Mon morning 13 June.
 
Feels like end of journey for this trip even though we still have a few days left. We are anchored off a uninhabited wooded island is sight of the dock cranes of Colon which is the city at the east end of the canal.

We enjoyed a couple of days looking round Portebelo which has 3 forts and a small town with a museum in the old custom house, a couple of chinese supermarkets  and a large church not to mention several resaurants. In the evening the entire polpulation  seemed to gather round the town square with a five a side football tournament for entertainment. In the morning we climbed the hill to the top level of the fort giving a great view of the town, the bay and coast beyond. Francis Drake ended his days here and was buried at sea at the mouth of the bay.

We have been investigating possible marina options for leaving OR untill next trip. Isla Linton looked promising but a rather brusque marina manager said he had no spaces. They are in the process of upgrading facilities so are still quite cheap which no doubt makes them popular. Just round the corner is Panamarina which Diana spotted tucked away in the mangroves. We negotiated the tricky entrance and then after grounding in the middle of the marina a lad directed us to a temporary bouy and ferried me over the office. They had a berth available but there are no pontoons here- just rows of mooring bouys lined up nose to tail.  I asked the manager to save us the berth while we explored Portebelo which is another 10miles west. We have now moved even further west so probably won't be going back to Panamarina.  The next one to investigate is Shelter Bay which is other side of the bay from Colon.

The island here is so thickly wooded that I couldn't penetrate more than a few metres to explore. There is a little andy beach however and we enjoyed a swim and saw a ray flying gracefuly past in the shallow water.