Rammed by a panga!

 

Wow, there’s always a lot of stories when you’re a boat owner. This is one you hope you don’t have to experience or write about. We often wonder if this might happen, and I can assure you, there’s a big honking noise when it does.

Pura Vida anchored at the red dot

Here we were, bright sunny midday, in the absolute middle of a huge anchorage at Bahia Candeleros, south of Puerto Escondido. We anchored smack dab in the middle of this mile wide anchorage, ¼ mile from shore (we purchased a range finder to gauge distances – who knew?). On shore, a large resort with not many guests, is served by local pangas and larger lanchas, for touring, fishing, creature watching. During our couple of days there, we saw a few pangas a day, so not much traffic.

Flavio's bow pulpit is sorely worse from the crash;
you can see how clear the day is and how far from the resort on shore

A very loud crunching, scary noise startled the four of us (our Portland guests shared the experience) and we all bolted to the bow to see what the heck happened! There was a poor local, Flavio, in his white and orange panga, his stanchions broken away from the bow and a pretty shocked look on his face. He seemed okay and I asked “¿que pasó?”. While not sure exactly what he said, it was pretty much texting while driving. He hadn’t achieved enough speed as he departed from shore to be planing, but going fast enough to have the bow pointing skyward and cause some damage, mostly to his boat. 

Thankfully (she says with quotes), he hit absolutely the middle of our bow. The winds were blowing about 15 so our anchor chain was taut. That, and our bobstay was hit secondarily, so these steel beasts absorbed the brunt of the impact. We also have a pretty stout bow - one that now sports a gouge in our recently painted fiberglass. But we are safe and alive and so is Flavio. 

Flavio provided his contact information and Mike dropped the dinghy to inspect the situation. After full assessment and a lot of consternation, Mike determined our damage was minor, all things considered! A hit alongside the hull would have led to a very different story.

A reminder for us that every day is a blessing and provides us with life lessons and experiences.

Anchored quietly at Punta Colorada, Isla Carmen