The San Blas islands are so beautiful! Most of them are uninhabited, but even the majority of the ones that aren't are incredibly unspoilt. The locals here are Cuna Indians, who guard the islands' beauty. So far, they're doing a fab job.

But, of course, it's difficult to appreciate the beauty of a reef of uninhabited islands alone. Luckily for me, I've met just the right person to share the joy with here. You know who you are... that's right, I'm talkin' about you, Coleen.
Coleen and her mum, Mary, live on a boat together, and have been sailing for 8 years [!]. She's an amazing friend. We were in Swimming Pool (that's seriously the name of the anchorage) together for a while, and also met up with some old friends from Grenada: Steve from Slow Flight (who fostered Sky for a few weeks before we took her in) and Janice and Dave from Livin' Life. We stayed with them all for a while before we had to up anchor and make our way to Shelter Bay Marina in time for the Oyster World Rally in Panama. We would be coming back to San Blas afterwards.

Our first stop in mainland Panama was Isla Linton, in a large bay. There, we coincidentally met up with Desiderata, an Ocean Cruising Club boat we first met in Bonaire. Seeing Julie and Stewart for the first time in three months was a wonderful surprise.

We upped anchor the next day and sailed to Portobello, to spend one more night before we would reach Shelter Bay Marina in time for the Oyster event. We'll visit Portobello again after we leave Shelter Bay, so more on it then.

I posted a blog entry which I wrote for the Oyster magazine about the event, so if you want to read more about it, you can find it in my previous blog entries.

We stayed in the marina for about a week. I found out about a yoga class in the marina's lounge, so I went along to it, and it was great. This man called Cliff was doing the instructing. He had one of those kinds of relaxing voices that echo out, mingling with the calming music in the background, and make you obey his commands by instinct. I suppose it's just that your brain's so light and fuzzy while you're concentrating on nothing but your breathing and moving your body.
There was also a lovely big green field for Sky to run around in. I think she really enjoyed Shelter Bay, making a few fellow dog friends there. Friends and exercise - what more could an irritating little mutt like Sky want?

On the day of the Oyster lunch up at Fort San Lorenzo, Paul was going through the Panama Canal from the Atlantic to the Pacific with another OCC boat called Nautilus, who you might remember me mentioning in my post of Cartagena. He had volunteered to help them with "line-handling" (helping to throw lines and pull them back in at locks), and it would take them a day and a half to get through the canal. On the second day of their journey, Mum and I decided to go to the lock separating the canal from the open Pacific Ocean, and watch them come through.
We took the bus to the Panama Canal Museum, which overlooked the lock. The journey took two hours, but it was worth it when we got there. We explored the museum, which contained a lot of interesting information about the canal. I never knew it was tunnelled out, for the benefit of an easier passage from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean, and vice versa. The original construction was completed in 1909, and developments have been made ever since, and the canal is still being adjusted to this day. We learned about the mechanics of the canal, the wildlife within and around it, and watched a ten-minute film about the lock through the years.
For ages before three thirty, Mum and I stood on the lock watch area in the museum, debating whether or not we'd be able to see Nautilus in time for us to catch our bus back to the boat. Mum checked Marine Traffic (a website that detects all vessels around the world if they have their AIS on) every minute. She was so desperate to see them come through I wondered about snatching the phone off her and calling for a mental asylum. I was sorely tempted to when she eventually saw Nautilus in person - or boat, whatever. She started waving frantically at them as though she had not seen them in years. I was so glad I was in a very crowded area, so I could pretend that I was one of the many people staring at this maniac, not having a clue who in the world she was. Still, I will admit it was pretty exciting watching them motor into the lock, tied to another similar-sized yacht. I'm glad we managed to see them after a long hour of waiting.
We didn't have to worry about a bus in the end. After collecting Paul and Dave from Nautilus and bidding Stephanie and Ian "fair winds" (some sort of nautical parting greeting), we all caught a taxi back to Shelter Bay.

We headed off back to Portobello after leaving Shelter Bay, and spent a couple of nights there. We took the dog for a walk in the morning. There were two old forts in the town. One was literally covered in vegetation, and the other had mostly fallen down.

We headed straight back to the San Blas Islands after Portobello, and spent a a week or so in the anchorage of Green Island. Most afternoons after I'd finished my schoolwork, I went over to Glass Slipper to play on the swing they had put up with a whisker-pole, some ropes, and one of Delphinus's fenders. Coleen and I had a whacking great time together. With her permission, I might put up a video or two of the occasion. Would that be acceptable, Coleen?

As well as that, I've also been classified as the "Worst Dinghy Driver Ever". Officially. Coleen wrote it in our guestbook.
Basically, we had invited Coleen over for a pizza night (and no, there aren't any pizzerias in San Blas that we know of; ours are freshly homemade by Mum), so I volunteered to take the dinghy around to Glass Slipper. Because they were halfway out in the bay, I had to use the outboard. Although I'm used to the new outboard we bought in Grenada, I think it was my first time using it on our new, extra-long NOAV... sorry, AVON (the label on the dinghy's upside down right now, so from my perspective it looks like it's written NOAV) dinghy. I either rammed into Glass Slipper and bounced right off (it's an inflatable dinghy, so no harm done), or completely missed the hull and had to go round again. Coleen was watching and laughing at me, very mean of her. But she wasn't watching when I successfully put the engine on neutral and took hold of the hull gracefully the next afternoon!

We had great fun together up until our final week in the San Blas Islands was over and we had to set off to San Andres. At the same time, Coleen and Mary were going to be flying to America for a while. I hope she has a great time, while we enjoy San Andres.

And that, my friends, concludes this San Blas blog post. See you all in San Andres!