Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

We had what I thought was a very exciting sail from our last anchorage to Shelter Bay marina. If we thought we’d been playing slalom with the tankers in the shipping lane it was now dodgems sailing into Colon bay. The bay is protected by a massive break wall and the entrance is marked with impressive markers. Sadly we took no pictures as we were concentrating on jibing the boat and more importantly avoiding the tankers coming in and out and jostling for position. In the end we timed it nicely by aiming broadside at a tanker entering the bay and jibing in behind it. It was a bit of a squeeze as the maneuver was based on our sailing slower than the tanker (which we were initially) but the tanker slowed down, presumably to comply with speed limits. We were catching it up through the entrance but were then able to veer off to starboard and get out of the lane. We then had to pick our moment for our final jibe to Shelter Bay marina as the bay was full of anchored tankers and we had to pick our line. To give you a sense of the trip, here is our track of our brief travels so far in Panama. If you zoom out you’ll see our passage from Cartagena.

View 2009 Panama1 in a larger map

The dock we were given at the marina had less than two feet clearance either side but we made it in ok and tied off. The morning then proceeded with talking with the agent, the sail maker and sorting out a few things with the kids on the internet. Helen started on cleaning the Cartagena grime from the boat.

At 1pm we took the bus over to the large Rey supermarket for hopefully our last provisioning trip. We have to assume we’ll get nothing bar lobsters and crab in the San Blas so we’re taking no chances. A large part of what we purchased yesterday were soft drinks and juices.

On the bus back to the Marina we met Penny and Peter from InnForAPenny II. They were a great help getting our supplies on and off the bus. They invited us over for drinks on their boat in the evening after we’d unpacked. That all took a bit longer than we expected and by the time we’d showered we arrived a bit late. We had a few bevvies on their boat before heading off to the marina restaurant together for an evening meal.

This morning I’ve managed to upload our past pictures. If you’re an active reader you’ll need to go back to see the last couple of slideshows.

We’ve decided to stay here one more day to avoid rushing. Also the weather doesn’t seem to be calming as soon as predicted so we want avoid a slog up the coast.