The Islands…

Well we landed in a very very special part of the world and anyone being attentive would have heard the sigh from the crew of TIKA as we finally get to stop and breathe in…well, a picture tells a thousand words…this….

We arrived at the Lemmon Cays with the sun way too low in the sky for ideal reef-spotting but picked our way into a lovely little anchorage and our first taste of the Kuna Yala islands…

We have chosen to call the islands by their traditional title rather than the Spanish name of The San Blas Islands. Officially they are called the Guna Yala islands (since 2011) but we haven’t yet heard them referred to as anything but the Kuna Yala (or San Blas)…

Before the anchor was fully settled into the seabed the toys were out on deck!…windsurfers, SUP boards and Jaiya even had a play on her keyboard in the cockpit…. two kids, one SUP board (on a long rope) and a boat to jump off = hours and hours of play and fun for Kai and Jaiya. I never get bored of watching them or joining in their creative escapades particularly at this early stage in the trip as they discover what is possible and explore different ways to get themselves (or each other)from point A (on-board Tika) to point B (in the water)…

After two nights in Lemmon we move to the East Hollandes (Russ pronounces it Hollandaise…he’s owned restaurants for way way too long…) island group. We arrived early this time and finally (after two attempts) anchored in ‘the swimming pool,’ a natural lagoon protected by 3 (plus surrounding) islands and a circling, shallow reef.

We noticed that the wind here is extremely changeable and had read of little tropical squalls (they call them‘chocosanas’) popping up out of nowhere, so we were not too proud to pull up anchor and move a little to ensure a 360 degree swing. We had experienced a mini chocosana the night before and heard a call for help that morning from a single hander who had dragged his anchor during the same squall and had ended up on the reef with a bent prop…So that night, as we experienced our first chocosana with winds (from the South West) gusting to 30 knots, we were relieved that we had given ourselves that extra space! We experienced a fun little chocosana later in the Coco Banderas that hit 35 knots (no anchor dragging so pretty happy…)

Our 11 days in the ‘swimming pool’ are all about adjusting to life on a boat. We snorkel, paddle board, windsurf, get visits from a friendly nurse shark (she is called ‘nurse Betty’ and cruises around the boats in the anchorage) start home school, do boat maintenance and meet our boat neighbours….

Apart from a few backpacker boats that come and go there are 4 other boats plus TIKA hanging out in the pool in this quiet (rainy) season. One couple came to Kuna Yala 15 years ago with the intention of heading to the Pacific but never left. We met another German man who has been around for 6 years but has plans to leave next year. It was almost as though he was trying to convince himself, not me, as he explained that it was nearly time for him to leave  

It is an easy place to get stuck. We are also starting to truly melt into the stunning beauty around us and to slowly sink into the  island lifestyle. It is hard not to became drunk on these islands and the surrounding reef and all they have to offer. Even we start to wonder if 18 months is enough time for this trip…

We make dinner for another couple who live in the Virgin Islands and know the Caribbean like the back of their hands… we extract much valuable knowledge out of them and they help us form a general plan for our time in the Caribbean- gold!  

The snorkelling is lovely with so many spots to explore! Spotted rays are common and we have seen sharks, turtles, underwater caves/tunnels, lots of colourful, tropical fish and beautiful conch! Our neighbour saw an 8ft crocodile from her paddle board so we did keep a sharp eye out for him after hearing that story! Apparently it is very rare to see one and everything is so well fed in the tropics that even big salt water crocodiles do not pose a threat to little snorkelers like us…

The sting rays jump out of water and we sit up on the coach-house at night looking at the stars and listening as the rays launch themselves and slap back into the water. Both kids are fast becoming expert duck divers, SUP paddlers and shark spotters. Kai has learnt to drive the dinghy and now no-one else gets a chance on the outboard!

I spend hours watching the big brown pelicans gliding around in small groups and dive bombing for fish. They get very close to us and are spectacular to watch late in the afternoon as the tropics cools down and the light is amazing!

We played with our new toy (a Phantom 3 drone) for the first time here and despite nearly dropping him in the sea (Kai dove into the water from the beach and caught it!) we are pretty happy with the footage considering we are are still on beginner mode…   A final Kuna Yala movie coming soon…

The adjustment period is a little up and down (I am almost ashamed to say that- we are in bloody paradise! how can we not all be totally blissed out from day one??) but we are all unwinding after an intense couple of months. We slowly snuggle into life on board and are coming to terms with all that entailed. We all took turns wanting to bail in these first tender days.. (well ok.. not Russ…) Jaiya misses her friends and Kai is super frustrated by the Island-time internet access…Russ, Kai and Jaiya are also still plagued by tropical infections of small cuts and scratched mozzie bites and I am dealing with an ear infection from being in the tropical water daily (I am prone to them)…  

School is a major adjustment for all. We didn’t plan on starting straight away but the kids hassled us daily until we gave in and got the tower of books out (I guess we have Montessori to thank for their love of school!) and now they are adapting to having a boat for a classroom, parents as teachers and new (and mostly not challenging enough) material. We are still finding our way and may ditch the S.I.D.E (School of isolated and distant education) program and create our own. With school, meal preparation, boat maintenance, laundry, snorkelling etc- all up we are amazed how busy we are!

We took out the Caribbean map and drew in our 3 day wake-line since leaving Shelter Bay.. it was a mere blip on the page compared to the Caribbean Sea that we need to cross to get to Cuba and nothing at all compared to the Pacific…I am slightly overwhelmed by this! To make me feel better, Russ tells me the story of  being on Pipe Dream on the way back from Adelaide to Melbourne after the initial purchase. He said he held on to the lifelines gazing out to sea and wondered how people can live on a boat full time….I felt the same way on the sloppy sail here and my first few days in paradise were spent worrying about going further than these lovely, safe islands…

Sorting through our vegetable store and weeding out the buggers that are starting to rot is a daily chore! We determine that the produce hanging in the fruit hammocks at the back of the cockpit last much longer than the ones in the store room in the steamy starboard hull (despite the rain, the breeze seems to dry them off and keep them cool)

The smell told me something wasn’t right and for 3 days I searched for the culprit in the store room veggie baskets.. I was convinced that one had got away by rolling into a dark corner to rot in peace…but I couldn’t find him! and I checked and cleaned the bottom of the baskets in case the ‘juice’ of an off carrot had stuck to the underside. I couldn’t find the cause of the foul smell until I poked my nose into the egg crate…eeeeeewwwwwww!!!!!!  We had had a few cracks and by the time we worked it out the plastic egg trays of almost 6 dozen eggs were putrid (the goo had seeped out of the offending tray all over the others) So we find ourselves sitting on the stern washing eggs (even the good ones had mould on their shells after getting moist from egg goo) and sending fat, wiggling maggots to their much deserved (evil laugh..)watery deaths.

Russ (who has taken to wearing a sarong and who the kids are now called captain no-underpants ) gets a little panicky when he ‘only’ has 5-10 weeks of fresh food on board…. He likes to be fully stocked and it brings back memories of desperately pedalling behind him on our South East Asia cycle tour trip…as he raced to catch a village market before they closed in an almost manic attempt to top up our tofu supply. In all honesty, we have enough food to last another 3 months but Russ starts asking around for a fresh provision stop and can be found planning routes to island villages in search of extra provisions….

I am just starting to relax, loving our most perfect ever anchorage, am very confident that the massive pumpkin hanging in the hammock, the stock of meat in the freezer, what’s left of the fresh veggies and the massive, under-seat locker chocker-block with canned food will sustain us for as long into the future as I care to plan and am not going anywhere for at least another week….

Just when it was starting to look like we were going to have to have a ‘discussion’ about the need (or not) to spend a day provisioning.. the Kuna Indians saved the day and the elusive ‘veggie boat’ arrived with a friendly ‘Hola!’ at our starboard stern. Yay! Fresh veggies! Russ is happy for now but is keeping a sharp eye on our coffee bean, olive oil and dark chocolate supply… (low food stock fear must have something to do with having a fast metabolism-he’s chronic! )

The Kuna Indians are friendly and happy…they cruise passed TIKA daily offering ‘Langosta’ (lobster)  freshly caught fish, molas (beautiful hand-made fabric with intricate and colourful designs made by the women) and one time, a live, baby turtle The men often wear nothing but western underpants and big smiles and usually take the time to ask us our names and where we are from.

The Kuna Indian communities gained the status of an independent state within Panama in 1925 and have had their own official constitution since 1945.  The Kuna’s keep fairly tight control over their culture, communities and the preservation of these unique islands. Only a Kuna may fish here (we noticed that this is not always adhered to particularly in the outer islands but we respected this law) and there is no scuba diving allowed. The islands are so unique and gorgeous they need to be protected and we would hate to see high rises and resorts pollute the still very much traditional Kuna people and their archipelago of islands (and a strip of mountainous land on the mainland)

The definition of cruising: “fixing things in exotic places”

During our time in the Kuna Yala we fixed the salt water tap in the galley, nutted out a water leak where we had been losing our desalinated water, re-wired a bilge pump that kept going on and running continuously, cleaned up an oil spill in the engine compartment.. worked on a port-side engine that kept conking out and did a dodgy re-wiring of the washing machine that was shorting out. Oh and I went up the mast to change a (navigation) light globe! Nice view up there!

We finally said goodbye to nurse betty and moved to another island group- the Cocos Banderas. I’ll tell you a funny ‘lil story about arriving at this cluster of idyllic islands… Apart from the fact that our port engine conked out (again) just as we arrived and our electrics did the on-again-off-again trick, we couldn’t find anywhere shallow enough to anchor! Although the guide said the channel between two islands is the perfect place to park- we were seeing 15-18-20m depths despite cruising up and and down a number of times looking for ‘the spot’ It wasn’t until we had anchored and were peering over the side at the way too shallow seabed that we realised that the depth sounder had reset itself to read FEET not METRES! ….oops.. with that knowledge, we re-anchored. In the perfect spot. In exactly the position the guidebook recommended

Cocos Banderas is a gorgeous anchorage with more great snorkelling and a few dingy trips to the lushest of tropical islands… it’s humbling watching the Kuna’s live their peaceful lives fishing, taking care of their islands, sleeping in hammocks or in their grass huts (we watched a family build a new hut on the closest island- no nails or other fastenings!- just tree poles lashed together and dried palm fronds)

We celebrate Jaiya’s 8th birthday on September 22nd with the most perfect day (pancakes for breaky, dolphins swimming near TIKA, a snorkel where we spotted a little shark, an island visit and play, skype calls, cards, gifts and video messages from home, scurfing behind the dingy, pizza for dinner and a turtle cake (produced without a mixer, icing sugar/frosting or fancy cake decorating stuff)  

 

The kids and Russ are always laughing at me because I always have a cup of (herbal) tea with me in my travel mug. Kai snapped this shot of me having my last sip (with mask and snorkel on!) before I jump in the water- they insisted I put it in the blog so here you are  

We left Cocos Banderas at daybreak and were treated to a spectacular sunrise and sail to El Porvenir where we checked out of Panama. Like many countries, the check out procedure was like a cartoon where we had to visit multiple Government departments for much paper shuffling, officious form-filling (with duplicates) and copious amounts of very serious stamping. In Porvenir, all these departments are housed in one run down building with a room allocated to each official so we dutifully shuffled from one room to another, paying separate fees, producing boat papers, passports, visas, crew lists and receipts and waiting patiently for the form-filling and stamping process to come to an end…which it did!

We have a week to leave Panama so now it is just a question of waiting for a weather window for our trip to Columbia… In the mean time we head back to the swimming pool in the Hollandes group…

We change our plans to sail to Cartegena after reading about a very serious assault on a Dutch couple just a week before we planned to be be in that area. We researched the security of the Columbian Coast before we left home and were very comfortable with how safe it is as there had been very little serious crime for years…until this We still don’t have full details of the incident but we have heard enough to change our route and head straight to Santa Marta that has a secure marina. We will monitor this case and security at Cartegena and can hopefully visit on our way back through next year (we have heard it is a great city and were really looking forward to it…)

So, coming soon….our final video of the Kuna Yala,  our first passage (2 nights, 280 miles) on TIKA… plus some plans for a quick trip (by plane) to PERU!!

This entry was posted in The Sail.