Week 72: Las Perlas (54nm)

A week spent well and truly off the grid – exploring the Las Perlas in the absence of fellow cruisers (not a single other yacht seen!) and mobile phone signal. The abundance of wildlife and beauty of the craggy islands made for some very special days.

First Mate’s Log

12 Jan: Left our spot behind Chapera / Mogo Mogo islands early doors for a long-ish jump down to Punta Gorda on Isla del Rey. The forecast was for no wind at all, and that is exactly what we had. But, no matter, motoring means we can make water, so there is a silver lining! Daniel bravely volunteered to mind the watermaker in the hot saloon during the passage, while Alec headed up fishing activities and Camille and I sorted out a big cook-up. We hooked a small mahi mahi en route but the tricky devil got away just as we were about to get him on board; luckily, we still have lots of tuna from the previous passage! We arrived for a late lunch to a completely deserted bay. Didn’t see any boats on the way down, and not a soul in sight – we seem to have Las Perlas to ourselves! Daniel and Camille took the kayak to scope out the huge, white sand beach and returned with excellent reports – plans for a bonfire in the coming days have started to take shape. After such a successful day, we enjoyed a fun evening aboard learning how to play the “Seafarers” version of Settlers of Catan, which felt very apropos!

13 Jan: Alec and I took the kayak out for an early morning paddle, while it was still cool. Had a lovely pootle, then landed on the beach to explore a bit. Scouted out a great spot for a fire, and then happened upon some odd looking tracks. At first, I thought they might be quad bike tracks, then maybe caiman… but eventually we worked out they were the tracks of a turtle coming in to lay its eggs! We could see where it came up the beach, the depression where it dug its nest, and then finally its route back to the water. It must have happened only a few hours earlier, as the tide would be sure to wash the tracks away as soon as it came in. What a priviledge to see! Later on in the afternoon, Alec and Daniel headed back to the beach to lay the groundwork for a bonfire. The incoming tide made the beach landing treacherous, and a big wave nearly capsized them as they got in – BUT, thankfully the only damage was a lost kill cord and a bit of bruised pride. Once they got the fire going and assured me the smoke was doing a good job keeping bugs away, I joined by kayak. The landing was made much easier by Alec and Dan helping catch the kayak as I rode in! We enjoyed our dinner and a beer in front of the fire while admiring the beautiful surroundings. Still can’t believe we had this place all to ourselves!

14 Jan: Alec and Daniel were up early and took the dinghy out to try fishing in the anchorage. The bites came quickly, and though two lures were lost in the pursuit, by 8am the boys were back with a surprisingly big tuna – who’d have thought you could get such a prize in this murky water! The team were in excellent spirits as we upped anchor shortly after to head to another of the enticing anchorages detailed in our cruising guide, Rio Cacique. Camille and I settled in down below to make water during the journey, while Alec and Daniel bossed the passage. We shouldn’t have left them unattended up there, because before long we heard the characteristic whine of the fishing reel! They couldn’t help themselves and had felt compelled to put the lines out when they repeatedly saw areas of fish activity. They brought in a reasonably sized Spanish Mackerel, which we allowed them to keep, but only on the condition they didn’t fish anymore! It turned out to be a very eventful passage, despite only being six miles in length, as a short while later we nearly jumped out of our skin when we accidentally hit a floating log. It made several almighty slams against the side of the hull, which reverberated through the boat and frankly scared me half to death. After we got our hearts restarted, we quickly determined that the boat was not about to sink and that thankfully there was no obvious damage. Lucked out with that one!! Dropped the hook in our new spot in time for lunch, and were once again the only boat in the anchorage. It wasn’t completely devoid of human life though; in the afternoon, a couple of locals buzzed by in their panga. They stopped by to ask for some water, and when they got close we noticed the bottom of their boat was full of HUGE iguagas. Alec enquired to discover they consider the meat a delicacy – these iguanas were destined for the cooking pot. Not my first choice meal, but to each their own?

15 Jan: Today I finally, FINALLY finished the dodger. My goodness that project has lingered, and lingered and lingered some more. Every step took 3-4 times as long as I expected; I was constantly running into snags, having to change tack / construction methods and fighting interminably with uncooperative tools. BUT, today, it is done. To celebrate, we had a pretty special activity lined up for the afternoon – see Story of the Week below!

16 Jan: The proximity of the mangroves meant mossies were prevalent in Rio Cacique, so we decided it was time to check out a new spot. Friends had recommended a bay just around the corner, where they’d met a group of National Geographic researchers studying the sea turtle population (and seen baby sea turtles!), so that is where we set our course for the day. We’d been without an update to the weather forecast for 5 days, but we hoped it would be okay for our new spot. Unfortunately, luck wasn’t on our side and the swell was from the one direction the new bay was open to… we went in to have a look but after 5 minutes decided it wasn’t worth a horrible night’s sleep on a lee shore, so high tailed it. We diverted across to the island of San Jose, which is privately owned but boasts a single hotel where we’d heard wifi could be had. A brisk sail on a close reach brought us swiftly there, passing “Smokey Monkey” rock (see picture below) to anchor in front of a lovely beach overlooked by the hotel. But, before long, someone from the hotel came by our boat and told us we couldn’t go ashore, though cryptically gave no reason. We were unconvinced, so Daniel and Camille took TJ to the beach to scout things out. They were quickly apprehended, but further pressing led the hotel manager to finally reveal that the island was closed because Amazon had rented it out for two months for filming. If only we knew what movie / show they are making! Despite being denied access to shore, Camille did manage to sweet talk them into giving us the wifi password, so we are back connected to the world! Five days is probably the longest we’ve gone being completely off the grid on the boat, since normally we have our IridiumGO (satellite connection) on when we go offshore. But it’s actually been really nice having an internet detox! Despite being confined to the anchorage, we’ve enjoyed this spot with its gorgeous views and amazing bioluminescense. The bay is also full of rays, which put on an amazing display by regularly leaping out of the water. We aren’t quite sure what they’re jumping for, but it looks very cool!

17 Jan: A nice day aboard enjoying wifi access and settled conditions. Alec and I smashed out a few fabric projects (a new mossie net for the front hatch and improved lee cloth for the aft cabin we’ll be using on the Pacific crossing) and sorted out all the life admin that inevitably piles up after a few days away from the internet. I went for a short swim, but the visibility was so bad I could barely see the bottom of Serenity’s rudder (let alone the bottom of the bay), so I abandoned relatively quickly. This should not have been a surprise to me, because the water clarity has been poor at every anchorage we’ve visited in the Las Perlas. It could be due to the sand being stirred up by the constant in and out flow of water thanks to the huge tidal range (12-15 feet!), but that’s just our theory. On the plus side, we haven’t had any problem with jellies though we’d heard they can sometimes bloom in huge numbers here. So, call it a draw? Still, the lack of vis has meant we can’t snorkel and we have really missed that; it’s normally one of our favourite activities on the boat. It’s a shame, because there is clearly a huge amount of life here; but, you can’t have it all!

18 Jan: Decided to stay another day in this lovely anchorage, and started the day out right with a fancy breakfast (delicious shakshuka eggs cooked up by Alec!). Then, the crew kindly offered to lend me half their day to help with some of my other lingering sewing / fabric projects. We sorted out anti-chafe protection at the bow pulpit for the genoa, made spreader boots to prevent chafe on the main sail and sewed new, improved straps to hold the bimini taut. A big morning gave way to a relaxed afternoon, capped off with a blind beer tasting orchestrated by Daniel (Alec guessed them all correctly; I was less successful!). We planned to get up early the next day for a long sail to a marina on the mainland coast, so all turned in well before 9pm. After such a productive day, sleep came easy!

Story of the Week: River Float

In the northeast corner of the bay at Rio Cacique, there is a river that empties out into the sea (hence the name of the spot!). As the tide comes in, ocean water is pushed up the river, creating an unusual counter current – meaning you can literally float uphill on it into the jungle! This was clearly not to be missed and we were lucky that the half flood* required to do the float was currently conveniently in the afternoon. (*Half flood is when the tide is halfway through the process of coming in)

We decided to take both the kayak and dinghy to make the most of the opportunity. We were a bit early going in; as we arrived on the beach the current was still outgoing, but we found a nice shady spot to relax and wait. It actually worked out nicely in our favour as it was incredible sitting at the mouth of the river and watching the current change direction. Watching water start to flow uphill is something else! Once the tide was finally high enough, we manned our inflatables and headed up river.

We took our journey nice and slow, because we didn’t want to get too ahead of the incoming tide height. Even so, once or twice we had to pause and wait a few minutes for the tide to catch us up and help us keep floating along. We also managed to tangle ourselves into the mangroves lining the river a couple of times, but thankfully avoided scraping up the dinghy and kayak! With no boats and no settlements anywhere around, we were treated to a rare and special soundsape. Despite inumerable different birds chattering away as we moseyed by, it sounded extremely quiet to me, because there was no background noise of cars or planes or people or civilisation. It is surprisingly hard to fully get away from all signs of humanity, so that made our float an extra special experience :).

After an hour or so of meandering upriver, the sun started to set and the bugs came out of hiding, so it was time to turn back. Although the current was still flowing in, by running the outboard engine we were easily able to motor back down towards the beach. Things got a little bit interesting as we got to the mouth of the river where the current was very strong and waves crashed up the beach, but we spotted a brief gap and snuck out without getting too wet.

The whole afternoon was a blast, and easily in the top 10 coolest things we’ve done on the boat. And only possible thanks to the crazy tides here! I only wish we’d had more daylight to enjoy it for longer, but very happy we got the chance to do it!

Parting Thoughts: Really getting off grid

Our time in Las Perlas has been an unexpected introduction to life aboard in truly remote settings. In the entirety of this week, we both didn’t have any mobile phone signal and didn’t see another yacht – only a couple of island fishermen / iguana hunters. This is what I’d expected to find in the farther reaches of the South Pacific – but not in Panama! It made me appreciate the reality that we’re entering a period of going places where we really are on our own – we have to rely on and trust each other completely to be able to deal with whatever happens out there. There are not many occasions in modern life like that! It is a little scary but also quite exhilirating, and I was pleased to discover that I really did feel completely confident in us as we cruised around on our own all week. Bodes well for the coming months and I know we are ready for the big jump ahead!