Down the Coast of Panama

After checking out of Costa Rica, Customs, Immigration and The Golfito Port Captain gave us 72 hours to exit their waters.  

We planned a special dinner to say our goodbyes to the wonderful staff at Banana Bay Marina. If you find yourself in Golfito be sure to stop and spend a few days, they are very helpful.

We left the dock early April 24^th at low tide and traveled to Isla Pardida. The anchorage was exposed with little shelter. We have been lucky to encountered mild winds. We enjoyed a soft little roll that put us all to sleep.

The next day we continued on to anchor on the east side of Isla De Coiba for the night. The snorkeling was mediocre with visibility at about 20 to 30 feet. A 4 foot morey ell let us know not to get to close. He was very protective of his home.  Several large schools of shiny silver fish surrounded us. A variety of colorful large and small fish entertained us until the rainstorm; lightening and thunder forced us back onboard. I did manage to make it to shore to find a few shells. I was able to sneak a special few onboard. My collection continues to grow.

Another system learned the hard way. It’s a never-ending process and always a reward of accomplishment when we learn something new. We have been pampering our water makers and collected all of the necessary parts when we flew home last month. Upon our return Bill installed new fresh water diversion and flush valves. The old valves he replaced had been allowing air into the system. We had a celebration when both water makers were pushing out between 250 and 350 parts per million.

Now the interesting lesson… We had our 20KW running to enable us to run our air conditioning, hydraulic cooling pump and the two water makers. Bob Senter would be so proud of us. We know he is smiling when we have our NL generator running a heavy load. Luckily after our high fives Bill did another engine room check and found the water makers warm with excessive vibration.  Note to self, in the future do not run the water makers, air conditioning and hydraulic cooling pump at the same time? Apparently our sea chest wasn’t engineered to adequately allow the volume of water needed to run all these systems simultaneously.

Frustration, is a mild word to use when this was discovered as a matter of fact, Bill used many words... At the time we were unsure how much damage had been done to the pumps on the water makers. We waited until we stopped for the night to investigate the situation, giving the water makers and engine room time to cool down. Our engine room temperature generally runs between 105 – 110 degrees in this warm weather / waters, much warmer than we are used to in The Pacific Northwest. Prior to heading out on this trip, we installed several fans and a blower in the engine room to help with the extreme heat.

We anchored and took a quick swim to cool off and allow the engine room to cool down and started the water makers again. We are keeping our fingers crossed, not much damage to report. One of the water makers has a slight vibration, but is making water. YEAH!!!

Our last little hurdle before getting to the canal was Punta Malo. We have heard the waters can be challenging. We experienced a strong current on our bow as the tide was going out. We dropped back to 6.5 knots. The seas remained calm throughout the day. We even managed to catch several dorado, they ranged from 20 to 35 pounds. Our freezer is getting full.

We are on our way to Isla Otoque to anchor for the night. Tomorrow we will continue to an anchorage outside of The Flaminco Yacht Club to wait for our agent to clear us into Panama.

Our plan is to spend a couple of days in Panama City. We have guests, Mitch and Cherie Vandehey flying in to transit the canal with us and explore Panama City.

Never a dull moment, we have enjoyed another wonderful day on Anna Mae. I am anticipating a delicious fish dinner tonight. I wish you could join us!

I have numerous pictures to share and would love to if my iphoto program would cooperate... Hope to rectify that issue shortly at the Mac store in Panama City tomorrow!