Well the sail over was fairly
entertaining. We left Santa Marta with 30 knots up our tail pipe and
saw that peak to 42. The spinnaker sat forlornly on our salon sole
with not a chance in hell of being brought above deck. The Colombian
coast has some pretty good wind / wave action and now we see why it
is regarded by some as the 5th hairiest coastline in the
world. We still marvel at our friends on Kadoona who beat into this
(and all the rest) to get from Australia to the UK.
It took us less than 48 hours to reach
the San Blas, with our first days run averaging 7.4 knots (177.6
miles in 24 hours) under headsail alone. We also set our new surfing
record of 10.7 knots!
We had to slow Orion down as we
approached the San Blas in the wee hours, flying one of Sally's
skimpier pairs of undies as a sail was all we needed to maintain 4
knots.
Our first stop was Coco Bandero Cays.
The only French yacht that was anchored there was kind enough to up
anchor as we arrived and so we had the whole anchorage to ourselves
(West Coco's).
It was fantastic to be anchored off a
palm tree lined island in turquoise water all by ourselves. There was
a Kuna couple living (care taking) the island. They seem to be the
eternal gardeners tending to each island's grove of palms. Fallen
fronds are burnt and no other nutrient sapping plants allowed to grow
on the island (we are only talking a couple hundred square metres of
island). Almost every anchorage will be frequented by dug out canoe's
with women selling Molas (sometimes the whole family is in the
canoe). Having promised Sally that she could buy a couple, we would
invite the women on board and they present each mola individually for
inspection. You place the ones that you like on your lap and hand the
ones you don’t back to the seller. Once you go through the wares
you then down select from the lap pile until you have your “favourite
favourites”. Then the haggling comes in. First how much for each
one...then you ask for a deal on 2 or 3 etc for “bulk buying”. It
is an interesting process of pens and paper, as our Spanish is zilch
and their English extends no further than “Hola”.
After a lazy week at anchor we set off
to Eastern Coco Bandero's. Beautiful cluster of 4 islands, 2 of which
were not inhabited. We did our first rubbish burn (as there are no
facilities to dispose of garbage). We put out an announcement on the
net (VHF on LOW power) and turned a boring activity of “taking out
the trash” into a social occasion / meet and greet.
What is interesting is seeing what
other people live on. Garbage can tell you a lot about people we
noticed; as one yachtie quietly burnt his 5th 1litre tetra
pack of local wine...
Backpacker boats full of semi
translucent gecko looking creatures popped into the anchorage from
time to time. Generally these are old large vessels of 50+ feet that
look like they have seen better days. Some of the larger ones even
cart motor bikes between Colombia and Panama (and vice verse). They
were friendly enough and they never partied till 4am like some yachts
experienced.
Christmas in the Coco's was a treat. We
met a young couple from Vancouver on a 36 ft Hans Christen called
Cypraea. They joined us and Dolphin of Leith and Waka Irie for a big
christmas party that started at 8am and ended at 5pm. Sally did the
event justice in her earlier blog post.
From the Coco's we set off to Nargana.
A Kuna village near mainland Panama. People had spotted the resident
croc (a 2 metre salty) nearby. Bedding the anchor involved just
backing down on it as the prospect of jumping into the water with a
croc and the proximity of the creative Kuna sanitation left much to
be desired.
Nargana was our first taste of
“civilisation” for almost 3 weeks. We even had meat (albeit pork)
at a local restaurant. The river Diablo is where the Kuna gather all
their fresh water from. A trail of canoe's head up the river daily
paddling against the current, with large drums onboard. These are
then filled and scooted back to the village. While there it is a bit
of a social scene with women doing the laundry, men filling the water
containers and then everyone has a wash (the water collection occurs
up stream of laundry and washing incase you were wondering).
We had still to see the elusive croc!
Off to Canbombia with Cypraea. Dolphin
and Waka Irie followed a few days later. There was a lot of noise on
the net about spots to go to for New Years eve bashes so we knew
which to avoid. We rang in the new year in Canbombia (an earlier blog
post summarises our experience) and spent a day or two recovering.
The christmas winds we had heard about
kept a very steady trade wind blowing and the sea seemed to
constantly be in a heavy state. As such snorkelling was better on the
inner reefs as the outer reefs were a bit boisterous. On the plus
side, we had heaps of power as solar and wind kept us topped up.
Off for a 4 mile sail to Achudup (Near
Saladup) where we stayed for a few nights before splitting with our
friends as we wanted to head to the Holandes Cays. I had spent
christmas there 25 years earlier (when I was 5) and wanted to go back
to see if I could remember any of it. I didn't.
The swimming pool is a beautiful
anchorage. There is one boat that is almost permanently moored there.
We were running out of time so did not spend much time exploring the
BBQ island, Bug Island, the Hottub etc on the Eastern Holandes. We
upped anchor to Central Holandes in search of a recommended mola
maker (one can never have enough mola's apparently). Miriadiadup had
one other yacht in residence, but the anchorage was large enough to
accommodate a bunch of yachts without crowding. Most anchorages are
deep 50+ feet. Something to get used to I guess...
Without a doubt, we wish we had spent
more time in the Holandes Cays. We like solitude, good snorkelling
and fishing. This place has it all. The water is a lot clearer too.
We were just going to pop into the East
Lemmon Cays for a night, en route to Chichime via Dog Island to see
the sunken wreck. The Lemmon's were very pleasant and it was here
that we met in our opinion the best mola maker in the San Blas
(Venancio). After seeing a good couple hundred mola's, we now
believed that we had a bit of an eye for quality.
We snorkelled the wreck at Dog Island
(an old freighter sitting in 10 feet) and then beat our way to
Chichime. The current running between the two islands of the
anchorage was amazing. It was a good few knots. Not really ideal
swimming conditions. Waka Irie joined us there and we had a few
drinks that night to catch up before our early morning start towards
Portobello the following morning.
The banks off of Punta San Blas were
apparently good fishing grounds, so out came the rod. We experienced
parts of 30 feet deep and tried to avoid spots were swells were
actually breaking on the banks. The caught 4 fish. A large Barracuda,
2 mackerel and a tuna. We had a number of strikes too and one I lost
as I reeled it in as we were making about 5 knots through the water.
We had planned on stopping in at Green
Turtle Marina en route but the swell and seas made it a bit too
exciting for us to risk our house so that we could pay to moor for a
night or two. As it was still light, we continued onwards Isla
Linton.
We had to anchor slightly in the
channel and as such Sally and I spent most of the night rolling
violently into each other like some sort of couples wrestling match
gone wrong. Needless to say we hightailed it out of there the next
morning and headed to Portobello.
Portobello is a great anchorage in a
sleepy little town with a lot of history. There are a few tall ships
in the bay at the moment. Beautiful to see these old schooners still
in use.
We finally cleared in and it did not
cost us a cent. Unlike other places where it costs up to $100 per
person! Panama, you got to love it!
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