Yikes! Sharkes!

Yes, SHARKS! We anchored off Isla Coiba in western Panama for a few days. Lovely spot with areas of crystal clear warm water to snorkel and colourful fish. Sounds ever so wonderful, eh? We went snorkeling with friends from s/v Wanderer, Paul and Joanne, and set out to swim around a lovely island in the group of Islas Cocos. One quarter of the way around the western side we we all marveling at some of the larger fish when Rich started yelling at me and pointing downward. I looked in that direction just in time to see a 4 foot white tipped shark circling me as it spiraled upwards. I made some large splashes as I moved closer to Rich and the shark moved lazily towards the bottom. We thought, just a coincidence, right? Not. A few minuets later the shark was back circling again and getting closer. We held a brief conference between the four of us and decided that perhaps snorkeling on the other side of the island would be ever so more enjoyable. We all swam back the way we came and went to the eastern side of the same island. About 200 feet or so into our new adventure I started getting stung by string of pearls big time. Ouch ouch ouch! Should have worn my dive skins. I bailed and went back to wait in squishy while the other three adventurers continued. I enjoyed the quiet and scenery for a while and then upped the anchor and motored towards the group so they would not have so far to backtrack. Suddenly, they were all swimming towards me at a rapid pace. I cut the motor and dropped anchor. All three swam up and hopped into squishy - one, two, three. Paul had dived down to the bottom to investigate a cave and came face to face with an even larger white tip. Hummm. Good time to bail. Lends it's self to a good story with no sad bits - the very best kind.

So now we are anchored in Punta Benao, which is just west of Punta Mala. Translated from spanish that means "bad point", and that appears to be true. We left Playa Naranja at 2am this morning and sailed and motor sailed towards this point. The seas were extremely confused with swells/wind waves 6 to 8 feet and the wind gusts to 30 knots and the predominant direction of the wind was on our nose. That does not work well for sailing vessels. So tack, tack again, and then tack again with waves breaking over the bows. Funny, today was not so bad. That is a good sign for me. I actually enjoyed it. Good thing, because the next part of the journey is a two day sail to get past the really ugly "Punta Mala" and thru the major tanker thru fare from the Panama Canal and onto the Perlas Islands. Wish us luck! More in route or when we arrive. Love to you all
from the Yin side

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