From Panama City we headed off shore a short ways to the Las Perlas Islands. A small cluster of rocky islands that Panama controls. 40 miles roughly. It is kind of like Lake Geneva Panama style. Some quite beautiful homes on the waterfront. Not a whole lot else though. There are virtually no boats here except the ARC boats. An entroponeuor could have a field day here but there are none around. No water taxies, fruit/veggie boats, not even a Mola to be found. No provisioning. We did spend a night on the hook in between a couple of the islands that were used in the Survivor series when they shot Pearl Islands Panama season. We went ashore and found what seems like it would have been a couple of their encampments. Found out later that the same islands had been used by the foreign franchise versions of Survivor. I guess there are several foreign language versions that they produce.

One kind of neat thing was the tidal flows as we sat between the islands. Earlier in the day, at high tide, we were swimming. A couple of jelly fish stings but nothing to bad. When the tide dropped a flow of millions of jellyfish started flowing by. So thick it was unbelievable. Then in the middle of the night the bioluminescent creatures come out. They float by twinkling blues and greens. Absolutely stunning. When you flush the head (it is salt water flush) They get swept in and the whole bowl glows. Quite something.

On the way back in for the rendezvous we crossed over a school (if that’s the right term) of sting rays. Brown in color. About 4 feet down. Couple of hundred of them at least. We were about a mile off shore in a rather poorly charted area. We all thought they were rocks and we were about to ground on them. About had a stroke till we figured out what they were. Never seen such a large group.

Biggest adjustment is dealing with the tides. 20 foot worth. And no docks. You drag your dinghy up on the beach and depending if the tide is going in or out you are either going to find it floating away or way up the beach high and dry. Both are an issue.  100 yards of beach disappear as the tide comes in. Huge rocky formations appear out of the sea and stand 20 foot dry before the tide starts to come back up.

Lost two crew today. Things weren’t working out to great. And with the amount of space that you have to coexist in……  not to great is an issue.  Not happy with that situation. Going to have to find crew and get them to Galapagos. Not something I had figured on. Write your plans in the sands.

Anybody want to crew a leg or two?