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9. day - 12/03/2007 - We had to leave Taboga early to get in day light to Las Perlas. We started to fish on board although people say this part is not very rich in fish because of the fishing industry. On our way we could still see the big pelicans launching themselves into the water. They did not remain hungry, so I thought there should be some fish around here. The next sign was a group of dolphins that were catching tuna fish. We raised the hook this time to avoid hurting any of the dolphins.
So the time has gone and we started to be hungry. So we had some veggie soup on the way. Then the wind came and we raised the sails and let the hook down again.
It was late afternoon when we saw the islands of Las Perlas and the winch suddenly had a sound. This was the final sign that we caught a fish. Small or big, tasty or not? Who knows that? We had to look at it.
This time we caught a more than half-meter tuna fish. It was very fat so it was lovely for a decent dinner in the evening.
We planned to stop at Pachke Island in the evening, however the strong guano smell of the birds prevented it. We moved to Contadora Island very quickly.
Daily position:
17:00 8-37.26N 79-02.26W log= 17147.1
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10. day - 13/03/2007 - English translation is missing, sorry.... |
11. day - 14/03/2007 - It is time to write a little bit about the islands of Las Perlas. The name means pearl and it used to be the centre of pearling. They found the biggest pearl here in the world (it is owned now by Elisabeth Taylor). Under the Spanish conquistadors Indians were killed for the pearls and Spanish brought their slaves instead of them to the islands. Descendant of them lives still here.
We wanted to discover these islands. We knew that the reefs surrounded the islands. It can be very dangerous for sailors if they do not consider the low tie seriously. Even the pilot books are not always reliable so every step should be planned well before getting to a place. We found a place in a canal between the islands where the depth was only 1.6 meters and we crossed it. It was not easy as the depth of our boat is 1.65 meters and once we felt the keel was scratching on the soft sand in the
water. But we did not stick on. Among the islands you cannot feel that you are in the Pacific Ocean. Everything is very still and no waves. The water looks green rather than blue here due to the moss and algae and the trees lean over the water like on the shores of rivers. We looked around and there were no crocodiles (just for safe :-) ) so we went for swimming. |
12. day - 15/03/2007 - We visited the Island of Cassayetta today. This is the island where the world biggest pearl was found with its 31 karat. The slave who found it gained his freedom for it. The books suggest visiting this island as a tourist attraction so we landed on the shore. It was a bit strange that we could not find else here only an old fishing boat and the smell of a bad fish. When we turned to the street people watched us from the shadows of their houses. Some of them were sleeping in their hammocks. This
did not look like a tourist attraction.
So we started to go into the village and we said hello to everyone. They said hello too. Poverty and dirt were everywhere. We saw around 30 houses in the village. There was one shop with some tinned food on its shelves. The street finished at a small church or we should call it rather to a sacred place. It had a simple but organized marble altar and a Virgin Mary sculpture and some icons in it. We stopped here and we did not know where to go further when a little kid (around 10 years old) came to
see us. He offered us a necklace made of shell for 5 bucks. That seemed expensive if we compare it to the Panamanian prices. However we felt sorry about the village so we bought it from him. He went home and came back with two more necklaces and he offered this time two necklaces for 5 bucks. He had a good business vein. However we were on our way back to Rotor to discover another island.
In the afternoon we found an uninhabited island opposite of Cassayetta. It drew our attention from far away. It had a gold sandy beach with palm trees and jungle behind it and also some giant rocks with birds on it. Our arrival on the beach confused the animals a bit. Lots of shell snails were running away but when we caught one it pretended to be dead. Then we recognized these were little hermit crabs. They had a good taste because whenever we saw a nice shell house into our collection it was inhabited
by them. Some of them grew out the house and they could not pull back their scissors or legs. We saw bigger crabs too that were living in the sand. We also visited the living place of the birds. There were lots of seagulls, albatross and pelicans here. Once we got closer they flew away. We found many shells and interesting stones too.
In the night we anchored next to Vivere Island, which was uninhabited according to the guidebook. Suddenly a small airplane landed on it. That could not be uninhabited! |
13. day - 16/03/2007 - The morning started with a delicious Hungarian specialty. We made a kind of fried dough but really on a Hungarian way. We used to eat it at the Hungarian Lake Balaton every summer where little huts sold it on the beach.
This time we visited the Island of Don Pedro. The beach was like in the magazines sandy beach with tall palm trees. We found a small house, which was built on stilts at the corner of the island. There was another boat on the island too who left their picnics rubbish behind. That was nasty.
The beach was beautiful except for the rubbish. We found many white unbroken shells and coconuts too.
We thought we could make the local residents happy and we brought them some sweets. Nobody was around the house so we put the sweets not far from their door. When we left the place a woman came out to check her dried fish and she found the sweets and took it away.
In the afternoon we sailed to another island. We saw two ray fish in the water they swam away gracefully. Due to the low tie and the mangrove trees the water was spumous here. Before sunset we had not got time to look around here.. |
14. day - 17/03/2007 - The morning was nice enough to look around the place we arrived yesterday. Birds, mangroves and huge stones made the place interesting. We had to use the paddles not to stick on anything. We found again a nice sandy beach with lilac and pink shells on it. The funniest we found was two shell pieces looked like the braces. The colours of the corals were beautiful purple, orange red or yellow.
After the swimming we sailed back to Contadora to spend one weekend here. The change was amazing. There were plenty of boats at the same bay we anchored couple of days before. Disco music was coming from them loudly.. |
15. day - 18/03/2007 - We arrived to Contadora beach again. Our plan was to make a tour with a glass bottomed boat during the day. We found a place where a local guy offered his services. So we chose to go with him. He took us around Contadora and the neighboring islands. He was telling stories about the islands but we could not see anything below us in the see. We asked them to show something underwater too as we thought that was reason they had their glass bottom on. So they took us to a nice place where there were corals
and fish. One of the small islands had some cabanas (small huts) on which were belonged to one of the hotels. There was nothing else on it.
Founding our way back to the beach where we anchored we visited again the Hotel of Romantica. You might remember this was the place where we had found the Hungarian flag couple of days before. Luckily we got to know of the meaning of it.
We met here an Austrian guy who was very friendly and started to explain that he is a very good friend of the owner. The owner put out the Panamanian flag because they were in Panama, the Austrian flag because he was Austrian and the Italian flag to attract Italians to the restaurant and the hotel. Hoops. Unfortunately that was not an Italian flag.
We explained him that the Italian flag is on the other way around and what they had on is the Hungarian flag. The Austrian guy ran away and came back with the owner.
Hey Charlie, you told me it was an Italian flag - he complained. Our Hungarian visitors told me we had a Hungarian flag on. Charlie the owner was smiling and told wisely - never mind they are the first who recognized it.
We had a little chat with the owner who offered all the services of the hotel including a mini golf and a chess game in their garden and also their gorgeous melon drink. They allowed using their sun umbrellas on the beach. Unfortunately we have to leave tomorrow early. |
16. day - 19/03/2007 - Early morning we left the anchoring place and headed towards Panama City. We dropped the hook again into the water and after half an hour we had our new tuna fish on it. It was around half meter not as fat as the last one.
We just left the Islands of Las Perlas when we saw an interesting phenomenon. One or two blow-ups like a fountain then a long back and finally a big tail. Just like in the National Geographic.
Whales on the horizon!
Lots of whales on the horizon! We could see them in front of us or behind. They surrounded us. We were on the field of whales. More than an hour program started called the whale watching. Everybody on the board tried to follow their appearance. We could see around 7-8 whales on the way. It was amazing feeling to meet with these giants of the ocean. I suppose these were humpback whales but I cannot say it for sure. They swam year by year by the Humbold current to these places towards the islands of
Las Perlas.
There are some researchers who try to follow their appearance so we e-mailed them where and when we saw these creatures.
The wind blew all day by 15-17 knots. We sailed very quickly.
Getting close to Taboga islands we saw a container carrier boat that delivered some pieces. The containers were collapsed on board. We heard stories about missing containers on board, which had been fallen into the sea and can be very dangerous for sailors as there is not a big chance to recognise it.
Daily position:
16:00 8-54.63N 79-31.50W log= 17180.9
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17. day - 20/03/2007 - English translation is missing, sorry.... |
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