Free At Last, March 2, 2010

We upped anchor this morning at 7:10am (in spite of a Nordhaven from Alaska) sitting on our anchor. We slipped to his starboardside and up she came; didn't even have to wake them. We are so excited to be out in the ocean again. We have already seen ourfirst whale about 3 hours out of Panama. She sounded several times about 200 yards off our starboard side. We are in companyof 2 other boats. Emily Grace is a 46' Nordhaven with Tom, Kim, and 9 year old Emily aboard. They have been out for 1 1'2years now and hail from Connecticut. Atalanta, a Cabo Rico, with Keith a single hander on board from Miami. We are all headed for thebeautiful Las Perlas Islands off the coast of Panama. Most cruisers heading to the Glapagos and Marquesas make a stop in theArchipelago of Las Perlas and many regret not having planned a longer time here as it is so pretty. Quoting from our guidebook,The Perlas got their name when the Spanish conquistadores Gaspar de Morales and Francisco Pizarro robbed a large amount of pearlsfrom the indigenous King Toe. In 1515 they defeated the king and enslaved his skilled pearl divers. Queen Mary Tudor of England's31 carat 'peregrina' pearl came from these islands. He goes on to say you can still get pearls from the locals at a good price.HMMMMMM. We will anchor at Isla Contadora tonight and wait for 2 more boats, to make us 5 in total, before we make the week longcrossing to the Galapagos. One is a catamaran and the other a sailboat. Albatross III and Aurora B. Albatross is from SouthAfrica and Aurora B is from Great Britain. We will have a party tomorrow night when the others join us aboard Imagine! We planon staying in Las Perlas a week so we can clean the boat bottom, rudder, and do some snorkeling. Contadora is a resort Island forthe rich Panamanians and is noted for its restaurants and beauty. Imagine was greeted by the largest dolphins we have ever encounteredon the way into the bay. We noticed some feeding and soon they came swimming to the boat and played in our bow wake. Dolphins always make us smile and feel welcome. There are hundreds of pelicans and commorants here, as well. We plan on finding anuninhabited island to anchor off of this weekend, before the tourists arrive.