Sunday, July 8, 2012

Panama City Anchorage at Los Brisas

skyscrapers of Panama City in the background
 Las Brisas anchorage was where we spent our first week in Panama City. It is supposed to have calm waters but the storms caused 1 to 3 foot wind waves. That is ok until you try to take the dinghy to shore and get slapped in the face several times.
The third morning I leisurely took my coffee up to the cockpit to the sight of a boat floating loose in the anchorage. This is alarming as it could hit other boats in its travels. Rick and I along with 3 other sailors in dinghies went to rescue it. It was a derelict boat with no power, couldn't hot wire the engine, anchor was rusted off the cable and no other anchor on board to reset it. After pushing on it with the 4 dinghies for an hour, finally we agreed it couldn't be saved and let it go up against the causeway rocks. As you can see below that could be the end of a boat, but this was a steel boat and the Panamanian Navy came to it's rescue. The Port Captain told us a couple of days later that they were not able to reach the owner and Panama has no laws to keep people from just abandoning their boat at anchor in the waters of Panama. Irresponsible boaters can cause problems for everyone.
a ship going through the canal channel behind the causeway

storm skirts provide privacy for cockpit showers


the Bridge of the Americas

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