Having a Whale of a time

'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Fri 2 Apr 2010 21:26
08:39.636N 079.03.069W
At anchor, Isla Pacheca.
Oh yes indeed, ladies & gentlemen....we have started our trip across the Pacific! :)
We left Playita at 0710 this morning (2nd April) and had a very pleasant motor, motor sail and finally sail to Isla Pacheca, the northenmost of the Las Perlas Islands, 35nm SE of Panama City.
The excitement of the trip was seeing a whale a couple of miles NW of the Isla Pacheca, just where 'the book' said you might see them.Anyway, yesterday was spent stocking up with fresh fruit, veg & meat. We found an interesting 'Casa de la Carne' called Brerards. Actually a Swiss company, they have excellent vacuum-packed meat (some of which I could actually eat !) There is a fresh fruit market about halfway between La Playita and Albrook airport, good produce and very cheap. Then we had a farewell dog burger (no, not really) in Albrook shopping mall and stocked up with 'chicken tits' for the trip.
Dropped the hook here about 1550 local. Helen 'had words' with the local macho men who voiced an opinion about her figure as they passed in their fishing boat......then she got slightly stung when she went for a swim. She's not very lucky in this, the same thing happened over in Taboga...or maybe that's what you get for being rude to the locals? Anyway, the water doesn't look particularly appetising here, so it's a BBQ tonight(yes, chicken BBQ)  then over to the larger island of Contadora tomorrow (where Pam & Jim on Delicado are). The plan is to hang around there for a few days until I'm in funds again, pay a few bills on the internet then take a suitable wind for the Galapagos. Oh, and I really will put some piccies on the blog before we leave, honest!