Leaving Panama

We have been in Panama for almost three months, which is the maximum time they allow us on our tourist visas. It has been amazing! We love Panama! Thank you for a lovely visit! The last blog post I wrote was on New Year’s Day, so a lot has happened. Read as much as you want, or if you just want pictures; check out our FaceBook (AnderssonSailing) or Instagram (AnderssonSailing).

After New Year’s, we had a bit of a difficult time on Lulu. It rained and rained, with overcast skies for 8 straight days. That meant that our solar panels weren’t getting as much energy as we were consuming, so we were trying to use the propane stove and bake more, plus no water or laundry. When we finally started the motor to drive over to another island because we were out of fresh veggies and also to charge the batteries, our alternator didn’t charge the batteries. Magnus spent hours looking for the problem, and we were both ready to sell the boat and return home when he thought of one more thing which gave us an hour of charge.

With that positive little bit of success, we decided to stay on the boat and keep going. It still rained a lot, but more sun was shining, we found more friends to hang out with, and we also finally got some fresh vegetables after a couple of false starts. One happy event was getting grocery delivery in San Blas – truly amazing. You place and order and pay for it online, and send your confirmation to one of the locals. They arrange for it to be picked up and delivered a couple of days later. It is an amazing service, they take a delivery fee, and you get groceries delivered right to your boat.

While waiting for our first delivery, our friends Lasse and Birgitta on Aura caught up with us on Salardup. Place names with “dup” or “dub” in them are islands in the local language. We enjoyed seeing Aura again, as we hadn’t seen them in person since the Canary Islands, and explored the little island of Salardup. After a couple of days, we moved to Ogoppirladup where we met up with our friends Ralf and Britta on Capricorn. Together with them and also Karin and Eric from Marelief, we ate lovely meals at Ibin’s restaurant on Banedup island, snorkelled and swam, played games, and had a fantastic week.

Next we went down to Green Island for more groceries (yay!), and there we found some of the best snorkelling we experienced in San Blas. There were amazing coral formations, many varieties of coral, and a long reef to explore. We met up with our friend Alex on Sumaya, and took dinghy excursions around the islands. Following that, we moved to Coco Banderos where we caught up with Aura again before they went back to Shelter Bay. We also met another Swedish boat, Trevor and Lena on Zedna, and for one night there were three Swedish-flagged boats in the eastern bay at Coco Banderos.

After a couple of days snorkelling in Western Coco Banderos, we went to Esnasdup and met up with our friends Shannon and John on Carisma, and also saw Alex and Jeff on Sumaya again. There we explored a reef that had a long cut where manta rays rested. Although we only saw one ray, we could see indentations in the sand where a dozen of them had lain. Magnus found nurse sharks, he is really good at spotting sharks. We take a lot of video of our snorkelling, but unfortunately we almost never spend time editing it. There is a YouTube channel for AnderssonSailing, too; but most of it is on Instagram.

Together with Carisma we moved back north in the Holandes Cays to the “hot tub”, a sheltered anchorage known for both great reefs and local crocodiles. It was calm and sunny, we recharged our batteries and ourselves before our final push to Chichime (not a dub/dup!). For our final night in San Blas, we ate at the newly opened restaurant on Chichime and were fed a fantastic dinner of fish, patacones (fried plantain), salad, and pineapple for desert.

Making our way slowly back to Shelter Bay, we stopped first in Linton Bay and ran into Marelief again and also Henk and Caroline on Pandion. It was nice to have access to regular services again, and we explored the area around Linton Bay in our dinghy and shopped in the the local market. One evening we had a cockroach on Lulu which resulted in a panic attack for Jodi and the subsequent purchase of foggers, roach hotels and bait. No others have been seen, and the boat has been thoroughly cleaned, but Jodi remains a bit over-the-top about mosquito netting and cockroach avoidance these days.

After Linton, we sailed down to Portobelo (Portobello, Puerto Bello), which was one of the original natural harbors where the Spaniards settled and built forts. They are all ruins, but very picturesque ruins. We spent a couple of calm days wandering the town and ruins, and then finally returned to the marina in Shelter Bay to prepare for our Panama Canal transit.

Back in Shelter Bay were many friends, so it was very fun and social to return there. We went shopping for both the boat and food, as once we set sail for French Polynesia we won’t be able to access parts or supplies easily until New Zealand or Australia. It is difficult to determine how many spares are enough, which spares to take, what is “nice to have” vs. “must have”, and also – what fits? In order for me to feel like I have enough food on board for the long crossing to French Polynesia and also until we find groceries again, Magnus gave up his closet so I could have more food storage. It has made a huge difference in how much food we can store!

Our friends Lynn and Stan sailed their boat “Skål” from Vermont to Europe and back again. We met them in A Coruna, Spain and sailed with them in spurts down the Iberian coast, then met with them several times in the Caribbean before they turned their nose back to Vermont. Thus is was wonderful when they agreed to come and be our Line Handlers for the Panama Canal crossing. Their boat is very similar to Lulu, they know how to handle her, and are very experienced sailors with many canals and locks under their belts.

They joined us in Shelter Bay on the 12th of February, and we did the final preparations for the canal but also found time to be tourists. We took a tour of the former Fort Sherman US Military base with a local guide, and learned a lot about the history of US and Panama. They helped me prep food for the canal, and helped Magnus with final boat prep. We hoisted Magnus up the mast to check the rigging, and on Friday the 14th, we were ready to go.

To cross the Panama Canal in a sailboat, you need to have a captain to steer the boat, four line handlers to man the lines in the canal, and an “Advisor” (pilot) from the canal company. With Stan and Lynn, there were four of us, but we needed one more line handler. We hired a line handler from our agent, and were told that he would board the boat by 1pm on the 14th. So at 1pm, Jodi sent a gentle text message to our canal agent telling him where our boat was located, in case the line handler couldn’t find it. “You want a line handler?”

Breathe breathe panic panic zen zen

But our agent was great, he got us a line handler who was onboard before 2pm and Lulu was on time for her appointment to go through the canal. Our new crew member was Jose, a wonderful young man who was very competent and an excellent guest. The first part of our canal crossing was with advisor Adolfo, a man who worked regularly in the IT department for the canal company but who moonlights as an advisor for the overtime pay.

We entered the locks just after 4pm on the 14th, and were out before 6pm. Then it was just a short ride over to the buoys on Lake Gatun, where we shared a buoy with our lock-buddy “Paikea”. The next morning our new advisor Edgar joined us for the trip across the lake and through the Miraflores locks. Both advisors were very friendly and interesting people, working other jobs in the Canal company but liking people and taking the training to become advisors.

On the evening of the 15th, we exited the canal and dropped off our advisor and extra line handler plus all the rented buoys and lines, then we took off for Tagoba island with Lynn and Stan. It is a small island only 7 nautical miles away from Panama City, so on the weekend it was flooded with small motorboats and catamarans full of tourists. We walked around the island, ate a lovely lunch at a restaurant with a view of the bay, and had massive pina coladas in pineapple “glasses”.

Monday morning Lynn and Stan left us to go back to Panama City, and we motored over to Isla Chapera, one of the islands in the Las Perlas archipelago. Other buddy boats who have previously crossed the channel are here, including Faith, Le Tournesol and Moana Nui. We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our friends on Angelina tomorrow.

That’s the latest from La Chapera, Las Perlas Panama on February 19th. Fair Winds to you all!