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Friday-Saturday February 26-27, 2010

GPS POSITION 8° 55.036 N 79° 31.199W Flamingo Marina Panama

It's Friday and we are not completely allowed to be in Panama. Officials parade one after the other onto BD to work on the mounting pile of official paperwork. The port captain asked if we have our yellow fever vaccination. Well no, we did not know we needed one. When you offer the proper undocumented fee they suddenly stop with the yellow fever questions and fill out our papers asking for more copies than they could possibly need, so many copies that our printer-copier runs out of ink and there are only a few sheets of paper left. Deborah has black ink all over her fingers from using the cheaper fill the empty cartridge method instead of buying an expensive new cartridge. I am so glad she and John are like me, the ultimate cheapskate. We would rather spend the saved money on something else we want for BD.

About 9 AM we get a call from Tina, that her driver is here to collect our wash. Deborah and I are the only ones here. All the wash bags go on deck, here we go, it is about a quarter of a mile of decks to the cab/parking lot; oh great Don is coming back to BD, he can help. The three of us look like pack mules as we make our way to Tina's driver in the parking lot.

Afterwords we pack up our computers to the cafe on shore to get internet. This turns out to be quite a long session that runs through a burger lunch. In fact we take another call from Tina that the laundry is arriving with her driver.

Today is Saturday. You know some days you are the pigeon and some days you are the statue. Today we are the statue. It is a salmon day, you swim up stream and then you get had`. Our plan is to go shopping to provision for the canal. Donna, Nancy and the Messineo's are joining us tomorrow. However, the word on the dock during morning coffee is there has been an 8,8 earthquake in Chile and there is a tsunami coming our way. John calls for all hands on deck; he is going to the harbor master's office to get the best information and we are told to treat this as a drill and prepare BD and ourselves. Word is we have maybe an hour and a half before it will hit us. Thoughts of what happened in American Samoa last year when a tsunami whipped through the Pagopago anchorage run through our heads. Boats were destroyed and sailors died. We have no TV and the VHF is full of misinformation and excited cruisers. Forgetting we are on East Coast time I figure Donna should be waking in Reno; it is 5:45 AM her time and of course I woke her up. With Maddy licking her feet she checks TV news and internet for me. The situation is as grim as we have heard on the dock. John returns with the same news and word we have an hour to prepare and get off BD; there is not enough time to go to sea. To escape the expected size of the tsunami waves we must be in 3000 feet of water; the Bay of Panama is too shallow, we are 3 hours at full throttle from a 3000 foot depth.

It is amazing how fast and focused you can be when you have to be. With a backpack of essential medications, computers and cameras we say goodby to BD and go to a high point on shore, the little internet cafe, to watch whatever happens, God Bless Bella Donna.

From the internet cafe we can see the other anchorages and they are almost empty where they had been full yesterday. I guess these cruisers are taking their chances going to sea; maybe they got the word in time. You do not want to be at anchor in a tsunami as large as the one expected.

We sit and wait, then nothing at all happens. At 11 AM East Coast time we declare an end to our watch and rush back to BD to fetch our shopping bags for our provision run. We grab a friendly English speaking Panamanian cab driver, Mario, who we decide will handle all our travel while in Panama. He is 76 years old, but could pass for 50 and is very intelligent even if his fast driving and running red lights is a slight concern. The Albrook shopping mall is a 20 minute drive for normal people, 15 minutes for Mario.

It is Saturday and the mall is very crowded with Panamanian families shopping. This huge mall is the largest I have ever seen. A little train transports people from place to place as it is too far to walk from one end to the other. There are 3 separate food courts and a huge merry-go-round to entertain the kids. We remembered shopping in a large grocery store here last time we were here; we ask "Donde esta supper mercado?". Of course, it is a long way off. When we get there the line at the cash register is well over 100 people. Forget this we turn to the street for another cab; it is now 2 PM.

Our luck has run out; our next cab driver, a young man, does not speak a word of English. We tell him to take us to Rey a Panamanian grocery store chain we are familiar with. We can see a Rey near the airport, but we can not communicate with our driver; he darts off into an obviously dangerous area of Panama. Suddenly there is a floppy-thumpy sound; we have a flat tire. We pull over at a bus stop and pile out sit on a bench and watch the young cab driver change a tire like a NASCAR pit crew. In less than 5 minutes we are on our way we think. The driver makes a stop at a gas station as I notice an alarm is signaling dangerously low fuel. Finally we make it to a Rey in the worst part of town. We are the only gringos in sight; we make the most of it. John gets a cab back to BD to undo the tsunami preparation and begin the cleaning and maintenance.

The three of us manage to fill 2 shopping carts and still do not have all the shopping done when we stop because we have to somehow get it all to BD; we will finish the fruits and vegetables tomorrow. It takes 3 people almost half an hour to check us out. Even the store manager comes over to celebrate probably their largest sale in a very long time. Somehow we make it to the street and are told we will need 2 taxis, $20 special price, to get us back to Flaminco Marina; it's a good deal. Our driver speaks no English but we are able to speak in Spanish phrases that I understand. He tells me we are in a very bad area of town. At the Marina we unload all the bags onto the dock and arrange for a panga to take them to BD; the Marina has no dock carts.

John has arranged Mario to help him fetch Luci who flies in around 7 PM. Work done we decide we deserve a nice dinner so we try a very nice outdoor restaurant up the hill. First it is the traditional Tequila shots with Luci; now we are ready. We are tired. I can't wait to see Donna.

God Bless Bella Donna