As we left the San Blas Islands we decided to break the 60nm journey to Shelter Bay Marina with an overnight stop at Portobelo. This is a well protected deep natural harbor and a fortified town, which was used by the Spanish Empire to ship treasure from the South America back to Spain. The city was repeatedly captured by British privateers and pirates including Sir Francis Drake who eventually died here and was buried at sea.

On our arrival there were around 15-20 yachts at anchor and one that was sitting on the bottom with the last metre of its mast sticking above the surface. It turns out the harbour is full of wrecks both modern and ancient. It was a mostly quiet evening with virtually no wind and the silence punctuated by the shrieks from the Howler Monkeys ashore. Our friends Rob and Rachel on Ægle and the Farr 65 Celeste also followed us into the anchorage.

On inspecting the mainsail we realised that we had a serious problem with the top batten car on our mainsail track. This had actually become detached, fortunately we had known it was in trouble as we’d seen a couple of square ball bearings on the deck (never good) and we’d already ordered spares to be shipped by DHL to Shelter Bay.

In the morning we headed onto Shelter Bay Marina, a short trip of less than 20nm. Shelter Bay is inside the breakwater at the entrance to the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. Suddenly we were surrounded by shipping, we had to call Christobal Radio (the port) to ask permission to enter but by midday we were in the Marina. The first time in modern civilisation for about 3 weeks. The luxury of plugging into the shore power for airc-onditioning, a cool beer/margarita etc. and a restaurant was much appreciated. It was also great to get to know more of the fleet and compare notes on our Caribbean crossing.

With 5 days in the marina before the Canal crossing there were opportunities to explore and take tours to learn more about Panama and it’s fascinating history and, of course, fix the boat!

The first expedition was an organised tour into a National Park in the middle of Panama to see an Embrera Indian village. This involved a 1.5 hour bus ride followed by a 30 minute trip in a dugout canoe up the Chagres River to one of several villages. Whilst at one level it looks a bit artificial the Indians live as we saw them in the rainforest , clothing and housing are pretty much unchanged and they have organised visits only in the dry-season.

This group of Indians (about 100 people) were amongst many who fled neighbouring Columbia in the 1960’s to avoid the guerilla forces operating in the country. Ethnically they are all from Brazil originally and have been migrating north over the centuries. We spent about 3 hours in the village which included a show of traditional dances but also an explanation of their way of life and how it’s been affected by the development of the country. For example when the area was declared a national park they were restricted in how they could use the forest (cutting trees only for building purposes and not for commerce; limited hunting etc.).

The following day we headed into Colon and visited the first set of locks in the Panama Canal which gave us a taste of things the experience to come. The scale of the locks is mind-blowing with three flights going up into the Gatun Lake (formed by the damming of the Chagres River). There are two sets of three locks at each coast, the originals completed in 1914 and the second larger set finished in 2016. There is a visitor centre just above the new locks on the Atlantic side.

We then took a trip into Colon city. This is extremely rundown and didn’t feel very safe, as we wanted to walk around, our taxi driver drove right next to us as our bodyguard! The buildings are in extremely poor state and whilst there are some better neighbourhoods in the suburbs the centre is in disrepair. We understand this is because the Socialist government in the 80’s introduced a law that prevented landlords evicting any tenants who couldn’t pay the rent, if the rent was below a certain threshold. As this region had low-rents it just meant that everyone stopped paying! This resulted in the landowners being unable to invest in maintenance and as a result the decline of the whole area. The law of unintended consequences!

On our last days in Shelter Bay we took a couple of final tours around the local area. Shelter Bay is in Fort Sherman which was a US military base for many decades as part of the Panama Canal Zone, a 10 mile strip either side of the canal itself which as US sovereign territory from 1914 until 1979 and was eventually handed back completely in 1999.

The history of the area as a military zone actually goes back into the 1500’s when the Spanish ruled but with constant attacks mostly by the British (either privateers /pirates like Captain Morgan and Sir Francis Drake or the military). I’ll let you research this on the Wikipedia links if you are interested.

Fort Lorenzo is a short 3 mile trip from the current Shelter Bay entrance to the canals and it protected the entrance to the Chagres river. This was one of the two original way to move treasures across the Isthmus from Panama City either by track all the way to Portobelo or to Cruces in the middle of the country and then by boat along the Chagres River to Fort Lorenzo. It has been restored and was a fascinating trip.

Our final tour was a short 90 minute walk around the forest right next to the marina. The guide, a former teacher, who also is a manager at the marina took us round and showed us wildlife including Howler Monkeys, a great explanation of the flora and also the fortifications of Fort Sherman and it’s batteries (Battery Baird) The tree below is a Panama Tree. The word Panama meaning abundance.

Tours completed and the mainsail batten cars fixed the boat was ready for the next adventure. Crossing through the Panama Canal to the Pacific!