We are still anchored in peaceful Bahia Honda and are surrounded by lots of life. There is a small village on the island in the center of the bay and our friend Domingo and his family live on shore nearby, farming a small piece of land. He and his family have brought us lemons, mandarins, bananas and some cilantro. We went ashore one afternoon to visit with them and came home with all of grandma’s few family photos that were mostly old polaroid photos and in bad shape. Bill scanned them and I worked magic with a photo program and we printed up 16 photos renewed for her.
The bay has very little other human life so the sea life abounds. There are lots of schools of fish jumping at various times of the day and the dolphins come into feed. In the mornings and evenings there is a lot of racket onshore as the howler monkeys yell at each other. They are not very large monkeys but they do make a rather loud howl. We have a flock of little birds that visit us each day chirping to each other. The bay is well protected and quite calm and the water is clear enough that we are going to try snorkeling off one of the points later today. I have enjoyed looking into the water watching the schools of fish as I paddle over the rocky points in the bay. We spend much of our day reading, doing little projects on Lanikai and Bill is again working on his FotoAlbum program.
Today, just as we were finally getting a good rain, we got swarmed by a lot of bees. They first tried landing on the main boom and we swatted, killing and driving them off. Then they tried for the aft boom but again we swatted them away. They eventually headed for the top of the mizzen mast but we kept shaking the halyard and the sun came out and off they all went. We were bothered by some bees until dark.
This was the first good rain shower that we have had since we arrived. Until this shower we have had lots of clouds and lots of drizzle but not enough water falls at any one time to wash the deck of the salt we accumulated on our passage. Our decks are now salt free but there are many dead bees to clean up!
We dropped the anchor in the north end of this lovely bay at 8:30AM yesterday morning after our 50 hour trip from the Perlas Islands. This is a pretty calm, well protected bay with lots of jumping fish boils and soon after we anchored we could hear the howler monkeys in the forest. A small group of tiny dolphins joined us as we entered the bay but they were out after their morning breakfast and we soon lost them. A sunny warm day greeted us, so after getting Lanikai settled we both jumped overboard for a nice cooling refreshing swim. The rest of the day was spent reading and relaxing with occasional naps. It was early to bed and both of us were asleep by 7PM and we did not awake until well after 6AM this morning.
This bay is a kayakers paradise, so after morning chores I took off in my kayak for a nice paddle in the calm waters. I explored some of the nooks on the west side of the bay before returning to Lanikai, tired but happy. I enjoyed watching the smart pelicans sitting in the center of a fish boil and sticking their heads underwater coming up with a fish in their pouch, which they eventually tilted their heads up and swallowed whole. The wife of the local farmer stopped by with some citrus fruit and a small stock of bananas which we purchased. The grapefruit were pink and sweet but with a thick peel and rather tough, but enjoyable none the less. We also ended up with a few mandarins which we will try out later. The bananas will take a week or so to ripen.
Sunday morning with first light we upped the anchor and left the Perlas Islands behind. The passage across the Bay of Panama was fast even though the seas were quite lumpy. We had the current in our favor much of the time and enjoyed a light wind from the NW to keep the main full. After passing Punta Mala the winds switched to the west, right on our noise! These winds were due to many small squalls associated with the ITCZ and at times were quite strong. The big problem with them was the short steep chop that they caused. This chop slowed Lanikai down to less than 2 knots at times and we had few times over the next 24 hours where our boat speed over the ground was over 3 knots even with good wind in the sails and the motor running as well. This passage was in an area of many and conflicting currents and they seemed to be in our favor the first 18 hours of the voyage as our speed stayed over 6 knots, great for Lanikai and then against us for the next 24 hours. Things calmed down and we picked up speed after getting well north into the waters of western Panama. We arrived at one of our favorite little bays on the north east coast in the morning dropping the hook after 8 in the morning.
Yesterday we moved south to Isla San Jose and anchored off Playa Grande near the southern-most anchorage in the Perlas Islands. The trip was a fast one as the winds gave us a nice reach and the current was with us. We are getting a nice southern swell into the anchorage but great protection from the NW winds that have started blowing into our anchorage on Isla Casaya. We arrived about noon and spent the rest of the day reading and on computers. This is going to be our jump off point to cross the Bay of Panama and around Punta Mala, heading to the islands of Western Panama. The plan is to head out as soon as it gets light tomorrow, Sunday, morning.
The ITCZ has moved south and so we should be in for less rain and more sunny skies which we have been having this last week.
See the Map!
