LoWang and Ninja check out the guide as we cross over to the Panama City area.
We cruised over from Isla Tobago after a fun weekend, crossing carefully between all of the giant container and tanker ships sitting at anchor awaiting their turn to transit the nearby Panama Canal.
Our first stop was Flamenco marina so we could check in at the nearby Port Captain's office and get the lay of the land. We found the marina to be rather run down with crumbling docks and quite a bit of surge, especially where they place the sailboats - out by the entrance. There was an extraordinary amount of driftwood and trash floating around, whole stumps and large logs creating a hazard. Why the marina staff does nothing to remove this is puzzling, but the general attitude of "do nothing unless absolutely necessary" predominates in Panama as it does in most of Central America. The gates are locked for security, but unlike most marinas where the tenants are given a card or key to pass in and out, here we had to go to the gate and wait (or yell) for a guard to unlock it and let us in or out, quite a pain. The facilities were ok, but nothing worth the $3/ft/day charge, so we did our check in and left the next day.
Checking in was pain free with the necessary offices located next door to the marina office in the second floor of the Duty Free shops. We checked in along with S/V Prism and between Shannon and I we were able to understand most of what was spoken in Spanish and make ourselves understood as well. Conveniently Jon had his camera with us when it came time to get our Mariner's Visa since a photo is required for the year long permit. But now we are all set to sail in Panama for up to a year.
Next stop was the small bay outside La Playita marina on the opposite side of the island where the wakes from the constantly passing large ships entering the canal channel create a very rolly anchorage. For a few days while we made some repairs we stayed at La Playita marina, but even inside the breakwater there is tremendous surge and three of our dock lines were damaged from the chafing in spite of my best efforts to prevent it. This marina is more user friendly with easy access, cleaner water and the docks are new. The cost is a little more reasonable as well at $2/ft/day cost, but still too expensive to stay in for very long.
As soon as our repairs were completed, we headed out to the other anchorage on the opposite side of the Amador Causeway, which connects the island to the mainland, where there were many dozens of boats at anchor in an area with a beautiful view of the Panama City skyline. We found some to be vacant while others were preparing to transit as we were. Eventually we would be joined here by S/V Mabrouka and S/V Gaia as well as S/V Prism.
Anchorage near Amador Causeway, Panama City
The anchorage was relatively calm, but still had a lot of wood and plastic debris floating around. The worst part was the lack of place to land a dinghy, the shoreline being steep and rocky and the old dinghy dock having crumbled long ago. Our remedy was to take turns using the dinghy to get to shore, one person staying with the boat to run the others back and forth.
Makeshift dinghy dock at Amador anchorage...doesn't quite work when you have 16 ft tidal range.
Soon we'd found an agent to assist us with the transit paperwork and we were ready for the BIG DAY...our transit through the canal!
Ninja relaxes on deck at anchor.
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