Friday January 31
Pick up anchor from Islas Secas headed to Isla Parida with our buddy boat. Anchored off Isla Gamez. There were several dolphins swimming by us as we motored here. This little uninhabited island is absolutely beautiful!!! We stayed here overnight.
Thursday January 30
The dingy was deployed we headed for a sandy beach near our anchorage at Islas Secas. Then went out for a bit in deeper water to snorkel.
Later we had cocktails with our boat buddies on Saltair3, Brad, Krista and Cole on their catamaran.
Wednesday January 29
Our morning view of Panama 🇵🇦
We mostly motor sailed, as you see in the photos, not much wind. We did at one point have the spinnaker flying for several hours. By midnight we finally set anchor at Islas Secas along with Saltair3.
Tuesday January 28
10am and we’re off. Left Vista Mar marina headed for Islas Secas. We hung our fishing poles our for a bit but didn’t catch anything. Maybe the dolphins swimming by us ate all the fish.
We are with a buddy boat Saltair3, (you can find them on YouTube) heading to round Punta Mala, where the Gulf of Panama meets the Pacific Ocean, expect to round the point by midnight before the tide changes.
We cruised through the night, the Milkyway and a sky full of stars, never gets old!
Monday January 27
We rented a car and drove just under 1.5 hours back to Panama City, to check out of the country with immigration and recieve our Zarpe. The word Zarpe is past tense for the word Zarpar meaning to set sail, to raise anchor.
At Vista Mar Marina, their website says they offer immigration services, but come to find out that means the guy in the office takes all your paperwork to his friend who’s an agent. The agent files the paper work, 2 days later and $80 you get your paperwork back. With the car it also allowed us to provision. We stopped at Riba Smith Coranodo, as recommend by the friends we met at Shelter Bay Marina.
We run on weather windows, with one tomorrow,we didn’t want to wait two more days.
Scott and Julie Tagen from the USA, we’re in Panama visiting the canal the day we transited and took photos of us. They found our blog SailingTrance.com left a comment, emailed us these photos. We don’t know them, that was really cool they did that, much appreciated!
Saturday January 25
We walked the beach this morning where the local fishermen come in. We purchased 2 Corvina freshly caught fish for dinner. Thanks to Al’s great knives skills, he descaled and filleted them.
The Panama Pose members here at Vista Mara have a pot luck dinner every Saturday night, we cooked our fish and brought rice with mushrooms to share.
Friday January 24
This morning, Danielle and Stacey left the boat, they are headed back home to work. Danielle will return to the boat after tax season.
Shortly afterwards we unhooked from the mooring and left Panama City. We sailed for about 5 hours, it was 15-20 we we’re cruising just over 7 knots. We arrived at the Vista Mara Marina just before 5. We may stay here a few days, we’ll see.
Thursday January 23
Sightseeing day! We visit the Panama Canal Museum, then walked around Old Town Panama.
We had dinner at Capital Bristo Panama, excellent food!
Wednesday January 22
We spent the night anchored in Gatun Lake. Our new advisor arrived around 9am, we were off. It was a 5 hours or motoring till the second set of locks. Along the way this is what we saw…
After exiting the canal we anchored at the Balboa Yacht Club for the night, shared a celebratory bottle of champagne!
Sailing Trance 