SV Sine Timore: Tsunami and Embera Drua

Panama City, Panama

Busy week, little accomplished!

I don't know where the time is going. We have been here over a week now and today was the first time I felt we made any progress on the needed boat work. I finally managed to track down a source for a new stuffing box (packing gland) for our propeller shaft. It has been ordered from a marine supply company in Miami and will hopefully be here in about a week - once I have that in hand I can try and schedule a haul-out for the boat - who knows how long a wait that will be!

Meanwhile, life has been interesting...

On Monday, the threatened closure of the dinghy dock did come about. Rather than pull out and go somewhere else, as some of the boats did, we stuck it out, staying on the boat for the day, conducting business via the Internet. By late afternoon, the marina had relented and reopened the dock.

Then, the panic over the tsunami. On Tuesday night, Chile experience a major earthquake, just off shore and shallow, causing a big wave. One of the diligent cruisers here in the anchorage caught the news and relayed it to the fleet on the VHF radio around 8PM. Panama was under a "Tsunami Watch" - the wave would hit here around midnight. An hour later the status changed to a "Warning", which is more severe - at that point many of the boats here at anchor started making preparations for leaving for deeper water, although I think only one boat actually pulled their anchor up. The local canal authority was advising us to stay put - I don't think they wanted 50 to 100 small boats rushing around the anchored super-tankers in the dark.

We were panicking because we had had to re-anchor several times the day before and had killed our windlass battery, meaning I was having to bring in the rode by hand, which was a very slow and tiring process. I brought in enough chain to get the "snubber" off and lessen the amount I would have to bring in if we decided to leave, then waited for updates from the NOAA Tsunami center. Fortunately, around 10PM, the warning and watch was lifted completely for Panama and we were off the hook (not off the hook?). Bullet dodged!

Because we have been waiting for people to get back to us regarding boat parts, we have not been able to venture far from the boat this week.

Susanne did get to the veggie and fruit market with a couple of women from other boats and we have made a couple of trips by bus to the big mall, mostly to smarten up my new "smart" phone.

We did manage to take a day off yesterday (Thursday) and took part in an adventure up the Chagris river. In the company of about a dozen other cruisers, we travelled by hired bus to a national park where we met some local indigenous people who took us a long way up the river to their village, Embera Drua, where we were treated to a fish and plantain lunch and observed some local craft-making and dancing and a hike in the forest with the local medicine man, who showed us some of his secrets

The ride up the river was the highlight for me. This is the dry season and the river is very shallow. It was very exciting riding in motorized canoes with one guy standing on the bow to signal when to take the motor out of the water and help push us along with a long pole, against what was at times a very strong current. The ride back down river was much quicker.