We left Marina Vista Mar at noon on Tuesday, September 30th, after being there for 4 months. This was the longest we’ve stayed anywhere since we left Oregon, except for San Diego. Our first destination was a short 23nm to Isla Bona for an overnight anchorage on our way to the Las Perlas archipelago. It was a beautiful day with 10 knots of wind, so we sailed almost the entire distance under full main and yankee. The wind dropped about 5nm from the anchorage, so we motored the rest of the way in. The wildlife was scarce, except one turtle and a few dolphins were spotted at the end of the passage. We anchored in 40´ of water at 5:10 pm and felt happy we had been able to sail. This was a great short passage ending at a nice, calm, protected bay. We would sleep well that night. Before dark, we were joined by a fishing boat that had dropped its nets in the bay for the night.
As luck would have it, we did have some issues along the way. We had left Marina Vista Mar with a full holding tank, planning to dump it when we got offshore. Unfortunately, the holding tank pump wouldn’t empty the tank. I could hear the pump running, but it wasn’t sucking the liquid out. This was a problem; the tank was so full we couldn’t use the toilet. Lynette was not a happy camper as we had to resort to using a Home Depot 5-gal bucket as a toilet until I could figure out why the pump wasn’t doing its job. A messy job, but I tore the pump apart to see if there was any damage to the flapper valves or diaphragm. They looked to be in great condition, and nothing was stuck in the valves. I reassembled the pump and tried it again. No luck. It still wasn’t pumping. I got to thinking about what could have caused the problem and came up with the fact that we had our hull cleaned that morning. I wondered if the diver had dislodged some barnacles that might have gotten stuck in the discharge seacock, causing the pump to not prime. It was a working theory that I would soon test. I gave up for the night and had a great night’s sleep.
The next morning, we weighed anchor at 8:00 am after the fishing boat pulled in all its nets. We hadn’t realized that they had nets all around our boat, so it was good that they started their day before we tried to leave the anchorage. Our next stop was Isla Chapera, one of the northern Las Perlas islands. This is where we would meet up with our canal buddy boat, New Horizons. They left Marina Vista Mar a few days before we left.
We had our first, and only problem of the day when the anchor shackle got stuck in the anchor roller, and the windlass clutch wouldn’t release the chain to lower the anchor. After a bit of pounding on the windlass gypsy with a plastic mallet, I was able to release the clutch so I could lower the anchor a bit to take the twist out of the anchor shackle. Finally, the anchor was up and secured.
The passage to Isla Chapera was 36.5nm and we were sailing on a close reach in 9 knots of wind. This was another great sailing day. The wind lightened a bit, so I deployed the staysail as well. With all the canvas flying, we were able to gain almost another knot of speed. It’s nice to know that our staysail can help in light winds.
The winds lightened, even more, so we furled the sails and began motoring. We were approaching the shipping lanes where the cargo ships travel to and from the Panama Canal, so having the sails down and motoring made it easier for us to maneuver should the need arise. It was now 10:30 am and we saw many cargo ships coming and going. Luckily, they weren’t too close, so we didn’t have to alter course for any of them. As we were crossing the shipping lanes, it started raining, and a huge downpour thoroughly soaked me. Finally clear of the shipping lanes, we saw a couple of dolphins but no whales. Whales had been reported by New Horizons when they passed this way a few days prior, but we saw none. What we did see was a lot of trash floating by. I mean, lots! Mostly plastic bottles and other plastic things. Disgusting!
We arrived at our anchorage at 3:45 pm and dropped the hook. Spencer and Dara from New Horizons swam over to chat a bit. I was still struggling with the holding tank issue in my mind, trying to come up with why it wasn’t working. I kept coming back to my theory that the hull cleaning from the other day clogged the discharge seacock, so with that in mind I decided to take the pump apart again and using my air compressor, blew air through the discharge pipe. After a bit, I could hear a whoosh and bubbles coming out from under the boat. I put the pump back together and still nothing. Since it was difficult to get the pump back together where it was located, I figured I had pinched the seal allowing the pump to leak air. I pressurized the holding tank by blowing air through the vent hose forcing the liquid up to the pump. This worked and I was able to finally pump out the holding tank. No more using the bucket! I must say, Lynette was quite pleased with this and no longer chides me for having an air compress on the boat.
We didn’t leave the anchorage until 11:30 am, as I wanted to get the holding tank pump self-priming issue solved before we left. Success! I used some silicone grease on the seal, and that did the trick. The pump was finally self-priming. With that project behind us, we weighed anchor and headed to our next stop, a bay near San Miguel on Isla Del Rey. We motored the whole 9.6nm and dropped the hook at 1:30 pm. Along the way, we saw a few whales off in the distance. This was a very calm anchorage and I was invited by New Horizons to go for a kayak ride with them. They wanted to do some snorkeling and I stayed on the kayak and followed them. We kayaked over to a beach that was littered with plastic trash. Sad to see. We spent a little time exercising our legs with a short walk. It was nice to get off the boat for a while. Because it was so calm in this anchorage, we stayed two nights. It was nice to just relax and not feel a need to move on so quickly.
It’s now September 3rd, and time to move to our next anchorage, Isla Espiritu Santo. We weighed anchor at 12:30 pm with no wind. This was a rather quick 8nm motor with several whales being spotted off in the distance. We saw a couple of really good breaches, which were exciting to see. I wish they had been closer so we could have taken pictures, but they were quite far off. We dropped anchor at 2:30 pm in 13´ of water. The next morning, I launched the dinghy and picked up Dara from New Horizons to go snorkeling. Spencer and Colette were in the kayak. Three of us went snorkeling off a small island around the corner from our anchorage while Colette tended to the kayak and dinghy. This was the first time I’d gone snorkeling in many years. It was fun to explore the area and get some needed exercise as well. The water wasn’t too clear, but I could see the bottom and did see some schools of fish. Lynette stayed back on No Regrets, but she did go for a swim around the boat once we got back.
Isla Espiritu Santo was the farthest south we went in the Las Perlas archipelago. It was now time to head toward Panama City and our canal transit. We weighed anchor at just after 1:00 pm on a cloudy September 4th heading for Isla Contadora, an 18nm passage. As we were leaving the anchorage we crossed paths with La Kahina, our dock mates back in Marina Vista Mar. We chatted for a bit on the VHF and bid them farewell. They were heading to the Galapagos and then further west. We enjoyed chatting and catching up on their adventures since we last saw them.
There was a bit of a swell and it started sprinkling. On the plus side, we had 10 knots of wind, so we unfurled all sails and were making 5.5 knots close reaching. We were able to sail for a little over an hour before the wind dropped to 5 knots. I started the engine so we could anchor before dark. We found a nice spot to anchor next to New Horizons and dropped the hook just before 6:00 pm on the north side of Isla Contadora. This is the most populated island of the Las Perlas archipelago. It even has a small airport. New Horizons had arrived a bit before us and anchored unknowingly right in the airport’s flight path. A landing plane caused New Horizons to reconsider their anchoring location, so they moved to this new location before we arrived.
Monday morning, September 5th, at 7:15 am, we weighed anchor and headed toward our last marina on the Pacific side of Panama, La Playita Marina. This was a 34nm passage and we left early to be sure to arrive before sunset. It was a hazy, partly sunny day with calm winds and water. We motored the whole distance and spotted some whales along the way. They were again pretty far off, so no pictures. As we approached Panama City we saw many large cargo ships anchored and waiting for their canal transit dates. We wove through the anchorage on the way to the marina. When we were close to the marina, we radioed for a slip. This was about 12:30 pm. It took a bit of time to get a slip assigned, so we drifted around inside the marina until they assigned us a slip. We finally tied up at 1:15 pm and shut off the engine. We were off to check in and take showers.
Next up, our Panama Canal transit.
Sailing into our next chapter 