Panama bound

Isla Parida, Panama

We checked out of Costa Rica on Thursday as planned. Much easier than the check in process we endured back in Golfito - lots of walking but we were through by noon.

In the afternoon, I spent some time ferrying jerry cans of diesel fuel from the Banana Bay marina out to Sine Timore via the dinghy. With the generous help of Bill from the sailing vessel Fai Yin, and the loan of his two jerry cans, we only had to make three trips to fill the tank. Price was actually a little better than we had been expecting, working out to about $1.38 Cdn per liter. Meanwhile, Susanne did a little bit of provisioning for some fresh produce at the local stores. We were done and just got back to the boat in time for a thorough dowsing of rain. This is the 2nd night we have had rain here in the late afternoon, which is apparently the normal pattern for this area. The boat deck looks cleaner than it has in months.

We did not actually leave the anchorage until Friday morning, around 10:30AM. We motored out of the estuary against a modest flood tide in hopes of catching the early afternoon winds out in the Golfo Dulce. Indeed, we were able to sail, close hauled of course, for 5-1/2 hours, covering almost 20 miles of our total 94 mile passage - this we consider a good day of sailing for us.

We crossed over into Panamanian waters sometime in the evening, with a full moon lighting our way. We could see some distant storm cells behind us, and we did observe a bit of lightning overhead, but we did not actually get rained on at all.

We pulled into our current anchorage on the south side of Isla Parida around 9:30AM. It seemed like a nice well-protected spot but it has been a bit rolly with a swell that is coming in from the south. Right now we are sharing the bay with two other boats, neither of which we have seen before. We are not sure just now whether we are going to hang out here another day or press on further south (east?) tomorrow. It is a very pretty spot - sort of like what you imagine Treasure island would look like - very tropical. Oh, and hot and humid of course.

On the boat front, my new mechanical engine temperature gauge is no longer working - no idea why! Maybe this engine is just not destined to have a working gauge.

{GMST}08|05.616|N|82|20.251|W|Isla Parida, Panama|Isla Parida, Panama{GEND}