The last week has been super fun. Dale and Becca are still here, and we’ve been having a blast together. Our first sail wasn't all sunshine and lollipops though, and a big squall blew over us as we were trying to race it to our anchorage. The squall won. Garth started the engine in an attempt to get us there faster, but it promptly died. The little bits of silicone from the Las Perlas strike again (If you haven’t been following our dramas), we had to take the top off our fuel tank. When we resealed it and screwed all the screws in, tiny bits of silicone hung off the ends of each screw and eventually made it into our fuel tank. They're just big enough to block our fuel intake pipe, so the engine keeps cutting out at inappropriate times).
Garth went downstairs to try and fix the engine, and the seas got rough as the wind picked up. We were not prepared for big weather sailing. We were prepared for a few hours of being slightly heeled over on a beam reach. There are reefs everywhere and it's hard to tell where - we’re using a combination of different charts because lots of the electronic ones are wrong. And there's no gps signal flashing up on the pages of our Bauhaus guide to Panama. It has perfect charts for everything but they're hard to figure out when the boat is overpowered, we’re heading very quickly towards little islands and our solar panels are getting blown around in strong winds. Luckily we had Dale to steer for us while I tried to hold onto the panels (they kept flipping up on the high side). We tacked back and forth for maybe an hour while we waited for the squall to pass and for Garth to fix the engine. We finally had everything under control, but it was the most dangerous situation we’ve been in for quite a while. Luckily we had some friendly dolphins jumping alongside us for a while to distract Becca from getting too seasick. So I guess our efforts to drain the fuel tank and filter it back in while we were in shelter Bay were for nothing …
So happy to have our friends back!
We anchored by a little island in the West Holandes island group for a day. More snorkelling, more relaxing. The boys found lots of tunnels to swim through and we all all had a great time. After being on the boat for over a week, we had lots of rubbish we had to get rid of so we had a beach day on the island to burn it all. Becca and Dale had brought a hammock with them, so we put up both our hammocks and relaxed on the beach. We bought our hammock for our honeymoon three years ago and this was the first time we actually got to use it. It was really lovely lying around in the shade all day - we'll have to do it more often! The boys entertained themselves by trying to climb the coconut trees (even though it was a bit pointless seeing as you're not allowed to take coconuts off any trees in the San blas).
Man make fire!
Becca tries to open a coconut she found on on the ground
I live here now (Taken by Becca)
So beach day was a success. Over the next few days we just anchored next to little islands and enjoyed life. We went to a spot commonly referred to as the ‘Hot Tub’ which is a small area in the East Holandes cays around the corner from the ‘Swimming Pool.' As we were coming in we were quickly losing light and couldn't see the bottom very well. The reefs are well marked on our charts (though you never know if one is going to pop up in front of you somewhere!), but the sand banks weren't. We knew there were shallow patches everywhere so it was my job to stand on the bow and keep watch as normal. Except I'm beginning to doubt if there's any point in me always standing out in the hot sun at all. Normally I panic when there's coral underneath, and Garth just ignores me and keeps going wherever he wants to go. This time it was rapidly getting shallower so I told him to stop… to his credit he did slow down, but we hit the bottom in time with me yelling ‘you're seriously not going to fit through here!’ So lesson learned - if there's somebody on the bow watching that we don't hit anything, you should probably listen to them!
Beach fun
We managed to find a nice spot to anchor and went swimming near the outer reef the next day. The snorkeling was good but not amazing. We had a lot of fun playing around in the dinghy though, and found our first orange starfish. If you Google image search ‘starfish,’ it's pictures of these guys that will flood the first few pages of results. That's because we’re close to the USA now and it’s the orange ones that are in these waters. That's when it really hit home that we’ve crossed an entire ocean and are in a really new place. The starfish in the South Pacific are blue.
Bye Becca!
Dale found a conch when we were swimming. We’ve found lots of them before, but I remember Liesbet telling me in French Polynesia that it wasn't worth eating them unless you had a few. Getting them out of their shells is a mission. We only had one, but it was huge. Dale was adamant that he was going to prepare dinner for us, so he brought it back to the boat and set about getting it out of the shell. Conch are essentially giant snails with a huge claw. I wasn't sure about it all, but he smashed the flesh with a hammer until it was wafer thin, left it in lime juice for a few hours and then battered and fried the fritters. It was absolutely delicious! I thought it would be tough and snaily, but Dale’s conch was the best thing we’d eaten in awhile. He brought me a book called ‘An embarrassment of mangoes,’ which is a lovely story centered around food in the Carribean. It's filled with recipes, which is how we learned what to do with our giant snail sans Internet. I even made aioli to dip it in, which went back in the fridge. Lime juice and salt were the only extra flavours it needed.
Conch!
Extracting the conch
When we were done with that anchorage, we headed back out to where we’d gotten stuck on the San banks. A bit further along was a tiny sand island in the middle of nowhere, which we happily anchored next to. Our own little island! On the charts it’s marked as ‘Palm Island,’ but I'm guessing the palm tree got blown away. Somebody has brought a coconut over and placed it in between a barrier of driftwood, and it's slowly growing into a new tree. Hopefully one day it will fit it’s name again!
Loving our tiny, private island
It was really nice having our own island. Dale woke up early and paddled over to the beach, where he found a gazillion crabs going wild all over the sand. The view from our cockpit wasn't bad either, and we could have stayed for a lot longer if there weren't so many other things to see.
Snorkeling around the sand cay was amazing. It was one of my favourite spots in the whole of the San Blas, and one of the only places we could swim out straight from the boat. In between us and the island it was mostly sand, but all around the other side there was a huge reef that stretched out forever. The coral was both beautiful and healthy, and we found huge soft fans everywhere as well as spiraling towers of bright orange coral dotted throughout the reef.
Lots of coral (Taken by Becca)
Many fish (Taken by Becca)
There were so many fish! And so many of them were camouflaged. We kept finding huge lobsters hiding under rocks, and the trumpet fish were hiding vertically next to reedy soft coral because they blend in perfectly. I was staring down into some hard coral trying to chase one of my favourites (a bright blue fluorescent fish), when I noticed a tiny little spider looking thing hiding on one side of the coral. If the spiders have figured out how to chase me in the water as well as on land, we’re all doomed.
Scary spider crab
Sneaky lobster
Trumpet fish
Xxx Monique
Click here for more pictures!
Garth went downstairs to try and fix the engine, and the seas got rough as the wind picked up. We were not prepared for big weather sailing. We were prepared for a few hours of being slightly heeled over on a beam reach. There are reefs everywhere and it's hard to tell where - we’re using a combination of different charts because lots of the electronic ones are wrong. And there's no gps signal flashing up on the pages of our Bauhaus guide to Panama. It has perfect charts for everything but they're hard to figure out when the boat is overpowered, we’re heading very quickly towards little islands and our solar panels are getting blown around in strong winds. Luckily we had Dale to steer for us while I tried to hold onto the panels (they kept flipping up on the high side). We tacked back and forth for maybe an hour while we waited for the squall to pass and for Garth to fix the engine. We finally had everything under control, but it was the most dangerous situation we’ve been in for quite a while. Luckily we had some friendly dolphins jumping alongside us for a while to distract Becca from getting too seasick. So I guess our efforts to drain the fuel tank and filter it back in while we were in shelter Bay were for nothing …
We anchored by a little island in the West Holandes island group for a day. More snorkelling, more relaxing. The boys found lots of tunnels to swim through and we all all had a great time. After being on the boat for over a week, we had lots of rubbish we had to get rid of so we had a beach day on the island to burn it all. Becca and Dale had brought a hammock with them, so we put up both our hammocks and relaxed on the beach. We bought our hammock for our honeymoon three years ago and this was the first time we actually got to use it. It was really lovely lying around in the shade all day - we'll have to do it more often! The boys entertained themselves by trying to climb the coconut trees (even though it was a bit pointless seeing as you're not allowed to take coconuts off any trees in the San blas).
So beach day was a success. Over the next few days we just anchored next to little islands and enjoyed life. We went to a spot commonly referred to as the ‘Hot Tub’ which is a small area in the East Holandes cays around the corner from the ‘Swimming Pool.' As we were coming in we were quickly losing light and couldn't see the bottom very well. The reefs are well marked on our charts (though you never know if one is going to pop up in front of you somewhere!), but the sand banks weren't. We knew there were shallow patches everywhere so it was my job to stand on the bow and keep watch as normal. Except I'm beginning to doubt if there's any point in me always standing out in the hot sun at all. Normally I panic when there's coral underneath, and Garth just ignores me and keeps going wherever he wants to go. This time it was rapidly getting shallower so I told him to stop… to his credit he did slow down, but we hit the bottom in time with me yelling ‘you're seriously not going to fit through here!’ So lesson learned - if there's somebody on the bow watching that we don't hit anything, you should probably listen to them!
We managed to find a nice spot to anchor and went swimming near the outer reef the next day. The snorkeling was good but not amazing. We had a lot of fun playing around in the dinghy though, and found our first orange starfish. If you Google image search ‘starfish,’ it's pictures of these guys that will flood the first few pages of results. That's because we’re close to the USA now and it’s the orange ones that are in these waters. That's when it really hit home that we’ve crossed an entire ocean and are in a really new place. The starfish in the South Pacific are blue.
Dale found a conch when we were swimming. We’ve found lots of them before, but I remember Liesbet telling me in French Polynesia that it wasn't worth eating them unless you had a few. Getting them out of their shells is a mission. We only had one, but it was huge. Dale was adamant that he was going to prepare dinner for us, so he brought it back to the boat and set about getting it out of the shell. Conch are essentially giant snails with a huge claw. I wasn't sure about it all, but he smashed the flesh with a hammer until it was wafer thin, left it in lime juice for a few hours and then battered and fried the fritters. It was absolutely delicious! I thought it would be tough and snaily, but Dale’s conch was the best thing we’d eaten in awhile. He brought me a book called ‘An embarrassment of mangoes,’ which is a lovely story centered around food in the Carribean. It's filled with recipes, which is how we learned what to do with our giant snail sans Internet. I even made aioli to dip it in, which went back in the fridge. Lime juice and salt were the only extra flavours it needed.
When we were done with that anchorage, we headed back out to where we’d gotten stuck on the San banks. A bit further along was a tiny sand island in the middle of nowhere, which we happily anchored next to. Our own little island! On the charts it’s marked as ‘Palm Island,’ but I'm guessing the palm tree got blown away. Somebody has brought a coconut over and placed it in between a barrier of driftwood, and it's slowly growing into a new tree. Hopefully one day it will fit it’s name again!
It was really nice having our own island. Dale woke up early and paddled over to the beach, where he found a gazillion crabs going wild all over the sand. The view from our cockpit wasn't bad either, and we could have stayed for a lot longer if there weren't so many other things to see.
Snorkeling around the sand cay was amazing. It was one of my favourite spots in the whole of the San Blas, and one of the only places we could swim out straight from the boat. In between us and the island it was mostly sand, but all around the other side there was a huge reef that stretched out forever. The coral was both beautiful and healthy, and we found huge soft fans everywhere as well as spiraling towers of bright orange coral dotted throughout the reef.
There were so many fish! And so many of them were camouflaged. We kept finding huge lobsters hiding under rocks, and the trumpet fish were hiding vertically next to reedy soft coral because they blend in perfectly. I was staring down into some hard coral trying to chase one of my favourites (a bright blue fluorescent fish), when I noticed a tiny little spider looking thing hiding on one side of the coral. If the spiders have figured out how to chase me in the water as well as on land, we’re all doomed.
Xxx Monique
Click here for more pictures!
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