After paying the
marina and spending the last of our East
Caribbean dollars on fuel, we motored out of the lagoon at
Rodney
Bay and headed towards
Panama. It was Saturday,
30th April. There was enough wind to begin sailing straight away and,
as it was from the east, we opted to put some north in our course in the hope of
more northerly wind later in the trip. We also wanted to stay clear of the coast
of Venezuela because of the threat of
piracy there.
The first night,
our radar detector constantly gave us a strange signal. There were three “beeps”
and a pause and this continued for some time. The signal was very different from
the normal signal and it was quite strong. We scanned the radar several times
but there was nothing there. The cause of the signal remains a
mystery.
Winds were
consistent and we ran our generator when our batteries needed to be charged
until Tuesday morning when the wind eased and we opted to run the main engine
for a couple of hours. The pilot book had warned that the trip across the
Caribbean Sea could be very boisterous and that
yachts needed to be well reefed for the trip. The trade winds are reinforced as
they blow onto Central America and can blow at
gale force for days. The recommendation was to go as close to May as possible
when winds were lighter.
We found that we
had good wind, about 20 knots, but the swell was nowhere near as high as in the
Atlantic. This changed as we came closer to the
Columbia coast
and the approaches to Panama. Waves were much higher and
were quite short and steep. In bad weather, the reverse trip against wind and
waves would be impossible in a yacht. We were glad not to be there in winter.
There were also thunderstorms around us for the last couple of nights but we
managed to miss them.
Monday
9th May was our last day and we started motoring at 0500 and had to
motor for the rest of the trip. There was a constant stream of ships going to
and coming from Panama and quite a few rain showers
so the radar had a good workout. It
was late at night by the time we were close to Colon. There were many ships anchored outside
the harbour and they were well lit, as are the approaches. There were some work boats moving around
but otherwise, all seemed quiet. We meandered across the channel into the
entrance to the port to put ourselves on the correct side of the channel and saw
an ugly big car carrier making its way out of the entrance. This port never
stops!
We had met some
New Zealanders in St
Lucia and they told us where to go to anchor.
The pilot book is a bit vague in this area as the Panama Canal Yacht Club has
been closed to make way for a container terminal. The anchorage now is off the
Club Nautica, which is a fishing club near the Colon port. We could see half a dozen yachts
anchored there. There was plenty of ambient light from the port so we dropped
anchor a little way away from the yachts and out of the main channel. It was
2330 and we were safely in Colon.
