We have been here tied up at the Balboa Yacht Club for only three days and already are getting a full social calendar. Yesterday we got checked in with immigration but have yet to find the port captain to finish up the paperwork. We spent the afternoon at the very large Albrook Mall. Bill picked up a new “car stereo” that is set up for the iPod. Our prior method of using a FM local transmitter to get the music to our radio does not work here as there is no free frequency to use! This morning he got it set up and we now have music again on Lanikai. Last night was the cruiser’s get together at the Yacht Club and we met up with old friends again. Bill also got his external wifi antenna set up and now has good wifi reception for surfing the web on his laptop. We are slowly getting Lanikai into “condo-mode” for spending the summer, rainy season, here in Panama.
We tied up on a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club this morning, Sunday. Just before 2:00 AM this morning we pulled the anchor at Isla Pacheca, two miles north of Isla Contadora, to catch the rising tide. The current gave us quite a push and with a little wind in the sail we lowered the engine RPM to just above idle and still made to the anchored ships just after sunrise. We threaded our way thru the ships to the entrance to the Panama Canal channel and arrive at the Balboa Yacht Club shortly after 9:00 AM. The buoy that we are on is real close the the Bridge of the Americas and we have a great view of the ship traffic in the channel about 200 feet away.
Thursday we moved north to Isla Contadora where we would have cell phone reception. Yesterday, Bill used his phone to see if we could snag a buoy at the Balboa Yacht Club on Monday, May 12. They had no buoy yet but he was told to call back this morning. The buoys there are usually full but there is lots of turn-over as boats pass thru the Panama City area going into or out of the Canal. We are hoping that a buoy frees up for us for Monday or Tuesday and plan to arrive in Balboa then.
Today we moved further north along Isla del Rey and anchored off Isla Canas.
Yesterday, Friday, it rained much of the day, rinsing off the salt from Lanikai and then the clouds moved on and blue sky started to appear. About an hour before sunset the mass-hatching of many flying insects started and they blew out over Lanikai. Whatever type of bug these are (ant? termite? ??) they drop their wings when they first land, so they covered the deck with their shed wings. We screened up the openings to the cabin and only a few got down below. This morning the clean-up was interesting: the light wings just floated into the air when I tired to sweep them from the cockpit floor and many drifted down below. Bill used the vacuum to suck the wings from the interior floor. The dew had the wings outside of the dry cockpit glued down so they had to be washed off with the saltwater pump. A serious mess, and not fully cleaned yet. These insects, which we met in El Salvador as well, supposably come out after the first good rain of the rainy season and I expect that we will again have them with us tonight.
When we arrived in the Perlas Islands from Western Panama (a few days back), the anchor windlass controller only sporadically worked. Yesterday Bill spent much time with the controller wand and thought that all was fixed. Well, today it would not turn on the windlass motor when I pushed the ‘up’ button to raise the anchor. We finally got the anchor up using the windlass, when it would work, and with Bill finally hauling the last 30 feet of chain by hand. Bill spent the passage to Isla Canas trying to get the windlass to work, first replacing the switch, then checking out the motor-control circuitry and finally realizing that the cord to the windlass controller had a broken wire!! All is repaired now and the anchor went down without a hiccup when we got here..
See the Map!
