08 NOVEMBER 2007 - 22 DECEMBER

SO, WHERE ARE WE? - OH YES, PARADISE


Photos: Aphrodite’s Album

Isla Parga
Western Panamanian islands
Isla Coiba and Santa Catalina
On passage from Isla Jicaron
Islas Perlas to Panama


And we truly were. We dropped our anchor at Isla Parida by Isla Gamez. The sun was shining the water crystal clear and turquoise, the bleach-white sandy beaches beckoned from under the swaying palms - gorgeous - just what we signed up for 18 months ago. Liberty Call had arrived 24 hours earlier and Second Wind were still around. That was it apart from fishing pangas. There is NOTHING in the Western Panamanian islands - no shops, no WI-FI, no bar, no restaurant, nothing but gorgeous islands with excellent snorkelling. A large part of the islands form a National Park and the largest of the islands, Coiba, is home to a Ranger station housing around 30 Rangers who patrol the islands. Once you get to the Las Secas islands you are ‘in the park’ and will be approached to pay $10 per person for an 8 day stay. We actually stayed around 5/6 weeks and only ever paid once although the guys used to come and see us regularly for a chat! When paying, don’t expect a receipt. They will approach you in an anchorage and take your money and may ask for a copy of your boat’s registration, but they won’t give you a receipt. This isn’t a problem. The first time they came to us we were at Briancanco and they told us that we had to go to Coiba to pay. We asked if we could pay them as Coiba is almost the most easterly of the islands and some way away. They said no, we had to go to Coiba. They next day they returned to Briancanco and took our money - no problem! However, I digress, we are still in Isla Parida where we make the acquaintance of Carlos when he taps on our boat early one morning to see if we would like to buy fish and lobster. During the time we spent in Isla Parida - the boys - Daryl and Paul went fishing with Carlos and his buddies, leaving at 5.30 a.m. one morning, in the hope of learning some ‘age old’ methods of catching or baiting that would improve our hit rate. They were somewhat surprised to find that there was no equipment in the panga when they set off into the rainy sunrise. Soaked and shivering they finally arrived at a spot where Carlos said they would catch fish. He then leaned over the side of his panga and proceeded to haul in his net set the previous day!!! So, no new fishing skills, bait setting tricks, AND, NO FISH! The nets were empty except for rays, which were all released. Daryl actually went lobster catching with these guys also one wet cold rainy morning. It sounds like we were back into bad weather but generally it was gorgeous. Just cold and wet early in the morning on fishing days. Anyway, back to Daryl and his lobstering - he spent the entire morning diving in and out of the panga, until, finally exhausted, he flopped back into the boat having caught ZERO lobsters!!! Bless! Fortunately for us the local guys had bagged around 80 to 100 and at three for $5-00 we all ate lobster that night.

So, we sailed out of Parida/Gamez on the 13th of November, and continued to sail the whole day, (for you non-sailors reading this, I mention this as of the 3,600 miles we have under our keel so far, at least 40 percent of them have been under engine - possibly more) arriving at the Las Secas Islands. As we made our approach into the bay at Isla Cavada, two 40 foot whales surfaced just feet from our boat, dived under the boat and re-appeared just an arms stretch from the port side they continued to swim around us, blowing and diving, putting on the most amazing show in close quarters. To be honest, a little too close for me. When the pair of them ploughed head on for our stern I finally chickened out and started the engine, as I had decided it might possibly dissuade them from ramming us! As it turns out I missed the most spectacular whale activity possibly of my life. Just feet away, Paul tells me, they dived, their flukes spectacular, right off our stern. We motored into the cove at Cavada. This particular island is privately owned and is home to a very expensive ‘eco’ resort. The private property, no landing signs could only be read close up, well, that was our excuse, but we couldn’t really wander any further inland and so the following day we dropped down to Isla Pargo (still in the Las Secas chain) and found our first excellent snorkelling. The anchorage was great on the north side of Pargo between the two smaller islands. The best snorkelling (and it was good) was all around the westerly of the two small islands. There was also a couple of good hikes to be had here. A few days later we sailed, once gain, to the Islas Contreras chain, and anchored in Briancanco. Since leaving Parida, we hadn’t seen another boat. En route to Briancanco I caught my first Dorado (aka Mahi-mahi, Dolphin (not flipper!)) It wasn’t huge but it tasted great! Briancanco is where we first made the acquaintance of Willis and his colleagues from the Park Rangers office. It’s also about where Paul (smoker for 40+ years) ran out of cigarettes - remember, no shops, bars, restaurants = no cigarettes. Bless, the first day he took out all the nubs of cigarettes from the trash (luckily for him there were many as you can’t leave trash in any of the Western Panamanian islands) picked out the remnants of tobacco, dug out his pipe and then tried to ration himself. Just to complete the enforced ‘no-smoking’ story, four days later I found a cigar which kept him going for almost 24 hours. Anyway, back to Briancanco - EXCELLENT - snorkelling at the western headland of the bay, but all around the western side of the bay there was great coral and fish. From Briancanco we engined across to Isla Uva - and just after we set our anchor our alternator belt shredded itself - no worry - we had plenty of spares.

I think I mentioned before that in Golfito we had found a ‘better fitting’ alternator belt - number 15455 (a number that will now live in my memory for ever) and so, once we had established that this was the best fit belt we could find I headed out to the auto shop to buy several spares - as our belts are inclined to shred around the 50 hour mark. Not wishing to be too boring, so in brief, Aphrodite originally had a dynamo which we replaced with an alternator and it is fractionally out of alignment and hence we get through alternator belts. Anyway, not a problem because I just bought six 15445’s which should keep us going for quite some time. (Note the mistake?) No I didn’t either until we were anchored in Uva, miles from anywhere and trying vainly to fit the new belt the 15445 in place of the now stripped old belt - 15455. Merd!! Daryl, (who is a bit like sailing with West Marine) has two emergency ‘build your own belt’ kits, unfortunately neither of which worked adequately. If the issue was power only it wouldn’t have been such a problem, but our alternator belt also drives our engine cooling pump so, no belt, no engine, no shop, no belt. We decide after much thought that we actually now have to try and sail back, at least to Isla Parida, where we may be lucky and get a panga or fishing boat to the mainland. To continue east is taking us further away from any possibility of resolving our latest little difficulty. So we say our goodbyes to Daryl who is sailing to Coiba and head out on a very light breeze to retrace our tracks to Parida. Two hours (maybe three) later we have at least one knot of wind and are about 600 yards away from Daryl who is still at anchor! But we are getting a good push now from the tide - straight towards rocks. This is the point at which we gybe the cruising Shute but with so little wind, end up with a wrap. Paul tries to rejoin the DIY belt and Daryl (now up anchored) stands by. At this point the Ranger boat arrives but is in a emergency and so is not able to tow us but are certain that it would be better for us to proceed to Coiba rather than heading back to Parida. It is at this point that Ranger Rodriguez calls across to Paul ‘does he want cigarettes’ Paul, thrilled, shouts yes please and I head below to get the fish landing net for the handover. Rodriguez then shouts across to Paul ‘do you want cigars’ Paul, as long as it has nicotine in, would take a plant at this point (this is where he has now been tobacco-less for 5 days and I drop my alternator belt bombshell - he did remarkably well really. I arrive back on deck with the net to scoop up his much needed ‘injection’ just in time to see the park boat speed off into the distance and over the horizon, leaving Paul aghast and perplexed. Anyway, the wind finally comes back and we have a great sail to Coiba and drop our anchor at the Ranger station anchorage. It’s soon dark but we head in for a look around and are met by Rodriguez, clutching a jiffy bag containing two packs of cigarettes and the five biggest cigars I have ever seen. This little stash cost a staggering $35, but at this point Paul would have probably been prepared to exchange the boat. We were told that there was a mechanical engineer arriving at the island tomorrow and that he may have a belt for us. Sadly this didn’t work out and so it was determined that I would go to the mainland, 50 kilometres away, in a fishing boat.

As luck would have it a tourist panga came to the island later that day and it was agreed that I could head back with them to Santa Catalina from where I should be able to travel inland and find an alternator belt. The ride over was great, around 1 hour 45 minutes on flat seas - the speed was staggering. I arrived in Santa Catalina, a tiny place and set out to find a bed for the night. This thankfully was not too difficult. Although Santa Catalina is a tiny place, one store, one bar (cold beer!!) it is a huge surf spot and so I soon found a surf shack full of twenty-something guys running around semi-naked - it was terrible! It was also the owner’s birthday and a big BBQ and party was planned for that night - all guests invited - well, you have to have some luck! The next day I was up early and on the bus to the nearest town., 2 hours away. It had seven ‘auto type’ stores in which I found one belt! Knowing that this wasn’t sufficient I jumped on another bus for another 2 hours which took me to another much bigger city I now can’t remember the name of, that was so big I had no idea where to start and so got into a taxi and asked him to take me to ‘todo tiendas para auto’s’ I had an hour before I had to catch the bus back to get me back in time to get the next bus back to Santa Catalina. In one hour we went to 9 stores and I managed to find ONE belt (I now had two!) I decided that I would take a couple of belts one size down and a couple that were one size up and hopefully, please God, they would work.
So, clutching my belts, I just make it back to the bus station for my first of two 2 hour bus rides. The first bus is delayed by an accident and I arrive two minutes after my last bus back to Santa Catalina has left so my only option now is a taxi back to Rollo’s place. I had left at 5.00 a.m. that morning and got back just after 6.00 p.m. - knackered. Through a dive instructor living at Rollo’s surf camp - who just happened to be from my home town of Nottingham, England (!!???!!) I was able to get myself a ride back to Coiba the next day in the dive ‘support panga’ along with the cook and accumulated cool boxes and bags of food to support the three day dive trip. That morning, early, I had gone to the one store in Santa Catalina and bought a few supplies. Three thousand cigarettes for Paul, flour, sugar and 36 eggs. The eggs were in cardboard egg trays which were held together with tape. We waded out through the surf to the awaiting panga’s and set off into a dark and threatening sky. Approximately 20 minutes out in building seas and light rain, the engine stops for the first time. (It stopped a further three times but the driver thankfully was able to coax it back to life each time) In the meantime the seas are now HUGE, the rain is driving so hard that I ended up with a badly blood shot eye from the force of the rain in my eyes. Why didn’t you close them? The waves were so big and the panga was slamming so hard into them, over the top of them, down the front of them that you had to keep your eyes open so that you could see the next big one coming and open your mouth in order that your teeth didn’t smash together as the shock shot up through your spine. I was now also soaking wet and FREEZING COLD. My eggs were also soaking wet, or, to be more precise the cardboard trays, which had virtually disintegrated and so I was nursing them on a seat pad and hopelessly trying to hold them together in the soggy cardboard; I was also aware that I had at least one broken egg between my thighs but was determined that somehow I was going to get these dam eggs back to our boat. I had considered hurling them overboard a number of times so that I could free up my hands to hold on, but it had become my mission to get these eggs to Aphrodite, besides, I was now so cold I had no feeling left in either of my hands. Coiba finally came into view three hours after we had left Santa Catalina - I was so relieved I almost cried. They took me alongside where I handed up my precious cargo of (33) eggs to Paul and was then passed up myself - my hands and forearms were so numb I couldn’t pull myself up onto our boat. Neither could I take off my soaking clothes. Paul delighted to see me return but concerned about my condition took me into his arms and said ‘I told you you should have taken a coat!’
In my absence the boy’s (who had now been joined by Trevor on Nakiska) had had two days of the heaviest rain we had in weeks. But the next day, trauma’s forgotten, the sun came out and we headed out to Isla Rancheria. From Rancheria, a few days later we headed over to Bahia Honda where we had been told that we could get fruit and veg, milk etc. and Daryl and Trevor set off for Isla Granito on the east side of Coiba.

We arrived in Bahia Honda and, and before we could even get our anchor down, we were surrounded by children in dug-out canoes selling Grapefruits, bananas, papayas, pineapple, to name but a few, but no onions and I was on a mission for onions, so we launched the dink and headed into the island. This place is home to around 600 people. They are probably around half a mile from the mainland but the mainland is all dense rainforest with not so much as a path, let alone a road. We never did quite work out how the lovely people of this tiny island exist. On coming ashore we were led by two local children, to the tienda. The tienda was smaller than our Head and the proprietor sat there alongside her bottle of bleach and one 10 year old onion - which, in my sorrow for her, I bought! So we now asked our little guides ‘es otro tienda en isla?‘ Oh yes they say and off we skip to the other side of the island where we arrive at a larger, but still very small tienda that does however sell sodas and milk. So stocked up we head back across the island. On our way back I hand out to as many children as I can, packs of paper and pencils. I had nowhere near enough and we returned to the beach looking a little like the pied piper. If we ever do this again I will make sure that we carry more ‘goodies’ to give to these lovely people who were so grateful for a pencil and 10 sheets of paper each. We left Bahia Honda the next day and joined Daryl and Trevor at Isla Granito. WOW. We’d had good snorkelling most places we’d been to in Western Panama. but Isla Granito is special. Here you snorkel with turtles and sharks - OK so they’re only 4 foot white-tipped reef sharks, but they’re still sharks, hundreds/thousands of fantastic fish, lobsters, eels and all in excellent visibility. We could have stayed here for weeks. But we’ve been here now for 4 weeks, still have the rivers to explore on Coiba, before heading off around Punta Mala and onto the Perlas Islands (another hundred or so uninhabited islands) and be in Panama by 22nd December where Maria, Daryl’s partner will be arriving for Christmas and New Year.

We had a wonderful time chasing around the east side of Coiba - watching white-faced monkeys on the shoreline catching and eating crabs, Iguanas sunning themselves on rocks and alligators - yes alligators - on the river banks. There is one quite large river in Coiba which we navigated as far as we possibly could until we became ensnared by the dense mangroves and had to turn around. Floating back down the river on the outgoing tide and therefore with our engine switched off, we were able to watch , without disturbing, a family of ‘white-faced’ monkeys lunching in the trees along the banks of the river. We also found one particularly good waterfall along the shoreline - the sort you could stand under and shower. But time was now marching on and so we decided that it was time to head south to our last stop in Western Panama at the island of Jicaron, before heading east.
We said our goodbye’s to Trevor (and his lovely boat Nakiska which we would like to think we might own next year - watch this space!) and had an unenjoyable passage to Jicaron to find that the anchorage was a surf zone! Both Daryl and I had caught a very large fish each on the way down. Daryl having landed his first meant that our’s got to live another day. We did still have to land him though in order to get the hook and lure out. He gave us a fight and in fact even had Paul sweating for the best part of an hour. You almost don’t want to put it back after that, but Daryl’s fish was more than enough for three people. Oh, I should mention here that had our fridge and freezer been working we would of course have kept the fish. However it, the fridge/freezer, had died at the same time as the alternator belt had snapped and so we’d had not so much as a glass of cold water for some weeks now. Anyway, I digress again. Not much to say about Jicaron actually as we had a particularly uncomfortable and rolly night there, heading out early the next day, December 12th, for Punta Mala and the Las Perlas islands, 200 miles away. The wind was up and down more times than a pair of whore’s draws the next 24 hours and on the nose, so we sailed or motor-sailed for the best part of it, passing the most southerly point of our cruise - 07 deg 06. 08 N at 0010 hours so now it‘s all north-up from here to Europe. At 1600 hours the next day we are 6 miles away from Benao Cove and around 18 miles from Punta Mala. For those of you who don’t know, Punta Mala is another of those potentially ‘bad’ places to be. There is a strong adverse current off PM, coupled with the strong head winds we were now trying to beat into, it didn’t take us long to decide to pull into Benao Cove, which we could still make in daylight. We knew we would have a rolly night as the bay is open to the swell at this time of year, but was well-protected from the north easterly wind. So a rolly night was had and we headed out at 0700 hours the next morning into no wind! But therefore an extremely calm and simple run around Punta Mala. Unfortunately we had to engine the whole way across the Bay of Panama arriving at Isla San Jose, the most south westerly of the Perlas Islands, around 0300 hours. As we are still ‘depth-less’ we stood off until daybreak and then headed into our first Perlas anchorage, dropping in a gorgeous bay alongside Liberty Call.

We spent two days at Isla San Jose before heading north to Isla Gonzalez. The only reason we went into Isla Gonzalez was to try and obtain diesel for Daryl who, following our passage to Perlas, was now running on fumes. The pilot books all state that petrol is available at Gonzalez but don’t mention diesel but we go there anyway. We had a great sail and as soon as our anchors were down Marcel paddled out in his dug-out canoe to see if we wanted gas or diesel. That got organised for the following morning and so we headed to shore in the hope of finding a small bar or café where we could ‘eat out’ for the first time in six weeks. Marcel told us this would be no problem and so we headed into the centre of the village where we were told that Marcel’s wife would make us dinner. I forgot to mention that Daryl, bless him, had gone ashore a little before us and when we washed up on the beach (literally) there he was clutching cold beers. This was the first alcohol any of us had had for almost 6 weeks, and cold at that - BLISS. We headed into one of the village’s stores and it I was perhaps the affect of the alcohol that got us to agree that rice and iguana would be lovely thank you very much. Marcel went off to organise this delightful meal, leaving us in the shop. The store owner pulled out a table and three rickety chairs and asked us to sit - so we did and had another beer. Around this time a lady arrived (whom we assumed to be Marcel’s wife) took us up to the counter and asked us what we wanted to eat so, in our limited Spanish and somewhat confused, we said, rice, beans and perhaps a little fish or chicken? So she buys, or more correctly we buy for her, rice, beans, cooking oil and one or two other things we never see again, and off she goes and we return to our wobbly table and our cold beer. Another 15 minutes pass and in walks a lady with three plates of rice and iguana. Neither Daryl nor I are too happy about eating this poor creature, Paul has no such reservations, but out of politeness (and hunger) we all tuck in. Bellies full we wonder what happened to the beans that we’d bought to go along with this meal when the second lady reappears with three plates of rice, beans and fish. Not wishing to offend anyone, we tuck into our second ‘meal’ with a little more relish than that poor iguana.

The next morning Marcel rows out 30 gallons of diesel in his dug-out canoe with one paddle, we fill up and head out to Contadora - the only fully habited island in the Las Perlas. We had another great sail and anchored on the south side of the island - where we had been told we would probably be able to get our first internet signal in 7 weeks - and headed ashore and into the first restaurant we came to. We had SALAD - mountains of it, we had Filet Mignon and New York Strip steak, we had cold beer, wine, cold water, ice cream - we were in heaven. We were also at the Romantica hotel and restaurant, run by Charlie; affectionately re-named Crazy Charlie by us. Crazy Charlie makes Basil Fawlty look like the world’s finest hotelier. It was worth if just for the entertainment value alone, but the food was gorgeous and not just because we hadn’t had meat for 7 weeks. Returning to the boat that night I found we also had INTERNET - hooray, I was so happy to be able to contact my family, particularly my Mum, pay my visa bill - which turned into a saga that I won’t bore you with other than to say that because of one missed payment during our delay in the islands, they had cut my credit limit from $14,000 to $700 and it couldn’t have happened at a worse time bearing in mind our imminent canal transit and opportunity to purchase parts for our broken fridge, depth gauge, gps, etc., etc. Anyway, undaunted I Google-searched for the Chairman of Tesco Visa and sent him a little letter explaining my feelings regarding the matter. The upshot of which resulted in our credit limit being re-instated some 15 nail-biting days later.

So where were we? Oh yes, Contadora. We had 3 or 4 days there and then a couple of nights at Pacheca before finally heading in to Panama, arriving on December 20th.

Watch this space for our next disaster - you won’t have to wait long, it’s already happened but I can’t write anymore today!! Will try and update by next week. Happy New Year to everyone.