A man, a plan, a canal, Panama

Panama City, Panama

We finally made it to Panama City, no thanks to Punta Mala.  This passage was every bit as nasty as we were warned, and it appears that we did pick one of the best days to do it - many other cruisers had it much worse.

 We left Ensenada Benao around 7AM and motored towards Punta Mala in very light winds, with very little current for the first couple of hours.  As we got close to the point, the current got stronger and the wind picked up as well.  We had specifically chosen our arrival for the flood tide, in order to counteract some of the prevailing current, but it was still a battle.  It did not help that I am still babying our drive train and unwilling to put too much RPM on the engine, in hopes that the stuffing box will hold together for a bit longer.  In any case, we did manage to claw our way around the point in about 3 or 4 hours.

Once we were clear of the cape, we still had to contend with almost constant head winds, between 10 and 20 knots most of the time, and counter current, all the way to Panama City.  We tried sailing a bit, but could not point at all towards our destination, so we motor-sailed the entire distance with only our double-reefed main up, sometimes having to tack back and forth to make any progress against the wind and waves.  At times we were moving at over 4 knots, but a lot of the time we were reduced to less than 2 knots.  All in all, it took us 32 hours for the 110 mile passage, burning a heck of a lot of diesel to do it.  Fortunately, the wind calmed down for the last few hours, while crossing the canal traffic and finding the anchorage at La Playita.

Saint Richard - kind of says it all, doesn't it?

As a sailing destination, I am not too impressed with Panama City.  There is no real alternative to anchoring out, as the few marinas here are very expensive and totally taken up by permanently moored power boats - they are not at all interested in transient cruisers.  There is one yacht club (Balboa) that has some transient moorings (no docks), but they are totally full as well.

There are two main anchorages, each with its own issues.  On the north side of the causeway is the Las Brisas anchorage, with a beautiful view of the city across the bay.  This anchorage has virtually no protection from the north winds that blow continuously this time of year, and the dinghy landing is so treacherous that we were advised to expect to break bones or need stitches if we tried it (possibly an exaggeration?).

The more popular choice, at this time of year, is the anchorage at La Playita, on the south side of the causeway, where we currently are.  This anchorage is quite crowded and, while seemingly sheltered from the north, the winds still manage to funnel in and toss us about.  Unless you are one of the lucky boats that manages to grab a spot close to the land, you still get a fair amount of wind-waves.  The icing on the cake is the wakes from the passing ships on their way to and from the canal - they are quite nasty at times and have prevented us from being able to keep our dinghy on our pitiful davits - I tried once and when we got hit by a big wake, the back end of our boat actually pushed our dinghy under water, nearly breaking it in two - so now we just tie it on beside the boat and hope for the best.

The one advantage this anchorage has is access to a dinghy dock, for a nominal fee, at the La Playita yacht club.  Unfortunately it appears that some cruisers, possibly not knowing any better, have been using the dock without paying and the management has decided to take drastic action and close the dock to all cruisers, starting on Monday (the day after tomorrow).  No one is really sure what we are going to do then as there is no place else to land a dinghy on this side of the causeway - the whole shore is a rocky breakwater subject to 12 foot tides.  Come Monday we may not be able to leave the boat at all, which is going to make it very difficult to get any work done.

So far, the only sight-seeing we have done has been to travel to the various offices to get our Panama visas and the cruising permit for the boat.  We did get to the Albrook mall, where I got a much-needed haircut and we broke down and bought a "smart" phone and some time on a local phone carrier so now we have Internet service on the boat.  Up till now we have had no access to WiFi or anything here - thus the delay in getting this post out.

Today, I started tackling the stuffing box issue, but I think I need to talk to a mechanic for second opinion before I proceed.  We are not sure just how long we will have to wait to get the boat hauled once we have the needed parts - the haul-out yard is very small and very busy (and very expensive).

I guess I sound a little discouraged, but I am sure everything will look better in the morning.  On the plus side, we have met up with several boats that we had befriended over the last few years - this really is a place that everyone seems to visit at some point.  On Thursday nights, they have a "pizza' night at one of the local restaurants.  Lots of cruisers and really good pizza!
 
{GMST}08|54.322|N|79|31.392|W|Panama City, Panama|Panama City, Panama{GEND}