Leaving Panama

Friday 13th April 2007

Today is going to be a busy day as we have decided to leave Panama tomorrow morning at 1am to catch the tide for the Perlas Islands (only 35 miles).

Rumour had it that we would have a hard time getting our Zarpe (clearance from Panama) as we hadn’t cleared out off Colon and we hadn’t checked in at Balboa so we decided that the best course of action was to get up early so that if we did meet a “Jobsworth” there would be enough time to go back to Colon (1 and half hours bus drive) and get back in time to clear in at Balboa.

Pete and I dressed in our smartest gear and headed off to go through the formalities.

We took a taxi to Port Control Balboa to get our Zarpe and the lady in the office who spoke no English called another guy in he said that we needed to get entry clearance in order to get our Zarpe, so back in the taxi to where we had started.

The taxi driver trying to be helpful took us to the Immigration Department and again she didn’t speak English, she said call this mobile number and speak to Mr Houtinami, why we were calling him we had no idea but Pete called him anyway.

Mr “Carlos” Houtinami turned out to be Port Captain at Flamenco Bay and was wonderful! We hadn’t cleared in when we arrived on the 8th (we should have done but we didn’t know we had too) we didn’t have our exit paper from St Maarten (we think that immigration in Colon had them or Agent Ellington had forgotten to give it back) normally “Officials” do everything by the book but he just said “Don’t worry amigo, for me no problem but other port captains big problem for you” he backdated the entry form and we were 1 step closer to getting our “Zarpe”.

Back in the taxi to Port Control in Balboa and the Zarpe was issued, I nearly dropped “Carlos” in it as I bet Pete that we had left the exit paperwork from St Maartan with the 1st lady we spoke to at Port Control Balboa. I asked her if she had it and as she didn’t speak English she called another man in he said “No we don’t hold it its kept when you 1st cleared into Flamenco Bay” I never said another word but lost the $10 bet.

For me it is “Dental treatment in exotic places” as I have had problems with my back tooth (the one that I had operated on in Antigua) it is immensely sensitive to hot and cold. So I went to the dentist and Pete went with the taxi driver to the fruit & veg market & to the supermarket to stock up before leaving Panama.

An hour later, $400 lighter and a root canal we all jumped back into the taxi to do the last of the formalities, Immigration.

Stamp in the passport we were done and we took Naz to Balboa to re-fuel and re-water.

The officials in Panama were wonderful and really helpful, we do believe that if we had turned up in shorts and t-shirts the reception could have been different.

We had been invited to a party on Timella (Ozzy Cameron & Scottish Sharon’s boat) but as it had been a bit of an exhaustive day we only stayed a couple of hours. The decision to leave in the morning was postponed as Nadezhda wasn’t ready for the off.
Plus they say never sail on a Friday and being the 13th we decided not to tempt fate.

Saturday 14th April 2007

In the morning we got a taxi to Balboa yacht club to do our washing (saving our water supplies).

When we got back we dinghied past Pagos to say goodbye (they were leaving for Galapagos) and they said there was another party on Timella and were we going, being 1pm we thought we just motor past and say goodbye but we wouldn’t stop for a beer.

Best laid plans of mice & men! 8 hours later copious amounts of beer we left Timella.

A really excellent afternoon/evening, Cameron & Sharon are brilliant hosts. Sharon made a chicken curry & rice for 12+ people and somehow manage to feed anyone that turned up she really is a top girl! cooking for that many people where temperature is around 30 degrees inside the boat is no fun. Me, I would have made cheese sandwiches and even that would be hard work.

We’re hoping that they get moving soon and we’ll meet up with them in Las Perlas or Galapagos.

As you can probably guess we postponed AGAIN.

Sunday 15th April

The morning after and the skipper is suffering! I’m fine as I didn’t drink that much.

Pagos left early this afternoon, their plan is to bob all the way to the Galapagos as there is no wind and what there is on the nose. They have been sailing for about 9 years with their kids and are in no hurry so do not use the engine unless light airs and large seas combine together to cause the sails to flog too much.

Our plan is to keep a low profile today and leave tomorrow morning at 4am.

This might be in jeopardy as a large wave has just sent the dinghy underneath the Aries wind-vane and the Aries has just ripped a large hole. The problem we have is that we can’t meet the repair instructions, humidity no more than 60% here the humidity is always 80% plus and the temperature must be between 18 & 25C it never drops below 30C… Pete is going to try it and see how it goes or we have to buy a new one.

I’ve just called Sharon up on the VHF to say thank you for yesterday and she asked if we had heard the commotion in the anchorage after we left, apparently a very bizarre French man (Pete & I didn’t like him) had became quite abusive so she had to kick him off the boat, he got off their boat but just bobbed alongside and refused to go, Betsy (American lady) heard the noise and got up. Gun I hand she said “if you don’t move I’ll shoot you”, he moved!

Pete…….

A set of waves pushed the dinghy under the Aries and caused Naz to pitch up and down at the same time. As the Aries came down on the dinghy, it pushed an “L” shaped tear about six inches by three in the nose. The instructions on the repair kit say that two-part glue should be used for permanent repairs and we only have one-part. We shall see how long the repair lasts!