9.33N 79.39W The pilot booked warned of a ‘lively
passage’ from the San Blas Islands to Portobelo – some 55 nautical
miles. There was a real pressure point to get there for the evening of
the 22nd January as the next day all the crews off all the yachts were to
gather for an in depth brief on transiting the Panama. We, like many others,
had left the journey until the very last minute to try and claw a little more
time in Lemon Cays so when the morning loomed, blustery with a lumpy sea, we
had some trepidation about leaving our lovely safe anchorage! We had two
choices – we could either go out deep to sea which is renowned for being
rough with strong adverse currents or sail close to shore between the reef and
land risking depth as some areas are still uncharted. Paul felt pretty
confident about the latter so this is the route we took – fantastic sail
as it turned out – pretty turbulent though and because we had damaged our
genoa we had to make do with a reefed main and stay sail. The coastline
is absolutely beautiful – dense green lush jungle.
Hard to pick out Isle de Drake but just in the foreground!
Columbus
originally called this bay Puerto Bello when he arrived here with his weary
ships in November 1502. Portobelo, as it is now known, rose to prominence
when the Spanish moved the annual meeting of colonial merchants here from
Nombre de Dios. Francis Drake used the port in 1570 as a base to
rob Spanish merchantmen and returned in the 1590’s and promptly destroyed
the beginnings of the Spanish fortifications. He actually died during
this voyage and was reputedly buried at sea near a little island recently named
Isla Drake. According to Thomas Gage the riches plundered from South America filled the warehouses in Portobelo which
would get so full that gold and silver ingots lay in the streets unguarded
– no wonder the place attracted constant raids by buccaneers, including
Henry Morgan in 1668. British Admiral Vernon
destroyed the forts in 1739 and much of the ruins supplied the rock material
used for the construction of the Cristobal breakwater during the Panama Canal project.
The port today is one of the most unusual places I have ever
seen. Pretty beyond measure – a dichotomy of beautiful rundown down
architecture and abject poverty.
Portobelo anchorage and ramparts
First view of the town from the sea
Note the ruined fortress
Portobelo is best described so: higgledy-piggledy buildings,
emancipated stray dogs and dying cats, a few open fronted ‘shops’,
a couple of restaurants serving surprisingly good cuisine, hand painted old
American school buses and vultures flying menacingly overhead above the jungle
and settling in the town. Having said all of that, we never felt
threatened once in any way – our dinner of lobster, soup, rice and salad
came to just 5US Dollars – beers were 75 cents! The kids
don’t beg and everyone was friendly and greeted us in Spanish.
Portobelo town and American school bus
The predatory vultures………….
The fortifications
And the cannons……..
The following day Tony and Richard from Blue Water Rally drove 82
people to our lunch venue – ferrying us in their rented minibuses - and
organised fresh fish and rice – it was truly emotional to see everyone
again – especially Shuala III who had had the knock down. Far from
being ready to give up Barbara who, covered in bruises, had swum back into her
cockpit, and had apparently arrived in Shelter Bay singing on the bow of her
‘ship’ with the dam buoy, spinnaker and horseshoes dangling from
the displaced spreaders, couldn’t wait to get going again!!! Such
is the strength of the bonding and friendships on this Rally, I think they felt
really supported.
Lunch before the brief……
Then there began a lengthy instruction regarding our Panama passage. On average
the canal allows one private yacht per day to pass – many people wait
weeks if not months – so it is a credit to the Rally organisers that they
manage to get 30 of us through in four days. 5 groups of three rafted up
together on the 27/28th January (we will be in the first group to
transit) and then the second group 29/30th January. Each yacht
requires a captain plus four line handlers and a transit advisor ‘
trainee pilot’ so we all go through twice – once on our own boat
and once as line handlers. There are endless forms to fill in and
criteria to meet but with the BWR help it should all run
smoothly………
After our meeting we all returned to Portobelo and our boats –
there are a couple who live at the end of the docking jetty who have apparently
lived here for 18 years restoring the town but with respect we didn’t see
a whole lot of evidence of this!
Forlorn architecture of old by the dockside…….
Tomorrow we are off to Panama
and Shelter Bay Marina.
