Well, finally the Maritime Authority of Panama came to Bocas del Toro to offer the often promised and much anticipated boat license course. Our neighbour in the project, Philippe is in town so he came too, along with Jose Murillo jr., a local neighbour from Dolphin Bay. There was a huge turn out - about 70 or so - 20 foreigners and probably 50 or 60 local folks. It lasted two days and now Luna and I are officially recognized boat captains in the eyes of the Panamanian gov’t. We can ply Panama’s national waters with ultimate confidence in our seamanship skills. Or at least that’s the theory.
Luna got wrangled into helping with translation as many of the foreigners didn’t understand much of what was being said and there were no plans of offering an English version of the course. Just as well because it was a pretty casual affair, though getting to class on the second morning was crazy.
The ride there on day two was incredibly intense. The crazy winds and weather here were offering up 7 foot swells topped with angry whitecaps all the way to Bocas del Toro from Dolphin Bay. The winds had been whipping around in unusually high fashion for over a day already. Back in Canada this boating behaviour would be considered very foolhardy and anyone hearing about our bodies washing up on shore during the daily local news hour would say to themselves, ‘Stupid kids. What were they thinking?’
But we did it. And lived to tell about it. And we were only half an hour late for class. After that ride we should have been granted Master Captain licenses for all international waters!!
Craziest boat ride I’ve ever captained and our little boat held up well, though all of us were soaked, even with raincoats on.
Some days even paradise gets cranky!!
Posted on Wednesday, November 22nd, 2006 at 11:39 am
Filed under real estate project news .
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