AlexandrA comes home

Hello to all from you new scribe on the good ship lolly pop.

Arriving at Colon, the Caribbean sea entrance and berthing at Shelter Bay Marina saw for three of the crew, the most continuous time at sea. Starting with calmish seas leaving Dominica to the peak conditions with 36 knots and what I would describe as concerning large seas (after vomiting with adrenalin at just over the half way point), to the glass water that greeted us at Colon.

Shelter Bay Marina, a very modern by what we have experienced, with approximately 100 yachts of all shapes and sized with there all shapes and sizes crews to match. We arrived only to stagger as if drunk while walking on shore as we all had our sea legs. The motion of the boat, at the start being foreign, had become comfortable as the land lubber had gone to sea.

We had anticipated a 5 day wait to transit the canal so our agent was with us to do the paperwork within hours. That 5 changed to 8 immediately and then by the next day, was 14 days from when the boat is measured by the official measurer, which was to be the following day. Well completely our of our control with a new crew, Anne, we pondered what to do with our time. Peter, a fellow yachtie Max had met in St Martin had recommended an adjacent river for a visit.

Back out we sailed and up the Chargris river we headed. Slowly we approached the entrance as we had been advised of a reef to the East. Puttering in under both motors on slow we rounded the winding mouth to a glass covered water way with the jungle canopy touching the waters edge. Winding up the river, our mouths open like fly traps to its beauty. Deep water all the way up the centre was comforting so there was no latent fear of running aground. Waiving to fellow yachties we passed enroute we travelled upwards, each new bend as picturesque as the previous, what a spot to hide for a time.

Having trailed 2 fishing lines the entire trip including up the river we still had no fish for dinner.

The noises from the jungle had me scoffing Max who said that they were monkeys until the following day when the tree branches could be seen to be moving and there was no wind. Voila! What one would call black spider monkeys with white faces. We suspect from the noises they are howler monkeys. I cannot describe the immense noise coming from these small primates, a gorilla should have trouble making such a loud deep howl. At day break and night fall, like a rooster, they would howl.

Two days up the river saw us make our way off towards the San Blass islands, supposedly a picturesque cay set of islands back to the East from when we had transited. We called to Porta Bello for the night along they way and most importantly snagged a 1m long Barracuda, at last a bloody Fish! We entered and anchored a well sheltered bay and set straight to work work how to turn our new 1.1m fish into steaks. What do tradesmen do in a situation where we were unable to cut through the bone of such a big fish, reach for the DeWalt reciprocating saw! Hey that made it easy, 15 steaks later in the fridge and set to go.

A tour of Porta Bello the next day had us educated that this Port in the 1500's was a main Spanish stronghold with 1/3 of the worlds gold passing through here. We walked through the three forts, one high on a hill, all with their cannons still in place. The one at the township had Vultures perched on its wall, ugly buggers, like a big black flying turkey! One could also count nearly 100 eagles flying in the thermals above, not small eagles either, reminiscent of looking up at a wedge tail at home.

Leaving the town after a western luxury, a Pepsi, and paying our $1 fee for using someone's private jetty we headed out to sea.

The next bay around the point saw us stay here the next night and then the following to the San Blass. Better too, another barracouta to match the first. Exactly the same size, 1.2m how about that? As we had plenty of coota we let him go. Bang again! Another two fish, this time Wahoo, we kept on and let the other go. How goods this, fish to catch!

We had been recommended by another yachty in Shelter Bay to visit the Holidays group of islands within the San Blass. We chose from our maps a safe island with a good anchorage. We had 8 fellow cruisers anchored on arrival. Pictures can only describe the grace of this sand cay. We swam off the pure white powdered sand into clear warm water to the best shore dive I have ever done, colourful fish, beautiful corals, both hard and soft. Drifting within a large school of black and dark blue fish was a highlight for me. This is as good as it gets.

We spent the next four days walking various other islands and snorkelling. The green grocer came to our boat in his dugout with scales hanging from a makeshift pole. We purchased mangos, pineapple, watermelon, chillies and cucumber, how cool. The last day we ventured back to the fist island for another snorkel. Again this magical reef did not disappoint, even this time having another one of our 1.2m barracudas hover with us in the shallows, maybe the one the previous days we released saying thanks, a seriously big fish to be in the water with, quite scary looking with a big undercut jaw and needle teeth perturbing.

Well back at Shelter Bay Marina at the moment, we have confirmation that our transit is tomorrow being Friday at 1500. We will report in on this adventure shortly.

Mark