25. May 2025

Stranded in Linton Bay

We reach Linton Bay in early February – we have no idea that we will be stranded here for much longer. But staying in one place for longer also has its advantages. You get to know the people on the boats and on land. These people and their stories are particularly interesting in Linton Bay – and in many cases also quite weird.

As we are looking for an anchorage in Linton Bay under engine, we hear unpleasant noises from the drivetrain again. It soon becomes clear: Mabul has to be hauled out of the water again, the cutlass bearing has to be replaced and we have to throw our plans overboard again. My sister Simone is already on her way to sail through the Panama Canal with us on Mabul. Instead, we are now anchored and stranded in Linton Bay. Instead of letting our heads drop, we put together an alternative program, and it’s not only the jungle that saves us, but also some new and old friends.

Linton Bay is the last protected bay off San Blas

The first thing you notice when you enter Linton Bay is a large, mushroom-shaped concrete structure. The “mushroom trunk” leads into the sea, where another concrete chamber lies beneath the surface of the water. A ladder leads from the mushroom to the surface of the water and there is a helipad on the roof. This is the work of Rüdiger Koch, a 59-year-old aerospace engineer. He recently became famous for spending 120 days eleven meters underwater in the mushroom chamber without a shower, but with a home trainer and a bar. This earned him an entry in the Guinness Book of Records at the end of last year. The “mushrooms” are called Seapods. They are advertised by the company Ocean Builders as “innovative floating homes” and cost around 1.5 million US dollars. However, the inauguration in Linton Bay flopped in 2019 when a Seapod toppled under the weight of its guests at the inauguration party. Koch and his business partners are now trying to export the business model – living at sea, far away from control and regulation – to the United Arab Emirates and hope to attract the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia as an investor. Koch is one of a number of libertarian Bitcoin millionaires, of whom – we note – there are several in Panama.

The Seapods are not only a way of life but also a business model

Linton Bay is the last safe bay before sailing off to the island paradise of San Blas. Here, between an uninhabited island and the mainland, there is a sheltered bay and the Linton Bay Marina with a chandlery, craftsmen and a fruit and vegetable truck that passes by regularly. From our anchorage, we look out over the green, uninhabited island, which is said to be inhabited by a single monkey. There are two villas ashore, one belonging to the Bitels, the owners of Linton Bay Marina, and the other to Jaco Lacs, who has his own private zoo here. The wind regularly carries the cries of the peacocks, the squawking of the parrots and the barking of the dogs over to us.

There are about 30 boats in the bay. We slowly get to know our neighbors. Right in front of us is Patrik from Poland, who lives with his dog Rambo on a sailing boat that hasn’t been moved for years. Patrik gets by with small and large jobs. He sets up a pizza oven in a discarded barrel in which he bakes pizzas for the cruisers. He soon turns his makeshift oven into a small business, regularly baking bread which he then sells in the marina.

Patrik invites you to a pizza evening in the marina

We also regularly eat pizza in a small restaurant that a Panamanian man set up in his garage outside the marina – until he is finally picked up by the police and sent to prison for drug dealing. A short time later, however, his daughters reopen the restaurant. They urgently need to earn money, because if you’re in prison in Panama, you have to buy your own food and place to sleep.

Anna and Pablo’s sailing boat is moored right next to the island on a buoy. They both come from Salta, in the mountains of Argentina. Anna worked as an anthropologist in Argentina, Pablo as a psychologist. But this life, in which they only saw each other and their two young sons in the evenings and at weekends, did not fulfill them. They longed for adventure, for a change, and when they read about a family living on a sailing boat, they decided to try the same adventure. They bought a sailboat in Linton Bay Marina without any sailing experience. But the adventure, the dream, turned out to be a project with many difficulties. They have been stranded in Linton Bay for over a year. Not only does their boat leak everywhere, but their engine has such a serious problem that they have had to turn back every time they have ventured away from the buoy. They tried to sail to San Blas several times, but once the sail tore, once the engine failed and they never reached their destination.

The Argentinians have been stuck in Linton Bay for over a year

In the meantime, they have made themselves a home in Linton Bay and on their boat at the buoy. Although their boat is small and already full with four people, they have turned it into an AirBnB. They regularly receive guests who want to get an insight into life at sea – even if they are only anchored and stranded in Linton Bay. We take short trips to the neighboring islands with Anna, Pablo and their sons. I am fascinated by how easily the family has adapted to the new circumstances, how they don’t see their new life as being “stuck” or a “problem”, but rather as an invitation to see and find something different, an adventure, even here in this small bay. We Europeans, who are so used to order, planning and perfection, seem to find it so much harder to keep life flowing when things don’t go according to plan.

Our friends Pablo and Dini and their three children, with whom we had spent so much time on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala, have also put their sailing boat Da Capo back in the water. A year ago, after several years at sea, they bought a finca in Colombia and gave up the full-time sailboat life. They didn’t want to sell their boat, as it had been their home for so long. They had hired Da Capo in the Panamarina, which can be reached through a magical mangrove channel, and have now returned to her to sail to San Blas for a month. We see them frequently before they leave.

The mangrove canal is our “magical place”

The small mangrove canal is one of my favorite places in our new environment. From Linton Bay, you first dinghy across the open sea, then through a narrow passage through the reef, which leads into a small lake, from where you enter the mangrove canal and finally land in the Panamarina. The mangroves grow like a protective roof over the canal and from time to time howler monkeys or capuchin monkeys perform gymnastics in the canopy. From the lake, a side arm winds and curves through the mangroves to behind a reef. The sea water pushes in here and transforms the small channel into a crystal-clear river that is perfect for swimming. We regularly drift down the river here, the dinghy in tow, and feel like we’re in the Aare or the Limmat – simply at a water temperature of almost 30 degrees.

While we are slowly familiarizing ourselves with our new surroundings, my sister Simone is already on her way. Simone is leaving her husband and two children at home and fortunately she is flexible and not too upset that the Panama Canal is not going to happen. As an emergency nurse, she is used to changes of plan and I am pleased that I can give her an insight into our sea life and that we have plenty of nursing time.

Exploring with my sister Simone

As we want to spare Mabul’s engine because of the worn-out cutlass bearing, the old aunt stays at anchor. But we still get to sail. Our friend Martin from central Switzerland has reached Turtle Cay Marina with his sailing boat Amélie, so Simone and I drive to Turtle Cay Marina and sail with Martin and his guest Kevin into Linton Bay and later to Portobelo. My sister, who as a child always felt sick on winding roads, loves sailing and when we are even accompanied by dolphins, the joy is perfect.

We leave Mabul alone at anchor for two days and head into the jungle to the Casita Rio Indio. On a jungle walk we encounter a sloth, fishing spiders and trees that “walk” a meter a year. The soundscape in the evening is so varied and rich, the air filled with chirping, peeping, croaking and rumbling, that it could be scary.

We share the jungle with monkeys, snakes and sloths

Because the jungle is such a welcome change, Simone, Kevin and I set off on a long jungle ride on another day, where we wade through rivers with the horses and bathe in pools of refreshing water. Alex prefers motors and bikes to horses, so he stays on Mabul.

Another excursion takes us to the Hotel Ciel y Miel, which is enthroned on a hill far above the bay. It belongs to the Swiss Urs Bohler and his partner. They once spent a lot of time on their sailing ship in the Caribbean. A few years ago, when they rode through the jungle on horseback up the hill and looked out to sea from here, Urs said to his partner: “This is where I want to live and die!” Since then, Urs and his partner have not only built a house in the middle of the jungle, but also an entire hotel during the pandemic. It is one of the little gems in the remote wilderness in this forgotten corner of Panama.

On horseback through the jungle

Urs introduces us to other residents of the bay. We spend a Sunday afternoon in the villa of Rosalind Bitel, the wife of the marina owner. She is a sea cucumber farmer and lets us in on the secrets of these slimy creatures. According to Rosalind, they are the vacuum cleaners of the oceans and can help combat marine pollution and counteract acidification. That is why she and a group of scientists have set up a sea cucumber research and breeding station (https://panasea.io) and want to breed sea cucumbers on a large scale in the future. So far, however, they are still protected and their export or sale is prohibited.

Rosalind breeds sea cucumbers to protect the oceans

Rosalind introduces us to her neighbor Jaco Lacs. Having grown up in Peru, he became rich in Panama by importing and exporting luxury goods, especially perfumes. However, his love is less for business and more for birds and wild animals. A few decades ago, he came across two featherless parrots at a local market, which he bought and nursed back to health. What once began with these two disheveled parrots is now a huge zoo. Wild animals that are confiscated by the government because they are being kept or traded illegally often end up at Jaco, where they are cared for and, if possible, released back into the wild. Today, hundreds of different parrots live in Jaco’s zoo, as well as toucans, monkeys, ocelots and a puma. The puma will probably have to stay in the cage for the rest of its life, it is too dangerous and attacks people, says Jaco. And he can’t release the monkeys into the wild either. They believe they are humans.

A quetzal at Jaco’s Zoo

Things were different at the end of the 90s. Back then, the Americans left the Canal Zone and were looking for a new home for the monkeys in their zoo. The zoo was used by the soldiers for training purposes, to familiarize them with the animals that lived in the wilds of Central and South America. But where to put all the animals? Rosalind Bitel, herself an American but already married to the Panamanian Bitel, was a young biology teacher in one of the American schools in the Canal Zone at the time. The Americans came to her and asked: “Your husband owns an island. How about we release the monkeys there?” And so it happened. The monkeys were released on the small island. Some say they died one by one, others say they were killed. Even Rosalind doesn’t know exactly how many of the monkeys are still on the island or what happened to them.

She wants to introduce me to someone very special, says Dini as we dinghy to the small island in Linton Bay one afternoon. “Sheila!” she calls as we tie the dinghy to a tree and go ashore. And here she comes! Sheila, the last and only remaining monkey. The monkey lady is old and lonely. She immediately climbs onto our laps, hugs us, tells us this and that. She clutches me with her long tail and holds Dini tightly with her arms, as if she doesn’t want to lose these strange human children who keep her company. Since then, I’ve been visiting Sheila regularly, bringing her a banana now and again, which she peels and then tests with her tongue to see if it really tastes good before she bites into it. We usually just sit there, hold hands or hug each other and talk about our everyday lives.

My new friend: Sheila, the last monkey on the island

So soon it no longer feels as if we are stranded in Linton Bay because Mabul needs attention again, but as if we have opened up a new world with new stories. My sister is part of it for two weeks, then she travels back to Switzerland. It is now time for us to lift Mabul out of the water. We motor the short distance past the Seapod into the Panamarina. The work can begin!

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