Sailing from St Andres to the San Blas Islands is approx. 250 NM.  For us this means less than 2 days sailing comfortably.  Leave super early, sail overnight, and arrive before the sun sets.

Many ships congregate on this path to transit the Panama Canal.  We kept a good lookout and relied heavily on our instruments to keep us safe.  You want to hope that someone is on deck of these big ships especially at night watching their instruments, but don’t rely on it.

This is an example of what we studied on our chart plotter and in daylight saw. We are the black boat and the lines show the projected tracks.  When you click on the white boat it pulls up important info like they’re course and heading, how close they will be, and time until it’s as close as it will be, barring a course change by either of us, and how big and fast it is.

Sometimes they are too close for comfort and we change course.

Often we get stowaways and this bird was doing a balancing act on the forward cleat while we bounced in waves.  I was able to get really close to take photos. We name all birds who join us Petey.

Once we got past the Canal it was time to weave our way into the islands that are surrounded by reefs.  It should never be entered at night and we had enough daylight but it was overcast.  Our Panama cruising guides helped us navigate the trickiest bits.  Completely depending on electronic charts is a bad idea in places like this.  You must look, use cruising guides, and check the chart plotter. One good thing about Navionics though, they are updated when someone tracks the bottom. And cruisers can make notes and share info.  When we arrived at our destination we were nestled in a protected little area with only 3 other boats.

 

The surrounding islands were small and serene.

We saw no buildings, only a grass hut and some whales bones near a beach.

One boat was clearly a charter making lots of noise, music blaring, for such a quiet peaceful location.  Luckily the next morning it departed and we got to see and feel how special and unspoiled this area is.

Eric found a bar where evidently tourists are brought over and served drinks.  I’m sitting at a chair and table made of tree stumps.  It’s a long haul to get here by boat but definitely worth it.

The chief rowed over to collect $10 for his Kuna tribe. His kayak is no doubt a gift or lucky find, the paddle home grown.

Launching our Kona SUP’s that double as windsurfers we took off for some exploration.

So many little islands with sandy beaches and reefs everywhere!

On our travels we met the owners of another yacht hailing from New York.  He used to be a stock broker in NYC, she was originally from England and a hair dresser, and after they met they bought a boat, sailed south, and stopped.  They’ve been here for 20 years!  Talk about finding paradise and staying put.  I should have written their names down and taken notes so I apologize for this but they were lovely.  She took us snorkeling a couple days later after we had them over for sundowners.  They returned the sundowners on their boat with the only other couple in the sweet little bay.

BBQ Island got it’s nickname from Mr NYC when he started hosting a Friday BBQ every week.  We were off season so no BBQ but it was nice getting to know them without a crowd.  Now he spends his time collecting trash on the islands and she snorkels each and every day and collects tiny little creatures to feed her fish in her aquarium.  This was a first.  No cat, no dog, no bird, but fish as pets. LOL

Good story.  As Eric and I are getting a ride out to the reef she tells us a few weeks ago several friends got together and went to this reef at night.  One person yelled “blowfish”, and a few seconds later another yelled ‘Crocodile!”.  Everyone thought he was joking but went over to where he was pointing his flashlight and they all shone theirs. Low and behold there was a big croc laying on the bottom.  When all the lights hit him he opened wide and they took off, almost walking on water to the dinghy!  She tells us this as we are about to take the plunge in.  Dios Mio!

The following day we take the dinghy to an island with many huts. BTW these natives don’t have electricity, are not allowed to marry outside their Kuna people, and are very sweet, short, shy yet friendly.  Or maybe tolerant ism the word? They live off the sea and profit from visitors who buy their molas and bring them gifts.  It is a matriarchal society. The men fish and the women sew the molas which are colorful artworks made of fabrics woven together to create pictures of nature or other designs.  We brought sewing needles, fabric and long sleeve shirts that help with mosquitos.

It was fascinating to check out their huts and see how life used to be in a simpler time.

Whale bones and art from the sea.

Eric loved checking out their canoes which were hollowed out trees.

And I loved meeting the people. Little batman is with his grammy who is in charge of this tribe. Check out the beads around her legs and arms.

My kids bought me a Polaroid camera so next time we go I’m going to give them photos, not just take them.

Once a week a boat comes out with food for the cruisers.  They can place orders and in our case I just looked to see what they had and bought some fruit and veggies.

All in all a trip of a lifetime.  We loved it so much we will return on our way to the canal after we depart from Colombia in January 2020.

The Polaroid camera needs some love!