Pacific Panama to Marina Chiapas, Mexico

Look who's steering SD

We left Ensenada Naranjo at 0600 on Sunday 23^rd April and motor sailed all day watching dolphins playing at the bows and passing the occasional turtle. The highlight of the day was catching not one, but two tuna almost simultaneously. The downside was that we ate tuna, delicious as it was, for the next four meals i.e. lunch and supper. That night we anchored off Isla Medidor, a private island near Bahia Honda, in the western anchorage.

Almost in Canal de Isla Medidor

Our 0600 start the next day gave us a morning twilight view of a crescent Moon and Venus close together. Howler monkeys shouted from the forest. The sea was smooth as we motored towards Isla Bolanas. The sea water pump on the engine started dripping. Jeremy was busy fixing the fridge air intake mushroom vent, which had probably been kicked or caught by a line on the Panama Canal. The anchorage was untenable as the Pacific swell was breaking right into it. Fortunately, Islas Parida was only an hour away but the anchorage there is in a national park and we had heard that some yachts had been charged 100USD. We entered warily looking out for the numerous islets and rocks scattered around and for any boats that looked like park launches. No-one else was there. We had the place to ourselves. It was beautiful and sheltered. We swam and snorkelled. Jeremy replaced the leaking sea water pump.

Turn to port before the islet

Another 0600 start the following day saw us heading towards our final port in Panama, Puerto Armuelles. We anchored south of the long pier, launched the dinghy and went ashore at the steps towards the seaward end of the pier. This turned out to be a big mistake and nearly led to the loss of the dinghy. While we were ashore, the wind turned and the inflatable dinghy and outboard went under the rusty, rotting metal of the pier. We returned to find that the oars on top of the tubes had saved the dinghy from puncturing but the outboard was severely scratched and battered. The dinghy was covered in rusty streaks and half filled with water. Jeremy jumped in without even rolling up his long trousers and started baling. Fortunately, the outboard started and we made it back to SD, where a clean-up operation took place to restore the dinghy and outboard as much as possible.

Approach to Isla Perida anchorage

Puerto Armuelles was our clearing out port. The fees were as follows: $20 for Agriculture/Quarantine for an inspection of the boat that did not take place; $20 to Customs; $25 to Immigration and $6.50 to the Port Captain. The next day there was further charge of $4.20 possibly for our international zarpe. Receipts were obtained for all payments.

The long pier at Armuelles

Armuelles is good for provisioning, laundry and buying fuel. It has a bank but only one place for Wi-Fi and that was always closed. We landed the dinghy on the beach and took containers ashore to buy 185litres of fuel – a wet experience in the swell. Water at the land end of the pier is potable. That required another beach landing as the planks on the pier are too rickety for a trolley.

Pacific dawn

After two nights at Armuelles we motored away from Panama and into the waters of Costa Rica. We did not stop for the next 700 miles, passing Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. It was very hot and the winds were generally light except in squalls and thunderstorms, where gusts up to 30 knots were experienced. We sailed when we could and watched the wind slowly veer around the compass, each change of direction requiring a change of sails. Poles went up and down, reefs went in and out. It was hokey cokey sailing! Meanwhile, we dripped with sweat.

Thunder storm on radar

We saw few ships or boats. I got a bad feeling about a local fishing vessel that we passed and believed it was following us at a distance of about two miles. We hoisted a sail to give us more speed and the fishing vessel turned away. Perhaps it was heading for harbour anyway, but we didn’t hang around to ask.

Entering Puerto Chiapas

Two nights before our arrival at Puerto Chiapas, Mexico, our trusty power steering device, NECO, stopped working. We tried and tried to fix it with me at the helm at Jeremy below with his head under the stern berth. No joy, so we had to hand steer when there was no wind, which was mostly at night. Hydrovane was brought into service when motor sailing in light winds.

Fuel berth in Puerto Chiapas

One week after leaving Panama we arrived in Mexico and checked in at the pleasant, friendly and helpful Marina Chiapas. Jim from Sea of Tranquillity was about to leave. He gave us loads of helpful advice about sailing north to the States back in Shelter Bay Marina, and he recommended Chiapas, so it was good to see him. On another pontoon was the yacht on which we were going to be line handlers. It thus proves we are not the only mad people sailing (motoring) up the Central American Pacific coast.

Sunset over Marina Chiapas

SD in her berth at Marina Chiapas