Day 31: Panama to Ecuador – 05/02/10

When my phone rings at 5.45 am I wake up in a panic – and then remember that we are only using it as an alarm clock.  It’s been so long since I have heard my phone ring as it hasn’t worked since St Lucia and I’ve kept it switched off.  Eventually my heart rate goes back to normal, Mike gets up and I lie back down to wait for my tea.

We pull the anchor up at 6.30 am (royal use of the word ‘we’ as I was still in bed at this point drinking cup of tea number two!) and motor out onto a flat calm sea and no wind.  We watch as another six boats also leave the anchorage, every one of them going out in the opposite direction to us, but appearing like a little line of ducks, round the other side of the bay.  We are all going to Punta Pina, a large bay which we hope is still part of Panama as none of us has clearance into Columbia and don’t want to bother doing this as we are passing straight on.  We’ll stay on the boat anyway.  Later I discover we are still in Panama anyway!

It is strange looking at sea that is so calm, like a proverbial mill pond.  With virtually no wind, the early morning haze is slow to shift and the effect is eerie.  Suddenly I see black shapes leaping out of the water and belly flopping back down.  Jim comes to join me on the bow and we try to photograph them.  They turn out to be rays.  Jim gets a photo of one and I get some on a movie (along with a heck of a lot of sky as I can’t see a thing through the screen).  Then we see dolphins but we are going so slowly that they just pass us by, uninterested in playing off our bow.

Photo:  An eerie light, flat calm and no wind

We have the two genoas goose winged but they just flap pathetically most of the time.  Then suddenly, we hit wind and fly along at 6 to 8 knots.  Of course, this is the time that the line screams out from the reel.  We are more lucky with our catch this time, a small albacore tuna which is gutted, filleted and on the plate with wasabi within the hour.  Actually, just as rigour mortis is setting in.  I could feel the fish changing in my hands as I cut it up.  Not strange, then, that I am the only one that doesn’t fancy it raw today!  I much prefer black fin tuna but tuna is tuna and we will have some for dinner tonight.

We motor a lot today.  We have periods of wind and periods of no wind.  Periods of flat calm and sometimes little ripples but weather wise it is very boring.   We see the odd dolphin on and off all day.  They are easy to spot as the sea is so calm but like this morning, they just calmly swim past.

The area around Puerto Pina is dense jungle which comes right down to the sea.  The sea either is a deep emerald green here or the lush greenery makes it appear so.  There is mist on all the hills and the noise of insects from the jungle is amazing and very loud.

Photos:  Arriving in Puerto Pina

We arrive in the bay behind Skylark and Voyageur at around 5.30 pm and are immediately surrounded by the local Indian ladies selling their wares.  Before the fleet arrived, there was just one gin palace in residence in the bay.  Now suddenly there are six yachts and this creates a flurry of excitement for the locals.  They clamber onto the back of our boat, smiling and clutching boxes and bags of goods.  I end up buying a woven bowl and a couple of little bracelets and give them some balloons for their children.

Photos:  Buying and selling and not a mola in sight!

I don’t know how these women balance in the canoes.  They are extremely narrow and rock precariously as they move about.  There is always a few inches of water in the bottom which they just sit in – there are no seats.  Every now and then they bale the water out.  It must be very uncomfortable.

We are excited to find that we have internet access, so make full use of it.  I publish lots of blog and catch up with my e-mails.  Thank goodness tomorrow is the weekend – I will make good use of Skype.

Our position is:  7 deg 34 min N, 78 deg 12 min W

Distance so far:  1442 nautical miles