San Blas 6th March

After a very windy night anchored at Porvenir it didnt sound like the weather was going to get any better soon. We listened to the radio net at 8.30 and the weather report was for more wind tomorrow and then starting to drop. Alot of the other anchorages sounded busy and we didnt think they would be anymore protected than where we were so we decided to stay put.
Calsyta and Christine Anne came over for morning tea. Red Herring, Balu and Vagabond Heart arrived in the anchorage.
By lunchtime the wind still still picking up and there were lots of squalls and the sea was getting choppier. Red Herring suggested an inlet on the mainland that might be more protected so they set off with Balu. They arrived a report a flat calm anchorage so more of us followed. It is sheltered inlet surrounded by mangroves. We put up all our mossie screens and then took the dinghy to explore. We found a channel that goes into the mangroves that we are going to explore further tomorrow.

Porvenir 5th March

We decided it was time to check into the San Blas as we had now been here a couple of days and we had heard that the officials were starting to get annoyed with people not checking in for weeks, months...

We had a good 16 mile sail from the Holandes Cays to Porvenir - 7 knots with just the genoa up.

We arrived in Porvenir about 11am and went to check in with Sunchaser. They got both parts of check in done before lunch but we had to go back after lunch to get our cruising permit.

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing boat jobs. We had decided to stay here over night as the weather was abit poor to be navigating through reefs and head somewhere else tomorrow.

In the evening Andy (Calysta) came over for drinks and then we had an early night

Banedup, San Blas 4th Feb

Better weather today so spent the morning doing some washing and other boat jobs - with a swim in between to cool off!!

After lunch we headed over to Christine Anne so i could borrow Chris's sewing machine to make a mossie net for over our bed. We have nets in the hatches and windows but tyuhe little monsters still manage to get in so at least if we make a screen for the bed we can sleep without getting biten. Panama is meant to be quite bad for mossies so we wanted to get the net sorted before we arrived in Colon.

Sundown drinks on the beach at 5pm finished the day. There is a great group of us here now and it is good to catch up at the end of the day. The plan tomorrow is to head to Porvenir to check in and then to a different paradise anchorage for a couple of days.

Banedup 3rd March

We started the day with lots of visits to boats - Honeymoon (Aggie and Don, Australian), Balu (Marion and Jim, Irish), Calysta and Vagabond Heart.
After lunch we went over to Tiadup. There are usually 3 families live on this island but currently there is only one. They live in very basic conditions but are lovely people.
Jonny spent the afternoon sailing Don's oppie with the Vagabond Heart kids and having a great time.
Just before sunset we went ashore to burn our rubbish with Christine Anne and then had an early night.

Jonnys Birthday in the San Blas

We are still anchored off Banedup in the Holandes Cays, San Blas - it is a picture perfect paradise anchorage.
Jonny started his birthday with a pancake breakfast followed by a visit to Christine Anne for coffee and morning tea (a birthday cake that Chris had made for Jonny at sea yesterday but that had gone wrong when they had been hit by a wave so she was making another for tonight). Whilst we were there a local Kuna man came by to show us his molas so Karen from Red Herring and Brendan from Sunchaser also came over to look. I was very restrained and only bought one!!
After Christine Anne we made a picnic and took it to the beach. Just after we arrived on the beach Edward from Vagabond Heart came over with some of his birthday cake from last week (some yummy caramel slices) so they made a nice addition to our picnic.
After lunch we took the dinghy for an explore round the island and then went ashore to fix the new dinghy wheels as the brackets werent in the right place. After fixing the wheel brackets Jonny wanted to try and glue the keel back in but the dinghy was still abit damp and we ended up with lots of glue on our hands and the keel wouldnt stick!! We tried washing the glue off and rubbing it with sand but it wouldnt budge!! Karen from Red Herring came to the rescue and drove me (because my hands were less gluey) back to Newt to get some acetone and then back to the beach. Back at the beach with the acetone most of the glue came off much to the amusement of our spectators! We had to leave the dinghy on the beach for the glue to dry and get a lift back to Newt with Red herring to make our contribution for the Pot Luck dinner (bring whatever you were going to have for tea to the beach to share with everyone) on the beach.
We had a great night on the beach. We had cooked our Mahi Mahi catch from the trip here and it went down well. Chris had made a cake for Jonny and added candles and sparklers. Jim (from Balu, Irish boat) had brought his guitar ashore and kept us all entertained.

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!

Bonaire to Panama Day 4

Another good day - we seem to be getting some good speeds out of Newt - not sure if its her fresh bottom paint or the confidence we have with the new pole? We have had steady winds which dropped from yesterdays 35 knots (thankfully!) and eased throughout the day. We pulled the reefs out of the genoa just before dark and then pulled the reef out of the main at around midnight. The seas were quite big yesterday after the winds and we were surfing down them pretty quickly - however they too have dropped off overnight to more of a swell today than real waves as such.
We were still within 15 miles of Christine Anne last night and hope to be so this morning. With any luck we should make landfall in the San Blas at Holandes Cays on Banedup Island around 4pm today with enough light to spot the coral on the way in!
Distance run in 24 hrs - 154 n/m

Bonaire to Panama Day 3

The winds have been good all day - they started to pick up mid morning and have built steadily. We had full main and poled out genoa all day but then around 8pm last night we had to reef both when the wind reached 35 knots in some of the gusts. The waves are betting quite large and we are surfing down them at upto 10 knots which is exciting but quite scary at the same time. Fortunately the wind seems to dropping a little this morning, but still around 20 - 25 knots so the reef will stay in a while longer!
Hoping to arrive either Sunday night or Monday morning - it will depend if we can keep the good speeds up we have been making.
Distance run on Day 3: 164 n/m

Bonaire to Panama Day 2

Jonny had just gone to bed when we got a radio call from the Los Monjes Coastguard, part of the Venezuelan navy. he wanted to know our name, position, flag, last port, next port, cargo on board and no. of crew but his english wasnt very good so everything had to be spelt phonetically!! We eventually made him realise we were a small sailing boat with 2 crew and no cargo!!
We continued to motor until about 4.30pm as the winds stayed light. By this time we could see Christine Anne. In the evening the winds picked up and we were sailing nicely with genoa on one side and main on the other. The winds have started to die again now.
Distance for Day 2: 146 miles.

Bonaire to Panama - Day 1

We left Bonaire yesterday morning after going to the marina to fill up with water and pay for the mooring bouy we had used (there is no anchoring at Bonaire as the whole island is a national park). We set course for the south end of Curacao and rounded the corner just after lunchtime. Christine Anne called us on the VHF to tell us they had just left Curacao and were therefore about an hour and half ahead of us.
We aimed for the 20 mile channel between Aruba and the Paraguana peninsula of Venezula and passed through it during the early hours of the morning. We could see both Aruba and Venezula clearly but also what we thought was a large fishing fleet off the west coast of Aruba - this later turned out to be about 30 oil tankers all parked up (why we are not sure). After picking our way through the tanker parking lot we heaed for the Guajira Peninsula - the northern most point of Columbia. We are currently passing the Monjes Islands just before this peninsula but are officially in Columbian waters!
Wind has been light and we had to turn the engine on around 5am - but we have 2 knots of current behind us which is making for good progress.
24hr run - 164n/m (a Newtsville record!!)