Costa Rica to Panama

We left Marina Papagayo Saturday afternoon, November 28. Not too far from the marina we started having auto pilot troubles and just started making big circles in the bay. The Captain figured this out quickly and off we went. The plan was to go straight to Panama City and get in the que for the canal. The 3 day trip started off ok with calm seas and light winds. We were looking forward to this leg because we were going to be passing through Hannibal Banks. Hannibal Banks is known world wide for producing great fishing. We made plans to make sure we had at least 2 lines in the water at daybreak on Monday....and that we did! (Actually we 3 lines in most of the day). The first fish we caught were Bonitas....Tuna bait fish. Those went back in. Then the engineer hooked up with a large sailfish and successfully got it to the boat before it broke off. Here are a few photos....not great pictures but at least its something..

Not long after that I hooked up a nice sized Dorado----Mahi!

It turned blue when we put it on ice...imagine that! Here is a picture of one of the islands near Hannibal Bank

Other than the good fishing, Sunday and Monday were pretty calm and uneventful....we passed through dozens of sport fishing boats that were all talking on the radio about how slow the fishing was. Here are a couple pictures of the great scenery.

Little did I know that all this was the calm before the storm. I woke up about 1 am Tuesday morning thinking something was not right..and then I landed! We had run into the roughest seas yet and I was being tossed around in my bunk like a rag doll! Now that is saying something considering my stature! The feeling of the bed falling away from you and then coming back up to smack you is one that I won't soon forget! I found a way to pin myself in between my bed and the cabinet on the port side. This didn't last long because after a few more minutes something fell on top of me in the dark and scared the hell out of me.

One of the ceiling panels over my bunk came down! That was all it took....I found a way to make it to the sofa in the aft cabin by the galley....I just sat there and held on! The next 14-16 hours were just more of the same. When we finally saw the Panama City Skyline I think we were all very relieved because we knew we were about to get a break.

We radioed Flaminco Marina and made our way around numerous large cargo ships waiting their turn to go into the canal and finally pulled into the marina around dusk. Next post-----Flaminco Marina and day 1 of the Canal Experiance...Cheers