Arrival to Panama.

Tower buildings in Panama City.

All the blue triangles are big ships waiting to go through the canal.

Passage from Galapagos Islands to Panama City. 24.02.15

We left the lovely Galapagos Islands on Thursday 5th February and arrived today 24th February at the anchorage, La Plaita in Panama City. 

We spent 10 days at sea having light, mainly head- winds and currents running against us and pushing us to the north. We had great sailing but frustrating, as we used the engine for part of the time. We realized we would be short of fuel in case of bad weather passing Punta Mala which is regarded as a bad point for small sailboats, as the  currents are continously running out of Gulf of Panama and particularly strong  in that area. The northerly winds are usually  strong and in predictable and at times gale-force. We had no other choice than to find fuel somewhere in  West Panama. We listened to the Pan Pacific Net (SSB  8.143.0 at 13.00 hours GMT) each morning to get weather  forecasts.  S/V  Serenity( in Bolbao in Panama) informed us to get fuel at Isla de Cebaco in W. Panama. S/ V  Jacaranda (in  Bahia de Caraques, Ecuador) told us to get fresh water in the same bay..........Great to communicate!
We found the bay where fuel wad supposed to be available from a supply ship. But there was no ship! We waited all from Monday till Friday and then the ship, Journey Bay, arrived at 6.00 am and we bought 30 gallons of diesel. HURAY!  Wafter was obtained from an underwater hose at a boyu in the bay, most amazing! Obviously the water came from a spring up a hill and a hose was running freely down to toe sea. The water was absolutely beautiful. We filled our tanks, 120 gal. of fresh water. Great.
Now we were happy to tackle the last bit of the passage.

The Floriana aground in Wreck Bay, Isla Santa Cristabal, Galapagos Islands.

This has been a most interesting week.
The Supply ship, The Floreana,  was in the bay with supplies to the islands. She arrived two weeks ago. We thought she was going to leave after a week, but then noticed that she was very low in the stern. Apparently she had taken in water and was unable to move by own power. Small vessels hummed around like bees to the hive. She was moved to very low water and set aground.
An emergency situation was called by the governor and no other vessel was allowed near the stricken vessel.
During this last week landing crafts and tugboat have arrived from Guayaquel on the mainland  and attended to her.

Offloading of supplies have now stopped and at the moment we are not sure what the next step.
We are watching excitedly. All action now seems slow.
Unfortunately we are planning to leave the islands on Thursday and set sail towards Panama.

The Floreana is the ship center in the photo.