December, 2012-February, 2013
Two months in San Blas Islands (Kuna Yala) off Panama made us lazy. The weather is perfect with air temperatures ranging from 80 - 85, day and night; water temp. 82 degrees and clear aqua blue, breezes blowing most of the time keep bugs away and wind generators happy. Wonderful sailing between postcard perfect islands, with little to no seas, since the archipelago is behind a protective reef . Distances are short so you can visit more than one island in a day if you're ambitious. Which we weren't. There was one remarkable rainstorm early in our visit, providing a dinghy full of fresh water for laundry day!
Provisioning could be a challenge at tiny stores in the Kuna villages. We took our chances sailing 20 miles to Nargana, one of the larger islands near coastal Panama where one generally could purchase rice, oil, and yeast; if the Columbian or Panamanian trading boats had come in recently, there might be boxed milk a decent variety of vegetables and crackers. On another island we scored peanut butter and white flour. I don't understand why buying flour was difficult because Kuna bread (something like hot dog rolls) was everywhere. Forget buying cheese--only lukewarm American singles. Long-time cruisers or charters take a road-trip to Panama City (3 hours by taxi on the nasty Carti Road, only open during the day) for big shopping. We weren't tempted. We even started drinking tea when our coffee ran out and could only be replenished by small bags of single-packs.
But who needs the Kuna stores? Geraldo or Jacob came to our boat in the anchorage more or less weekly with their pangas full of fresh veggies, and sometimes eggs, fresh frozen whole chickens--really whole!, beer, wine, and, on New Years, bottles of champagne. Fishermen stopped by daily offering their fresh catch of mackerel, tuna ,or red snapper, which they obligingly scaled or fileted on their dugout canoes. We shun the local lobster, but love the crab, huge beasts with exceptionally sweet meat, although cutting and cracking their tough shells takes heavy-duty tools. Uh, like our 3 ft. long bolt cutters. An enterprising baker came occasionally with fresh bread. I filled in our need for carbs and fat by making yummy chowder from the crab bodies, English muffins, blender mayo, and a sort of feta cheese from boxed milk. It was not exactly roughing it.
We spent some time at the West Lemmons anchorage continuing our big project of rebedding the portlights--a messy, two-person project. Each portlight, or pair, takes a couple of days to complete drilling and tapping (bronze dust everywhere), scraping old sealant away, sealing the inside core with fiberglass, remounting the rings with butyl tape, then trimming the bronze bolts with our Dremel tool. We bless our little shop vac, and butyl tape is waaay easier to work with than standard tubes of caulk.
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| Elefante Internet Bar |
West Lemmons offered internet at Elefante Bar if you brought your computer and plugged into one of their 3 (short) hard wire cables extending out from behind the bar and sat at the small plastic table. It was pleasant enough to sit with a glass of local rum and (maybe) ice (Bill) or red wine from a box (Heidi)--it wasn't good wine, but it was Clos-- while checking email or sometimes Skype-ing our kids. More than one person online slowed everything to a crawl, so it wasn't conducive to uploading to our blog.
A number of our crusing friends from Bocas were in Kuna Yala, and we re-connected with Laeto Loco, a spectacularly gorgeous family of 5 from Indiana who have taken a year's leave from work and school to cruise on the catamaran they purchased in Bocas. In January we discovered they and we had nearly identical schedules for heading north from Panama to Florida, both crews need to be in Florida by the third week of March--I am flying to NC from Key West to be close to Polly and Miles for the birth of their first child and one of the Laeto Loco daughters is going to take a crew certification course in Ft. Lauderdale. Their experience cruising changed her mind about going to college right away. Laeto Loco is inexperienced so welcomed our offer to travel together.
We left Kuna Yala on Feb. 3, arriving in Providencia 48 hours later, excited to see real grocery stores, motorized vehicles, hair salon, and tall people who spoke English. We went wild and rented a golf cart to tour the 4.5 mile long island....circumnavigating in an hour at golf cart speed. Even the military police smiled and waved at our cart of 7 people, probably because Elle and Clare from L.L. are both about 6' tall with long blond hair.
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| Clare from Laeto Loco |
After 3 days we continued north to the Bay Islands of Honduras, where we are thrilled with the snorkeling and services available, although it's disturbing to have guards with automatic weapons stationed in and around the grocery store, gas station and banks here on Roatan, the largest of the island group. We are avoiding the end of the island where the cruise ships stop, and are loving being at anchor in French Harbor, near Little French Cay, picking up free wifi from one of the restaurants on shore. Snorkeling is fantastic in a protected marine park 200 yards away--the biggest lobsters we've ever seen.
Tomorrow we're heading 25 nm. south to Cayos Cochinos, a national marine park surrounded by the second largest barrier reef in the world, they say. We'll spend a few days diving and snorkeling there before returning to Utila, just west of Roatan, where we'll clear out of Honduras and await good weather to head for Isla Mujeres MX, on the way to Key West.
I'm excited and sad as we approach the States after so many months in Panama. We can scarcely wait to see our kids and grandkids, but wonder if we have lost our toughness to swim in water colder than 80 degrees.
More Photos Providencia & Honduras
We know you'll all feel sorry for us when we freeze in Little Harbor and Newmarket in June. We'll happily accept warm hugs.
