Come join the Flying Porter Family as we once again make the daring slippery spider-walk across maybe the worst dinghy dock we’ve ever come across!
Now, it is not the worst – because there is a dock at least. Beach landings can be tricky if there are any waves. For example, though I should have confessed it at the time, when we went in to Maho Bay for dinner in St. John we had to come in twice. We all dressed for dinner and got cleaned up nicely, an uncommon enough occurrence. To get on shore in this particular spot though you have to land on a beach. At this time there was some small, irregular waves – a foot or less. But it was enough that some miscommunication in the landing process turned us sideways and tipped us enough so that I rolled off the dinghy into the water, getting drenched from head to toe. So we went back to boat, I showered and changed again…and Kathy fell off on the way in. Though not as badly as me, at least her hair stayed dry. But I digress…
Currently we are in the Las Brisas anchorage outside of Panama City. Once upon a time there was a marina of sorts here. While I’ve not yet gotten an authoritative version of what happened (something to do with taxes, or failing to maintain the property as contracted, or going bankrupt), the end result at the marina is that the government seized it.
The government…is not running it as a marina. From what we can see the sole government contribution is to supply a couple of Guardia posted by the gate whose function mostly seems to be reading books, though once they did stop me and make me write my name in a book. Other than that…nothing.
This is the largest anchorage in Panama City with the most cruisers parked here. On the other side of the causeway there is an actual functioning marina – they DO have a nice dinghy dock but they charge $35.00/week to use it. Most cruisers are too frugal for this as most dinghy docks don’t charge you. Their owners recognize that there is an “if you build it they will come” thing about a dinghy dock and they will make money when boaters come there and spend money at the places within walking distance when they are on shore. But not so here, they want their money for the dock and are quite vigilant about collecting it.
What is left at Las Brisas is a large concrete and steel floating dock, some 10-20 feet off shore depending on the tide. The metal is rusty and the concrete corroding in places and covered with boards to fill the holes. The whole thing attaches to large pilings by some lines of indeterminate strength and quality. The are large, but they are also very furry and covered with growth and disappear into the gloom under the water and you can’t really see where they go.
You did read correctly that the dock is off shore. It is NOT attached to land in any way, making it somewhat troublesome to get from the “park your dinghy” step to the “walk away dry and happy” step. Most dinghy docks solve this with some sort of a ramp or platform. With the fifteen foot tides in this area the problem is a bit worse, since the ramp must be long enough and roll on the end to accommodate the change in angle from horizontal at high tide to “maybe I should rappel down this” at low tide. The erstwhile owners of the property, the Panamanian Government, haven’t really responded to any requests for help or repairs to this situation. There is in fact a new dock lying in the parking lot about 100 yards away from this one but it has not been installed for lack of money to do so.
The off shore dock and the orange dinghy-on-a-string.
Cruisers, being the innovative sort (especially when it comes to frugality), came up with a solution. They installed a small plastic dinghy attached to a rope in a clothesline like pulley arrangement. Once you tie your dinghy to the scary metal and concrete dock you haul the orange dinghy over to you and climb in. With luck there is not too much water in it, otherwise if you are not nimble and sixteen you get your feet wet and you might need to bail a little. You pull yourself over to the stairs, steady the dinghy then climb onto the rocks and up to the stairs.
Note the downward slant on the steps; this is NOT at low tide!
The stairs themselves need a bit of a mention. It is a stone staircase which is steep and the stairs themselves are not all flat, in fact most of them slope downwards to the water. The last step is about four feet over the water at low tide so it can be a long one. With the fifteen foot tides the number of stairs you have to go up varies quite a bit. As the tide falls the last two or three steps are wet, slimy, and very slippery. With a rising tide the steps have all dried out and there isn’t really a traction problem. One either side of the stairs are rocks, depending on the state of the tide the rocks are frequently easier and safer to climb down than the last couple of stairs.
Now imagine if you are unloading or loading four people. With groceries. Or 150 pounds of insanely expensive generator parts being sent in for repair.
No, we do NOT make four trips across in the tippy orange dinghy. Instead we have one “volunteer” (pretty much almost all the time it’s Will) drive us up to the stairs while we unload all the extra people and gear directly on the steps. We also take his shoes, personal electronics, and anything else he doesn’t want going into the water with him. After dropping us off he brings the dinghy over to the floating dock and only one person has to come over the tippy dinghy. Given that Will is young and nimble he makes it look a lot easier and faster than it is for someone older, over weight and far less coordinated like myself. He even stands on the seat of the dinghy, something which if I tried would put me instantly in the drink. My style is sort of straddling it with my knees and feet and hands, picture a bear trying to walk on roller skates on all fours.
The final added joy to this whole process is the wind. There is nice breeze here in Las Brisas (coincidence?). There is also a fair amount of “fetch” across the bay which sometimes leads to some smallish waves, one to two feet, that blow across the anchorage. And right onto the steps which have nothing really to protect them from the wind and chop. Not big waves, but enough to make it bouncy.
Stone steps. Aluminum dinghy hull. People crossing. Small waves crashing on the steps…NOT a pleasant mix. We’ve lost a lot of paint crashing on the steps already, and it is only a matter of time before someone gets bucked out of the boat or hurt. The wind and waves spin the dinghy in directions you don’t want to go, exposing the propeller and engine lower unit to getting hit on the rocks. Also your dinghy gets slammed around once it is tied up on the floating dock. So we avoid the dinghy dock when the wind is up, which is unfortunate because we end up stuck on the boat.
The solution? I don’t know that there is one if no one takes responsibility for the marina. There are two “populations” of cruisers here. There are some people that have spent years, or the better part of many years in this area. And there are folks like us that come in for a few weeks and move on – the transients. So far appeals to the government have fallen on deaf ears – I’m not even convinced a serious injury or maiming would draw attention. Cruisers try to raise some money periodically to maintain or improve the rough solution in place now – it’s not an easy task since the community is by and large pretty transient. It’s hard to get people to buy into a solution to a permanent local problem when you are only “local” for a few weeks.
So we take it a day at a time, move slowly and carefully and make sure we don’t take any unneeded risks. The day our main stator was removed from the boat the wind picked up to over twenty knots while the fellows were ripping the generator apart. You can’t get these parts wet…so the solution? We dropped the workmen off and schlepped the parts to the dock the next morning when the wind was down, then brought the parts to the shop ourselves by taxi.
Beats the alternative – ruining a part that costs more than $3,000 to replace if it got pitched over board.
