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.

Tsunami

In the early morning of Friday February 26 while at anchor in La Playita, Panama we received
a tsunami warning via the VHF radio. An earthquake of 8.8 on the rector scale had hit Chili
in the Valpariso area and it was believed Panama City would be hit with a tsunami in the
area of our anchorage. A tsunami is a wave action caused by the displacement of a large body
of water caused by land or ocean earthquakes. All we could think about was the Tsunami that
had hit Indonesia, Christmas 2004, and destroyed the coastline and took many anchored
boats in its wake.
I was in our stateroom changing from my pj's when Stuart advised me of the warning and told
me to hurry up as we were going to weigh anchor and get out to deep water. In just the few
minutes it took me to change and get behind the wheel there were already many boats up
and moving out of the anchorage. We were soon behind them and motored out to 80' and
waited. We had a report that it should arrive at 9:50am but we did not know what to expect.
We had battoned everything below down and closed all the hatches, ports, and companionway.
We had our life jackets out and our safety harness ready to hook up in the cockpit should we
see a wave of sizeable volumn approaching. There were boats out past us at this point and we
knew they would give a warning if a wave came. The appointed hour of 9:50 came and went
without a ripple. We were advised to stay out at least another hour to be safe. We did. Finally,
we motored back into the anchorage with a constant look towards the ocean and any sign of
danger. It was later reported that the "tsunami" had hit Mexico with a 12" wave and Hawaii
with a 12 to 16' wave (good surfing waves). Lots of excitement but fortunately no damage to
boats or property on land. Thank you Lord! Stuart and I had visited the Valpariso, Chili
area 3 years ago at this time and it is/was a beautiful seaside resort area. We are very sad
to hear the reports of destruction and loss of life there.

The Thrills in La Playita Anchorage

Well, the provisioning went well. We can no longer see our water line so we MUST be full. No

way anyone on Imagine can go hungry! We know the places to buy all the necessary goods for

a long passage and we have been to them at least once and some 3 times. We are ready to leave

Panama. No more will we have to battle with the cabbies and their gringo prices for trips into

Panama City or this dingy dock from hell at La Playita yacht (used loosely) Club.

It has been quite an eventful week in the anchorage. Tuesday evening the 23rd we were having

dinner on a fellow boat when the wind turned around south and 6' rollers began breaking into

the anchorage. We sat in the cockpit of 'The Road' watching as other boats began picking up

their anchors and leaving the anchorage. Taffy, Captain on The Road, could see our boat

and said we looked fine, however, we were uncomfortable, so we got in our dingy and raced

to Imagine. The dingy was bucking as we neared her and was extremely hard getting on

board but we managed and Imagine was in peril. We were just within feet of the boat behind

us so we started the engine and weighed anchor. We had a miserable night anchored out close to the canal as the winds did not abate and we were rocking and rolling and pitching back and forth

the entire night. Early the next morning we motored back into the anchorage and re-anchored. Exhausted from no sleep but happy we and our boat were safe. We learned that at least 5 otherboats had drug anchor and several boats had come into contact causing damage to their hulls. The weather had settled and we stayed on board to make sure our anchor was dug in. The southerly winds we experienced are also referred to as 'lift your anchor winds' because they come from the opposite direction you anchored and will pull it out. Like Stuart said, "we have been

cruising for 5 years and only 2nd time we have drug anchor". We hope the last!