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 27/28^th January (we will be in the first group to transit) and then the second group 29/30^th 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.