Update from Puerto Lindo


Matthew came and left with some unfortunate complications. The airline, Air Panama, changed departure time without notifying anybody, and Matthew missed his connection to Toronto and had to spent extra night in Panama City and incurred some extra expenses. Welcome to Latin World.

The day before his departure we made a dingy trip to Rio Diablo and had a very good time.



We took advantage of a weather window, a breather between reinforced Trades, known as Christmas Winds, to sail back to Isla Linton anchorage for dental appointments, immigration office to extend our visas, and some inland travel to explore Panama. It was an "invigorating" sail for me, and a "hairy" sail for Carol, with 20 kts of wind on the quarter and 12-15 feet waves. We had no "adventures" and a fast passage.



Last week we rented a car in Panama City and visited mountains of Panama interior. We drove to El Valle de Anton, a small town situated in a crater extinguished volcano, in search of rare and endangered golden frog. However the place which touted terranium sporting one "genuine article" informed us that "the frog - she died!". Fortunately they had a plastic one on display, which was ten times the size of the original - so we liked it better.



Our next goal, was to see town of Bouquete, which is located on the eastern slopes of the tallest mountain in Panama, Volcan Baru. The mountains are beautiful, but the town is too trendy for our taste, too many bad restaurants, too much "third world crap at first world prices".

The highlight of the trip was driving to the western slope of the Volcan Baru, and along the edge of Parque de Amistad. It's hard to find the words to discribe the beauty seen driving along the road from the Trans American Highway to Cierra Punta, to Guadeloupe.

It was great to have a break from out Taskmaster Felicia, but we are glad to be back at our floating home now.

Welcome to Paradise

While I have a decent conection, I would like to provide some reference information about this area from http://www.moon.com/planner/panama/regions/kunayala.html





Welcome to paradise. Cartoonists who love to picture tropical islands as dots of soft sand with a few coconut palms could have gotten the idea from Kuna Yala, otherwise known as the San Blas Islands. That image fits countless idyllic spots in this archipelago of nearly 400 islands off the eastern Caribbean coast of Panama. When the sun hits the sea here you’ll think of emeralds and sapphires.

The islands are part of the Comarca de Kuna Yala, a semiautonomous homeland of the Kuna people. Kuna territory also encompasses a mountainous strip of mostly virgin forest on the mainland, along the Caribbean slope of the Darién. It runs the length of the archipelago, ending at the Colombian border.

Any lingering romantic notions one has about indigenous people’s harmonious relationship with nature gets a jolt upon realizing how severely the Kuna are overfishing their waters, or seeing the garbage and sewage they routinely dump into pristine blue waters.

On the other hand, there are still plenty of lovely, uninhabited islands in the archipelago, more than anyone could possibly see during a visit. A big part of the charm of these islands is their very simplicity: no timeshare condos or tacky T-shirt shops here. Nodding off in a hammock slung between coconut palms, watching a Kuna woman sewing a mola, and showering by the light of a kerosene lantern can soon seem like a pretty good way to spend the day.

From Carol.

We were witness yesterday to a real tragedy of the boat "After You" first getting stuck on the reef and then after many hours and the efforts of many fellow sailors, being pulled off only to sink within 2 min. Fortunately, realizing that may happen, much of the most valuable items were offloaded. Gregory went out at 3 am when he heard another boat asking for help. They had to find a way around the reef in our anchorage as he was stuck on the other side, no small feat on a moonless night. Two dingies came to him but there was no way to pull the boat off with the combined horsepower and darkness.A boat with an experienced salvage operator was called to come at daybreak.He could not get them off and the big guns, “Gabriel”, the boat I cooked for, came in. “Gabriel” is 65’ US flagged motor boat with 2 350 hps engines. After a couple of hours of jockeying lines from boat to boat in the surf by those assisting, they coordinated a plan to pull her off and get her to shallow water to try and repair the crack in the hull made by the reef.We watched both now back on the boat (Gregory was out there helping most of the day) with goosbumps as we listened to John (“Gabriel” skipper) and Derrek ( “Celtic Dancer” Irish flagged sailboat skipper, who coordinated the operation) over the radio " She moved 5 feet!" We watched as she slowly moved and then her mast became upright!Whoooooohoooooo we screamed joyfully that the seemingly impossible had been achieved.The feeling was too short-lived as we saw her start to sink as she was being towed.I cannot explain the berklept at this sight.Then she disappeared.The collective grief was palpable even though most of us never met the guy.He was adopted by another boat till he figures out what to do next. His plan was to go around the world in his boat.He was not insured as he was a single hander and they are considered a bad risk.The other boaters here were so forthcoming and put themselves at risk to help, some lost property as their dingie flipped in the surf and damaged the motor.Sad to say, I had nothing to offer personally.The guy, Keith is doing as well as can be expected and held a postmortem on the radio today, thanking everyone and taking accounts of losses so he could reimburse people.He even seems to have a sense of humor intact and is more grateful to be alive than devastated.That is it for now... Gotta start a challah. Shabbat is coming!

From Gregory.

That was heartbreaking experience. I could never believe that one can get so chilled in tropics, but after hours of being soaked by ocean spray and exposed to winds of 20-25 kts, I was really cold. Carol warmed some water so I could “shower” it over me in cockpit between trips to the wreck or outside the reef.
Everybody came together as a community in a matter of hours, even though most of us never met or even heard of each other. French, American, British, German, Finish, Irish, Swedish sailors and Kuna fisherman just came to help with no reward and plenty of risk to share. It is amazing what people can do with no authorities to depend on.
The first “Mayday” call came at 2:30 AM, and the last view of the “After You” came at 5:30 PM as she sunk rapidly in 150’ of water. She was a beauty (may her soul rest in peace).

Very best wishes to all of you.

We have celebrated New Year arrival in a very fine company of Ruth and
Buddy (Annapurna), Molly and David (Tumbleweed), and my son, Matthew, who came to visit us after graduating from Trent University.

We first met Annapurna 9 years ago, while cruising Mexico. They were in the beginning of their circumnavigation. So we were thrilled to hear their
radio call here, as they are about to complete their adventure by crossing
Panama canal and cross their tracks in Acapulco. Ruth and Buddy are quite
happy to go home now and rest after all these exciting adventures.

We were anchored off the island of Kuanidup, Los Gruillos archipelago
which has Kuna owned resort of 6 or 7 huts with hammocks, and a little mess hall covered by palms throngs, where the guests are fed. Very cute! The guests arrive by Air Panama 20 passengers planes to the airstrip on the mainland 8 miles away, and are brought to the island by small pangas
(fiberglass boats with outboard motors).
At midnight we could see bonfires and fireworks miles away in Kuna
villages.

Gregory