Back to Panama City

After four pleasant days at the Las Perlas Islands, we are back at the Balboa Yacht Club.

Last Thursday we did some provisioning, filled the fuel tanks at Flamenco Marina, and left for Isla Contadora about noon. We arrived about 6pm and anchored in the south anchorage, Playa Cacique. After a leisurely dinner and some Phase 10, we all went to bed early. The next day we cleaned the waterline and dinghyed ashore for a well earned drink.

 

 

Saturday we wanted to visit Isla Bartolomé, where the Survivor tribal councils were filmed, so we moved to the north anchorage. It would have been a one mile dinghy ride into the wind and chop, so we scratched that idea, but we did go ashore again at Isla Contadora where the ferry lands. We walked around the island being tourists; buying souvenirs and frou-frou drinks. Below you see our boat anchored at Playa Galeon with Isla Bartolomé in the background.

 

 

Sunday we headed back towards Panama City under patchy clouds. I was below cooking breakfast when suddenly things started sliding towards the port side. I turned the stove off and got on deck just in time to see 25 knots on the wind speed indicator. Not good. So we quickly double reefed the main and pulled in the genoa. Allie said water was actually coming over the rail for a few seconds! Things calmed down soon though, and the remaining trip was uneventful.

 

 

However, when we arrived back at the Balboa Yacht Club, the mooring ball we had reserved was occupied by another boat. (There is a serious problem with mooring space in Panama. It's probably because the transient boats find it so difficult to know exactly when they will be there.) But we eventually found a mooring ball and went to the restaurant for our farewell dinner.

 

Early this morning we drove Allie to the airport. The remainder of our day was taken up with groceries, laundry, and returning the rental car. And now we start another phase of our stay here in Panama: boat maintenance. Stay tuned for those exciting details.