Panama

Goodbye Guna Yala. It's been a pleasure. Raise those sails! Back to the big seas and big wind for a 48 mile 6 hour sail to Linton Bay Marina. No more little sandy islands. Lots of mountains along the coast and large, steep rocky islands instead. Time to fish. And read. And back to civilization with cell towers. Picturesque communities along the channel on the way in - Isla Grande to starboard (an island), La Guaira to port (on the mainland). The marina seems to be sitting in a large mountain lake - hard to remember we are still on the ocean. THIS is Panama!

Happy to get off the boat. Doesn't take us long to find the marina bar for some cold Panama beer and a couple of pizzas. No cold pizza for breakfast tomorrow!

Nice marina and boatyard. Lots of catamarans and larger monohulls. There is a most unusual "sea pod" home we got a sneak peak at. Ultra modern concept Ocean Builders is hoping to build many more. Google it.

OD on WIFI tonight.
XO XO Gma & Gpa

Feb 24
Time to get up. Winds are up again, too! Good reason to stay one more night here.
Max & Whitey find some friends of friends basically across the dock. They recommend another little restaurant basically in the marina's back yard. We were all really hungry for a big burger and fries. They did not disappoint!
Time to go to bed.
XO XO Gma & Gpa

FEB 25
Sailed to Portobelo and were greeted by a school of dolphins. Now you see them, now you don’t! So hard to get a good photo of them. You just need to enjoy the moment.

What an amazing historic little city (Population 4,559) originally named "Puerto Bello" by Christopher Columus in 1502. It quickly became a main crossroads for products between Europe and the Americas - and target for pirate invaders. Sir Francis Drake (famous Caribbean pirate) died and was buried at sea in the harbour in 1596. A long history of the Spanish, English and Welsh (Henry Morgan) fighting for control, the harbour is surrounded by 3 large forts (now ruins) and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

An important part of its heritage, the Congo Culture provides Portobelo a bounty of flavorful Afro-Caribbean cuisine and colorful art. Many paintings brighten up buildings, park benches, pavilion, colorful homes and buses. We visited one of the best local art centers I have

ever been to. (Wish I had bought that bejeweled wooden monkey mask with a bird perched on its head and a few other things! Could have spent some serious $$ there.)

As we walk down to the forts we resist going into the dress boutique but couldn’t resist buying some fresh produce and trying some street food. The vultures found something more to their liking at the fort. You also can't miss the Iglesia San Felipe, a church built by the Spanish in 1814, with the life-size wooden sculpture of Nazareno, the black Christ.

It was a big day. Good night.
XOXO Gma & Gpa

FEB 26
Woke up early morning to the sound of the howler monkeys and happy birds waking up in the surrounding jungle. Le Bellot, a small cruise ship (the 1 and only 1 we have seen here), now anchored out among the cruisers and live-aboards, looks as out of place here as it did last week when we saw it in the San Blas. I think we’ll keep our Nutmeg.

It’s Sunday and there's a lot of FUN planned for today!

1) Pancakes and sausages for breakfast!

2) Jim helps Whitey test out his drones (just got a new waterproof one it case it misses the boat).

3) We take the dinghy up the Portobelo River pulling the kayak & kayak back to Nutmeg (M&W bring back the dinghy) Another 50 shades of green, lots of vines and mangroves, we scare up a small

flock of white birds (ibis?), discover another small ruin on a point - maybe some welthy historic ruler's home? - and work our way back along the harbor's shore dotted with various cottages/homes/resorts. This is quite the touristy area.

4) We sail a couple hours to Shelter Bay Marina - basically our last stop before going thru the Panama Canal - with more mountains along the coast. As we approach the harbour, we see high rise buildings (apartments?) that really look out of place, petroleum based industry and cranes for handling containers for ships. We sail among 100's of freighters anchored at sea outside the canal. Absolutely unbelieveable - pictures just can't do justice to this experience. The marina is tucked inside the start of the canal which has a very long breakwater and an exceptionally small opening to the large inner harbour. We need to wait our turn to enter - there's a freighter coming thru from the other direction followed by a quite small sailboat rocking

thru (so glad we are not on THAT boat!). It's rather surprising how many wrecked boats there are here.

5) Whitey very skillfully backs into our slip - and it's only 3:00! There's another St Francis 50 just a couple slips away (all closed up while the owners went home). We enjoy a late lunch/early dinner and libations at "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere".

6) And there's still time for a good nap, walk about, meet some other boaters and watch Whitey's drone videos.

THAT was a Big Fun Sunday!
XO XO Gma & Gpa

FEB 27
Good Monday morning! Monday is wash day (or so my mother said), but the marina's laundry is closed. Guess Tuesday is laundry day here. We do have a washing maching on the boat, but it stopped working back at Nanny Cay, so we have been doing some hand-washing and collecting sheets and towels til we could send to a laundry.

Max works all day on washing all the salt and dirt off the boat. We work on WIFI getting caught up on important and some not-so-important things. Whitey decides to look at the washing machine again and it decides to work just fine now - so several loads of clothes are washed and hung to dry. We'll take the larger bags of sheets and towels in early tomorrow morning.

Max makes a delicious Mediterranean dinner. We're all tired. Must be bed time.
XO XO Gma & Gpa
FEB 28
And we are all refreshed and ready to go ... to town!

First, Jim & Whitey take in the laundry only to find out it's going to cost $400 and won't be done til when?? No thanks.

Jose' our taxi driver arrives to take us to Colon. (Whitey stays back to do some more laundry, work on the gasket on the freezer, defrost the ice maker.) We drive through beautiful tropical vegetation and see several abandoned buildings. The very impressive Atlantic Bridge, completed in 2019, is the longest concrete cable-stayed bridge on the planet, a link between South America and North America. Colon is Panama's 2nd largest city, founded in 1850 as the Atlantic terminal of the Panama Railroad during the demand of the California Gold Rush. Jose' patiently waits for us to do us to do our grocery shopping. I love shopping for groceries when we travel - to see all the things we don't have at home and can't identify. But no brandy here for Whitey to make his first official WI Brandy Old Fashioneds. But there IS Old Milwaukee Beer (should have bought some to honor Grandpa Lemmenes, if only it was long-neck bottles).

We're back to the marina. Get all the groceries put away. Have lunch. Nap.

Max and Whitey took an poolside break this afternoon and met a fellow Aussie, Gary, who invites us to his boat for cocktails tomorrow pm. The boat inspector arrives to verify Nutmeg for transiting the canal and provide our ID#. Later today we should be receiving our date to transit the canal.

Well, that didn't happen. It's island time here, too. Maybe tomorrow... XO XO Gma & Gpa

March 1 - and Happy Saint David's Day to all you Welsh blooded people! Iechyd Da!

Shelter Bay Marina is considered the safest (best protected) marina in Panama and possibly the entire Caribbean. It is located at the previous site of Fort Sherman and is surrounded by the lush rain-forest (jungle) of the San Lorenzo National Park. This morning we walk along an abandoned road and airport runway, spotting many

golden-bellied Flycatchers, also known as the yellow underpants birds of Panama. Gpa was up earlier for a run - almost ran into a large anteater crossing his path.

News of the day: We are scheduled to transit the canal on the 21st. WHAT!!?? The World ARC (group of sailboats) is scheduled to arrive and go thru the canal from the 8th - 20th, so no room for us til the 21st. ARGH!

Washer is working again today - so TODAY is Wash Day! We did several loads of sheets and towels, it's a nice warm, breezy day for drying.

Cocktails on Sea Diamond, the prettiest sailboat we have ever been on. Buildt in 1956 in Germany, Gary has been in love with this boat for over 25 years and finally had a chance to buy her a year ago. Not wanting to impose with taking lots of pictures, you will need to see for yourself, https://www.yachtcharterfleet.com/luxury-charter-yacht- 39605/sea-diamond-photos.htm. No longer available for charter, he is happily living on Sea Diamond, conducts a lot of business in "the board room" and has an all female crew.

March 2
Walked into the jungle this morning. Heard choruses of howler monkeys, but didn't see one. Didn't see an anteater, either. Did see a couple of brilliant irridescent Blue Morpho butterflies flitting about. Heard and saw lots of various birds. And "Tree Testicles!" Not sure what they are - large hanging woven "testicles" at the ends of palm fronds only on a select few palm trees & basically on every branch of that tree. Are they part of the tree? Is it a nest for some creature? We haven't seen any hummingbirds - but there does seem to be a lot of the gold-belly Flycatchers in these trees - so guessing they are their nests.

Whitey spent most of the morning up the mast in the bosums chair working on wiring for the deck lights and speakers. We all had our jobs below - but really felt like the road crew supervising while one man does all the work.

Washed a couple more loads of towels today and all went to the pool to cool off and have a Balboa. We were amazed by all the young kids! While we enjoyed watching all their antics - especially the little

ones proudly jumping in again and again - we wished we were watching OUR Gkids! Miss you all! XO XO Gma & Gpa

March 3
We all went out for early morning jungle walks. The White-Nosed Coati's were out scavenging this morning. We also saw another Blue Morpho butterfly. Cleaned up Nutmeg for our evening guests. Had burgers & fries for lunch at the Dock Restaurant.

Gary and Stewart enjoyed their Pusser's Painkillers, BVI Gin & Tonic, and some good Zacapa & Flor de Cana rum. Gary has quite a colorful history of sailing, including Antigua race week, the Chicago-Mac race, and the Newport-Bermuda race, is a global entrepreneur in tech and supply chain, and has a lovely family - horse-loving wife, son Charlie is involved in the MOMO business and two Gkids. Stewart also has a colorful international family and business history. They are setting up a MOMO Homes factory in Panama City to manufacture factory-perfect, quick-build homes which will be available soon in the U.S.

Another nice night. XO XO Gma & Gpa

March 4
Max caught the marina bus into Colon early this morning to do some more grocery shopping. Gpa & I took my good camera for a jungle walk hoping to find something exciting. Lots of various smaller butterflies but mid morning must be a more quiet time for the rest of the jungle kingdom. We did spot a Lineated Woodpecker and discovered something exciting! The "tree testicles" are actually a colony of nests of these black birds with bright yellow tail feathers and white beaks called the Crested Oropendola.

Went hunting for a cart to have ready to meet Max when back from her "shopping trip" to help haul her loot back to the boat. She even stocked up on rum and found a bottle of brandy!

A nice afternoon at the pool. Soberano Brandy Old Fashioneds on the fore deck. Dinner at The Dock. Our Panamanian Garlic Sea Bass was delicious, Whitey's Upper Coast Octopus was fabulous and Max's Raspado dessert - shaved ice with condensed & malted milk Passion fruit syrup - was also delightful. Nice way to end a nice day.
XO XO Gma & Gpa

March 5 A quiet cloudy Sunday morning.
Finally got a good photo of the golden-bellied Flycatcher. And finally saw the Howler Monkeys jumping around in the trees. They look like lots of black cats climbing and jumping about. Saw one little monkey on its mama's back. They really do howl - many together - almost more of a deep groan and growl. Also walked to the old Fort Sherman area - is still somewhat used by the local coast guard.

We need to leave the marina tomorrow and anchor out in Limon Bay at the start of the canal to await our transit. Our agent has us on a call list - if they get a cancellation they might be able to fit us in before the 21st. We would then need to ready to GO! There's an 80% chance to getting the call sometime this week. Keep all your fingers and toes crossed for us!
Didn't feel like doing much of anything today. XO XO Gma & Gpa