The Adventures of Terra Firma

Panama City to Ecuador

Updated July 23rd, 2007: The 3 months that we spent in Panama flew by before we knew it. It was easy to get use to the availability of services, parts and hard to find items, but the season for making a passage to Ecuador was upon us. We took care of a few last boat projects, said goodbye to friends who were heading to ports other than Ecuador and set off south. The Perlas Islands were on the way to Ecuador so we took the opportunity to spend one more week in the islands. We mainly relaxed, but wound up doing a major service on the windlass. The 5-day passage from Panama to Ecuador was wonderful. The winds were light but steady and the spinnaker was out frequently. We became shellbacks along the way when we crossed the equator.
Bridge of the Americas, Panama City
	Happy Anniversary! Pat and Carrie celebrated their 16th anniversary in Panama City. They treated themselves to their favorite meal -- sushi. It was the first sushi they had since the States and boy was it good. You really can find everything in Panama City!

It wasn't all fun and raw fish dinners. The fresh water pump started to act up and needed to be rebuilt before leaving on the passage to Ecuador. It was also time to change the oil in the water maker pump.

Finally Terra Firma and crew were on the move again. It was liberating to drop the mooring line and head out toward the islands. Our favorite island in the Perlas was Espiritu Santo.

It was here we discovered that the windlass was copping an attitude. It would pull the anchor up (that's the hard part) but it refused to put it down under power and would make some terrible whining, grinding noises.

Unfortunately, the first time we ever had to lift anchor due to an emergency was when we had the windlass completely disassembled. Thankfully there were boats nearby with a couple of extra strong men!


Espiritu Santo was a relaxing place to get ready for the 5-day passage to Ecuador. We dinghied around the island and stopped at one of the deserted beaches for a picnic lunch, beachcombing and a game of bocci ball. It was a perfect end to an amazing 3 months in Panama!