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Flamenco Island Panama

Our stay in Panama City has been amazing. David and Susie our friends from Fubar 2011 live in Panama and have been wonderful tour guides. They have been gracious enough to transport us around the city and share their knowledge of Panama. Yesterday David introduced us to the fresh fruit and veggie market along with a stop at the grocery store for provisioning. We had an enormous variety of produce to choose from at more than reasonable prices. We all will be eating healthy for our transit to San Blas.

As we drove over The Bridge of the Americas I couldn’t help but think about us cruising under it on our way to the canal. This has been an amazing journey the past several months.

 

At the locks a dragon fly landed on Bill’s hand. A good sign…

Yesterday we toured The Miraflores locks. Viewing the first set of locks we will enter as we transit the canal. Anna Mae will be lifted 54 feet in two stages. As we walked out onto the viewing platform a ship was transiting the locks. It’s hard to believe that will be Anna Mae Tomorrow.

This year The Canal is celebrating 100 years of operation it opened August 15th 1914. The crew of Anna Mae has so much to celebrate!

We made it!

We anchored this morning, checked into Panama, Anna Mae was measured and given the go ahead to transit The Canal. We think on the 5th.  keeping our fingers crossed.http://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais/details/ships/367563310

Down the Coast of Panama

After checking out of Costa Rica, Customs, Immigration and The Golfito Port Captain gave us 72 hours to exit their waters.  

We planned a special dinner to say our goodbyes to the wonderful staff at Banana Bay Marina. If you find yourself in Golfito be sure to stop and spend a few days, they are very helpful.

We left the dock early April 24th at low tide and traveled to Isla Pardida. The anchorage was exposed with little shelter. We have been lucky to encountered mild winds. We enjoyed a soft little roll that put us all to sleep.

The next day we continued on to anchor on the east side of Isla De Coiba for the night. The snorkeling was mediocre with visibility at about 20 to 30 feet. A 4 foot morey ell let us know not to get to close. He was very protective of his home.  Several large schools of shiny silver fish surrounded us. A variety of colorful large and small fish entertained us until the rainstorm; lightening and thunder forced us back onboard. I did manage to make it to shore to find a few shells. I was able to sneak a special few onboard. My collection continues to grow.

Another system learned the hard way. It’s a never-ending process and always a reward of accomplishment when we learn something new. We have been pampering our water makers and collected all of the necessary parts when we flew home last month. Upon our return Bill installed new fresh water diversion and flush valves. The old valves he replaced had been allowing air into the system. We had a celebration when both water makers were pushing out between 250 and 350 parts per million.

Now the interesting lesson… We had our 20KW running to enable us to run our air conditioning, hydraulic cooling pump and the two water makers. Bob Senter would be so proud of us. We know he is smiling when we have our NL generator running a heavy load. Luckily after our high fives Bill did another engine room check and found the water makers warm with excessive vibration.  Note to self, in the future do not run the water makers, air conditioning and hydraulic cooling pump at the same time? Apparently our sea chest wasn’t engineered to adequately allow the volume of water needed to run all these systems simultaneously.

Frustration, is a mild word to use when this was discovered as a matter of fact, Bill used many words… At the time we were unsure how much damage had been done to the pumps on the water makers. We waited until we stopped for the night to investigate the situation, giving the water makers and engine room time to cool down. Our engine room temperature generally runs between 105 – 110 degrees in this warm weather / waters, much warmer than we are used to in The Pacific Northwest. Prior to heading out on this trip, we installed several fans and a blower in the engine room to help with the extreme heat.

We anchored and took a quick swim to cool off and allow the engine room to cool down and started the water makers again. We are keeping our fingers crossed, not much damage to report. One of the water makers has a slight vibration, but is making water. YEAH!!!

Our last little hurdle before getting to the canal was Punta Malo. We have heard the waters can be challenging. We experienced a strong current on our bow as the tide was going out. We dropped back to 6.5 knots. The seas remained calm throughout the day. We even managed to catch several dorado, they ranged from 20 to 35 pounds. Our freezer is getting full.

We are on our way to Isla Otoque to anchor for the night. Tomorrow we will continue to an anchorage outside of The Flaminco Yacht Club to wait for our agent to clear us into Panama.

Our plan is to spend a couple of days in Panama City. We have guests, Mitch and Cherie Vandehey flying in to transit the canal with us and explore Panama City.

Never a dull moment, we have enjoyed another wonderful day on Anna Mae. I am anticipating a delicious fish dinner tonight. I wish you could join us!


I have numerous pictures to share and would love to if my iphoto program would cooperate… Hope to rectify that issue shortly at the Mac store in Panama City tomorrow!

PDX, DEN, SJO and then finally back to Golfito Costa Rica

We made a quick trip home to tie up a few loose ends and make the tax man happy…We have enjoyed catching up with family and friends over the past few weeks. Abby watched each bag being loaded into the car and pouted on the garage floor… She is in g…

Los Suenos to Golfito Costa Rica

The water continues to stay blue, calm and beautiful as Anna Mae and crew move down the coast of Costa Rica. We have been anchoring in bays and staying in marina’s along the way. We anchored one night in Bahia Herradura and took a panga to shore. The Marina Los Suenos was hosting The 2014 Triple Crown Fishing Tournament. The docks where full to capacity with sport fishing boats. 


A fun panga ride to shore

Fun on the beach


Our next stop was Quepos. We stayed at Marina Pez Vela and struggled with more surge… The facility was very nice, along with helpful and friendly marina staff.  Surge continues to be a problem with our heavy trawler. Anna Mae groans with the pull of the turbulent currents that tug her lines. It makes for a noisy bumpy night and a frustrated crew. Our bumpers and dock lines are looking sadly used.

While at Quepos we explored Manuel Antonio National Park, the most famous biological reserve in Costa Rica.  Our guide pointed out various animal and plant life, we would not have seen much without his help. The tour was relaxing and interesting, but not as much wildlife as we had anticipated. 





The whole family

High up in a tree, a Sloth with her baby.

A male iguana relaxing in the sun. The razor wire didn’t seem to bother him.
I have decided that we are all very spoiled with the amazing wildlife we have  experienced while at sea. It doesn’t matter how many times I watch the dolphins race to our bow and perform for us, it’s always a thrill. We have learned to lean out and wave to get the dolphins attention. They turn sideways and look up at us as we clap for them. Yesterday I took Bill’s harmonica out and blew a few notes. They stayed on our bow for about twenty minutes. We slowed the boat hopeful they would hang around to swim with us. No such luck, as soon as we slowed, they swam out of sight.



Dolphins on the bow of Anna Mae


Anna Mae anchored at Cane Island 


Our one night stay at Isla del Cano or “Cane Island” was magical. It lays 12 miles NW of Oso Peninsula. There are at least 5 plateaus with 10 spectacular dive sites. Tom and Susanne paddled over on their SUP and checked us into the Isla del Cano National Biosphere Preserve. We paid our $6.00 anchorage fee, $8.00 per person snorkel fee and the numerous documents needing our signature. We set our anchor and settled in for the day. We snorkeled coral reefs with pinnacles reaching up from the white sandy bottom. The fish life was colorful, plentiful and amazing. Several sea turtles entertained us with their slow easy movements in the clear blue water. Numerous Manta rays hugged the bottom as we swam above. A couple of white tipped reef sharks swam by along with a large school of grouper. 
We have learned many lessons while in the waters of Costa Rica. Don’t try to check into a Port or a marina on the weekend or before 9am and after 5pm. When asked how long you will be staying, alway request the longest amount of time available and get your fingers ready to sign, sign, sign on the dotted line. This country is very ecologically friendly but they use an entire forest each and every day with the mountains of paperwork they require. The country is lovely, but not boater friendly. We anticipated more boats in these waters, now we understand why. We are still working on paperwork to exit the country. Hopefully we can get everything resolved prior to our scheduled flight home to Oregon in the next few days. Currently tied to the dock at Banana Bay Marina while will continue to struggle with customs and emigrations issues. Thankfully we are in paradise…

Enjoying the wildlife in Costa Rica

I am taking advantage of this fast internet signal we have at Marina Pez Villa in Quepos Costa Rica. Sharing a few pictures of my friends. They come in all shapes, sizes and colors. 

Boarded in Costa Rica

Our overnight stay at Playa Vida Flamingo was relaxing. The next morning we raised our anchors early and headed south. Lili was at the controls of SpringDay and I was following right behind on Anna Mae. We started out on our 50 mile cruise to Bahia Pot…

Nicaragua by Land

Our trip to Nicaragua started bright and early with Leslie Sanchez from Tropical Tours of Coco Beach arriving at 6 am to pick us up from our dock at Marina Papagayo. If you are every in Costa Rica and want a great tour guide, I can’t say enough go…

Costa Rica

We have been in the warm Costa Rican waters for over a week now.The anchorage of Bahia de Coco was our first stop while we arranged all of our paperwork to enter the country. The government of Costa Rica truly enjoys their paperwork… The have a piece…

A tasty sunset in Barra de Navidad