We have just made ready and lifted anchor setting off from Bocas Town to sail back to Shelter Bay. We had lunch with Fredrik at what has become our favourite restaurant – Buena Vista. A favourite for a few reasons – first and foremost, good Wifi. But the food is excellent, the staff friendly, beer is cheaper than a cola and the washrooms are clean. It also has a dock for the dinghy and sits on the waterfront. Overall we score it a 10 out of 10.
After lunch we scoured the town looking for the Bocas Ecological Coconut Oil for Katinka (Fredrik’s wife). After searching the town, we ended up finding out that the restaurant where we just had lunch sell it. There it was, right under our noses. It’s a good thing it is a small town.
Fredrik jumped into the first available water taxi and headed back to Almiranti where he parks his car and started his long drive back to Panama City. Jens and I went back to the restaurant so I could finish up the last blog posting and then we too were off on our journey back.
As we expected, the winds were with us as was the current. It was good sailing and easy going. Apart from a quick downpour at around 7PM, the night was clear.
Monday, Oct 22: 1:30AM
We have arrived to our anchorage for the night. We are just off an island called Escudo del Veraguas. It is a large island and mostly uninhabited. Apparently it is a favourite nesting place for Boobies. But as we are not such great birders, we didn’t see any, or at least we don’t think we did.
We settled in and had a good sleep waking around 6AM. We had a quick breakfast and set off in Squirt to explore the island. We docked on the beach with our snorkeling gear and walked as far as we could. It took us an hour to walk to the end of the beach and back again.
We spoke to Mauritzio, one of the locals who are working for the government – an organization called ARAP which is the Turtle Conservancy. We spotted a track of a turtle that had come up to shore during the night to make a nest and lay eggs. Mauritzio keeps a log of all the nests and watches when they hatch (which takes about three months). He showed us his record book and this nest was number 353 during the past 5 months. Interesting to see the research that is taking place.
After a quick snorkel to cool down around one of the small rock outcroppings where we spotted a nurse shark lingering in the shade, we got back to SEGWUN and set off once more.
Tuesday, Oct. 23: 7:30AM
We left the anchorage at around 11:30 AM and set out the fishing lines. Our new lure is now our lucky lure. We caught three really nice fish. The first was a small tuna, the second one was a nice sized Spanish Mackeral and the third we got really lucky and brought in a good sized Big-Eyed Tuna. This was the largest tuna we have caught so far. Our freezer is nicely stock with fish fillets. 
We arrived to Rio Chagres at around 6AM but it was too dark to try entering the river so Jens slowed us down by taking in the sails and held off for a while. It had been a long and rolly night of sailing – good winds but the seas had huge swells coming from port side which made it very difficult to sleep. Once the sun was up we sailed into the mouth of the river past the remains of the old Fort San Lorenzo. Rio Chagres flows from the inland mountains through Gatun Lake and out to the Caribbean. It is a deep river so we can sail up as far as the dam at Gatun Lake. But before we start exploring, we need to sleep for a while. We can hear the chatter of the birds and monkeys in the rain forest, which is all around us. It’s a nice spot to rest.
Tuesday, Oct. 23: 5:30PM
After exploring the river and sailing up to the dam to Gatun Lake, we returned back to the mouth of the river and thought to take the dinghy to shore to explore the remains of Fort San Lorenzo. The swells had gotten bigger during the day and there didn’t seem to be a safe place to land the dinghy without risking a puncture or getting swamped with water. We returned to the boat and decided to head to directly to Shelter Bay instead of spending the night on the river. It’s a short sail of only 9 nautical miles. We arrived in good light and just ahead of the rain. 
A bit of bad news met us on arrival. There are some troubles in Colon with rioting over a proposed law to sell the property in the free zone here. Watching the news during dinner it is reminiscent of the situation in Beirut in 2008. We’re not sure what this will mean just yet, but Anna and Christian may not be able to get back from their excursion as planned since they don’t think the buses will be running. They will try to get to Panama City and stay with Fredrik until things settle down. We are anxiously awaiting more information as we have a busy weekend planned with our crossing the canal on Saturday. We need Anna and Christian and Fredrik and Johan as our line handlers but unless the situation improves, they may not be able to get to Colon.
It seems our decision to get back to Shelter Bay today was a good one. The large swells we were experiencing will probably only get worse over the next day or two. We found out that they are probably being caused by tropical storm Sandy, which is heading up towards Jamaica.
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