April, 2009

Linton and Miramar, Panama

and San Blas

What a good day it has been.  Sonny and Jim completed the project on our KISS wind generator and it is back up on the pole and doing better than ever.  Don, S/V Wind Dancer, has a KISS generator and wanted to observe how it comes apart, as he has not had any problems with his.

They also made up some lures for trolling while we are out, so, hopefully we will be eating a lot of fish.

Since we returned to the boat, we have provisioned for several months and groceries were stuffed in every spare nook and cranny we could find.  So, today, Pat and I made an inventory list of our food and supplies.

This morning, we took our sheets and towels up to Sarah and Ann's to be washed.  They charge $4 a load to wash, dry, and fold,  That is definitely much better than by hand, especially the sheets.   We also took them a bag of trash for $1.

Then, we walked a couple of miles to the family's home that Pat and I met while walking a few days ago.  Very nice, friendly local family.  The husband wanted to give us coconuts, avocados, mangos, squash and anything he had at his very modest home.  We finally convinced him to let us pay for the fruit and vegetables.   We stayed and (attempted) to visit with  them for about an hour.   We had a hard time understanding their Spanish/Indian dialect.

Then, after we returned to the boat, we were all hot and swam near the boat for a while.  It was very refreshing in the beautiful clear, blue water.

Later, while we were sitting in the cockpit, we saw the monkeys come out of their house and walk out to the dock on their two hind legs.  We jumped in the dinghy and took some stale chocolate cookies over to feed them.

During the evenings, we often play Mexican Train dominoes.  Of the past four games, Pat has won three.   She was the victor once again tonight.

Thank you for bringing so much happiness to my life.   Looking forward to many more years and adventures ahead together.

We caught two large cero fish along the way.

After we squirmed through the very narrow channel into Miramar,

Efrain was there to greet us on the dock.  We took the fish and a pecan pie up to his new property and all had lunch together.

Since his home is not completed, he has five hammocks in the palapa where the grandkids sleep.  During the construction, he has also moved a container onto his property and turned it into two bedrooms.

He will have a very nice place on the beach to share with his family.

We tied up to a tree at a rickety dock because there was not enough room in Miramar to anchor.

The seas on our way to Checheme were 6-7' and rolly.  This local rowed out to meet us selling lobster.  He stood up in his ulu, balancing himself in the waves, holding up two lobster.   It was a bumpy ride for us and here he is in his ulu.

 We arrived at about 2 p.m. at beautiful San Blas.

We swam ashore and met the Kuna Indians on the island.  We bought two coconuts and watched the man scurry up the tree to get them.  He cut the tops off with his machete, and we drank the coconut water, then he cut them open, and we ate the coconut meat.

They have their 80 year old mother living with them on the very small island. Can you imagine having your 80 year old mother camping out with you?

Dennis and Pam on S/V Glide arrived in the anchorage a few hours after we did, and they swam over to Valentina for a visit.   We caught a tuna along the way and Glide caught a mackerel along the way.   We are not fond of tuna and that is Pam's favorite, so we swapped bags of fish.

Sonny and Jim washed the stainless with fresh water after our crossings and worked on our spear guns.

Our box of bananas are all very ripe so we are eating bananas in everything.  Banana oatmeal (it was good!).  Pat made a banana cake with fresh bananas and Kay made banana smoothies.

We baked the mackerel for lunch, along with asparagus, cooked cabbage with brown sugar, and, of course.....banana cake.

We are all taking a siesta after our wonderful meal.

Boats are calling on the VHF radio in search for Heraldo, the vegetable boat.  He is supposed to be making a run to the islands with fresh fruits and vegetables today, but no one has seen him.

Possibly mañana.....it is always wonderful to see him come to the anchorage.  He charges more, but you cannot get fresh fruits and vegetables here in San Blas. You are so thankful to see him.   It is very remote here.  You need to arrive here with plenty of provisions.  There are a few islands with small tiendas, but only the bear necessities.

It is so good to be back in the beautiful San Blas islands.  So many of our friends are still here, so it will be good to have reunions with them.

Pat and Jim are doing very good.  

They are adapting to the cruising life very well. Having four people on Valentina for two months could be tight, but not with them.   They are great to have on board.  We all work together on whatever needs to be done so we can play.

This afternoon at about 5 p.m., the vegetable boat arrived.  We bought two pineapples, 6 large avocados, 2 apples, 20 limes, 1 large head of cabbage, 4 tomatoes, 6 small bell peppers,  and 3 cucumbers for $20.

After dark, we watched this huge boat come into the anchorage with a single-handed guy.  He slowly cruises through the sparse anchorage and drops his anchor directly in front of us and commences to back down on top of us.   Sonny shines our spotlight on him and tells him he is on our anchor and chain, so he thankfully pulls up his anchor and moves beside us where there is more room.

We went to Gaigar, in the Robison Cays.  Ingi has completed our designed Valentina mola for $30 and $3 for the small ones.  It is beautiful, we are so thankful.   The quality is superb.  You cannot even see her stitches.

We arrived along with Blow Me Away, Hannah Kay, Tara Vana, Glide and Bruadair.  We all went over to Tara Vana, a catamaran, for the evening.  It was so good to see all of our old friends.

Damon and David on Bruadair arrived in the anchorage and David had made us one of his famous Farkle boards in our Valentina colors.   Game of farkle anyone?  We now have an official board.

The river  was very narrow and very shallow.   We saw numerous ulus coming and going, hauling water, washing clothes, gathering bananas, and mangoes.

The other cruisers were already there washing their clothes in the fresh water and gathering water in their five gallon jugs for showering.

We went ashore to the small islands to visit the locals.  We gave reading glasses to the elderly women and they were so thankful.   Aunt Sis, in Garland, gave us a bunch of eye glasses and embroidery thread to give to the Kuna Indians.  It has been so fun giving them away.   They are very thankful.   One lady brought me her old pair of glasses she was using and showed me the right lens was completely missing, but she was still using them.  She was so thankful.  She kept repeating something, which we were told is thank-you in Kuna.

We have given so many suckers, pens, paper, embroidery thread, glasses away....it has been such a blessing.

The locals go to the nearby river and mountain each morning to load up their small ulus with avocadoes, bananas, plantains, mangoes and various other fruits.   Then, they come by the sailboats to sell them.   We bought 8 avocadoes for $2, a hand of bananas for $.25 and pineapples for $1.  They have some very small bananas that are apple bananas, very sweet and taste like apples.    Of course, they are all as fresh as it gets, and very green.  So, we have bananas hanging to get ripe, avocadoes and mangoes in our cockpit getting ripe, but soon....they  will be ready to eat.

We had a dinghy float this evening with all seven boats in the anchorage.

Some may think we are old people, (Sonny did just turn 60) but we always have fun.  We don't always....act our age.

Then, we pulled up anchor and moved on down to the swimming pool in the Eastern Hollandaise islands, about 23 miles away.

The swimming pool is just beautiful.   The water is the crystal clear blue with every shade you can imagine.   We did not even get our dinghy down today, we just stayed on board and admired the breathtaking water and islands.   It is surrounded by a reef, so you hear the constant roar of the waves as they beat against the reef.   Very relaxing.

We had enough fish, so we fried them for our lunch, along with some vegetable soup and cabbage salad. 

Our pineapple and avocadoes are getting ripe, so we had to eat some today.  ; )  

while Pat and Kay played at the island

Then we grilled chicken, along with some avocado salad, cabbage slaw and mashed potatoes to celebrate our holiday dinner.

What a good time we are having!

We are just so thankful!

After swimming, we made chicken quesadillas for lunch today, along with a piece of pie.   Very good.

We are going to see Roberto and Any on Deux Pieds for farkle tonight.  We are looking forward to getting together with them.

Jim, Sonny and Roberto went snorkeling this morning early while the girls stayed on the boats.  Sonny brought back a nice Ocean Trigger fish. 

We cooked it whole on the grill.  It barely fit on our grill.   Then at 3 p.m. Sonny, Pat, Jim and I met Roberto and Any (Deux Pieds) and Sandy and Cheri (S/V Namaste) on the island for an early dinner.  The fish was very tasty and so much easier than trying to filet them.   Their skin is very thick and difficult to filet.   A new way to cook trigger fish! Pat beat us tonight on Mexican Train dominoes.

The East Lemons is another beautiful anchorage in San Blas.

We all went over to Aaron and Lyla's boat (S/V Blow Me Away) this evening.  It is good to reunite with old friends.

We sailed over to the West Lemons to anchor for the night.

We headed over to the East Lemons, about 30 minutes (motor) away to join M/V Wet Bar (Meg and Greg).

Monte and Chris invited us over to Akka this morning for their famous Sunday morning waffles.  They were very good.

We then all met to go snorkeling.   The reefs here are great.  We snorkeled from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. and were all very tired.   We saw at least 3 nurse sharks, a huge spotted eagle sting ray gracefully swimming along, squid, tarpon, and lots of bright colored reef fish.

After we returned to Valentina, we prepared some fried fish and pasta for dinner and Monte and Chris came over to show us their slide show from their recent trip to Peru, Chile, and Argentina and then we showed them recent pictures of our grandbabies.   A fair trade, right?

Today was Jim's day.   He and Sonny went snorkeling and he returned with a nice ocean trigger fish.

We cleaned him and grilled him whole on the grill.   While the guys were snorkeling,  Pat made some lentels and a chocolate cake with delicious boiled white icing and Kay got out the sewing machine and worked on the enclosure for the cockpit.

Then, a good sight.   We could see the small splashes from afar, coming towards us in the water.   Could it be the veggie boat?  How wonderful!  Always a thankful sight.  Locals travel to Miramar (44 miles) or Colon (100 miles) in their launcha to buy fruit and vegetables to bring back to sell to the cruisers.  How nice to have the veggie boat come right to your boat.  The prices are not bad either, a pineapple - $1.50, huge avocadoes - $1 each, papaya - $2.50 each.  So thankful to have them.  You just need fruit and vegetables to go with all the fish.

Chris and Monte (S/V Akka) came over for cake and Mexican train dominoes.  Jim won the Mexican train game.  It certainly was his day.

Sonny took Greg of M/V Wet Bar to the reef this morning snorkeling.

We had Chris and Monte (S/V Akka) and Greg and Meg (M/V Wet Bar) over for fried fish this afternoon.  Then, we rested.

Kay stayed on the boat finishing a book and working on the website while Sonny and Jim snorkeled and Pat walked another island.   She saw sting rays in the water near the beach.

The snorkeling here is just about the best.  Right off your boat in the anchorage.

You can still track us on the home page "Where is Valentina" link.  We can keep that updated at all times through the SSB radio on board.

We successfully downloaded the website, bought a case of cokes, refilled our jerry cans with diesel and gas and ate lunch in Nargana.

Then, at 4 p.m. we headed to Esnesdup, what we refer to as "home".   It is a nice anchorage with protection.   You go between the two islands of Esnesdup and Bannerdup that opens up to a pool in front.   It is completely surrounded by reef, so it is very calm.  But, no protection from the wind, other than anchor on the other side of Esnesdup, which we did tonight.

Much better.

Then, we reanchored back in front of the island with a nice breeze down the hatches.

Another day.... another island.... another beautiful beach

Sonny and Jim were sitting in the cockpit reading when Sonny grabbed the binoculars and looking at the shallow area where we were just walking around the island.

He said, "I think I see a crocodile!  Look, over near the beach and see what you think."   So we all looked and....sure enough, it was moving on top of the water.

We all jumped in the dinghy to see if we could get a closer look and...a picture.  We motored near him, then turned the motor off and drifted.  He went under the water.   We sat in the dinghy scanning the water for him.  

After a while, we saw his huge head on top of the water looking at us.  Whew.....how exciting!

We followed him around for about an hour, watching him and floating along.

What another good day in paradise!  We have not seen a crocodile in our anchorage before.

Jim shot two fish and Sonny shot one, it was enough for our lunch today.

Roberto and Any made a trip to Nargana on Sunday, so we sent a load of dirty clothes with them to have washed.  They returned today...so nice.   All except....Pat's denim Levi shorts.

About 3 p.m., we received a call from Southern Bell telling us they have our shorts.  Yeah!  We plan to meet them in the East Lemons to exchange shorts for some of our waypoints for them to head to Cartagena.

Cruisers are just good people and willing to help each other when needed.

We sailed to the East Lemons, where there are 25 other boats.   Mr G, a local Kuna, had taken orders from cruisers for groceries in Panama City.  He was supposed to return with them on Monday.   Well, mañana....Tuesday?   Mañana.... Wednesday.   There was a Mr. G sighting and he did bring the groceries on Wednesday to be distributed on Thursday.

We bought two whole chickens....whole including the heads still on them....., zuchini, potatoes, avocados, carrots, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans,  pineapples, papaya,  and celery for $52.50.  What service....delivered to your boat.

Top of Page  or   "On to May in San Blas"

"It is better to be on shore, wishing you were out at sea,

than to be at sea, wishing you were on shore."

Author Unknown  but told to us by Steve on S/V Barefoot regarding a bad crossing at sea