Portobello

We left Kuna Yala and sailed (yes, sailed!) to Portobello on Saturday (2/19). It was a really great sail with an Astarte personal best of 7.8 knots(over the ground against a good current). We put the main and head-sail up as soon as we left the Chichime anchorage and put them down when we arrived in Portobello harbor about 9 hours later. It was great to sail. We gave "Otis" our wind-vane a chance to perform, but as is his way – he didn't steer a straight course and every change in the wind speed meant a serious change in his course. We gave up on him after several hours. He was adding too many miles off course to get us to port in time.

We sailed in consort with our friends, two British boats – Chapter 2 (an IP for all our friends with IPs), and Chrisandaver Dream (better known as CD). We stayed pretty close together when we were reefed, but when we shook out our reefs, we flew forward. Chapter Two won the fishing tournament pulling in several mackerel, Little Tunny and even a Thresher Shark (which they released after getting it on deck to save their expensive lure). We managed to get a few very small mackerel-like ceros, but the lures were almost larger than the fish and we sent them back to the deep to grow up!

Upon our arrival in Portobello, we settled into a very crowded anchorage and relaxed. It was a good trip. On Sunday we had a fun pizza night at Capt. Jack's with our British friends and many old acquaintances. A few beers were consumed. It is carnival time here, so there is much music and partying in town. One of the Portobello traditions for carnival is the "diablos." These are men who dress up as devils and threaten to pour mud on you, whip you or stop traffic unless paid a small extortion fee (some change). They usually don't hit on tourists though they do look threatening. But it is all in fun carnival tradition.

On Monday, we did some projects aboard. Tuesday was re-provisioning day. After two sets of guests and several months in Kuna Yala, it was time to resupply some of the basics as well as much needed meat, veggies and fruit. We took the bus into Colon and went to the big supermarket. Unfortunately their veggie and fruit selection wasn't very good – but we did stock up filling two big carts. The Visa card is still groaning. We had to take a taxi back with all our stuff.

The trip to Colon was interesting and sad. It was the first time we had done it since the terrible Panama weather in December. Portobello had several very bad mudslides. The one in the center of the town destroyed many homes and several people died. Another slide dumped earth on top of a very old fort that they are still trying to re-excavate. In many places on the road, slides had taken away some of the street and you could see large trees and buildings piled up at the bottom of hills or across the road. It was a sad sight and showed the force of too much rain in a hilly country. To the credit of the Panamanians, they have the road re-opened, albeit it with more potholes and narrower in parts.
Today, Thursday, we'll do our paperwork to clear out of Panama and hopefully find a few veggies in town. We'll pick up some of the good bread from the local bakery and then be ready to take off for the next weather window to head north. We need a relatively long window – at least three days to make it to Providencia, though we are hoping to not have to stop there and keep going towards Honduras. This weekend unfortunately looks like big seas (9-12 feet), so we'll keep looking at the weather and wait for our window. We still need to get some fuel so we'll head towards Linton tomorrow, fuel up and be ready to go.

It's the weather waiting game for now.

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