Portobello
Zepher
Chris & Lyn Darch
Thu 13 Mar 2008 01:00
|
09:33.50N
79:40.05W
Portobello
Hi Folks,
Well after four wonderful days in the San Blas
Islands which included snorkelling round a wrecked ship laying on gold sand
between two small Islands one which was called Dog island which
had the most beautiful coral growths combined with multi coloured fish we
moved on up the coast towards Colon , the entrance to the Panama canal , the
winds were not at there best and had died off by lunch time so we decided to
call into the old colonial port of Portobello , which reputedly was the
collection point for all the Spanish gold in the Americas , it would be loaded
onto galleons and shipped back to Spain , we anchored under the old fort set in
the hill side another stunning setting , sat for a while and had boyz fantasise
of pirates gold and sailing ships ! Drake is buried on an Island that we passed
on the way in to this anchorage , he popped his clog's after he plundered the
fort for the second time , another famous plunderer was William Morgan who also
helped himself to the gold , the Spanish got so hacked off with it that they
moved out and the fort remains are all that is left on the hillside
.
Tomorrow we move on to Colon and commence all
the paperwork involved with the canal transit ! ten copies of passports , five
copies of Ships papers , by the time we get out of Panama we would have consumed
a whole rain forest on our own !
Ike left the San Blas yesterday and reached
Colon today , our SSB has finally become useful as we have kept in comms since
he departed the Islands for Colon and he gave me a list of the paperwork
required , all done this evening
so it should make the officialdom much smother
tomorrow we hope .
Sunburn Noah's
|