Heading West to Bocas del Toro

Now that we have the process under way for our transit through the Panama Canal, we have a couple of weeks to continue exploring the Caribbean coast of Panama.  This time, when we exited the Colon harbour, we traveled West.  West? You say.  Yes, West.  If you take a close look at a map you will see that the Panama Canal actually runs NNW to SSE or a heading of 317 degrees for those nautical readers out there, not East to West as you probably thought and as I had always thought.  So West we went traveling 159 nautical miles to reach the Eastern Islands of the Bocas del Toro which are also an archipelago which sits about 30 miles from the Costa Rican border. 

How many different kinds of clouds could be in one picture?  We have a nice variety here!  Unfortunately, some were rain clouds and we had a good thunderstorm mid way through the night meaning a scramble to close all our hatches and windows. 

We left Shelter Bay Marina on Tuesday, October 9 at 1PM.  We had to wait for SY SEGWUN to be measured by the officials of the Panama Canal.   With the dinghy removed and the davits folded in, we are told she is 47.67 feet contrary to the fact that our information identifies her as a 44 foot Island Packet with a LOA of 44.6 feet.  And she is deemed fit to cross the canal.  We have our Ship Identification Number and now wait for confirmation of our crossing, which we hope to be on October 27^th. 

The trip to Bocas del Toro took us a little longer than expected due to a strong current, which was against us the entire journey.  Some good wind would spring up and so we raise the sails (main, genoa and stay sails) and then the wind would die or turn and be pushing right on our nose and we would take the the sails down.  Then we had the sails up again and then down again.  I think we did this about 8 times or so.  I guess what I’m saying is that we motored most of the way.

We sailed through the night and arrived to Cayos Zapatilla on Wednesday, October 10 and anchored at around 5PM.  Just in time for sundowners; gin tonics with plate of cheese and crackers.  The sad news is that our stowaway spider seems to have left us while we were at the marina.  I guess he must have met up with some friends for a little visit.

Today we will head to Bocas Island to do the official checking in and make an important phone call.  It’s my sister’s birthday today and although I’m not there to enjoy a piece of cake and a bit of ice cream, I am there in spirit.  Have a good one Diane.  Best wishes from the crew.  Love you forever!

Captain’s Log:  Left Shelter Bay 13:00 after having completed the measuring procedure for the canal transit.  Had little or no wind most of the time but managed to sail a few hours.  The current was strong 1-2.5 knots running East so we could not reach Bocas as planned before dark and therefore decided to anchor at the Zabatillas.  Trip:  159.2 nm Weather: Wind West and NW 0-15 knots, thunderstorms.