Sunday, 9th of March, we had rain for the first time in months. We closed the hatches for the few minutes that it lasted. Today, we were planning to sail to Isla Porvenir, 20 miles west of Holland Cays, where we would attempt to check in, or stay for the night under the yellow flag, even though we had already spent one night in Panamanian waters. Just before 8am, we weighed anchor, a little nervously, given our proximity to the reef and then slowly made our way out of the anchorage, slipping through the narrow gap in the reef. We crossed an open stretch of deep water and then slowed to negotiate more reefs around the small islands as we headed south and west to find the open water channel between the groups of islands. The scenery was spectacular, just what you expect from the Caribbean, with turquoise waters and palm-fringed beaches. As we progressed, we noted the many anchorages around the area. It seemed that you could anchor anywhere where you could get in through the reefs, that was shallow enough. One catamaran was anchored just off a tiny coral spit. It took us an hour to reach deep, open water, at which point we lost no time in raising both sails, for our first beam reach (wind on the side of the boat) in many months. With 8 to 10 knots of wind, we were flying along, on a gentle sea, at 7 to 8 mph. Muirgen was loving it and so were we. Having passed through the Eden Channel, in Lemon Cays, we rolled away the gib, put the engine on and turned head to wind to drop the mainsail. Then we motored the short distance towards Isla Porvenir. We hadn't gone far when the engine alarm went off, telling us that the engine was overheating. I turned it off and Pete put out the gib, so I had some steerage while he went below to check out the problem. I was nervous, as there were reefs around and after yesterday, I didn't fully trust the charts. Cue dolphins; always there to take the stress out of a situation. An old dark grey one, with a ragged fin surfaced alongside me, as if to say, 'it's ok'. Then two more arrived on the port side and just as Pete emerged up the companion way, they jumped in the air in perfect synchronicity. Anti-freeze topped up, we restarted the engine and turned back towards Porvenir. The depths this time were accurate and we safely made our way through the reefs to drop anchor just west of the runway, which runs the length of the island. Even as we dropped the anchor, we were surrounded by local dugout canoes, full of women wanting to sell us Guna Yala flags, handmade bags and bracelets. We managed to show them that we had no cash, only credit cards and they eventually returned to the shore. We lowered the dinghy into the water and with our papers, we rowed the very short distance to the shore, pulling the dinghy up onto the beach. Our first stop was immigration. It was just after midday but they weren't closed for lunch. After a short wait, we were admitted to clear in and our passports were stamped. We were told that we would still need to go to Linton to clear customs and obtain our Panama cruising permit but we could stay here overnight at anchor. Our next stop was the Guna Yala Congressional Council, where we paid US$45 for a San Blas cruising permit, plus $20 per person in tourist tax. The cruising permit cost rises with the size of the boat. We now had some change, so we found the women from the canoes, under the trees and purchased a Guna Yala flag. They had asked for $20 but Pete offered $15 and they all clamoured for it, so we probably could have bought it for much less. They also asked for water, so we took a young boy and a number of pop bottles back to the boat with us, to fill from our supplies. We put the watermaker on and later sent more water over. Another dugout canoe approached us with a man paddling and a young, pregnant woman bailing water. The man, Nestor, spoke decent English and turned out to be someone who had responded to one of my questions on Facebook. HIs wife was called Caroline. Nestor appeared to be the go between for selling goods and services from the island opposite, which was covered in Guna houses. He said he could get us a sim card and cards for credit. We gave him US$40 and he went off, saying he would return in 30 minutes. Fingers crossed! An hour later, he was back, this time with his son and mother-in-law in the canoe. He had our sim, the credit cards and the $6 change but he didn't know how to set it all up for us and the instructions were in Spanish. He said he had a friend on shore who could help, so he tied his canoe to the stern of our boat and Pete rowed him ashore. Meanwhile, I was left with the mother-in-law and the little boy. I gave them lollipops and water and we had a little conversation, exchanging names and commenting on the heat. I understood that the boy had school tomorrow and needed a new pencil, which I was able to provide, along with some writing paper. Pete and Nestor returned and the phone was working. We sent messages to let people know we had arrived. The email had come back with the barcode for the Panama cruising permit, so I sent the barcode to the next email address to confirm the price. Hopefully we would have a response in the morning. Overnight, there was a strong breeze and we rolled a little bit at anchor, with the swell coming through the small gap in the reef to the northwest. I surprisingly felt a little chilly and had to pull a blanket over me.
On Monday morning we were up at 6am, first light and were away twenty minutes later. We could have breakfast on the run. It was 50 miles to Linton, with nowhere to stop on the way and we didn't want to arrive in the dark. We navigated the reef and then turned into the wind and waves and motored up beyond the shallows, before raising the mainsail, quickly followed by the gib, as we turned to port. We would have our second beam reach in two days and it looked like we had a healthy current behind us too. We had a consistent 10 knots of wind, from the north, or northeast, throughout the sail and our speed over the ground was over 6 knots, sometimes 7. At 0845 hours, we narrowly avoided a large log in the water and just after 9am we were hit by a heavy squall and the window in the aft heads started leaking profusely. We were out of arbor seal, so would need to find something to fix the leaks when we arrived in Linton. We had been told, by Graeme, that the marine shop there was excellent. For now, we stuffed kitchen paper under the leak. There was an area of shoals and shallow reefs, which we passed through cautiously, having elected not to go around to the north or south and we had no incidents. Around lunchtime, we were slowly passed by Elation, a 56 foot sailboat, with a possible 5 sails - spinnaker, 2 foresails, main and mizzen. They were flying the spinnaker, main and mizzen but they weren't going much faster than us. The scenery here was amazing and much like Indonesia, with tree covered islands rising out of the sea, along the shore. Soon after, we were in sight of Linton Marina, through the gap east of Linton Island. However, we were heading over the top of the island to approach from the west, which looked less hazardous. At 1315 hours, we rolled away the gib and put the engine on soon after, as we turned southwest but we waited until we were in the shelter of the island before turning head to wind to drop the main, as there was less swell. We passed a rather strange lookout tower, which also acted as a buoy marking a reef and then another one further round the corner. Then we could see all the yachts at anchor in the bay and we could hear the howler monkeys in the trees on the mainland. We cruised around but found the water to be very deep. We prefer to anchor in shallow water, with our CQR and maximum 50 metres of chain. Eventually we found a spot, close under the island and dropped in around 5 metres, reversing back into 10 to 12 metres. We could see the reef closer to shore but hopefully we were far enough away. It was very sheltered from the wind here and it didn't look like the wind would turn to blow from the south. It was 1410 hours, so we had made excellent time, having anticipated a 10 hour sail and it had been relaxing and enjoyable too. We put the dinghy in and mounted the outboard engine and motored over to the marina, taking care to avoid the reefs and shallow areas and tied up at the dinghy dock. We found the customs and immigration office, in a container at the back of the yard. Immigration told us we were already stamped in at Porvenir and that the customs guy wasn't in today, so to come back tomorrow. She said he would also be able to arrange our cruising permit, which sounded easier than going through the other 4 steps to obtain it 'online'. We were ready for a beer and were directed to the fuel station which had a shop selling cold drinks and a few tables outside, under an awning. It wasn't salubrious but it was cheap at a dollar a can. Back on board, we had a dip, in the cool, crystal clear water, then cooked mince and onions, with roast potatoes for tea. There were bugs about, so we put the nets in and closed the side hatches. It rained for 3 minutes and was then rather humid. Down in the saloon, it was really hot as there was no breeze. The batteries were flat again, so we couldn't have the fans on, so we sweated until 2am when there was an odd breath of air and eventually we could sleep. I heard many noises during the night, being owls, monkeys and maybe a pack of dogs howling. We didn't turn and touch the reef.