti. Look closely at the cross on the altar, it includes the scales of justice. It took a full hour on the dinghy each way to get there, but totally worth it.
Had some very impressive thunderstorms and were invaded each night by GINORMOUS grasshoppers. Even John’s mother, who is very stoic and quite the bug lover, let out a few shrieks when they landed on her! Boy, did they leave a poopy mess all over the boat. But Tess caught a nice Mahi Mahi the next day!
The first night on Coiba proper we woke about 0150 to the boat pounding on the bottom. It was absolute low tide and the wind was blowing us into the shallow end where we pulverized some sand and took the paint off the bottom of the rudder. No real damage was apparent but no fun. I guess the fact that it took us over a year to have that happen is pretty good.
We are presently sailing 150 miles from Coiba to Isla Tobago which is just outside Panama City. Canal crossing coming up!
The locomotive is one of the United Fruit Company trains from the 1930s/40s. The ship with the helicopter is a Venezuelan tuna boat. The helicopter is used to find the schools. The red fruit is rambutan and the yellow bird is a social flycatcher.
