Otoque & Boná Islands, Bay of Panama and the Panama Canal
After sailing 190 nautical miles we approached a group of islands in the Bay of Panama. These islands are known to have large colonies of nesting sea birds. As we got closer to the islands, we appreciated a great number of sea birds soaring in the sky. We questioned ourselves: “Why are there so many seabirds soaring?” The answer didn’t take long to arrive: It is here in the Bay of Panama where the trade winds blow the warm surface waters allowing the cold currents from the bottom to rise, bringing a lot of nutrients to the top. This upwelling zone, as it is known, creates an interesting food chain, where small fishes are eaten by bigger fish and these ones are eaten by sea birds or are caught by fishermen or other large natural predators. These islands are known as Otoque, Boná and Estivá.
As we were willing to go out to explore the surroundings, the Sea Voyager began to change its course. Everybody was surprised; what was going on? A guest had seen a small fishing boat with its crew, two fishermen, making a signal of distress. The Sea Voyager’s officers rapidly decided to help them. These men had been in open sea stranded for four days. Their outboard motor had broken and they used it as anchor to prevent the winds and currents to drag them further away. They had run out of their food supplies. Starving and with very little water for four days, they had managed to wave to us expecting to receive help. We brought them aboard, gave them water and food and the officers towed their boat to the nearest fishing village. They were so grateful since they had seen us and so happy to see that we returned for them!
Once back on course we arrived to Otoque and Boná Island. We took the Zodiacs to explore the surroundings. Brown pelicans, brown boobies, blue-footed boobies and magnificent frigate birds duel amongst these islands. With plenty of food around the area, these sea birds stay all year at these islands. We could see pelicans nesting in the tree tops, brown boobies feeding their chicks and male frigate birds advertising to females by inflating their red gular pouch. These islands, since they are very distant from the main land, provide a nice shelter for these sea birds. On our way back to our ship, a pod of pantropical spotted dolphins escorted our Zodiac to make sure we had a safe return to the ship. What a morning!
Back on board, we weighed anchor and started to sail towards our point of call with the Panama Canal Authorities. We were going to do a northbound transit through the Panama Canal. At our arrival to the anchorage area on the Pacific side, we could see several ships waiting for their turn to go through the canal. A nice view of the skyline of Panama City revealed to us that Panama’s economy was increasing daily.
It had been another wonderful day of our trip!
After sailing 190 nautical miles we approached a group of islands in the Bay of Panama. These islands are known to have large colonies of nesting sea birds. As we got closer to the islands, we appreciated a great number of sea birds soaring in the sky. We questioned ourselves: “Why are there so many seabirds soaring?” The answer didn’t take long to arrive: It is here in the Bay of Panama where the trade winds blow the warm surface waters allowing the cold currents from the bottom to rise, bringing a lot of nutrients to the top. This upwelling zone, as it is known, creates an interesting food chain, where small fishes are eaten by bigger fish and these ones are eaten by sea birds or are caught by fishermen or other large natural predators. These islands are known as Otoque, Boná and Estivá.
As we were willing to go out to explore the surroundings, the Sea Voyager began to change its course. Everybody was surprised; what was going on? A guest had seen a small fishing boat with its crew, two fishermen, making a signal of distress. The Sea Voyager’s officers rapidly decided to help them. These men had been in open sea stranded for four days. Their outboard motor had broken and they used it as anchor to prevent the winds and currents to drag them further away. They had run out of their food supplies. Starving and with very little water for four days, they had managed to wave to us expecting to receive help. We brought them aboard, gave them water and food and the officers towed their boat to the nearest fishing village. They were so grateful since they had seen us and so happy to see that we returned for them!
Once back on course we arrived to Otoque and Boná Island. We took the Zodiacs to explore the surroundings. Brown pelicans, brown boobies, blue-footed boobies and magnificent frigate birds duel amongst these islands. With plenty of food around the area, these sea birds stay all year at these islands. We could see pelicans nesting in the tree tops, brown boobies feeding their chicks and male frigate birds advertising to females by inflating their red gular pouch. These islands, since they are very distant from the main land, provide a nice shelter for these sea birds. On our way back to our ship, a pod of pantropical spotted dolphins escorted our Zodiac to make sure we had a safe return to the ship. What a morning!
Back on board, we weighed anchor and started to sail towards our point of call with the Panama Canal Authorities. We were going to do a northbound transit through the Panama Canal. At our arrival to the anchorage area on the Pacific side, we could see several ships waiting for their turn to go through the canal. A nice view of the skyline of Panama City revealed to us that Panama’s economy was increasing daily.
It had been another wonderful day of our trip!
