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17. day - 31/01/2007 - A dinghy arrived to our boat while we were having breakfast in the morning. This was the captain of the stranded boat. He asked our help in spanglish because they could not fix the engine, they ran out from electricity therefore they could not pump out the water from the boat. So they were really sinking. We told them to bring their batteries and we try to refill it. They plan to sail out from the bay and get to Porvenir (around 4 hours sailing) next morning where they can fix the boat and the engine, but they need to pump out the water from the boat to get there. The bay is wide enough here therefore they have the chance to do it.
We stayed on board today and filled the batteries. We met with a Kuna canoe today too who sold molas (clothes) among the boats.
We had one hour today to visit an island behind us called Tiadup. There were 3 lovely Kuna families here who lived in small huts made of cane and palm leaves. The woman of the first family wore traditional clothes with nose ring and beads around her shin. They do not like to be photographed, however here they were happy to make some pictures about them.
We could walk around the island in approximately 15 minutes and we noticed some names in the sand at the beach. The third family tried to pull a canoe to the sand so Geza helped them to do it. I tried to talk with one of the Kuna girl in Spanish. She introduced herself and when I asked whether they had written the names on the beach she had a shy smile then ran away. They can write a bit. The head of the family is Ricardo who came to speak with us in Spanish. The Indians usually speak the Kuna language. Our Spanish is not so perfect, however we understood he invited us for a dinner for the next evening. He told us they prepared coconut bread and fish. That sounded delicious.
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18. day - 01/02/2007 - The stranded boat left in the morning with the help of a Kuna’s canoe who pulled the boat out among the reefs from the bay. We hope they will have a safe journey with their fully refilled batteries to Porvenir.
We sailed today 6-6 miles around the Hollandes Cays. We saw beautiful white sandy beaches and islands. You can spend a hole day here without being bothering and it is also very interesting how Kunas live on the islands. We saw an island smaller than a tennis court with huts on it. You have to be careful in San Blas because there can be islands where you can find crocodiles such as on Green Island out of the Hollandes Cays. At 4 pm Ricardo came to take some cooking oil. We arrived at 5 pm to have dinner with them. He was prepared a table for us and brought fish, smoked rice, coconut bred and 1-1 coconut to drink. We gave them that we prepared for them on the boat: some beer, Hungarian red paprika and candies for the children. We saw the day before how they prepare the coconut bred.
We also signed Ricardo’s guest book as he had one from his visitors. Ricardo has 5 children and one grand child. He does fishing and takes care about coconut trees for leaving. The kids learn Spanish and a bit of English from the tourists. The school is far away from here therefore they learn everything on the island. One of his daughter showed me her drawings and also her Spanish-English dictionary. The kids played around, they imitated that they go fishing with a canoe. The imitation was perfect. Kuna people are very good fisherman and they paddle very well too even the children or the women. They trade with coconuts which has a fixed price every year to avoid price wars among the families. It can be that one family moves occasionally to another island to take care about the trees. On San Blas everything belongs to the indians nobody else can have anything here, you can only visit them and enjoy their hosting. (One month anchoring on San Blas costs only USD 5 and they give a receipt.)
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19. day - 02/02/2007 - We were snorkelling and fishing today. Geza asked Ricardo where we could catch fish. I do not say we did not catch anything as we had 3 colourful fish. However, it was still not enough to prepare a lunch from it.
In the afternoon we went to say good-bye from Ricardo. We met here with a Finnish lady from sailing yacht Sofie. She came to teach the Kuna kids from Spanish to English and she does it every single day for half an hour. So we could see a lesson on the island. The kids are so free here that they cannot concentrate more than half an hour on one thing. However, that half an hour seemed to be very effective.
Ricardo prepared us a Spanish-Kuna dictionary with the words he thought that could be important for us to know here. He drew a map which showed which is the island they move to it in a couple of days. We might meet them there too.
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20. day - 03/02/2007 - We woke up early in the morning, raised our anchor and we were heading towards Chichime Islands in San Blas (Western Lemon Cays not far from Porvenir). There was only a breeze, however we reached a 4 knots speed, because the reefs covered the waves. We arrived at Uchutupu Pippi and Dumat Islands at around lunchtime. This is starting to be a very popular place. The two islands were the home of the Kunas and there was another small island just for the tourists with a palm tree. The kuna children asked for magazines they love to read these. Unfortunately we had not got any Spanish, but we gave them at least an English one. We could see how they live here. Kuna men keep a rest (siesta) at around lunch time then they go back fishing. They try to get home early in the afternoon as to be with the family is very important for them.
Tomorrow we will start a long journey towards Colón (Panama), but we plan to stop for the night somewhere in a bay.
Daily position:
15:00 9-35.30N 78-52.89W log= 16745.5
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21. day - 04/02/2007 - We woke up early with the first sunlight and we left the beautiful colours of San Blas behind us. When we were close to the main land of Panama everything turned to grey (the sea, the sky, the mountains). The big mountains drew the clouds here. The waves started to increase and the whole day was rainy. We were competing with another sailing boat on our way, but when we arrived to Linton Island they told us that they were cheating. They started also their engine. We told him then the competition was not fair this way. He was laughing on it, because anyway we won it.
Daily positions:
15:00 9-39.76N 79-32.88W log= 16785.2
17:00 9-36.82N 79-34.86W log= 16788.7
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22. day - 05/02/2007 - Today the wind has gone and waves were very small. It was a slow but a pleasant way to Colón. Dolphins and an old turtle came to support our way. The first sign of Colón were the plenty of carrier ships around us. We saw these boats cruising out from the channel. We sailed into the harbour to stop for a couple of days. We could not stop in the marine as there was not place, however we found a small anchoring place next to it. The traffic was amazing in the harbour. And the huge boats made big waves and noise around us. I wish to be again in the water of the peaceful San Blas islands.
Daily position:
13:00 9-21.71N 79-54.65W log= 16813.4
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23. day - 06/02/2007 - We have only two days to prepare everything for the next journey. On the 7th February Zsuzsa and Laci is going to join us from Hungary to cross the channel. We organised an agent for the crossing and we cleared in today. We also organised to do the vessel measuring for the next day, which is necessary before crossing.
Here is some information about Colón city. When we arrived here there were some demonstrations on the streets. We were told not to go anywhere without taking a taxi. The taxi service is excellent here as the driver takes you anywhere shows the shops and helps to understand the sellers. It is also very cheap.
I believe the houses used to be very stylish here, however today you can see crumbling walls and dirty streets. I still like the colourful buses here.
Geza made some popcorn in the kitchen of Rotor. The corn really popped all around the kitchen as it was a bit much regarding the tiny pot. |
24. day - 07/02/2007 - .. |
At around lunch time a motor boat came with its crew to do the vessel measuring. They measured 13.7 meters with the wind vane and anchors. We are under the 15 meters limit, which would change the fee of the crossing. We also discussed with them the lines we need to use in the channel. Our agent called us on VHF radio to do also the paper works and get the cruising permit of Panama.
We prepared today the name card of Rotor. This will make easy to share our e-mail address with the boats we cruse with.
We could not get into the Panama Yaht Club today as the agent of the marina did not allowed it. He said we could go in if he can be our agent during the Panama Canal cross. As we have already had an agent it was not possible this time, and we did not feel fair this attitude, but at least the anchoring was free.
We did our provisioning before our new crew arrived and we bought couple of staffs to Sofia vessel they asked through e-mail.
We wanted to go to see Zsuzsa and Laci from Hungary at the bus station at around 10 pm however by that time they had already been waiting at the marina where we met them. So we met them in the marina for a welcome drink.
Please, do not go very far away, because our website will continue from tomorrow with another series including the channel crossing. Our guests will be Zsuzsa and Laci (from Hungary) on board for two weeks. From now we also have our English version on line such as the Hungarian that means we can upload the ship bog on board. |
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