Thurs, 18th February 2010
Report From Panama
Timoneer arrived safe and sound in Boca del Toro on February 5th at 10am after a good passage from Antigua. Terry Gould the delivery captain left us in Boca and the original crew are all back on board again. Boca proved to be an enjoyable destination and a place we would all like to come back to in order to explore more.
We left on Tuesday the 16th, stopped overnight at the Zapatilla Cays and then on to Escudo de Veraguas Island where we spent the day. This is an amazingly beautiful island and we all enjoyed the stop there. We left at Midnight in order to time our arrival in the San Blas in daylight hours which all worked out well. It was 167 miles and we arrived at Porvenir in the San Blas at 1600 hours today. We had a very close fetch most of the way with big swells and a bumpy ride with lots of water streaming down the decks so not very comfortable. We did a detour or about 2 extra miles to visit a seamount along the way and caught one big eye tuna but lost 3 lures to something very big as we crossed the bank. Later in the day we caught another two big eyes and a sierra mackerel so not a bad day’s fishing in the end.
We are now safely at anchor in Porvenir awaiting the arrival of the guests on Saturday. We will transit the canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific on the 26th and then head up to Costa Rica.
All is well on board, everyone is happy and healthy.
PW