Monday, May 30, 2011

Rio Chagres to Portobello

Up bright and early, just a tad nervous about leaving the river.  I was at the helm, with Dennis calling out depth soundings ... that worked out much better.  The least amount of water I found was 15', so this is a GPS track that I will keep!


Dennis and his tuna!
Of course, right on the nose with  rollers a short distance apart.  Makes for a miserable ride.  Dennis headed off a bit to see if we could actually sail out and then tack back in to Portobello.  It worked for awhile, and we were almost totally sailing.  Of course, that huge ship behind us was on his own track and didn't care if we had right-of-way or not.  I saw him coming up behind us -- right behind us -- and asked Dennis to take it off autopilot and go to port.  Yes, I know we have right-of-way, but he's really, really big!!!!  We steered to port and he finally steered a bit to starboard, and then we cut behind his stern on our course to Portobello.  It turned out to be not a bad day, especially when we caught that blackfin tuna!  And, yes, it actually made it on board this time.


Again, pulled into Portobello in the rain.  It always rains in Portobello.  Got absolutely drenched one day going in in the dinghy.  The umbrellas helped very little.  Love walking around town soggy!


Took the bus into Colon to stop off at Novey (think Ace Hardware Store), and the Rey Supermarket at the Quatro Altos Mall.  The meat selection at that Rey Supermarket is SO much better than at Sabanitas.  A taxi ride to the bus station, good seats on the bus, with an overhead rack to stow our stuff.  Unfortunately, the fruit and veg selection isn't great in Portobello, so while Dennis filled up with gas and diesel on Saturday, I took the bus into Sabanitas.  They have produce in the store and then a fresh market on the outside, so I bought as much as I could carry by myself.


Sunday morning, took the dinghy in to get rid of the last of the garbage, visit the bakery for bread, and off we go to Isla Grande, hopefully only a 3 hour motorsail.  Then, finally, back to the San Blas!

                                                                ~~~_/)~~~

No comments: