The packages containing electronic equipment to fix the boat after the lightning strike arrived by plane and boat, we installed the new equipment, replaced the seven AGM batteries with the seven new ones, checked everything again, and Sea Star was ready to sail within a month of her hit. At the time we thought our little group of Windsong, Sea Star and Tregoning were going to move on together yet again. We said our goodbyes to newly made friends in Bocas, thought about the things we didn’t get to do, yet it was time to leave Bocas Del Toro behind.
Windsong, still without propulsion other than sail, left a day before us heading to Escudo De Veregas, an Island that was reputed to be the “Jurassic Park” of Panama. The bird life was said to be exceptional. Sea Star and possibly Tregoning were going to meet Windsong and explore the island together. Jamie made the anchorage just at dark and spent a rather rolly night on the hook, leaving the next morning. At our regular SSB radio communication time of 9:00AM he was considering leaving Escudo unexplored unless a suggestion for a different anchorage could be found. No luck. In the west wind there were no good anchorages. Windsong, after managing with difficulty to raise his anchor in the west wind and not be blown onto the shore, left the island.
Well, Sea Star was not to be denied this island paradise, while Alison and Randall on Tregoning were delayed waiting for their mail to arrive, we made our way the 45nm to the very same anchorage that Jamie had left, and in the same wind. In the afternoon at anchor Sea Star was very comfortable and the weather was cooperating. Dan and I were sitting in the cockpit at sunset when the caretaker of the island Tortugas (sea turtles) and his son arrived in their motorized cayuco. This very interesting and friendly man explained to us in a mixture of English and Spanish how he and his son count and record the Green Turtle numbers and births and keep the natives from killing the adults for food. He welcomed us to Escudo, saying we could go ashore, walk the beach and see the turtles, fish if we wanted, because it was not a restricted park. A contribution was expected and we were happy to give the man $10.00 and two beers he hinted at as our way of contributing to turtle conservation efforts.
We had planned to go in to shore to birdwatch, explore and take our dinghy into the many mangrove lined coves but… as had happened with Jamie the wind picked up bouncing the boat around and pushing us ever closer to the land. At dark, the wind was gusting to 20kn and by 10:00PM torrential rain was falling and we were bouncing bow to stern and rolling, too.
Around midnight we heard a huge “clunk”, and each time the bow rose and fell it sounded again. We had anchored with our all chain rode and had 150’ out protected by a 30’ nylon rope for a snubber. The snubber had let go, so we in our raincoats and nothing else in the pitch black had to go out on the deck and replace the knot that had loosened while the boat pitched, thumped and creaked. We did not sleep very much and in the morning when the time to communicate by SSB came, we were still hoping that the forecast of very light winds and mild seas would occur. We took the big boat (to put the dinghy down would have been dangerous in the swell) around the south side of the island looking for a calmer spot to anchor. Since we could not find one, and the coral reefs were hard to see under the dark water with no sun on it, we were chased out of Veregas, just as Windsong had been! I'll bet it is a fascinating place and when the weather is right, a real gem.
So what to do? The Captain, Dan, wasn’t ready to just go on yet without some adventure. He checked out our guidebooks and compared notes between them and we decided to try another day stop at one of the jungle rivers along the mainland coast of Panama before going to the Chagres River. The guidebooks showed many to choose from; one where natives sell shark parts to Japan, one with a native village, some fishing villages where you had to surf over waves to enter the mouth of the river. We had about 45 nm to go after we motored along the south coast of Escudo De Veregas, so we hoped for good wind and weren’t sure where we would head to-how far along the coast we could get.
As we sailed along at about 5kn, we noticed a great deal of bird life out in the open sea, so I put out our trolling rig in hopes of catching a Mahi Mahi. There was debris in the water; small and larger logs and limbs, floating sea weed and grasses. We saw rafts of hundreds of terns, brown bobbies, Frigate birds and even one bird that could have been an Albatross working the waters while shimmering fish were splashing and jumping out of the water. The small birds were cute as they floated by us perched on logs. If it was a long log there might be twenty birds all in a line whereas a small stick might have just one. They would fly off only when the boat’s bow came near to hitting their perch.
My first catch was a small shark, a three footer. I don’t know what kind and we cut the line and lost the lure. Maybe an hour later I caught a Cero, which Dan decided wouldn’t be a good eating fish and let it go! Then in quick succession I hooked and Dan gaffed aboard two Black-fin Tuna of at least ten pounds each. It took me a while to clean them using directions from a book, “The Cruisers Guide to Fishing”, and it was a bloody affair on a sailboat. We haven’t eaten any yet as I need a few good recipes and some lime or lemon.
When I came up from the galley after cleaning the fish, Dan knew we would have to really bring our speed up if we were going to reach the Rio Euero anchorage before dark. We turned on the motor, took in the sails as there was little wind and cranked up to 2700RPMs and put the anchor down in a strange river right as the sky grew pitch black. On the way we were traveling at ODS-optimum dolphin speed! (I think it’s about 7kn) We had a pod of the sleek bodied creatures playing, jumping and whooshing under the bow of Sea Star for about an hour as we headed for the coastline and shore. All told it was a very exciting day on the water and sort of made up for our missing Escudo De Veregas.
The next morning was pretty and sunny-the anchorage hadn’t been calm but we did get some sleep and Dan was ready for his jungle adventure. I took one look at the surf outside the mouth of the river and questioned his sanity. We gathered the usual gear; my camera, his camera and lenses, binoculars, water bottle, sunglasses, shoes and socks and started off to the mouth in the dinghy, sighting and photographing a Black Hawk on the way. We saw the waves at the entrance and landed down the beach to go take a look. Dan waded in to his chest to check the depth and current strength, then we took all the gear out of the dinghy on shore, and hand guided the boat in through the chosen path. Of course waves lapped in and filled the dinghy with Dan in it. He bailed as I steadied the dinghy and without further mishap, gathered the equipment and went for our river ride. It was great fun and there were lots of birds. We heard howler monkeys and parrots in the trees. We saw trees full of Toucans, Arricari and other birds and paddled quietly while the rain started again. When it poured we were able to tuck under trees and vines with huge leaves. After about two hours in the river we decided to go back. Leaving the river was easier than the entry. Apparently the current had quieted and the surf was nowhere near as high as previously so we just blasted our way back into the bay with our gear in a dry bag in the bow locker.
We had been the only cruising boat there and at Escudo, too. We discovered we could trust our newly installed instruments even though the chart plotter showed our anchorage as on land -since we also have paper charts and guide books as backup, we knew the error was not the instrument’s malfunction. Now we were ready for our 52nm trip to the Chagres River.
The next morning early we started for the Chagres and arrived there by 2:00PM after a rollicking but comfortable sail at about 7kn as the current was helping us along the coast. It wasn’t easy for Dan to locate the Lajas Reef, a marker to guide the Captain’s choice of path into the Rio Chagres past the San Lorenzo Fort in the rather rough seas. We followed the Bauhauss and Zydler guide directions and did pass in 13 feet of water but no less. We found Windsong anchored well into the mouth of the river and we dropped our hook there, too. Tregoning was still in Bocas Del Toro and we hoped that they would soon receive their mail and join us, but it was not to be.
I remembered visiting the Chagres on our previous trip eleven years ago. I remembered watching a Bat Hawk, dinghying up river tributaries and hearing howlers and noisy birds. I was wondering if it was too much to expect the river to still hold its magic. It was even better than the last trip. The Panamanians have taken the canal area and are managing the resources there as a National Park. We found the river and its banks clean of trash except very close to the road to the canal and pristine with no development allowed, the paths and walks filled with wondrous sights from butterflies, birds and orchids to larger animals such as monkeys (White-faced and Howler)and sloths. We dinghied some of the tributaries, visited Fort San Lorenzo and walked near the dam on Gatun Lake and along the Panama Canal. The birding find of the trip was a pair of Southern Lapwings with young. Dan saw them distressed and hopping about when he was walking near the Gatun Dam area and a caretaker mowed down a meadow in which the birds were nesting. When we left, the baby bird was alright and burrowed into the mowed grass, and the adults were dive bombing us as we walked and every car, truck or bus that passed on the road to keep everything away from the nest. You had to feel sorry for them. They were frantic. We think the is a rare bird to see in this part of Panama.
And then there were the monkeys. We were able to watch a troop of howler monkeys eating fruits in a tree right on the Rio Chagres. There was a set of old concrete steps leading up a lump of dirt that we climbed and improved our view to looking right into the tree.The pictures speak for themselves.
We left the Chagres on Wednesday, August 26 for the 6 nm trip to Colon and are currently residing on the dock at Shelter Bay Marina. Jamie on Windsong is about to leave his boat on the hard for the next ten months while he returns to his teaching post in Windsor, Ontario. Tregoning may still join us here or we may see them in the San Blas. One of the hardest things about cruising is saying goodbye when plans don’t mesh anymore. Blogs are great! Both Windsong and Tregoning have written blogs at the same time as I have. Check them out at tripsailor.com/Tregoning and wincom.net/jhalpin/windsong.htm
Dan shot most of these photos- enjoy the slide show
 |
| Escudo-Chagres OL |
No comments:
Post a Comment