Las Islas San Blas

After a very rolly 4-day adventure south from Jamaica across the Caribbean Sea, we arrived in the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama on January 24th. They are a beautiful archipelago of tiny little islands atop very large reefs - which makes entering and exiting the various harbors a bit treacherous. As we got closer to our port of entry, Porvenir, we could see two wrecks perched at an awful angle atop the reefs - one of which was so recent that the locals were still out in their canoes stripping the boat of absolutely everything they could carry. Not only that but not only had our SSB radio pooped out a couple days out, but our GPS decided it was bored with us as well just that morning. Luckily we were last, as usual, so our friendly compatriots Chapter 2 and Tahawus could help guide us in. Our trusty BPO liaison Dunbar had kept customs waiting for us in our port of entry, Porvenir, so we were able to check in and get the formalities overwith - thank God for Ceci, though, as the customs officials spoke no English and were not keen on being very helpful.

                  

We had a lovely couple of days in Porvenir. The day started with a tour of the village by a friendly Kuna (the local people) named Nestor - a meandering spread of thatched huts and a few concrete buildings, complete with a basketball court, school, congreso hut and a market. A beer, some fresh empanadas, and a little shopping for molas, the beautiful hand-sewn layered cloth squares typical of the Kunas, made the trip quite a success. Sue from Chapter 2 and Daphne persuaded Nestor to take them home in his sail boat, which was quite the adventure. The vessel was a cayuga, or canoe, with 3 large sticks for rigging (mast, boom, gaff), 2 pieces of old sail for a jib and a main, and an oar for a rudder. Tacking or jibing required them to lie down in the bottom of the boat while Nestor held the main sheet in his teeth and switched the oar to the other side. The little vessel went surprisingly quickly and close to the wind, however, and they had a jolly time criss-crossing the little bay.

                         
           


They deposited Sue on Chapter 2 and picked up Pip for another jaunt around the harbor. We hosted Nestor over for a beer on Ransom, and picked his brain for local knowledge of where in the islands to visit, as well as some basic Kuna phrases. Of course the only one we can remember is “Idomalando” – Cheers! A quick dinghy trip to the island of Porvenir revealed that it consists of a small hotel, a couple of huts, and a (short!) runway that literally begins and ends a few feet from the water (but which receives commercial flights from Panama City). Throughout the day, the locals come out to your boat in their cayugas to sell molas and seafood. We had some delicious langostas (lobster) and pulpos (octopus - which none of us knew how to cook) and crab.

                                          

       

 Our next stop was supposed to be the western end of the Holandes Cays, but as we went by there were quite a few masts in the anchorage, so we kept going to the eastern end of the Coco Bandero Cays, which are a stunning group of 4 islands nestled behind a large outer reef. The greens and blues of the water over the reef are a magnificent background for the tiny clusters of palm trees surrounded by white sand beaches, and the reef provides excellent protection from the swells. We ended up spending 3 nights here, replete with picnics, sand castles, swimming, "exploration" of an island 30m in diameter, getting our ankles beaded by the local Kuna matriarch Rosalinda, and excellent snorkeling - rays, lobsters, an octopus, and so many different kinds of beautiful and colorful fish it would be impossible to name them all.

           

       

Or so we thought, until we learned that Mirko, the 11-year-old aboard Tahawus, is a bit of a marine biology fanatic, and knows pretty much everything you could want to know about pretty much everything in the water - he proved to be a very useful snorkeling companion. Tim, Daphne and Klaudia from Tahawus boarded Chapter 2 for a day trip over to Nargana, the nearest "city," for some supplies. It was a bigger collection of huts and concrete buildings, but there were very few people around, and quite a lot of trash. We did manage to find some veggies, bread, beer and a simcard, as well as a peek into the life of (motor)sailing a catamaran, so overall the adventure was a success.

On January 30 we picked up anchor and headed for BBQ island in the east Holandes Cays. The anchorage right behind BBQ island looked a little exposed, so we ducked around behind the island just to the south called Banedup, which was a very calm and pleasant place to spend a few days. The snorkeling was not as good (although still enjoyable), but there were some big currents coming through channels in the outer reef that were kind of fun to swim in. Chapter 2 also generously lent us some paddle boards to go explore the reef and the beach. Janet and Pat from Chapter 2 discovered the boards also make pretty good wake boards behind the 12-foot inflatable dinghy with a 20 horsepower engine on it. John from Chapter 2 even gave the boys from Tahawus a surfing lesson on them. We also had a big picnic up on BBQ island on the 31st with the other BPO boats that came over from Martinique. It was nice to meet everyone and get to know our other traveling companions - of course it is a pretty fun and interesting group who self-selects for a circumnavigation. (But we are still partial to our little trio (Ransom, Chapter 2 and Tahawus) who have kept an eye on each other since Key West.) 

The biggest excitement of this location was the crocodile spotting - right where Pip and Daphne had been snorkeling not an hour before!

Our next destination was Green Island, but when we headed over there on Feb. 2 it was pretty crowded, so we decided to head east 12 miles to Los Grullos. The anchorage was very exposed there, so we went south and through a (very shallow and narrow!) cut in a circular reef into a little anchorage behind Gunboat Island. The guidebook told us this island was uninhabited, but that was definitely not the case. It seems some entrepreneurial locals have decided to take advantage of cruisers, and came out to charge us $10. We protested, because we had already paid for our cruising permit which is supposed to cover the entire area, plus we had no intention of going ashore, but the conversation escalated very quickly and we ended up paying to avoid any trouble. Needless to say, we do NOT recommend going there to any future visitors. The next day we picked up the hook and got out of there early, heading to the Lemmon Cays. Again though, they were quite crowded and there was no room for us at the inn, as they say. We decided to head up to Chichime, where the inside anchorage had space for us but was quite exposed to the wind, which was blowing about 20 kts. We opted for the more protected outside anchorage in the lee of the island. The snorkeling wasn't great, and as there is not much else to do, we decided to head out of the San Blas the next day and explore a few places on the Panamanian coast before heading to Colon on the 8th.

So on February 4th we headed out in 20-25 knots of breeze for Isla Grande, about 40 miles to the west of the San Blas islands. It was quite rolly, but with the breeze behind us, a reefed jib and our mizzen we were averaging about 7 knots, and it was a good sail. We decided against the eastern entrance to Isla Grande harbor, which on the chart had a few sets of rocks that we couldn't see in the water, and headed around to the western entrance behind Tahawus and Chapter 2. There was not much going on there when Pip and Daphne ventured ashore in the afternoon with Chapter 2 - supposedly it gets pretty rowdy with weekenders from Panama City. The Ransom crew braved it anyway and enjoyed a truly lovely dinner at a hostel/restaurant, the name of which ends in Pasteles (of course we forgot to write it down), right on the beach. The next day we ventured behind Linton Island to check out the harbor down there, and then headed up the coast again. With a nice easterly breeze at 10-12 knots on our tail, we hoisted the 160 genoa for the extremely pleasant 5-mile run to Portobelo – we even beat Tahawus down here!

We enjoyed the past few days in the relatively active town - dining out, meeting such characters as Captain Jack (whose boat was featured on Fantasy Island), and exploring the town and its forts, which date back to the 17th century and tell the stories of gold and silver, the Spanish fighting off the English and the Dutch and the pirates, the Black Christ, and the Congo culture. Pip, Ceci and Daphne, along with John and Sue from Chapter 2, ventured into the rainforest with our guide Jason, and, despite the torrential downpour, saw monkeys, toucans, colorful and poisonous spiders, and learned a ton about the local ecology and various flora and fauna.

Saturday night featured another fantastic dinner at Captain Jack’s with the crews of Lovesail, No Regrets, and Maggie, followed by a dance party in the main square to the beat of some talented local drummers to kick off the start of Carnaval (and by dance party I mean Tim getting down with his bad self while the rest of us bopped demurely on the sidelines).

On Sunday we made our way down to Shelter Bay Marina, weaving among the dozens of anchored cargo ships and narrowly ducking the one that was moving right at us before darting through the massive breakwaters that mark the entrance to the Panama Canal. All of the other boats in the rally are here, and we will spend a week getting various repairs done and provisioning before heading through the canal next weekend.