August 2007

August 3, 2007
Location: Bocas del Toro, Panama
Nautical Miles Traveled: 0

I’m not clear as to what happened but evidently Damon has had a really bad experience coming back into Panama from California. He’s been so traumatized by the way the customs officials treated him that since he’s been back he hasn’t gotten out of bed or eaten hardly anything, four days now. It’s a shame that government officials feel the need to threaten visitors with jail and deportation unless they pay high bribes. Basically what happened is Damon brought back about $1500 in boat parts and customs demanded that he pay a bribe or pay 50% in duties. The declaration form when entering Panama states that $2000 worth of goods can be brought in duty free and when confronted with this the customs officials said sure, just not these boat parts (their own rules of course). It was 2 am when Damon arrived at the airport, his luggage was the last to arrive so he was the last to leave the baggage area meaning he was the only one in the whole area making him an easy target. After 12 hours of harassment and about $400 he was finally able to leave.

August 4, 2007
Location: Bocas del Toro, Panama
Nautical Miles Traveled: 0

Really, what is going on here in Panama? While our first impressions were great our experiences have deteriorated considerably. Harassment by the port captain to all boaters including extorting bribes or threatening with high fines, inconsistent stories and requirements from immigration where some boaters pay $10 for an extension while others are paying as much as $150 per person, and requesting additional information from some boaters while others don’t need to present such documents, all for the same extension. Extortion from Customs agents wanting bribes as they make threats of deportation and high fees. Inconsistencies from one day to another with no clear expectations makes for a frustrating visit here in Bocas del Toro.

And now the crime continues to escalate in Bocas del Toro as dinghies continue to get stolen, one boater mugged in town only to wake up in the hospital the next morning and the police refusing to let Dennis file a report, gas tanks continue to go missing and then tonight, David and I on Bruadair get surprised by an intruder on our boat and are forced to put out a distress call.

Our story in a minute, but it seems that, at least for us, our joy of being in Panama and especially Bocas del Toro continues to diminish. While most of the people are nice, the area beautiful and the cost of living very acceptable it is the actions of a few people, mostly those in government positions, that have put a sour taste in my mouth. Keep in mind that’s not to say I would not recommend coming or that everyone here feels the same way as I do. It’s just to say that until things change at least here in this area we will not return to Bocas del Toro any time soon. We can only hope the rest of Panama does not have money hungry, greedy officials who feel that we should line their pockets with extra cash.

Okay, enough ranting. Maybe my perspective will change in a week or two, maybe not. Here’s our story about what happened last night....

Mayday, Intruder on the boat

Friday night David and I were down below reading a book, cabin lights were on. At 8pm the chime for the wireless motion sensor went off (wireless motion sensor in dingy, base unit in main cabin of boat). I just sort of looked at David with surprised eyes and proceeded to go out into the cockpit of our boat. Just as I stepped into the cockpit I found myself face to face with another person. Knowing that I just left David below it was obvious this extra person didn’t belong on the boat. My heart skipped a beat and I immediately yelled down to David to get the ‘gun’ (flare gun). I then started yelling at our intruder to get off the boat and as he backed up towards the rear of the cockpit I ran down below and grabbed the VHF radio’s mic. “Mayday, mayday, mayday, this is Bruadair in the anchorage. We have intruders on the boat and need help, we have intruders on the boat and need help” was the call that went out. On my way back out to the cockpit I grabbed our digital camera. The intruder was crawling over the stern rail at this point, I’m still yelling to get off my boat. As he makes his way into our dingy I retreat back down below and set off our automated DSC distress calling feature on the VHF radio then head back out. As our intruder makes his way into our dingy I see his friend paddling off into the darkness in the cayouco that brought them to our boat.

Within in minutes of putting out our initial distress call we had help on the scene. Paul from Angel Heart was the first to arrive and did a great job in making sure that our uninvited guest remained in the dingy. I started taking pictures of our intruder for evidence purposes and this really upset the kid. He did not want his photo taken. As more boaters arrived in their dinghies I went below to cancel the automated distress calling on the radio. While all this was happening David maintained contact with others via the vhf radio reporting our position in the anchorage. We later found out that Sonny on Valentina, when he heard our distress call, immediately jumped out of his boat and ran up to the Yacht Club’s bar where it was packed with boaters. There he relayed our situation and the boaters just scrambled into their dinghies and came out. Sonny’s wife Kay called the police for us, our calls for the Port Captain on the radio went unanswered all night.

So there we are. David and I in the cockpit, one intruder in the dingy, three or four dinghies out searching for the get away driver in the cayouco, and a couple dinghies behind our boat making sure our detained guest doesn’t go swimming away. Oh, and by this time we had all the flood lights on on the boat and a strobe light from one of our life vests up on top of the solar panel and turned on. We were determined to make as much attention as possible.

The police showed up about 10 minutes after we detained out intruder. The asked the kid what he was doing and he said he was just returning something we had lost. Of course he couldn’t produce any thing and of course the police believed him as much as we did. They asked me if I wanted to file a report and the answer was “of course”. They took the kid to the police station and I followed about 5 minutes later. Less than 15 minutes at the police station and my report was filed. Because the intruder is a minor I was told he would have to be released to his mother but would have to appear before the judge on the mainland Monday morning.

David had recognized this kid earlier in the evening, David was at the bar at the Bocas Yacht Club where the kid was having a soda. The kid that was apprehended was not in anyway affiliated with the Bocas Yacht Club nor related to anyone who worked there. I say this as immediately after this incident rumors started that he was related to one of the yacht club workers, this is not the case. Just a local kid trying to make a quick buck.

Wireless Reporter Base Unit Lessons learned. Our Reporter Wireless Alert System from Radio Shack ($79.99) paid for itself last night. With out that we would have never known that we had an intruder. Because of our high gunnels our cabin lights are not visible from down low on the water (say from a cayouco), so the boat may not appear occupied. The two kids who came out to our boat were in the yacht club’s bar area earlier in the evening drinking sodas. The bar was packed with boaters and I suspect the kids thought that since all the boaters were in the bar the boats in the anchorage were vacant. They just guessed wrong. We also learned that while some boaters did not hear our initial distress call they did pick up our automated DSC distress call as it causes one’s vhf radio to scream out with loud Wireless motion sensor with narrow beam, mounted in dinghy buzzers and beeps, something that can’t be ignored. We were also disappointed because of the 20 boats in the anchorage with us only two other boats in the anchorage knew what was going on. Everyone else in the anchorage had their radios turned off and never knew what happened until the following day. All of the help came from those in the marina, including Blow Me Away (anchored but visiting the bar). Why boaters would anchor and turn off their radio is beyond me, and it’s quite disturbing to know that you can’t count on your neighbors should another emergency arise.

So many thanks go out to everyone that came out to help us, those that worked behind the scenes to get us help and call the police, and to the Officer Smith at the police department who was very professional and courteous. And that God everything turned out okay and that we’re safe and sound.

Follow Up: I went to the Port Captain’s office, who has jurisdiction of all vessels in the area, early Monday morning to report what had happened to us three nights earlier. I even took a printed photo of our intruder. His response, after hearing my story, was “okay”, then he handed the photos back to me and turned around and went back to chatting with his friends in the office. The lack of concern about what happens in his port only adds to the frustration of having to be in Bocas del Toro. It is important to note though that there are many people here in Panama including folks at the Bocas Yacht Club that are working to make things better and easier here. All these people involved have been instrumental in making the immigration changes here to the Mariner’s Book and working toward more improvements for boaters. They are very active in looking after the boater’s interests and we expect more positive changes to come.

August 22, 2007
Location: Bocas del Toro, Panama
Nautical Miles Traveled: 0

A few nights ago we were doing some night fishing and were surprised to hear the fishing line start zipping off the reel. When I heard the noise I ran out and grabbed the pole and began reeling in what felt like one huge fish. David grabbed the flashlight and camera and as we got our catch up close to the boat we were surprised to see a five foot nurse shark on our line. He didn’t put up much of a fight at all, and we discussed a bit on if we should keep it or let it go. Nurse sharks are supposed to be one of the best eating sharks around, but in the end we decided that it was best to let the shark go since it was dark and he was almost as big as we were.

Well, we got our damper plate back into the transmission and while it fixed most of the problems we are still getting some racket. We were going to purchase a new transmission but because of the cost involved, especially to get it here to Panama, and the modifications we would have to do to the engine bed we’ve decided to wait until we get to Cartagena to finish resolving the transmission issues. We suspect that the transmission might actually be okay and the vibration and noise we’re getting might be due to a worn cutlass bearing. We’ll replace that when we haul out and see if it fixes the issue before pursing replacing the expensive transmission.

David is due back from Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica today. He had to leave Panama for a few days in order to renew his visa with Panama. Tomorrow we go back to immigration on the mainland to get our Mariner’s Book, a special visa book for boaters. Then on Saturday we’ll go do some gunk holing for a week to 10 days to check out all the boat systems, make sure everything is working as it should then return to Bocas del Toro to clear out. We have to clear out with the Port Captain here and when we get to Colon we will need to check back into Panama. Our goal right now is to leave Bocas in about three weeks, make our way along the coast to Colon (the entrance to the Panama Canal), refuel and provision there, then continue on to Portobello, Isla Linton, the San Blas Islands and on to Cartagena. While we’re not necessarily in a rush to get to Cartagena we would like to be there before the middle of October to schedule our haul out. There’s a big annual boat thing that happens there in November so the boat yards are typically pretty busy from mid October to the end of November. Then cruisers typically show up around the beginning of November so the marinas will be full and the boat yards still busy. We would like to beat the rush.

So far we have planned for the haul out new bottom paint, install the speed transducer, check our thru hulls, drop the rudder so we can remove the propeller shaft and check to make sure it’s not bent (replace it if it is), tune the prop, replace the cutlass bearing, replace the rear seal on the transmission to stop the small leak, realign the engine, wash and wax the hull, inspect and replace the rigging, ohhhhhhh and so much more. The long list seems to keep on growing.

When we leave this weekend for our mini cruise of the area we’ll be accompanied by Greg and Judy on Lone Star Love. Greg’s really into spear fishing so I’m looking forward to the trip. Plan is to return to Dolphin Bay so they can tour the chocolate farm at Green Acres, check out Bluefield Range and the Zapadilla’s National Park. Probably will be many stops along the way.

August 26, 2007
Location: Bocas del Toro to Dolphin Bay, Panama
Nautical Miles Traveled: 15.5

Today was a great day, we raised our anchor and departed the anchorage in Bocas del Toro and with the company of Greg and Judy on Lone Star Love we took off for Dolphin Bay. Judy and Greg wanted to see the chocolate farm at Green Acres and since it wasn’t that long of a trip we decided to take the scenic route through Hospital Bight, down the narrow channel known as The Gap and on through the mangroves and across Almirante Bay into Dolphin Bay.

As during our previous trip the dolphins came and greeted us and swam in our bow wake for a short bit. Once anchored we all took off and went snorkeling, first along a reef where we didn’t see much of anything but could hear and see the dolphins all around us. Then we did some snorkeling around a couple mangroves where we caught four small snappers and I got stung by a jelly fish. While it hurt like all get out the vinegar worked quickly to soothe the stinging. After a short afternoon nap we invited Greg and Judy over for happy hour and dinner. David had bought some fresh lobster and crab yesterday so we enjoyed David’s wonderful crab bisque. Greg caught a small tuna along the way and lightly seared it in butter and seasoning and brought it over for an appetizer. It was hands down one of the best I’ve ever had. I hope Greg catches more fish! We’re now anchored off of Green Acres and next to our friends Mary and Karl on Camrika, they just bought some land here so we’ll go take a look at it tomorrow.

August 27, 2007
Location: Dolphin Bay, Panama
Nautical Miles Traveled: 0

This morning we went over to Lone Star Love and had fish tacos for breakfast using the four snappers we caught yesterday. We took a quick tour of Karl and Mary’s new property and were amazed at their spectacular view over Dolphin Bay. David then went with Greg and Judy and toured the chocolate farm while I stayed behind on the boat to get a couple small projects done.

The rest of the afternoon was a do nothing day and in the evening David and I went to Lone Star Love for dinner. David made a great black olive dip which we took with crackers, and Judy made spaghetti for dinner. Afterwards they taught us a new dice game called Farkle. Pretty fun game considering I won two of three games. Judy won the other.

August 28, 2007
Location: Dolphin Bay to Short Cut, Panama
Nautical Miles Traveled: 11.3

We took off after our morning coffee and back tracked across Almirante Bay, through The Gap and back into Hospital Bight where we anchored in Short Cut. Our friends Sandy and Cheri on Namaste, Sonny and Kay on Valentina and Mary Margaret and Paul on Angel Heart had been anchored here for a couple days so we stopped by to visit for a couple days.

Not much new, our normal routine of snorkeling in the afternoon and getting together in the evening held true. We all ended up on Namaste for dinner where Cheri made a wonderful chili. One of the best I’ve had. David brought an artichoke dip, Kay made peach cobbler and Paul brought some rice. Good eats, good company. That’s what it’s all about!

August 31, 2007
Location: Short Cut to Bocas del Toro, Panama
Nautical Miles Traveled: 5

We’re back at the anchorage in Bocas del Toro. Greg and I needed to get some email stuff out of the way while David and Judy needed to get a few extra provisions. Tomorrow immigration is coming by for a boat inspection so we’ll hang out for that as well then head out again either Saturday or Sunday. No plans, we’ll figure it out along the way. Next updates when we return in a couple weeks.

Two nights ago Greg and Judy hosted happy hour and dinner. David made an excellent pecan pie (first pie he made in 12 years!), Cheri brought Thai spring rolls, Sandy the Greek salad with stuffed grape leaves, Kay brought the cole slaw and Paul brought hush puppies.

Greg fried a bunch of hog fish and snapper and we had a great fish fry. And yet another wonderful dinner. Definitely one of the best things about cruising is the company and of course the excellent food!