The islands are about 30 miles away, but we had a few chores to complete before departure. Firstly we had to fetch Tim who had volunteered to put our new tricolor bulb (that Jonny had brought out) into the top of the mast. Not an easy job when the wake of the ferries go by, but he got up easily and did a good job, just appears we were sent the wrong strength bulb as it is a very weak light. Such a pity as it is an important under passage light, so we can be spotted at night.
Edmund watching the light bulb change!
Tim getting to the top of the mast
A boat on fire, looked like a tug boat
We then had to go to the port authority and get our passports stamped and cleared out. The ARC coordinator insisted on taking our passports so that he could go to the agent and that we should make our own way to the port office. This meant two taxis for us, when we arrived we discovered the office was closed because all the staff had gone to the cruise liner which had just docked. We had to pile into two more taxis to go to the Balboa Yacht Club where there is another immigration office. We arrived there only to find the agent but he hadn’t been given our passports. It was all a bit frustrating and the Arc guy finally brought our passports over to us. While all this waiting was going on we managed to do some good bird spotting! Finally stamped out we rushed back to PolePole got the anchor up and set off at about 2pm for Las Perlas.
The weather forecast seems totally unreliable as there was talk of us having to motor there. In fact there was a squall and we had winds up to 28 knots. We had Sporty up (the Code zero sail) and finally took her down we were going a bit too fast! It was a good sail over with loads of Pelicans and Frigate birds fishing. We finally spotted land and got to the islands around 5pm. We had to do a long motor around the island to enter our anchorage in deeper water. We now have to remember about tides again as there is a 5m tide range here in the Pacific, in the Caribbean it is half a metre. There were 3 other Arc boats already here, it is an idyllic spot with some lovely small beaches nearby. It was a lovely peaceful night with our bellies filled with mushroom risotto!
Leaving Panama City
Big dark clouds on our departure giving us good winds
Sky is full of birds
We spot the islands around 5pm
The islands look very interesting and uninhabited
We finally spot a couple of Arc boats in the anchorage
Rowan has a cooling dip at sunset, the tide is rushing out
We celebrate the full moon as well as the sunset
A lovely spot to anchor
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