Panama City

It's time to leave the gorgeous Las Perlas islands and start towards a Panama City anchorage. As we were getting ready to leave Contadora Island, we noticed lots of driftwood all over the beach from the strong wind last night. And we discovered we had dragged anchor, but just a bit.

Then it was off to Panama City, anchoring 6.5 hours later on June 27th. We motored-sailed part way and sailed part way. As we approached, we noticed so many freighters just hangin' out, all awaiting their turn to cross the Panama Canal. The Panama City skyline was lined with tall skinny skyscrapers that were all squished together with hardly any room between them.

One freighter heading out to the Pacific from the Caribbean

We weighed anchor at Las Brisas de Amador (N08°55.098' W079°31.922') about 4 miles from the City. This anchorage is actually at a former island, Isla Perico, which is now connected by a causeway to mainland Panama (as is another nearby island called Flamenco). The causeway connection to these islands was done about 100 years ago with the excavation material from the big dig of the Panama Canal. The causeway also serves as a breakwater to reduce ocean current erosion of the dredged entry channel to the Canal.

We were surprised to see sailing friends also anchored here that we had previously met up in Sausalito CA USA (SV Guinevere 1) as we had thought they were now in the Caribbean. Las Brisas is a very busy anchorage and there must be at least 50 boats here. We were also surprised to notice that many of these boats appear to be semi-permanent.

We have been keeping very busy in Panama City as this is a great location to get things done. So what have we been doing? Well, we had to find someone English speaking to explain our problems with 2 of our computers - 1 needed a new DVD drive installed and the other needed a new hard drive installed - both were repaired successfully.

We also bought a cell phone as we have needed to contact so many local businesses for numerous things. This has been so very handy to have!

And Jordan has been having a bit of a vision problem so he got new lenses for his glasses and has noticed a real difference - he also had them tinted so no more annoying sunglasses needed.

We went to a huge fruit and vegetable market where even the retail outlets go to buy their supplies. Several of the stalls and/or trucks sell only 1 particular item...

Jordan buying delicious papayas from this seller

On Wednesday mornings, several sailors go to Palacio Lung Fung of downtown Panama City for Dim Sum breakfast. We have met the group several times as it is so delicious. And twice a week, sailors also sometimes meet for pizza nights right by the anchorage.

Always on the go...