We left the San Blas with a good weather window on Thursday 13 May 2021 and motor-sailed back to Linton Bay. We had spent about 6 weeks in the San Blas which was far less than we had planned but as always life gets in the way. During the rainy season that begins in June the weather becomes potentially very bad. Extreme electrical storms and the early morning squalls can make the San Blas a dangerous place in the summer. We began seeing some of the electrical storms before we left and we knew we didn't want to stay much later.
At the same time we wanted to begin our applications for Panamanian Residency so that would require a trip to Panama City to begin the process and give us an opportunity to do some additional shopping in the key markets that we liked. We also wanted to do some more cruising back in Bocas before putting Amekaya in a slip to get her ready for us to return to the States.
We returned from the San Blas to Linton Bay. In addition to the routine maintenance we expected to do there we planned a trip into Panama City and a trip to Colon. We planned our travel so we could avoid the need to stop back at Shelter Bay. We also wanted to visit the historic town of Portobelo. Which was not far from Linton Bay.
Portobelo was a colonial Spanish port established in 1597. One of the key ports along the Spanish Main. Spanish ships brought gold, silver and precious gems from the Pacific countries to their port of Balboa on the Pacific coast at what is now Panama City. From there, they would transport the treasure the short distance of less than 100 mi across the isthmus to Portobelo where it would be loaded on ships going to Spain. The presence of treasures made Balboa and Portobelo targets for pirates and other countries looking to steal the royal wealth of Spain. Anxious to see the famous ruins of this port we took a cab one day and walked around the town. Seeing the harbor it's easy to see why this was chosen to be the port of embarkation.
The harbor is a natural. There is a deep channel coming in and the mouth is close enough that shore batteries could engage an attacking enemy. The high ridges around the harbor protect it from storms and there are reefs near the entrance that would, and the fact it faces away from the prevailing swell, keep it safe from bad weather. Ironically, the port was captured by Henry Morgan in 1668 by attacking from the land side.
By the middle of the 18th Century Spain began changing it's trading habits to reduce vulnerability to pirates and Portobelo lost much of it's importance. But, for well over 150 years it served as one of the key ports on the Spanish Main. Today the old forts sit in ruins of a bygone day. They are a world heritage site and Portobelo exists mostly on tourism which because of Covid has been destroyed. Hopefully, soon it will be restored.
Having achieved our desire to see Portobelo we planned our next major goal for this stop. We needed to go to Panama City to begin our process for a Panamanian Residency. Panama offers several possible ways to achieve residency status. One is the Pensionado Jubilado. Having the Jubilado status allows senior residents many legislated discounts to air travel, hotel stays, restaurants and medical treatment. But, our main concern is that if a world-wide lock-down occurs again we have another place we can go without having to go all the way back to the US and not risk being caught in the hurricane zone.
To get residency status we only needed two things. A clean background check and verified proof of our social security income. To get that we hired a document services firm and we met with them on Monday morning 17 May. The key biometric things they needed were fingerprints, photos and proof of identity. By meeting with a document validation firm we were able to do that and our residency process was underway. Or so we thought. More on this in later blog posts.
A couple days after going to Panama City we arranged to go into Colon for two key objectives. The first was to pick up some items that had been shipped to us there and the second was to go into the Free Trade Zone and buy bottom paint to be applied at our haulout in the Fall.
We arranged with the driver that took us to Panama City to take us to Colon. The first task was simple. We picked up our package and did some shopping at the Rey store in Colon. The second objective was more difficult. First, we had to obtain entrance to the free zone for us and our driver. Then we had to find the dealer we wanted to visit and buy the paint. Getting entry to the Free Zone requires paying some minimal fees that are determined by the Pass Office and as we later learned if you are in the Country more than 90 days you are deemed a resident and can't enter. But, since they had already sold us our passes they let us in. We had been in country 6 months at that point.
The store we were looking for, Panamax Oceanic Supply was not in the location Google said it was. The Colon Free Trade Zone is huge. It is easily 3 square miles of crisscrossing streets with stores and bodegas of varying sizes. We finally found the warehouse for Panamax and went into the office. The paint we wanted was only available in 5 gal buckets for US$650. That's about half what we paid in Guatemala and about 40% less than the US. Since we didn't have a commercial account we had to pay cash. Fortunately, we had been to an ATM that morning and had the bulk of the money in larger bills. But the last couple of dollars we paid in quarters and dimes. Considering the hundreds of dollars we saved it was worth the trip and the paint should be highly effective given the chemical composition. The paint is made in the US but would not be applied in many US yards due to the high level of toxicity which should make it very effective.
Our errands in Linton Bay concluded we planned an overnight sail to the offshore islands of Escudas Veraguas. We freshened our supplies and headed east on Thursday after being in Linton Bay a week.
There are many boats that go to Linton Bay and for people interested we offer our thoughts. We like Linton Bay Marina for many reasons. The staff are friendly and helpful, there is a produce truck there almost every day and many services are available. The downside is that the area is very crowded with anchored and moored boats making access difficult and the one marina restaurant is very undesirable. We would stop in the marina again for fuel and to rest but wouldn't be anxious to spend much more time there.
Our lunch spot just out of town the Pirates Cove with the story of Francis Drake buried outside the harbor
So Thursday morning 20 May we dropped lines and headed back west again. From Linton we calculated about a 20 hours sail so we didn't leave really early and after checking out dropped lines about 1000 and headed for our next adventure.
El Castillo Resort in Portobelo where we had lunch.
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