I have another blog not yet posted that you will want to read about, but I need wifi to post it. This blog is being sent via single sideband raidio (SSB). The San Blas Islands may not be at the end of the world, but I am pretty sure you can see it from here! Anyhow, check it out the other blog when we get to Colon, Panama around Apr. 15.

So we ended up at Swimming Pool Anchorage at BBQ Island -- a favorite spot of yachties in this area. We wanted to check it out and do a little snorkeling. We ended up staying there an extra day due to torrential rains that ended up filling up our aft water tank. (We opened up the fill hole in the deck and just let the water run in!!) BBQ Island was pretty cool. Very small -- you can walk around it in about 10 min. There is a shack on the island where some Kuna indian has moved into. Each base of the coconut trees is lined with conch shells the "inhabitant" fishes out of the sea.

What was striking was when he and his friend arrived -- via dugout canoe -- to their humble shack made of a few sturdy sticks and palm fronds. Here they are in this most basic of simplicity in their lifestyle....talking on a cell phone! The whole scene bordered on surreal.

We jetted from there over to Rio Azucar to fill up on water. The spinnaker ride was so incredible! We never get to sail in flat water and it was really special. I had a gas kicking along at 7.5-8k in 14k of breeze with the kite up. But when we got to Rio Azucar we found out they were out of water and told us to come back tomorrow afternoon. It is like that in much of the world -- you just hope you catch them on a lucky day when the water is on. We'll go back tomorrow, but there is only a 50/50 chance of us filling with water. No problem. We have enough to last 2-3 days more.

After Rio Azucar we motored over to Nargana and its sister island, Corazon de Jesus, at the mouth of Rio Diablo. The poverty here is near an all time low. But the people seem to be happy and content and really, isn't that all that matters? We got some provisions, but we're not sure we can survive 6 days or so on them. Should be interesting. Everything around here is so primitive! Great place to visit; wouldn't want to live here!!

We'll hang here until around the 14th, then sail over to Colon, Panama. I need to file taxes before Jim and Sue join us to help us transit the canal.