We anchored a little further out from where the guidebook showed the anchor. Dave was worried having no wind and bugs closer in. Though there was a nice little sand bottom spot where it looked the normal anchorage was, ours was pretty good, too, and we had nice wind.
While motoring around looking for an anchor spot, we found a reefy mound in about 7' of water. We ended up anchoring about 250' away from that spot, so when we jumped in to check the anchor, we also snorkeled over to look at the reef. After looking it over pretty good, Dave noticed that some of the rocks looked very much like 'ballast stones'. And the mound looked about right for the length and breadth of an old ballast pile. The 'wreck' looked pretty old, and there were no tell-tale pieces to help date it... we found no anchors, canon, engine, or anything, just a ship-sized pile of ballast stones. We speculate that it may have been stripped and scuttled there...the old wooden ships would eventually become too wormy and leaky, and would just be abandoned.
We spent all of the next day in the same spot. Our friend Jim Yates was arriving the next day via airplane, and we needed to do some cleaning and re-arranging to accommodate him. I did laundry, made bread, and sewed 'door drops' (privacy curtains between the forward and main cabin, and between the aft and main cabin). We had removed the heavy oak doors and left them in Satellite Beach, and I hadn't yet gotten around to doing that 'project'. (aha! another one off my list). Dave re-arranged the 'project tubs' in the V-berth, so Jim had some place to sleep.
We were visited by the saila (village chief)'s representative and given a receipt for the $8 fee. Dave said we'd be back in 2 months and asked if it would still cover us then. He said "si, si" (yes yes), but I'm not sure he really understood the question.
Because we'd already paid the fee at Pinos, we opted to stay a second night there, rather than moving on to Mulutupu, right by the airport. We heard the Mulutupu fee was $15, and didn't want to pay that too.
We had seen the French boat anchored near us gathering sea urchins and opening them. Sherry remembered having 'sea urchin roe' in high school (the Marine Biology teacher). So she gathered a few to try it out. Each sea urchin rendered about a half a teaspoon of stuff. It tasted fishy and salty. Yum!?
So the next morning we got up at 5:30am, and motored down to just off the airstrip in Mulutupu.
Jim arrived right on schedule at 7:30am, after flying in to the international airport at Panama City on Spirit Air at 1am the night before. I had jokingly told him if he ran into a vegetable stand between his arrival at 1am and his departure at 6am, to please buy us green veggies. Neither of us knew that the puddle-jumper airplane left out of a different airport, and the little airport was locked up at night. So Jim ended up hanging out in an all night "Super Rey" (the largest grocery store in Panama). He arrived with an armful of veggies...broccoli, lettuce, celery, and cucumbers. Damn! I should have also told him that I was dying for a steak, too. But whoda thunk that he'd be in the all-night grocery store!
We spent Jim's next to last night aboard at Pinos, and went in to the village to let Jim have a 'mola' experience. Jim took some great pictures of the village (above and below).
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