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SLOEPMOUCHE - 46' N.Cross Trimaran - 5' draft - September 1999

Subject/Area: Panama - Las Perlas - Cocos Island

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Dear SSCA,

We stayed in Colon for 5 months so we had plenty of time to explore the area for provisioning and finding parts!

We recommend "the flats" in Colon as the place to base yourself because of the nice welcome and services extended by the Panama Canal Yacht Club (PCYC): free dinghy dock, free water, self-service laundry, fuel dock, public phone, fax and mail service, and more. The Commodore is a very

accommodating person and extends many courtesies to cruisers. We found out that the PCYC now pays for their water and rent since the US pull-out, yet when we tried to give them money for our water usage, the Commodore would not accept it, so we gave it to the charity the YC sponsored. Many semi-permanent "cruisers" abuse the generosity of these people by sucking up all the free services, and never giving any business or even appreciation back. These people leave a bitter taste in the mouth, and someday the PCYC just may not be so generous anymore.

The holding in the anchorage varies, in about 40 ft of water and watch out to not lose anything overboard as the soft mud is like pudding and goes so deep that you'll never find anything that sinks in it! (plenty of anchors and rodes were lost, and this is a diver telling you that!) We alerted at least 4 boats that dragged by us in nighttime squalls over the time we were there.

The other anchoring options have big flaws in our mind! Based at Isla Grande, Isla Linton or Portobello, you get nice scenery and clean water but you have long bus trips to get to Colon or Panama City to get anything other than basic staples; based in the Balboa Yacht Club (BYC), the water is even more polluted, you get the wake of the Canal traffic, you pay membership fees ($25)(even if only buying fuel), mooring fees ($.50\ft), can't use your dinghy, and there are no facilities since the building burned down around Feb. of last year! The welcome is somehow missing (a common comment in the last 10 yr. of bulletins!!!). A possible option is to anchor off Flamingo

beach, 2 miles from the Canal, Pacific side, but you have to land your dinghy on the rocks, not forgetting the big tide differences!

Before you cross the canal, we cannot stress enough the benefits to go as line-handlers on other boats. You will enjoy those crossings with friends and not be so stressed when it's your turn, having had time to think out what you will do on your own boat.

When you are in Colon-Balboa, listen to the 0730 cruiser's net on ch72 as some cruisers are mines of information! Things can be found, but not easily. The net can put you in touch with someone who just might know where to go.

Shipping anything in Panama for a yacht in transit duty-free is possible but the flat charges are pretty high so it makes sense to consolidate between different companies you order from or to group orders with other cruisers!  We recommend Miami Express (gencio@aol.com - Tel in Miami: (305)477-5977

fax(305)477-6178 ; they have a office in Panama City and a small antenna in Colon) as you can get things shipped by cargo or plane at fair prices both directions. If you are in a hurry, you can use DHL (they have an office in the free zone in Colon). We heard many problems from people using FEDEX

('lost' laptop sent back to US! looks like the local branch doesn't measure up to the standards of this normally efficient company!). Which ever way you choose, always ask in at least 3 different ways what the Bottom Line cost will be. You have to pry all the info out of them.

Cybercafes exists in Colon and Panama City so you can surf the net galore and catch up with your email!

For provisioning, call Winston Martinelli (assist.mgr, super nice guy who speaks English) at Mega-Depot 261-2114 and he will send a bus to Colon to pick up cruisers who organize a group, to the store in P.C. Costco won't provide this service anymore (their loss!). The Super 99 supermarket outside

of Colon will send a bus on demand for any number of persons.

Good vet in Colon: Avenida del Fronte for annual shots; you can find Heartguard worm pills at animal supply stores under the name of Cardomec.

Bought a new Canon printer and a VCR for less than $100 each (prices comparable to US!) but no bargains on laptops!! But via the internet, I found a great company selling refurbished laptops and new ones at bargain prices: United Computers Inc. in Canada (www.unitedci.com); Rhys Trenhaile

was efficient and agreeable! ; got 486 laptop for $230, CD ROM, ... At that price, we bought 3 identical laptops so now we carry our own spare parts! Do not laugh but think about the following: 1) laptops new or old do Not last in the salt air environment! 2) every time it needs to be fixed you

will hear: "we need the parts, we have to order them at high cost and it will take a long time" ... "it's an older model, I don't know if we can find the parts anymore and laptops don't take standard parts! ..." Now, with 3 identical laptops (2 being vacuum sealed), I can replace the parts myself or at least provide the parts to the technician in the islands! and all that at the cost of one new laptop that is not, I bet, going to last 3 or 4 times the refurbished ones!!!

Propane tanks: you can buy the local 25LB tanks (made in aluminium, should I say aluminum like our US friends?) for less than $50 with a US valve (keep in mind that they are a bit taller than the 20Lb. in the US.

Outboards: good prices on Tohatsu motors from Abernathy's in P.C. (ask the manager for discounts on anything in the store, if you don't ask ...)

Scuba tanks: no bargains buying them, but great bargain to do the 5 yr. mandatory hydrostatic test (check those tanks in the bilges!!): only 12$ at Varcacia, a fire extinguisher company (done professionally in one day!) on Via Brasil (next to Casa del Helado) in P.C.

Life-raft inspection: can be done professionally in Colon free-zone by Ocean Safety (ask Carlos, the taxi-driver). Cost was less than what we paid 5 yr. ago in the USVI.

We found an AC\refrigeration specialist right in Colon who did a very good job fixing our leaking evaporator, and refilling the Danfoss compressor system with the right amount of freon. His name is Javier Smith, is very contentious, and speaks good English. His home # is 444-0156, or ask the folks at Panafrio, the refrigeration parts store for directions to his shop.

If you want to make any flags with adhesive colored tape on Plexiglas (for example, on the rudder of your wind generator) you can go to Multiplastic 279-0441/ 261-5153 (not far from Abernathy's) with your plan and they will make it at your dimensions (with a nifty computer program) and cut the different color pieces so you can do the job yourself if you like (they can do the whole thing for you if you like). My 2 sided/flag cost me less than a nylon one and will outlast it more than 10 times. Show your registry flag for years and it will look great even without wind! (I started an SSCA file in their computer so you may find designs you can use!)

Before getting to Panama, we imagined the place full of stores with boat parts like in Ft. Lauderdale since they have so much boat traffic! Wrong! There are few marine stores and no prices like in Florida! But if the part is not specific to boats, then you may find it, as P.C. is a big metropolis!

 

Las Perlas Islands:

Visited them in July when few boats were around, stopping in the best anchorages. While the islands were beautiful, the snorkeling was disappointing due mostly to bad visibility (apparently a common thing here!).

Cruising the Perlas is challenging, coming from the Caribbean:

First you get the 15 ft tides, every 6.5 hours or so, that forces you to pay more attention to depth, you don't want to be high and dry at low tide and you don't want to have to put tons of anchor rode because anchored deep! Also, you may consider dinghy wheels if your dink is heavy to drag up the

beach.

Second, the winds are always changing: normally from the South this time of the year but often strong Northerlies so you don't want to drag and end up on the beach or the reefs!

Third, the tidal currents are fighting the winds and often you end up not facing into the wind but at an angle so you move all around your anchors, tying knots in your anchor lines (you need 2), and ventilation is not the greatest as the wind comes from the side!

Fourth, numerous thunderstorms get everything wet but at least it's easy to fill up your water tanks!

Fifth, you have to motor a lot going around as often the winds are either too light or right in the nose! (but that's often the case anywhere for some reason, hi hi!)

Now, all that doesn't sound like what you would read in a tourist brochure but it's reality and, despite it, we were glad to have spent 2 weeks here visiting. People were very nice, we got some good fresh fruits and got back in shape after our 5 months in Colon.

If you stop in Contadora, try to meet Guenter HP1XVH, German expat living well on the island. He's a great guy helpful with any radio equipment testing and has contacts in Galapagos! He is conducting the Pacific Islands Net on 14135 at 2300Z that can help you during your passage from the Caribbean to the S.Pac. The net is run in German and English and don't hesitate to break in the first time if you don't hear any English!

 

Cocos Island: scuba divers, don't miss them!!!

After 7 days and 13 hours of challenging sailing into the wind (from Contadora), we made it to the Cocos! A few facts about this trip (made in August): we did around 720NM of actual distance because we had to tack in order to use the wind and not to bash head into the big swell; a direct trip would have been around 573NM; we had to run the engine for around 94 hours to motorsail closer to the wind to make better time; we had winds mostly from the South, SSW with 2 days of WSW that prevented us from going to Isla Malpelo (unless we wanted to beat our brains to get there to do some very challenging diving!); we had rainy and totally overcast days and few sunny days; winds went from <5 knots to 30 knots; seas were from flat to 6 ft high. Passages are certainly not the best part of cruising but being at anchor and enjoying the islands topside and underwater makes it all worth it! Our

uncommon watch system worked great: Jackie is on watch from 0000 to 0800 (so I get my sleep as I cannot really rest during daylight or in short periods!) and Jackie sleeps from 2100 till 0000 and from 0800 till 1200 with naps in the afternoon (this system only if our 4th crew member, "auto" does his job and the wx is settled!); we eat something every 4 hours and take it easy whenever we can!

 

Best Anchorage> Chatham Bay: 05d33'N-87d02'W 4 moorings suitable for yachts + 2 moorings for big dive boats . Ranger sub-station in Chatham Bay monitors VHF CH16 (We made our entry into the bay on a pitch black night, but thanks to GPS, radar, depth sounder and chart, we made it easily. Locals helped us find a mooring and we had a calm anchorage to rest. In the months of Dec-Feb, the winds can go north strongly and Chatham Bay can get dangerous (you have then to move to Bahia

Yglesias).  

For 12 days we enjoyed the scuba in the Cocos! Years after Cousteau and numerous other famous u/w photographers, we finally got to dive those waters teeming with hammerhead sharks, big stingrays, white tip sharks and huge schools of jacks and other species. If you like pelagics, this is one of our

favorite places in the world! Not much of any coral life at all since El Nino (him again!) whipped it all! But the fish life is so prolific that we don't mind so much the quasi absence of corals. We have done 20 dives and I produced a great video.

Our favorite dive sites: 1) Dirty Rock 2) Submerged rock 3) Isla Manuelita  (5 min. dinghy from the Chatam Bay anchorage) 4) Lobster Rock (same note).

Cocos is under the authority of the Costa Rican Park Rangers and it is part of the World's protected areas; no fishing or hunting allowed and fees are levied to all visitors: 15$ for the boat/day + 15$ per person/day + 4$ per diver/day. Our first morning, we were visited by Felipe the Park manager at the time (they rotate every 3 months) and Christian, a Park volunteer that spoke English and we had to pay 45$ for our first day (we didn't want to dive but clean up the boat and take it easy after our 8 day passage). We met Claudine, a scientist from Argentina and she helped us get into the Volunteer Program of the Park. If visitors are willing to help the Park with projects, working 8 hours/day, they have only to pay 10$/day/pers and no boat fee (and you get 3 meals/day. Sounds not too great to pay to work but we got a great deal worked out: we dive with Carlos, the marine biologist, make an U/W video for him and the Park, and design, fabricate, and install 2 boat moorings over a 10 day period. It was great to dive some dives with a guide and the Park boat! We declined on breakfasts and dinners as the dinghy ride to the other bay (Wafer Bay - main ranger's station) is too long and too difficult because of the tides, but we got local lunches (wild pig meat, venison, black beans and rice, ...).

Plenty of fresh water stream to fill your jugs. Showers at Chatham station.

We met the different live-aboard dive boats: the well organized and nice people on SeaHunter and UnderSeaHunter and the Cocos Aggressor: Okeanos. You may be able to get them to fill your scuba tanks or to dive with them if they are not fully booked! Possibility to buy fuel and gas from them.

We had great contacts with the Park personnel. We even went hiking with 3 of them for 5 hours in the tropical forest and went to a nice waterfall. You can hike (not after rain as it gets too slippery!) to the wx station above the station in Chatham (30min.) You can hike from Chatham Bay to Wafer Bay. You can dinghy almost to the base of Wafer Bay waterfall with only a few minutes hiking to the pool.

So we really enjoyed the Cocos and we are glad that we made a stop despite the high fees we heard about beforehand, because it turned out that we were able to minimize them by helping the park as volunteers. And we had our own tour and dive guides! Could not have been better!

Now remember, you are in a Park: no spearfishing or line fishing allowed!

Don't get your scuba gear, dinghy + motor confiscated (plus a heavy fine!) for a few lobsters (like a fellow cruiser a few months ago)! Also no pets ashore! Watch out for dumb Boobies flying into your wind generator blades (like one did to us!)!

One thing we won't miss from the Cocos is the continual rain (lucky to get a few hours of sunshine in a day. You can spend your day in your wetsuit!

Is going to Cocos for you? If you're an experienced diver who wants excitement and non-stop big fish action and has someone who can stay in the dinghy while you drift dive... you MUST go. This is world class diving.

The island is beautiful and wild, teeming with bird and marine life, spectacular scenery, and dozens of waterfalls, each one different, tumbling directly into the sea. There are no hotels, stores, airplanes, or dive shops, only the Ranger Station and a sub-station. For the fees, all you get is Nature... you decide. 

So now we are back crashing and bashing, sailing through confused seas to reach the famous Galapagos! Because of adverse winds and currents, we'll make about 600 NM instead of 420 NM bird's flight! Some French friends (ANAO) left from Panama a few days before we left Cocos and they are not having any more fun than us! Soon, we'll tell you about the nice Galapagos islands where things are now much easier for cruisers than up to just a year ago!

 

Fair winds to all of you!

Commodores Luc Callebaut & Jackie Lee (and Zoetje)