Australia day in the San Blas Islands
26 January 2015 | vegemite snacks, meat pies with tomato sauce, ANZAC biscuits and damper
similar weather to at home – bye skies and sunshine
IMAGE: oz day party
We set off from Curacao on Sunday 18th January with an excellent weather window. There are notoriously very strong winds off the Colombian coast that can make this a difficult passage. We had backpacked extensively throughout South America in the early 80’s and extensively through Colombia – so unlike most of those doing this westward sail we therefore had no need to stop off in Colombia and instead make a direct passage to Panama and therefore miss the most of the ‘Colombian Hole’ worst weather. On departing Spanish Waters about 12noon, we had full main and full genoa on a good downwind ride. The towing generator as working well - pumping in the amps and the Windvane was steering the boat very well. By the evening, off Dutch island of Aruba, our AIS as full of anchored ships – something we weren’t expecting. Thankfully we could identify and monitor them clearly, and more importantly, as a small yacht we come up on their reciprocal systems – a much less stressful experience for us. By Monday 19th, as forecast the winds dropped off a little and we were very keen to continue making good progress – so we put the spinnaker up for most of the afternoon and into the evening, until the wind picked up about 1am. Tuesday 20th morning 4 flying fish had ‘landed’ themselves on our deck overnight – we don’t have a line out at night for safety reasons. Couldn’t update our weather info via our usual system on the Satellite Phone, apparently we had no credit left. Our 2nd option for getting weather info is to listen in to the Chris Parker SSB broadcasts – but that didn’t work either due to low battery power! – other than that all well on-board, with wind now a steady 20-23 knots. As always on passage we both fill our time reading books, I was reading Frankie – the autobiography of Frankie Dettori – a good read.The wind picked up on Wednesday 21st as we expected – 25-28 gusting to 30, and we were trucking along with only 235 miles to go and making good speed. By 6pm we had 173 miles to go and had recorded 160 miles for the previous 24 hours.... a great run! Thursday 22nd was our final on passage day, and night – we now have to slow the boat down so not to arrive at the Islands before first light tomorrow – so much more rolly at reduced speed. Now with ¾ main and ¼ genoa and the wind N/NE 18-20 knots. We had a good SSB chat with Roger to confirm our route in and their location. All- in-all we had a very good passage. Thankfully the previous rough and very windy weather off Colombia over the past few weeks had abated just at the right time for this direct trip. The grib files, and my research had proved reliable – 650 miles over 5 days, with the Hydrovane wind steering us all the way. We only used the autopilot when we needed an extra pair of hands for gybing and getting the spinnaker up and down. The boat sailed very well with the wind from the aft 90% of the way, with both the main and genoa poled out. At first light on Friday 23rd the small low lying palm tree island ‘dots’ started to appear, and by 7.30am at sunrise we were motoring in through the passage through the reef. We had VHF calls from both Koza & Ednbal – it was great to get these welcome calls from our fellow Aussie mates. By 9am, with our Panama courtesy flag now up, we were safely tucked up and anchored behind our 1st San Blas island - Chichime – all very remote and idyllic. We put the boat in order, had breakfast and lovely hot shower and then a few hours nap. The pilot book advice is to move carefully through there shallow and narrow coral channels only with good overhead light – so by early afternoon we motored a few miles to join Roger & Sasha on Ednbal and Carola and Jim on Koza at anchor off Yansaladup. It’s so lovely to be here and so warmly welcomed by our friends. We all met up on Ednbal for afternoon drinks and then James & I stayed for dinner onboard Ednbal – enjoying some fresh fish caught yesterday by Roger. After a few drinks, a great meal and lots and lots of chat we really crashed out and both had a full nights sleep – out 1st for 5 nights. On Saturday 24th we were both pinching ourselves and now truly believing we were here in these idyllic Panamanian islands. Ednbal, Koza and La Aventura had a rubbish run today – here in the San Blas islands it’s a rubbish burn! The guys lit a fire in the base of a cut down coconut tree and we were successfully able to burn all our passage rubbish – great to get rid of the non-perishable rubbish from our passage and get it off the boat. We all met ashore on Yansaladup Island for a wander of the small island. We met 2 German backpackers who chose to come to this island for 3 months solitude and really into kite surfing are currently the only guests on the currently being built tourist facility, all very, very basic - sleeping in hammocks, and cooking over an open fire. The 3 men – the island owners are currently building the toilet facilities. The in-ground bath with ‘fresh’ filtered seawater was interesting! The whole scene was very Robinson Crusoe’ ish. By midday the fresh food boat was visiting all the boats in the anchorage, what a great experience – the Kuna version of fresh food home delivery service. 3 men with a wooden dugout tied up alongside and their boat was full of various fresh produce, water and beer. They spoke Spanish – and thankfully with my very basic, limited Spanish and lots of hand gestures we managed to successfully carry out the transaction. I asked one of the 3 boat men to record the item and price as I purchased bananas, potatoes, green & red peppers, melon, carrots, celery and a pumpkin- all for $25US – a wonderful personal memento. Most items were purchased by the weight on a scale and tray hung from the stern of the wooden canoe. Our 3 yacht convoy moved on by mid afternoon, carefully following the waypoint route through the coral and shallow passes to the Australia Day rendezvous at Naguarchirdup Island. We passed a steel yacht hard up on the reef – a stark reminder that great care with navigation is needed all the time here. We arrived into the anchoring area to be welcomed by Miss Molly – Monica & Phil whom we last met up with approx 1 year ago in the BVI’s. We had a very enjoyable reunion/get-together on Miss Molly – the last time all 4 boats and crews were together was in Marmaris, Turkey in 2010. Monica had prepared a very tasty marinated tuna snack for all 9 of us – Phil had caught the tuna that day – it was absolutely fantastic! Life is good with good company and lots of banter. After our weekly Sunday treat - cooked breakfast, we had quiet day catching up with diary, boat jobs etc. We all met up for a reece ashore in the afternoon to the party venue for tomorrow - Elephante Island. This small sand and palm tree island is only the size of a football pitch and has only a few families living on it, with their income coming from this island being known as a party island with a bar and internet connection – the only one in the area.
Monday 26th – Australia Day. At 3pm on the big day with 5 Australian boats plus us– Southern Comfort, Koza, Ednbal, Merewra and Thinking of Dave were joined by about 40 other yachts / therefore about 120 people on Elephante Island in the West Lemon Cays. Sasha prepared the meat pies, Koza ANZAC biscuits, Merewra a large Damper and we supplies 3 trays of vegemite snacks. With Men at Work blasting out from the Bar it was lots of fun, dancing, drinking and chatting from about 3pm till late into the evening.