It's a beautiful world
Cruising the Pacific side of Panama
We checked out of Costa Rica the day before we departed. I felt sad leaving this beautiful country. We stayed for as long as we could, which was as long as our visa allowed (90 days). The hardest part about cruising is saying goodbye to beautiful places and friends. When we arrived in Costa Rica, my mother had just passed away, and now we are leaving and my loss of this beautiful country full of nature and life, that held me while I grieved, reminds me of my loss of her.
This time though we knew Leah and Kyle would not be too far behind us. Mike and Taylor had parents visiting them so they would catch up with us down the line. Michelle and Joe were also leaving Costa Rica the following day so we would see them soon. So it wasn’t a complete loss and we didn’t know yet what Panama would offer.
We met Michelle and Joe back at the dock in Guaymas, Mexico in the Fall of 2022 after we got Salacia back in the water from our summer break and before we headed south. Joe is from Delaware, near Philadelphia where Peter and I met, and Michelle is from Scranton, Pennsylvania near where my mother grew up. We were looking forward to spending some time with them.
We left very early in the morning, and started motor-sailing towards Panama. It was a very calm, beautiful morning. We hoped we would make it into the anchorage before any thunderstorms but that wasn’t guaranteed, as we were in the middle of rainy season and this stretch of the world has storms pop up any time of day.
It was going to be a long day sailing around a major point which sticks pretty far out to sea. So after a few hours, I decided to take a nap on the floor of the cockpit which I never do, but it felt cooler in the cockpit than down below. The sea was so calm and there was barely any breeze and the hum of the motor with the waves gently hitting against the hull, made me feel very sleepy.
I dreamt I was someplace else entirely, and when I woke up, I didn’t recognize where I was, as the sun had gone behind the clouds. It was a completely different scene. Peter was up under our dodger looking at the radar that showed a huge cell of thunderstorms forming a line directly in front of us. There was no way around them.
So I woke up to the calm right before the storm. It was like waking up inside a dream that was about to get real. We could see the dark line of storm clouds getting closer and closer, until finally it hit, and boy did it hit. Below is a video of what we could capture early on.
First the wind, which clocked up into the mid-30’s, then the rain, and then the waves which grew huge and slowed us way down. There wasn’t anything we could do but slowly ride this storm out. I sat down below at the nav station while Peter took watch underneath the dodger. During times like these, we both get very quiet and I find myself staring at the instruments on our chart plotter - watching the wind speed numbers clock up and up during the gusts and then slowly back down. It comforted me in knowing how strong the wind was. I was silently praying for the numbers to decrease and for this nightmare to end.
Sometimes we would hit a huge wave that would cause our boat to float high up into the air and slam back down so hard it would make everything inside the boat shake furiously. It sounded way worse than it was. Our boat was strong and she handled all of this very well but our minds felt like we were sitting on the edge of a cliff, waiting for the earth to fall from beneath us. It was a very insecure feeling reminding me of how vulnerable we are out in the open sea with only our vessel keeping us afloat. And then eventually after a few hours it was all over.
It took us a lot longer to get to our destination than we anticipated but we did arrive before sunset and we anchored at the closest anchorage on Isla Parida which faced the swell, but we didn’t care as all we wanted was to finally rest our weary minds and bodies. Our forward berth was wet from the way the waves hit our bow, the water finding its way through our forward hatch. We couldn’t sleep in our bed, so we slept in the back cabin where the boat rocked less anyway. Below is a video of our anchorage the next morning and you can see the small swell coming in and the scene around us was a beautiful sight to wake up to.
We pulled up anchor at 0800 to sail around to the other side of this small island where there was a much calmer anchorage since the wind blew over it, directing any swell away from us. Now we could relax for a while in case there were any more storms knowing we were more protected from the waves. The passage was the longest we’ve sailed during rainy season taking us into a whole new country and we were glad to settle down a bit. It turned out Michelle and Joe had a much easier time sailing over night during a full moon and they anchored next to us the following morning. I woke up to the sounds of a mother whale and her calf sleeping peacefully next to us. I sat up at the bow to watch them gently breathing. Whale sightings are special and I felt in awe to have them drifting so close to us.
Soon we sailed over to Boca Chica to officially check into Panama and do some provisioning. We followed Michelle and Joe since they sailed to Boca Chica before and the approach was tricky with a lot of reef and shoals to navigate around. The anchorage was inside a river which meandered around the trees and reef out into the open sea. We anchored tucked in close to the mainland of Panama about 2 hours south of a larger city called David.
The next day, we drove our dinghies up the river a short distance to the small town of Boca Chica and the officials met us there so we could fill out all the paper work and pay the entrance fees. Then they drove us to David to finish the check in process close to where we could rent a car. We shared the car expense with Michelle and Joe and they showed us all of their favorite places to provision, including some Asian markets where we purchased sesame oil, soy sauce and asian noodles for home-made ramen and stir fry vegetables for a change. They spent time before in David and Boca Chica on their way up from the Caribbean. That was during the pandemic so they knew their way around the area very well.
After a day of checking in and provisioning, we decided to go on an excursion to see a water fall and have a picnic together. The views were gorgeous. We loved how lush and green everything was and the landscape was different from Costa Rica. We had a fun day exploring.
We came back to our boats to witness this epic rainbow. We felt really fortunate to have spent time discovering the lush, green land of Panama. It was a great introduction to this peaceful country.
Now it was time to meet back up with Kyle and Leah who just arrived at Isla Parida. Michelle and Joe planned to anchor in Boca Chica for a while to catch up on projects for sailing to the South Pacific. So it was another farewell with hope that we would meet up again but most likely we wouldn’t. That’s hard to get use to but it’s how it is sailing as not everyone is going at the same pace. It’s also what makes the relationships exciting given the uncertainty of our time together and we fully enjoy whatever time we get to spend with each other.
In meeting up with Kyle and Leah, we chose a different place to anchor, this time Isla Gamez, which was a neighbor to Isla Parida, and we were still greeted by the same mother whale and her calf which you can see frolicking around in the video below. I continued to feel awestruck by their presence.
The storms happened almost every day. Leah took this photo below of Salacia with the storm approaching in the background. You can more easily see the line of the front in this picture and the wind and rain behind it. I remember feeling pretty vulnerable as we sat on our boat bobbing up and down next to the island but not as protected as we were in the other anchorage. We were witnessing the storm as it approached until we were enveloped inside its darkness. The initial gust hit us hard, turning Salacia abruptly against her anchor chain which held strong. This storm didn’t last very long and we were back to bobbing gently in the calm anchorage as if it never happened.
We decided to go out to dinner at this restaurant just a few miles away on another island just west of Isla Gamez which was basically a family home. We drove our dinghies across the channel between the islands. We each ordered fried fish and enjoyed a couple of cold beers listening to the music they were playing on their stereo. We were living a simple life and it was so good to spend time with Kyle and Leah again!
After a few days hanging out, we decided to pick up our anchors for the Isla Secas which were a few hour sail away. The weather and the water were perfect!
With no other boats around, except maybe a small one bringing a couple of tourists for a few hours, or a small fishing boat, we felt like we had this pristine and remote archipelago all to ourselves with the whales that made us each smile with joy. At the same time we felt sad to ever have to leave!
What made it easier was how we experienced a couple of intense lightning storms with a few strikes that hit very close to our boat. So close I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up with attention!
During the storm, while Peter was cooking dinner, I took out my ukulele and started playing “Here Comes The Sun” by the Beatles over and over again until the storm passed. It seemed to soothe our nerves. We didn’t want to chance our luck too much longer. So after two glorious days, and listening to “third strike, and you’re out” ringing in my ears, we picked up our anchor and headed out. The bright side was how our need for safety made it much easier to leave this gorgeous place and then we enjoyed the most amazing sail south which you will see from the pictures below.
The water and sky were so beautiful. We passed more whales and more pristine islands and beaches. We wished we could explore all of them but it was the last day of calm before more stormy weather was about to move in, and we were happy for the time we spent, visiting where the whales give birth and their calves live their first weeks until it was time for them all to head south too.
Life is constantly changing and it is futile to try to hold onto what seems to line up perfectly for us. We are learning to keep going with the flow and we never seem disappointed by what we meet along the way.
We needed to get fuel, and Peter found a small marina in the direction we were headed, so we separated from Leah and Kyle for a night. Below is a short video of the river we transited to find the fuel dock.
Once we found the dock after some tricky navigation inside some shallow water, Peter got a ride into town to pick up a few needed items.
After we filled up our tank and fridge, we sailed down to Bahia Honda where we met Kyle and Leah and an indigenous family who lives there. It rained for a couple of days but we were well protected in the bay. Then we sailed to another set of remote islands inside Coiba National Park all of which we will share about in our next post. Our enchanted voyage will then continue down the Pacific side of Panama all the way to Panama City where we get ready to transit the canal to a whole new body of water with new adventures to write about! Please stay tuned!
“Let my last words be in thanks to you as I close my eyes in sleep, as I let go of light and sound, as I begin my long slow fall into the world of dreams, let my last words be in thanks to you, for all you have given me, for all you have shown me, for all you have been through with me, two travelers walking beneath the sun, now together in the mystery of the night, you the great Spirit of wisdom, me the curious child wanting to know more, how can I not thank you for this beautiful adventure, this quiet song of a grateful heart: let my last words be in thanks to you.”
~ Native American elder Steven Charleston
Beautiful! Love the photo of your boat as the storm approaches and the double rainbow. How sweet that the whales were hanging out near you. They must have liked your vibe.
You should add the artist credit.