HIDDEN GEM

BUT ALL AROUND IS A PARADISE FOR SAILORS WHO LOVE TO LINGER AND EXPLORE

- Hilary Thomson

Can you come up here? It's getting pretty shallow, and I think I've lost the channel."

This inauspicious statement from the skipper, coupled with the shrill beeping of the depth sounder, had become familiar the past two days. I finished putting the coffee on to perk, and hauled myself up through Wild Rye's companionway.

Our Wauquiez Centurion 32 was en route to Pedregal, Panama, a small fishing town some 20 miles from the sea via a winding network of estuaries. It's the country's westernmost port of entry on the Pacific side. Our depth sounder, circa 1980, had been working overtime ever since we'd cruised up the Estero Boca Chica Channel the morning before. We had already touched bottom twice: Once, we were able to reverse off the sandbar with the engine throttled all the way up; the second time, I got a crash course in kedging. Happily, that second time, a panga whizzed past us, saw our dilemma and did a U-turn to assist. Its skipper led us slowly back toward deeper water and around the last few bends. We sighed with relief as Pedregal came into view.

The return trip, when we could rely on our own GPS track, was much less twitchy. We had two beautiful days to appreciate the serenity of our surroundings. The wide, calm estuaries were edged with thick mangroves. A chorus of birdsong erupted at dawn and dusk.

Pangas emerged from narrow tributaries and disappeared back into narrow cuts, hinting at a hidden way of life behind the dense growth.

While the Panama Canal is a crucial crossroads between the Atlantic and Pacific, our journey taught us that Panama is more than a place to pass through. It's a place to linger.

We had departed Boca Chica's narrow, rock-lined channel and made the sail to the Islas Secas, 15 nautical miles away.