Well, today was an interesting day, from start to finish.

Yesterday and last evening, we were anchored at a beautiful anchorage between two islands in the West Hollandes chain of islands. Everything was great, the snorkeling, the islands, the reefs, the weather, the food, etc. We had to pinch ourselves to realize this was real and how lucky we were to be here. We had set our anchor near a reef but downwind of it, and as the day progressed, the boat swung nearer to the reef so we could swim both to the reef and to the sand beach just beyond it. The snorkeling was some of the best we had seen on any of the island reefs, so we enjoyed the afternoon and seeing beautiful reef fish and coral.

About 6 PM, it seemed we might be a little too close to the shallow reef if the wind shifted 180 degrees to the south, which of course it never does, or at least had not done so in the past month. After thinking and talking about this, we pulled up our anchor and moved farther out, so that if we did swing we definitely would not hit the reef. Sure enough, we woke up at 5:30AM with the boat facing 180 degrees opposite from the night before, a change that would have been grounded us on the reef had we not decided to change anchor locations the night before. Sometimes you just have a feeling!

The snorkeling in the West Hollandes was great, but Internet coverage was lousy, and we had several reasons to improve that situation, and as well we needed more water and some supplies. Determined not to repeat our experience at Tupile, we lifted anchor early and sailed the 16 nautical miles back to Nargana with a stop at Rio Azucar to refill our water tanks (about 5 hours of travel time in all). At Nargana, we bought provisions, gasoline, and more water, and we learned from our friend Federico that a fellow cruiser was coming in with a medical emergency.

I won’t go into detail about the injury, but it was serious and happened in a second while on their boat. Ironically they were also anchored in the West Hollandes, and after the accident they also had to sail from the West Hollandes to Nargana to get medical care. I had offered by radio to be an interpreter for them when they arrived at the Hospital Clinic and my offer was immediately accepted as neither the doctor nor the nurse attending to the injury spoke English, nor did the couple speak Spanish. So I spent a few hours in the Kuna Yala equivalent of the Emergency Room, and helped the couple figure out their situation and their options for followup. In the end, the clinic and doctor in Nargana provided excellent emergency care, but clearly an evacuation by airplane to Panama City the following morning was needed, as the runway at Nargana has no lights for landings and takeoffs during the night. Federico helped to arrange the travel on the 6:30AM flight and secured them a space on what was undoubtedly a full flight. We hope all will go well with additional treatment in Panama City.