PORTOBELO

We had a very dry “dry season” but it seems like a short one too as torrential rains have started to come in just around 4 in the morning which is the usual pattern here during rainy season. Time to check out the storm wind scoop I made and it works out better than I had hoped for. We don’t have to close the middle hatch anymore during rain unless it is really sever. 

The scalloped Bimini seems to work and at places where there is a gap around stainless steel tubes I made a cone out of a very thin funnel sewing some canvas on it, no more leaks.

Here are a few photos of the upgrades made on Paradise:

New deck box cover

The dodger is by far the best upgrade, solid and rain proof.

New Solar Panel

On raised Davits

The day finally had arrived to drop the mooring and Paradise with motor purring to glide out of the calm Bay of Puerto Lindo. Nothing was stirring yet, except a dinghy headed towards us. It was sleepy eyed Reg and Debbie doing a farewell circle around Paradise.

Most everybody had teased: “Ahh, going on a “Shake Down Cruise”?!!! (Giggles).

Paradise had no hiccups and a couple hours later she was moored in front of Anita’s house. We are at the entrance of the beautiful Portobelo Bay with a spectacular view of the historic town of Portobelo and the coast all the way to Colon. Especially on clear days you can see all the way to the entrance of the canal with the numerous ships waiting for their transit through the canal.  We are fairly close to the rocky shores and have a fabulous sight of the jungle life as well. Red legged honey creeper, parrots, lots of king fisher, pelican land in the near trees and even an occasional Toucan fly over the boat. Not to mention the howler’s monkey’s warning us when rain approaches, love those critters. And the national bird here is the Jitra or Jejene = No-See-Um. At dusk and dawn or when there is not a breath of air, you want to spray plenty of Deet on you unless you want to look like you have the measles. There are a few cases of lishmeniasis in Portobelo which is a flesh eating disorder caused by a white no-see-um that has feasted on sloth or rodents and infected humans not a good thing. It is spread like Dengue or Malaria. Every corner or counter on the boat has a bottle of OFF ready. Hey saving on Perfume, we all smell the same.

The snorkeling is incredible as well, it is much clearer here than further into the bay. Anita’s baby is a beautiful reef in front of her house. Every time a heavy downpour silts up the bay, she dives on her reef and blows the silt away. The reef is doing really nice and Anita said she watches it grow; it is very healthy looking. There all kinds of fish including spotted eagle ray nestled into the sand, a juvenile drum fish and adult guarding their territories. I spend hours in the water watching this spectacular underwater aquarium.

Unfortunately the bay is not protected to the West and if a westerly hits it gets quite uncomfortable, but not this time of the year or is it?!!! The very first night a system out in the west sent some bumpy waves our way. No problem we put the flopper stopper out and all went calm. Didn’t sleep all too well but it was tolerable.

Approaching rain

The second day a Dock Wise transport ship anchored about a quarter mile from us. Loaded on top were two barges a dredge and a tug boat. We heard rumors that the Spanish Lady Aurora owning a hotel here, is planning to build a cruise ship terminal. Seeing these dredges we thought for sure that it was happening. But the ship sat there for 3 days before a bus load of orange uniformed Chinese guys boarded the ship and unloaded the cargo. It was quite impressive to see this; Sid took a bunch of pictures. But then they all headed to the canal and not into the bay. What the….?!!! We figured that it must be cheaper to unload them here than in the commercial Port of Colon.

We had still some projects to do. Sid needed to fix the dinghy. He has been pumping it up twice a day some times. He found two holes, can’t have that, it’s like a flat tire on a car. Reg was so nice to take his dinghy over to Panamarina to get some two part glue, while Sid took a taxi to Puerto Lindo to get the glue from Reg. He came back and was going to work on the dinghy when he noticed there was no glue in it but two bottles of catalyst instead. Oh well, he fixed it with contact cement which should hold anywhere from 2 hours to 2 months and the two part glue job will just have to wait until then.

I had to replace the twisties of the fillers for the Bimini and Dodger with zippers, but that darn sewing machine did an even worse job now by bunching up the fabric even more so. So it’s a temporary fix until I can get the darn machine fixed and if it can’t be fixed it’ll turn into a dinghy anchor. But we are good in the rain and the cockpit will stay dry.

Nell on Moon Dancer braved it and took the bus from Panama City to Portobelo. 

She was hilarious when she stepped out of the bus. She said she had the last seat on the bus and was sitting next to a very fat guy not leaving her much room and next to her in the isle a bucket was placed upside down where another big guy was sitting. She felt like she was the meat in a sandwich. 

She enjoyed Portobelo, they had bypassed it on Moon Dancer. Did some tourist stuff, enjoyed a wonderful Thai meal at Captain Jacks and off she was on the bus again going back to Panama City. She wrote me the following day that it had taken her 5 hours and that she could have flown faster to Miami from here. She also mentioned never to get on a Panama bus ever again LOL.

Rainy season has definitely set in as a huge system out west brought us more nasty waves. The main problem is the swells are so darn close together. We did not sleep a wink and luckily towards sunrise the waves subsided slowly. I sat on deck most of the night and inhaled the beautiful flower scented air. A scent between honeysuckle and jasmine lingered over Paradise for most of the night. Later on I found out it was the beautiful flowers of the Frangipani tree that released this wonderful scent. It made the rock’n rolly night almost pleasant.

A calm and sunny day followed and just as we sat down on our deck chairs at 4pm we noticed some swells coming in again and within 10 minutes they grew bigger and bigger. Oh no you don’t! We don’t need another sleepless night; we dropped the mooring and headed to our old spot further in the bay where the waves were 1/3 of what was at the entrance. Most boats were rolling from side to side but our flopper stoppers helped us to have sweet dreams. Since then the weather has been nothing but rain and we had the first noisy thunderstorm. Sid was in Colon at the dentist at that time. I made myself a bowl of popcorn, filled myself a glass of white wine and I watched the thunderstorm go buy. Kinda like going to the movie, well, I said kinda. The water calmed down again so we headed back out to the mooring but the rain has not stopped yet.

May is a busy Birthday month for the Domino Divas. We celebrated Cindy’s on the 11^th with a surprise party at Don Quixote. 

JAC = Just Ask Cindy

Margo’s was on the 17^th, Cindy, Deb, Renee, Reg and I drove into Panama City and visited Margo and Herb at their new condo. Margo cooked us a wonderful lunch for her BD, it was fun and we all exchanged gifts as Margo missed Cindy’s and mine was two days after hers.

View from Condo

On the 19^th it was my turn. The girls tried really hard to surprise me. But every Diva knows something is going to happen on their Birthday. The giveaway was Deb calling me that her and Reg will come to Portobelo for lunch with us, she always asks if we want to join them, nope we are coming, hmmm. Then same day both Cindy and Renee called to asked what I was going to do on my BD, a think Diva’s don’t do. Reg, Deb and Sarah came out to the boat and of course Deb brought some cold champagne. I think we drank 2 bottles and in between Deb showered me with one present after another. The most give away was all three kept looking at their watch and then said oh it’s time to go for lunch.

Driving across the bay I noticed many cars in front of the El Castillo restaurant parking lot which is always empty. Coming closer I saw balloons. Getting off on the dock and walking up to the restaurant the loud popping sound of a champagne cork told me yep there is a BD party. 

Ming Xiao my favorite Vietnamese Dish

It was fun and my champagne glass was never empty. The food was wonderful and OMG the presents were amazing. Especially the present from all the Domino Divas a butterfly pendent carved out of the Tagua Nut. This one blew me away, it is a collector’s item signed by the artist. It looks incredibly real. Wow thanks girls. Another birthday gone and another year wiser; not older.

Tried to wash the dishes one morning but no water came out of the faucet: “Siiiiiid!” We had just filled the tank there is no way we are already out of water hmmm, but then the previous night we did hear the “empty tank bong” hmmm? Naah! Maybe that was the full tank bong. Sid found the filter full of algae that must be it. He cleaned it but nope. Hmmm maybe the tank really is empty, so we filled 5 gallons into the tank and still no water came out, telling us it was the pump. That should keep Sid busy for a while. And it did! Good thing is we have a backup on hand and a new pump will be underway with our guests next Thursday. So Sid changed the pump and guess what, still not working. A light went on in Sid’s head and  walked over to the water maker valve which is used to flush the filter and it was confirmed, somebody accidentally turned the valve just  enough to slowly drain the tank over night without turning the water pump on. If we catch that somebody!!!!! 45 gallons of water down the drain not to mention the diesel for running the engine for about 8 hours, but we are glad we found the problem. Poor Sid changed the pump back to the old one. Now we can continue scrambling around to the get boat ready for Lia and Jesse.

Here are a few unusual photos:

Chicken verses cat or is it the other way around?

Cat that thinks it’s helping the sewing project by stopping it.

We went for a bag of ice in town to cool beer down and this was the only ice we could find. The problem was there was no room left in the cooler for the beer.