Bonaire to Panama Day 5

Land ahoy! We had a good run during the day with the wind continuing to blow 15 knots or so. With now full sail after a good night passage we had to do our first sail handling in 3 days by gybing the genoa across (we were now on a broad reach). As we closed in on the San Blas we saw the tiny islands about 8 miles off. We were a bit nervous about the entrance which is strewn with reefs and requires careful eyeball navigation due to the inaccuracy of most of the charts for this area. As we were worrying about this and had pilot books all over the cockpit the fishing reel started going - so I (Jonny) went to the back and started to haul in our catch. It was a Mahe Mahe (aka Dolphin Fish) about 2 feet long - I managed to get it on deck (a first for us) and then had to kill it. We had been told putting alcohol in their gills is very quick and effective, so armed with some cheap gin Kate attempted to do this whilst I held it - unfortunately we have no spray gun for the alcohol and in trying to pour it from the bottle Kate got more on me than in the fish - whilst this helped me it didn't do much for the fish! So (the squeamish should look away now) we got the winch handle out and killed it quickly with that instead!
We made landfall at 2pm local time (GMT - 5hrs) and navigated around the reefs with Kate at the helm and I stood on the boom looking for reefs - which was easier than I expected but likely due to the high sun. We anchored next to Sunchaser, Red Herring, Vagabond Heart, Calysta and Balu (all known to us) and it was great to see familiar faces. Kate went for a swim whilst I dealt with our fish (filleting and skinning it was quite easy but a bit messy) before we swam over to Sunchaser for a beer to celebrate our arrival. A few hours later Christine Anne arrived and we all met up on the beach for some beers in the evening.
The San Blas islands are like paradise ... tiny islands covered in palm trees with crystal blue water and reefs protecting them from the ocean - pictures will follow soon, its amazing!