22 August 2013 Coco Bandero to Sabudopored, San Blas, Panama
It was a lovely day, so we decided to scoot over to the settlement at Rio Diablo to get some provisions. I did my normal engine check and noticed that there was a small water leak on the bleed screw on the sea water pump. When I tried to tighten it, it was apparent that the threads have stripped in the hole and has the screw has been stuck in place with some kind of sealant - I broke the seal and water came flooding out.
I closed the sea cock and, after a little bit of deliberation, found another screw that was longer and used it to establish that there were still some good threads deeper in the hole. I removed the impellor and cut the screw so that it was long enough to grab the few remaining threads, but not too long that it was sticking into the pump and fouling the impellor. After an hour, we were back in business – phew!
We motored five miles across to Rio Diablo and anchored to the east of Corazon. The town has around 1,000 people crowded onto two small islands connected by a long foot bridge. We tied up our dinghy at a small concrete dock on the far side of the bridge and went for a wander around Nargana which is the largest of the islands.
It only took a couple of minutes for a “guide” to latch onto us and for once I was grateful to have someone to help us with our shopping. The town is a mixture of traditional thatched houses and single storey concrete buildings dotted along hard-packed dirt streets. All of the shops are very small and it’s difficult to differentiate between homes and shops. Fortunately, Onel was able to take us directly to places to buy various things.
The only liquor store is a small, unmarked concrete building, but our guide first had to take us to the owner’s house a few streets away to get him to open up the shop to sell us a couple of cases of beer and some wine in litre boxes. In the other shops, Glenys managed to buy essentials such as bread and vegetables, so we’re okay for another week now.
The Kuna Indians who live in Rio Diablo have decided not to follow the traditional way of life, so the women dress don’t normally dress in their traditional clothing, but today was some kind of holiday and there were plenty of mola outfits in sight. Unfortunately, we missed the main festa put on at the school, but some of the children were still walking around in their little traditional outfits - and didn't they look cute. I was desperate to take some pictures, but restrained myself because I didn't want to appear rude.
Back on the boat, I tried to get access to the Internet having been told that Wi-Fi is available at the school. We haven’t been on-line for two weeks now and I need to pay off our credit cards soon otherwise we’ll get fined and charged interest. I picked up a strong signal, but couldn't connect to the gateway on their router, which was very frustrating.
It was so hot in the anchorage that we soon left and had lunch on our way towards our next anchorage. As we approached Green Island, we could see two boats in the rather tight anchorage, so we back tracked a mile and weaved our way through a few reefs to Sabudopored, where we dropped the anchor in ten metres of water just off a scruffy looking beach.
There were large thunder storms building up over the mainland shore, a couple of miles to the south of us causing the winds to be very light and the humidity to be very high - it was too hot to move, so we read our books in the cockpit and gasped for air for most of the afternoon. We eventually motivated ourselves enough to go and look for somewhere to snorkel, but most of the area is sand and weed with the occasional shallow reef of little interest, so we ended back at the boat and snorkelled around near the beach just to cool off.
23 August 2013 Sabudopored to Coco Bandero, San Blas, Panama
We motored back to Rio Diablo in the hope that the school had rebooted their router and we’d be able to get Internet access – to my great relief, we got a good, but slow connection and I was to pay off our credit cards. I also checked our email and there was nothing of great importance, so we can relax for another few weeks now.
There was no point in hanging around the town anchorage, so we were soon motoring to Green Island. The anchorage is ten metres deep and there’s not a huge amount of room to swing, especially because there were two boats already anchored in the best spots. I put out my usual scope of 5:1 but with 50 metres of chain out, we ended up a little too close to the other boats. There are so many other anchorages around here that there’s no reason to be so close to other boats, so we had lunch and moved on.
There were thunderstorms building up, so we decided to go back to Coco Bandero Cays and anchored in the same spot that we’d left yesterday. We went for a snorkel in the afternoon out at the fringing reef, which was good. Dave and Belinda from “Sea Biscuit” came for a beer – they’re cruising in a trawler-type power boat that they've brought down from the States.
24 August 2013 Coco Bandero, San Blas, Panama
It’s Saturday, so the rich Panamanians came out to play. The normally tranquil anchorage turned into Blackpool as over a dozen big power boats arrived, anchored on the beach and disgorged hordes of people with their floating ice boxes and drinks holders. Loud music poured from speakers as the mostly white Panamanians started to party.
The locals are well used to the routine and there were a group of fishermen camped on Olosicuidup last night ready to paddle out in their dugout canoes to sell fish, lobster and crab to the new arrivals. It was chaos with a constant stream of dugout canoes parading past and ribs driven by rich kids zooming around. To add to the confusion, an official boat was wandering about checking documentation and collecting the Kuna cruising permit fees.
We sat and watched the antics for most of the day and even went ashore onto Tiadup to get a closer look. The Kuna family on Tiadup had set up a stall displaying molas, bead bracelets, carvings, etc., so we had a look while they were set up – Glenys just had to buy another mola.
Dave and Belinda from “Sea Biscuit” invited us over for appetisers of freshly steamed crab and lobster, which went down well with a few beers.
25 August 2013 Coco Bandero, San Blas, Panama
It was a very overcast morning, so we chilled out. Glenys is getting better with the ukulele and we’re starting to learn to play “Meli Kalikimaka” together, although it isn't anywhere performance level yet…
The rest of the day passed quietly. All the power boats left last night to go over to the Hollandaise, so there were only two other boats in the anchorages and it was very peaceful. The only exciting event of the day was catching two nice 1lb lobster when we went snorkelling at the south side of Guariadup , which is a nice bit of reef.
It was cool enough that Glenys even turned on her oven and made Lasagne for dinner.
26 August 2013 Coco Bandero to Esnasdup, San Blas, Panama
We woke to blue skies, so we decided to move on and headed towards the Naguargandup Cays. On the way, we had a look at Esnasdup and liked it so much that we stayed. The anchorage is a 150 metre diameter, 10 metre deep hole surrounded by reef and the island of Esnasdup – it looks lovely.
We had a little bit of trouble anchoring because we kept ending too close to the beach for our liking – it took three goes before we found a place with good holding, which was far enough from the edges of the lagoon. I'm not very fond of these deep, tight anchorages – putting out 50 metres of chain gives us a 100 metre diameter swinging circle, which doesn't leave much room to drag in a 150 metre diameter lagoon.
It was very hot and humid in the afternoon as thunder clouds built up around us and we had a sustained attack by no-see-ums causing us to light a mosquito coil and spray ourselves with deet. I managed to motivate myself enough to service my fishing rod and reel, which was a minor miracle in this heat. Fortunately, it cooled down in the evening, as we got a breeze back.
27 August 2013 Esnasdup to The Swimming Pool, San Blas, Panama
It was a hot airless night and the damn no-see-ums were biting me in the middle of the night, so I had to get up and spray myself with deet.
Just before breakfast, a large squall hit us which made me glad that we’d spent so much time re-anchoring yesterday. At the height of the squall, we spent half an hour with 30 knot winds and the shallow reef only 20 metres behind us – if we started to drag, we’d have been up on the reef within seconds, with no time to do anything about it…
The weather looked to be horribly unsettled and we didn't like the thought of having a squall come through when it was dark, so we waited until the weather cleared a little and scurried across to the Swimming Pool in the Eastern Hollandaise. It was such a relief to anchor in 4 metres of water in the lovely white sand, which gobbles up the anchor. I’ll be able to sleep tonight.
28 August 2013 The Swimming Pool, San Blas, Panama
It was a beautiful sunny day, so we had a play day and went snorkelling both in the morning and the afternoon – the fringing reef to the north-east of BBQ Island is interesting with lots of gullies.
Glenys cleaned the very nice Triton's Horn shell that I picked up while snorkelling a couple of days ago and I spent a couple of hours looking at how to play Bohemian Rhapsody on the guitar. It’s over six minutes long and there are lots of very tricky bits – I reckon that if I start learning it now, I’ll be able to play it by Christmas 2014…
29 August 2013 The Swimming Pool, San Blas, Panama
It was an unsettled night with the occasional thunderstorm passing us by, and the morning brought an overcast day. After breakfast, Glenys went to start the generator and to my horror, the starter motor didn't turn at all. Bloody boats!
After four hours of investigation work, I isolated the problem to a relay, which connects the battery negative to the generator chassis. It’s designed to connect the earth only when the preheat or the starter buttons are pushed – apparently to prevent catalytic corrosion. Anyway, the relay was not operating, so there wasn't any connection between the negative battery lead and the generator chassis. The starter motor and solenoid use the chassis ground, so it didn't operate.
Fortunately, I figured out a work-around, which uses a jumper lead to by-pass the relay. I connected one end of the jumper lead to the generator chassis and the other end to the negative battery lead on the engine starter motor. Once the generator starts, I just removed the jumper lead – simple but effective. I've contacted Panda Fischer to get a quote for a new Earth Connection Relay. I ran the generator and made water for 1½ hours and it was all fine – fingers crossed that it will be okay until I can get the new part.
After dinner, we heard the splashing of fish around the boat, so I grabbed my small spinning rod and managed to catch a couple of nice Horse-eye Jacks – the biggest one (of course) got away with another of my lures.
30 August 2013 The Swimming Pool, San Blas, Panama
It was raining in the morning, so we mooched about. I finally finished painting my calabash cockpit light and, in my humble opinion, it looks okay. The rest of the morning was taken up sorting out the data on my laptop and backing it up prior to swapping over to another hard disk.
It brightened up nicely in the afternoon, so we went snorkelling on a shallow reef to the north-west of Banedup, which was the best bit of reef that we've seen in the San Blas Islands. I spotted a Yellow Stingray, which was a first sighting for me and I finally got a good picture of a Spotfin Butterflyfish. Even better, while I was diving on a fairly deep coral head, I managed to snare a large Spider Crab, which was 5 inches across the carapace. We steamed it when we got back to the boat and it’s very, very tasty.
It’s Friday, so the rich Panamanians arrived in their powerboats. One anchored really close to us and despite our glares, refused to move – we’re obviously in the wrong place. Fortunately, they all left as the sun went down to go and anchor off Ogoppiriadup for the night. Don’t you just love the names of these islands.
We were invited over to “Gris Gris”, where Tom & Julie treated us to Conch Salad, which is raw conch marinaded in lime juice with onions, peppers, etc - delicious.
31 August 2013 The Swimming Pool, San Blas, Panama
It was a lovely blue-sky day, so we upped anchor early and motored across to Rio Diablo to buy some provisions. We managed to avoid any “guides” for twenty minutes and had a quick walk around the two small islands, but there’s not a lot to see.
We started our provisioning by going to the liquor store, which again was closed. Fortunately, we soon found the house where the shop-owner lives and got him to open up for us. At this point, we picked up a “guide”, Pablo, who insisted on carrying some of our cases of beer. As we walked around, we discovered that he has nine children all of school age – I wonder what they’re all going to do when they grow up.
There are only a few small stores in Nargana, but we managed to stock up on vegetables, flour and even found a frozen chicken. On the way back to the dinghy, we passed a small bar/restaurant which was cooking some rotisserie chickens – they were irresistible, so we bought one for $12. We gave our guide a small tip and a couple of carrier bags full of beer cans, which he willingly took because the Kuna recycle the aluminium.
By midday, the clouds had started to build up, so we had a quick lunch and motored around to Sabudopored. Our anchor dragged on the first attempt, but on the second try it held well. I snorkelled down and found that the anchor was buried in hard packed sand in ten metres of water, but Alba was actually sitting above a small isolated reef about six metres deep. I guess that on our first anchoring attempt we dropped onto the reef. As I snorkelled around, I was lucky enough to pick up a conch which is a rare thing around here.
Late in the afternoon, a huge thunderstorm passed to the south of us along the mainland shore causing the wind to reverse blowing us towards the shallower water by the beach. As the sun went down, I spent an hour worrying and watching the weather while eyeing up a sunken tree about 15 metres behind us, wondering just how shallow it was…
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