Greetings,
I was just looking over the last update and I realized I hadn’t described the anchorage here in the bay of Panama. Panama City is to the North, the Amador causeway is to the west and the islands at the end of the causeway are to the south. It’s open to the east. The skyline of the city is quite impressive, and beautiful if you like that kind of thing. It’s a very modern city with lots of skyscrapers that have interesting architecture. The bay is not clean water with the runoff from the city so no swimming here. There are lots of schools of very small bait (not bate, right Daddy?;) fish and loads of pelicans. The pelicans are fun to watch but hard to keep off the bow which makes for extra cleaning. There are lots of other boats here but we’ve barely met anyone in the cruising community yet. It’s a nuisance and expensive to get into town. We wouldn’t want to be here too long.
Now, on with the latest. Phil has gone home and we aren’t expecting more guests until Bob comes down in Oct, so now it’s time to get Second Star in ship shape for sea while we do a bit more exploring around this area.
We didn’t get out to Las Perlas while Phil was here. We went to Taboga which is an island about 10 miles out from Panama City. It’s very pretty and quiet during the week. We got there on Thursday afternoon and enjoyed being in cleaner water with few other people around. We got the waterline scrubbed and enjoyed a quiet afternoon. The next day we went into the little town on the island for lunch and a walk. It’s a quant town built on the hill. It was good exercise exploring up one side and down the other.
On Saturday we had decided we’d go on out to Isla Otoque, which is another 11 miles from the city, and meet up with Saverio who was planning to be out there fishing on Sunday. As it turned out that was a great plan for several reasons. First, Taboga gets very busy on the weekends. By the time we pulled the anchor up, just after lunch, there were many other boats in the little cove, all with lots of people and loud music. It was a good time to get out of there.
On the way to Otoque, Capt Johne spotted whales (humpbacks) in the distance. At first it was difficult to see more than that there was something surfacing, flashing in the sun, making a splash. But they got a little closer and I could see there backs when they came up. It was my first time seeing whales in the wild and Johne expected more excitement from me, but since I couldn’t see them well, it was hard to get super excited.
The cove at Otoque was quite with only one tiny local fishing boat tied up. It was deep and not very wide, so we had to anchor right in the middle so if the wind shifted we wouldn’t be in the rocks. It was a very pretty jungle all around and we were glad we’d gone there even though it would mean a little less sleep for anchor checks over night.
The anchor held, and in the morning, after the rain passed Johne and Phil took Hook out to try a bit of fishing. They didn’t catch anything but said the ride around the island was beautiful. Saverio, Rosanna and their guest came by after their morning of fishing and we all had lunch aboard Second Star.
After that it was time to head back to town so we could do some errands the next day before Phil had to leave. On the way back to town we saw more whales and this time it was close enough that I could see them blow when they came up, and clearly see the flukes (tail) before they went down. And got to see them several times. Now Johne got the excitement he was looking for from me. I jumped up and down and clapped my hands. I’m told it’s whale season here so I’m hoping to get to see lots more over the next few weeks.
Projects are going well. Johne has done some work to improve the exhausts on the main engines and is about to do the same on the generator. We’re going to pick up our new (upgrade) inverters, which should improve our battery performance. After which we will be about ready to make the next big trip. Ecuador here we come…But not for a couple more weeks.
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