November 2000 to December 2001

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We spent way too much time in ugly Colon, but had the chance to learn more about the Panamanian culture. Can you believe that there are no letter carriers here, either. The reason again, except for major Streets, streets don’t have names or numbers. Every body has a P.O.BOX and picks the mail up at the post office. To find a specific store is a real problem. It takes for ever to find an address. This is what you’re told for directions: take the local bus to 5.Mayo, then take a taxi to Central, walk two blocks North, turn right, walk to Mac Donald’s, turn left past the pink house, around the corner is a blue house, we’re about two hundred feet from there. All I can say is GOOD LUCK again! At least in Costa Rica they were a bit closer with the directions.
Sad too see is, that ever since the US left Panama, it is going down hill. The Canal is taking a beating and there are even rumors that in 5 years it will be closed and this rumor comes from people who work or had worked for the canal. They already stopped hiring people. The United States still has an option to come back in the next five years and if they don’t, pay will be cut by 50% to all the canal workers. It looks like Latin American politics could brake the Canal. The local people do miss the US and want them back. Of course the corrupt government doesn’t, wonder why! When the last president resigned, he erased all information on the computer during his time served, even all the bank accounts and the new president now has nowhere to go, no money, no nothing. Would you like to take over a job with those conditions! Businesses are going down and thousands of people lost their jobs since the Americans left. They all want the US authority back, because the country ran better. It’s kind of sad to see, what could happen here.
A Chinese company is rebuilding the train tracks, between Colon and Panama City, and by next April it should be in operation. They are going to use it to transport containers, a much cheaper way to get containers across and they can use bigger boats to ship the containers, which again means a big threat to the canal. The Government sold the property to Chinese companies and an American/Chinese company, without knowing what they were planning. All they could see were $ bills. Which goes for the rest of the Panama Canal Zone with thousands of homes and army bases that have been abandoned, given to the Government by the US. And now the government wants so much money for it, that most of the people in Panama can’t afford to buy, which now brings the Colombians in.
Sid read an article in the December Issue “Legion”: A reporter asked Clinton if he worried about Chinese control of the Panama Canal. He answered, “I think the Chinese will, in fact, be bending over backward to make sure they run it in a competent and able and fair manner.” The White House spin machine immediately realized the damage. A sycophantic press, failing to make appropriate use of the story, ignored Chinese plans for the Panama Canal. Oops, guess Clinton screwed up, what do you think?!

We were stuck in ugly Colon for a whole month, (Sid calls it “Panama’s colon”). Our auto pilot broke down and we had to order the part in the States. On November 7th we finally received the part. Sid put the auto pilot in like the other one was, but of course 13 years has made a difference in design, so he had to change a few things on how it was mounted, but it all fit. Sid didn’t think he needed to test it on the water, since it worked in the slip. But, he didn’t pay any attention either, to which direction it was turning. So, on November 8th at 18:00 hours we were very excited to pull out of the slip. A few minutes later as the auto pilot was turned on, we set the course and the boat started steering us in circles. Scratching his head Sid couldn’t figure out what could be wrong. Took him about twenty minutes of wood burning thoughts to come up with the fact that the boat was correcting against itself and not steering the course. The problems could be the wiring. Very disappointed we went back into the slip, parked the boat and headed straight for happy hour at the Yacht Club. Of course all our friends gave us a hard time about us never leaving Colon. The problem was the wiring, all Sid had to do was change the power wires around on the motor. We were sure hoping on that, and while talking to our friends at the bar, several things like this came up: If we can’t leave Colon, there is another solution, in order to get out: we will need an “enema”.
Or: Colon is like a roach hotel, you can check in, but you can’t check out. Or: How about Hotel California.

We did leave the next day and it wasn’t due to an enema, the auto pilot worked. We left Colon at 17:00 and went straight to the Holandes Cays. We had a very pleasant over night trip and as the sun came up some heavy clouds followed and of course as we proceeded to anchored it rained cats and dogs.
We finally were enjoying the San Blas Islands, a favorite of most cruisers, the land of the molas. Among the hundreds of beautiful palm overgrown islands are more islands under water, covered with coral. Some of them used to be villages, but two earthquakes in 1882 and 1887 and torrential rains of the great mother of all floods, Mu Dummat, washed away others. Sometimes in order to reach an anchorage, yachts have to weave a course to find a way through theses dangers and one is advised to approach and anchorage while the sun is high in the sky, to be able to see the hidden dangerous reefs. There are many wrecks on reefs and stories tell, that they all landed there at night.
The people of San Blas, Kuna Yala, used to live in the Darien mountains, before the Spanish arrived. Under pressure from other tribes, or possibly the Spanish invaders, the majority of Kunas moved to the coast and later to the offshore islands. There is a very few communities still surviving in the forests. After many years of violence with outsiders the Kunas rebelled in 1925. In that rebellion they killed many Panamanian policeman and children of mixed blood living in the islands. Eventually 1938 the government of Panama granted the Kuna to rule the island of San Blas. Still to this day most of the Kunas live on offshore islands. They use the mainland river to obtain water, hunt and grow crops. Their transportation is in dugout canoes, “ulus”, some with two sails made out of anything from plastic to sheets or whatever else they can find.
The women used to have their bodies covered with tattoo’s, but when the missionaries came, they made them believe that it was a sin to walk around naked and made them wear close. The women, very proud of their tattoos, since it was a mark of beauty, transformed them onto their blouses, now called “molas”. Molas are a very beautiful handcrafted patchwork with several layers of colored fabrics that are cut away to make pattern and figures which are then embroidered reverse appliqué. They now wear a very unique colorful traditional dress. The blouses are out of mainly flowered and very colorful material with puffy sleeves and have the most beautiful colored molas, one on the front and one on the back. A straight piece of fabric, usually in dark blue colors with symbols like fish, fruits or shells in either yellow, brown, green or orange is wrapped around as a skirt. The hair is covered with a red handkerchief. Around the ankles and wrists, almost up to their knees and elbows, are wrapped with beautiful patterned beat strings “uini”. They also wear a golden nose ring, which varies in thickness.
The men dress more casual, shorts, T-shirts for every day and long pants for more formal and of course baseball hats.

The women are the bread maker and are selling these most beautiful molas now to tourists. I bought a few myself (21 or so, oops!). The women also have the say so. The husbands are in charge of bringing food to the table, by fishing or planting fruits and veggies somewhere on the mainland and are in charge of the cooking firewood and water.
The Kunas are very friendly people, but pretty demanding. They do come out to the boats in hordes to sell, molas, fruits, fish, crabs, conch or offer to bring groceries over from the mainland. Sometimes they surround a boat, before the anchor is even dropped. The rumor is, never to let them onto your boat, they will take over and eventually some items will be missing later. Also if a boat gets stuck on a reef it doesn’t take long for the Kunas to be there and totally strip the boat.
Unfortunately they also give you the feeling that they do not trust you.

The Holandes Cays are absolutely beautiful. Some cruisers statements: the most beautiful place on earth. It sure is pretty with several islands in a big reef surrounded lagoon, with crystal clear water and the most spectacular colors from light blue to any turquoise colors. We anchored in only 10 feet of water and our view was absolutely spectacular. Sid says, that it looks like in the South Pacific.
Still after one week here can’t get over the colors and beauty. The snorkeling is fantastic. On our first day snorkeling, we saw a giant moray eel, swimming amongst the corral reef. A huge barracuda and lots and lots of beautifully colored tropical fish, including spotted eagle rays. Later that day I snorkeled around the boat and found giant sea biscuits and sand dollars the size of a head of lettuce and not even ten feet away was a shark bigger then me. I recognized it as a nurse shark, but still didn’t feel too comfortable in the water and ended my snorkel trip, sitting on the dingy with legs pulled in. In the meantime I’ve encountered several sharks and I started to chase them down, but they are way too fast for me, probably a good thing. One day snorkeling, all of a sudden a shark was next to me, about 4 feet away. I screamed so loud under water, that Sid heard it and he was at least 30 feet in front of me. This time the shark wasn’t a nurse shark, it was a black tip and headed straight for me. My scream must have scared him away, because he just stared at me and took off. For the next ten or so minutes I must have looked rather funny, snorkeling around, my head constantly turning in all directions looking for sharks. This snorkel was extra incredibly exciting, since we found some crevasses and huge caves. I saw a giant Grouper, man he was huge. Sid only got to see his tale and was impressed with that. Later we encountered a huge Barracuda, but they are pretty shy and swim away when approached.
The first four days, the weather was just absolutely beautiful and only occasionally had a squall with rather high winds sweeping through this otherwise tranquil anchorage. We sure are in and on Paradise. Except for the no-see-ums, boy did they eat Sid up. It’s usually me they like, but I was smarter and put some bug juice on. Sid usually doesn’t have any problems and so he didn’t use the juice and had sleepless nights for a few days. You should have seen him, just on his left butt cheek he had at least 65 bites, his back looked like he had the measles. The result of the hundreds of bites, Sid broke out in hives. The same night he got eaten up, was a full moon and unfortunately the no-see-ums staid out all night long, so eventually I got eaten alive as well, but not as bad as Sid did, poor guy.
Day five we experienced some heavy winds up to 34.8 knots and it stayed that way for several days. Not good for us, since we need a good weather window to head for the Cayman Islands. The weather forecast says 20 to 25 knots of wind and 10 foot seas, no way we’re going out there yet. Sid seems to think that we missed our weather window opportunity already, which would mean that we’ll have a very rough trip up north.
The anchorage also turned into a flowing river, we had a current of at least 2 knots, which made it impossible to even swim around the boat. The currents last as long as the high seas are rolling in. You should see the reef that surrounds us, the water splashes high up into the sky and some of the waves are about 15 feet.

November 20th, the weather forecast still predicted heavy winds and high seas. There is a cold front which extended down to the Yucatan and in four days will reach Providencia. Which means for us NO GO yet. Adam and Maru on Babe left Cartagena and the first night out they had a knock down, and temporarily lost the engine. The seas were very rough, he said around 15 feet. The Caribbean Sea is more like the Sea of Cortez, no swells, just nasty wind chops, those 4 by 4’s again, very uncomfortable. Today John, Judy and LJ of Quest, left the San Blas to deliver Oronocoflow via Caymen Islands to Florida. After a couple of hours out in the wild sea, they called us on VHF and told us that the boat was leaking like a sieve, they had to change course towards Providencia and it was very rough out there. On their second night out, they also got knocked down, lost the engine and had to sail into Providencia. They fixed the engine there and then took off a few days later. Song Line was underway from Cartagena to Providencia and broke several things on the boat and had to go to Colon instead for repairs. Sea Fury left a few days before Oronocoflow and got the last of the weather window. But as they sailed around Cuba, they had the worst time ever in their cruising. Oronocoflow and Sea Fury arrived safe and sound in Fort Lauderdale.
The way the weather looked, it gave us the indication that we had missed our weather window for Florida. We gave it four more days, but no change in the weather situation. Still 25 to 30 knots of wind blowing and the seas 8 to 12 feet. Guess Paradise is living up to her nickname “The Turtle-Express”, we decided to play around in the San Blas Islands for a while and then head to Cartagena and take off from there next April, when we get our next weather window. Besides the angle is much better from Cartagena than from the San Blas. I guess it shows again, you just can’t be on a schedule while cruising, plans always change.

We are enjoying the swimming pool (East Holandes Cays) very much. Yesterday morning we finally bought our first king crab from the kunas for $3.00. You should have seen that monster, we had to wrestle it into a mesh bag and tie it up, to make it fit into our largest pot, which isn’t small. The next day the Kunas came by with more crab, I couldn’t resist and bought another one. I also took photos of the first crab and left the camera in the cockpit. By four in the morning we had strong winds and heavy rain and I guess while we moved cushions and pillows around in the dark, the camera fell down. I found it the next morning opened and wet. So no crab photos, sorry.
On Thanksgiving we had a wonderful potluck on one of the islands. Two big turkeys and two chicken were cooked on a fire and tasted just wonderful. There were 13 boats and everybody brought a tasty dish and we ate until we popped. We even had cranberry sauce and pumpkin pies.

Another thing to add to our broken parts list: On our way to the San Blas, Sid noticed that the water maker water had a 650 count on salt, which should only be around 200 with a new membrane. The next time we made water it went straight up to 1080. We emailed the water maker guy and he gave us some hints, but nothing worked. We decided to go to Rio Diablo and send the membrane to him in Panama City. Then Sid had a wonderful idea and sent me along with the membrane, which was an absolute treat. The flight was spectacular, since we flew between the San Blas Island and the mainland. I could see all the islands. Most of them are uninhabited, the ones that are, are just little islands with lots of palm leaf huts on them, no trees, no nothing else. We landed in Corti to let some people off and on. From there the flight took us over the mainland to Panama City. I could see several rivers winding themselves into a deep jungle. About one mile inland there were clearings along the river, with Kuna villages. Looked like a toy land, very, very pretty.
About catching a plane from these islands to the mainland, if there are more then 20 people trying to get on the plain, you have to elbow your way to the plane, if you don’t, you have to wait for the next plane, which is the next morning. A German guy figured this out after the third day not being able to get on the plane. The plane leaves at 6:30 AM from Rio Diablo and the return flight leaves at 6 AM from Panama City. The flight takes 35 to 40 minutes and costs $59 round trip. I didn’t have to elbow my way in, either way we only were 6 passengers. The airport here is on a small, narrow island, just enough room for the airstrip and the office. They don’t sell tickets here but do charge a $2 fee for the “pista”. I paid for my ticket in Panama City.
While in Panama City Sharon and Scott on Geisha took very good care of me. Together with Sharon, I went shopping for two days. We shopped till we dropped! We hit every store imaginable and had a great time. At 19:30 we would talk to Sid via SSB and found out that Rio Diablo had absolutely no veggies, other then onions and potatoes to sell. So off we went shopping again. I had so much stuff, that I had to pay overload. I found the greatest veggies, from eggplant (which I shared with the other cruisers on a potluck), artichokes (what a treat), nori, wasabi, sushi rice, horse radish and anything else I haven’t seen in a long time. I visited the water maker dealer, he didn’t seem to find anything wrong with the membrane, but gave Sid a few more things to do, like changing some o-rings. We came to the conclusion that the membrane was ruined by some chlorine and we ordered a new one.
The flight back was awesome as we flew just a few feet over Paradise before we landed and I could even see Sid in the dingy heading over to the airport.
The dingy was full with groceries and had barley room for us to fit in. As we arrived at Paradise I noticed weird faces staring through the windows. While I was gone, one Kuna lady would come out to the boat and go from window to window to peak in. Sid saw her and said to himself “just wait” and cut out a whole bunch of faces from magazines and pasted them on to the windows. The next day when she came by and tried to peak in….. Surprise! She later smiled at Sid and laughed.
After I had returned to Rio Diablo, we enjoyed a great river trip. Frederico, a Kuna who always takes good care of cruisers, showed us the way. This was pretty much the first river without crocodiles, so they said. Frederico shared with us the history of this river. All the Kuna families have their sections along the river where they plant yucca and also where they have their family graves, which we could see from the dingy. Then after the family plantations is a section where the Kuna ladies do laundry, further up the river is the bathing area. The water there was crystal clear and refreshingly cold. We enjoyed to swim in some fresh water. Sid and Keith on Tortuga even caught some little fresh water fish for Keith’s aquarium. One was a really cute little bugger and we named him Diablo (Devil). One week later Sid had to fish him out of the tank, he sure lived up to his name and ate all the beautiful fantail guppy’s tails.
Since Keith needed a new membrane as well, we ordered them together. While waiting for the shipment, we went back to the Swimming Pool and enjoyed another wonderful potluck, this time a fish fry. We also did lots of snorkeling and also lots of lazying around. Keith had crew on his boat Corinna from Germany. Of course her and I bonded immediately and did a lot of cooking together. I was really great for me to speak in German for a change.

On the 7th of December our membranes arrived in Rio Diablo. It also was mothers day in Panama, which is a big deal here. Actually mothers day is on the 8th, but they start celebrating it on the 7th until the 9th.
The Sahila (Chef of Rio Diablo), invited the cruisers to join the festivities. The first evening they had a little mothers parade, where all the mothers followed four or five drummers, handing a bottle of rum around and taking big gulps. The husbands were following the mothers and they kept telling us with a grin on their faces: my wife is very borracho (drunk). It was so funny to see all the happy mothers and the husbands obviously very delighted to see them drunk. One man even said, with a big grin on his face: “Oh, boy, my wife is drunk, MORE babies!!!” The parade ended at the communion house, where an announcer introduced some of the mothers and later on the oldest mother on the island, 84 years, was crowned “Queen of the mothers”. Everybody was dressed up and had a cheer full time. We also walked across the bridge to the neighbor island Corazon de Jesus, where they had a similar ritual. Frederico pointed at a bull and explained, that at midnight he’ll be killed and the next day all the mothers will be fed with the meat. The only meat they have on the island is chicken and it could be a whole chicken, just the wings, necks, giblets or feet, it costs 1.50 to 1.75 per pound, so not many of the Kunas can afford it. The beef must really be a great treat for the mothers. We didn’t stay for that ceremony, I don’t think I could have taken it, I remember all to well the bull fights in Puerto Vallarta.
On the 8th after the mothers are fed, the dance begins and lasts until the wee hours in the morning. On the 9th they gather in individual groups for pot lucks and of course more music and dance.
December 10th at noon I went ashore for my appointment to learn to bake Kuna bread, but the baker was still borracho (drunk) from the partying, guess I’m stuck with my own bread. I provisioned as much as I could, said goodbye to Frederico and his lovely wife. They presented me with a small mola, thanked me for all my gifts I had given them (Spam, canned goods, baby milk, clothes, a little necklace for mothers day etc.) and that I’m now with the presentation of the mola, a member of their family and a sister of the Kuna Yala. That was so sweet, I felt very honored, until two minutes later, when he asked me for two dollars! So I’m still not sure, if the mola was indeed a present or if I got tricked into buying it (they do sell these little molas for two bucks, you know). Fredericos smallest son, 2 ½ had a terrible accident when he was a baby, he stumbled into a hot boiling pot and burned his butt all around. He also went into shock and to this day he hasn’t come out of it. They say he’s blind, but he’s eyes somewhat wonder around. The terrible burns are healed with ugly scars and he definitely has a mental problem, he doesn’t react like a normal little 2 ½ year old boy does. The first thing Frederico does, when he meets new cruisers, he shows them his poor baby boy and acts as he needs immediate doctors help. He is a bit of a trickster when it comes to that. When he begged for the two dollars, he said that his poor baby son fell and scratched his cheek and that they needed to bring him to the hospital. As I saw the kid later, there was nothing wrong with him.
I guess he has to make a living somehow.

December 11th, we left Rio Diablo and four miles further anchored in Isla Verde, yet another beautiful set of coconut islands, surrounded by a huge reef.
The trade winds have kicked in and blew for several days between 20 and 25 knots, sometimes even gusting up to 28. Amazing how the noise of the wind in the rigging can get to ones mood. After listening to it for five or so days, it starts to pull on the nerves. But on the other hand, if there is no wind, the no-see-ums come out and bug us. So which one do we rather like?

Once on the morning radio nets we heard, that the Rio Dulce in Guatemala, ones such and incredible place to be cruising has gotten very dangerous. In just the previous 6 months, 60 boats have been broken in, 7 were boarded and robbed, one boat robbed and the cruiser killed. We also heard that cruisers are leaving the Rio Dulce in convoys to avoid the pirates. Can you believe, one of our cruising friends, still went to Livingston and is going into the Rio. When he was in Panama City, he was robbed already, obviously it didn’t scare him enough to think that he will be spared in the Rio. Rio Dulce was on our agenda as well, but not anymore. Although in Jan.2001 we got word, that the pirates were caught, we’ll see about that!
Eight days later we were still in Isla Verde, the wind blew the whole entire time. We couldn’t even go snorkeling, the visibility wasn’t to good, due to the strong winds. But we kept busy other wise. At three every day we enjoyed “noodeling”. Our neighbors on “Tackless Two” have these Styrofoam noodles and so do their buddy boats. Every afternoon at three we were sitting on these noodles, floating in the water, drinking our afternoon cocktails, shooting the shit and cooling off. We even had a bar in the water (close cell foam mattress we held on to). It always was a lot of fun.
Other days, when Sid gets enough reading in and is maybe a little bored he fiddles around with odds and ends. This time he fiddled with electronics to improve things on the boat! He put an E-meter in and when he was done, the refrigerator wouldn’t work anymore, which was very, very frustrating to him. He changed everything back to how it was, but still no refrigeration. He tried and tried to find the problem, but no success. Keith on Tortuga offered us to use his ham radio email, which we did, but the mail came back as wrong address, even more frustration. Sid didn’t sleep a bit that night and at two in the morning, (I could smell the wood burning), he was wandering around the boat, thinking and thinking. At 4:30 I saw the light on in the cockpit and heard, this: HMMMMM or AHAAAAA! A few minutes later a big: YESSS!!! And the refrigerator was working again. One loose wire repaired and Sid was a happy camper again and none of his cold beers suffered.
Christmas was again a real neat occasion. Close to our anchorage was a little island called Waisaladup, about 100 feet in diameter, full of coconut trees and other tropical plants. Some of the palm tress are overhanging the beach, just as they are in traveling catalogues. On Christmas Eve 16 boats met on the island for an appetizer pot-luck and Paradise provided the eggnog. That was really quite special to have a little Christmas Island for this occasion. We even had a little Christmas tree. So, we had Christmas in the Caribbean “Jimmy Buffet”. On the 25th we had a big potluck on “Sunbow”, a 47 foot Catamaran. With 3 Turkeys, all the trimmings, lots of dessert, good music and a great time.
I have to add this though. Corinna, crewing for Keith on Tortuga, is very new in boating and eager to learn. Well, Keith flew her to Panama City to re-provision and she came home with a 25 pound turkey for Christmas, that barely fit into the freezer. Keith showed me that huge bird with a smile on his face and Corinna meant: “Well, I only bought the medium one!” The problem with the turkey was, it wouldn’t fit in any marine stove and had to be cut in halve and cooked in two stoves instead.

Not one day went by, with out at least one “ulu” stopping by and trying to either sell crabs, lobster, veggies or molas. We started running short on money, (maybe I bought one or two too many molas). But they kept coming by with more and more beautiful molas. On one of our noodeling adventures I brought out my never used fish air mattress, which was so huge, that I never could have gotten it back in storage. I was told that Kunas don’t trade for items, only for money, well, I did trade that mattress for two mola shirts (4 molas total). I also traded some Spam and other canned goods for other molas. After that I went through the entire boat and found lots of other household items for mola trading.

Rio Diablo, has many little stores, but vegetables are hard to come by. Meat doesn’t exist, just Chicken, which is very expensive. They also have a bank, but WILL NOT cash travelers checks. Neither will they give money advances from credit cards. The reason probably is that they are not hooked up on a phone. For those visiting the San Blas Islands for a longer time, make sure you bring lots of money. The molas will swallow most of it. We were down to about ten dollars, so no more molas for Manuela (Sid’s smiling about that). I have to take that back. I started trading stuff we don’t need anymore for molas. This time I traded six coffee cups, a knife, 2 Spam and corn beef for two beautiful molas.

December 31st Happy New Years Eve! We’ve been trying to leave Green Island for over one week, but the weather wouldn’t cooperate. In the last three days we had pretty much a steady 25 knots wind, gusting up to 32 and it rained like a cow pissing on a flat rock, as Sid would say. We have never seen this much rain. In the Swimming Pool, they even clocked 48 knots and some of the boats were dragging. In the night at 4.30 in the morning. WE even took our awning down in 30 knots of gusty winds. We were planning to be in the Swimming Pool for New Years, but that wasn’t going to happen. The rain overflowed the rivers and the water was quite murky and the hidden reefs even more hidden. We’ve been exchanging movies with other boats and watched them in the cockpit. You should have seen us. We are pretty tucked in, in our cockpit, but we still got splashed on by the rain, so we sat in our cockpit with an umbrella over us, watching TV. On the news we heard that Georgia had lots of snow. The system came down so far, that it causes the nasty weather here. There was another even stronger system right behind this one, but we hoped for a break, to be able to have a somewhat calm trip to Cartagena. Tortuga had left, it took them two days and it was very rough all the way to Cartagena. Poor Corinna was sick the whole entire trip.

First of January 2001, or is it Merry Christmas. I found a wad of one dollar bills under the table. A whole 60 bucks, how did that get under there. Well, I don’t want to know, it might disappear just as it popped up. Maybe I’ll get some more molas, Sid definitely will get some more beer. We also moved back to the Swimming Pool, where the anchorage was full with German and Swiss boats. Only about 20% was from the US. We had a great potluck on the beach and met many more nice cruisers. I’m actually amazed how many Swiss are cruising, didn’t know we had an ocean in Switzerland. Some of them even built the boat in their backyard.
One of the ulus came by again, selling lobster, conch, crab, fish and something I’ve never seen before. It looked really weird, had a tail like a lobster, but the head had no feelers and the legs were very small. I was told that it was a Spanish lobster and a delicacy. Of course I had to try that delicacy, bought both of them and a nice pargo (two bucks, the prices always amazes me). They were very nice, not as rich as lobster, but a similar flavor, if not better.

January 5th we slowly started moving a little closer towards Cartagena. We had a beautiful sail for a change and we enjoyed every bit of it. We spent one night in Tigre Village, which was a great little stop because Kunas are forbidden to go out to the boats with their ulus and we just loved it. We only spent one night in this rather small anchorage. I wouldn’t stop here again, the anchorage has enough room for maybe four boats and has lots of reefs in-between.
The next day we again had beautiful sail, as in pulling those white things up, almost forgot what they were and what for. The wind was blowing around 15 knots and the sea wasn’t too rough. 19 miles further east we anchored in very beautiful Snug Harbor. This anchorage is very protected, as it is surrounded by many little islands, which again are surrounded by reefs. Our spot is between the islands and the mainland with green overgrown mountains in the background. Two islands away from us is a little resort, run by Kunas, with no guests. Another two islands further, about a two mile dingy ride is Playon Chico a village of about 400 Kunas.

Getting provisions here is a bit different, they only seem to get fresh produce in every other week. For four days I went in on a daily basis, but no veggies or fruits were available. Each time in town, I was told to come back in the afternoon or the next day, but no such luck, still no veggies. The fourth day, finally they had 8 limes, one celery, which of course I bought. I also was lucky to find some tomatoes, potatoes, chicken wings, two steaks (no matter how you cook those, they are like shoe leather), bread fruit and a giant squash. A young kid guided me through the narrow alleys. The houses cluster close together and I had to dodge the palm leaf roofs, designed for a shorter population. On two of my visits a shore, Mary on Tranquility joined me and together we were invited into many of the Kuna homes, where we marveled over the most beautiful molas. It was so much fun mingling with the Kuna ladies and asking them a lot of questions about their culture. Some of the ladies we asked about their nose painting, were happy that we were interested in their culture and not even five minutes later Mary and I had our noses painted as well. It rather looks like a tattoo, it’s a long line down the middle of the nose with some little symbols added. To them it is a mark of beauty, to me it looked more like my nose doubled in size. The next morning most of it was gone already, but as I tried to rub the rest off, surprise, it wouldn’t come off. Don’t worry it was completely gone and washed off a few days later.

The villages are pretty much the same everywhere you go. Each village has a cement dock for the supply boats and several stores. Some houses, such as schools, official buildings and churches are built of cement, but everything else is built of cane sticks for walls and palm leaf roofs, some have roofs made out of sheet metal. Some bigger families have several houses and have a cane stick wall around their compound. In each of the huts lives one of the families kids with grand children. One hut is the kitchen with a fire place in the middle. Very few huts have beds, they mostly sleep in hammocks. All their clothes are hanging over the cane beams under the roof and a very few have a chair to sit in. Non of the houses have windows, just one door. Some divide the house into different sections, divided with a cane stick wall. The cooking fires scented the air with light smoke, children crying or playing everywhere, the women sewing on molas, the men either taking siestas in the hammocks or out fishing, collecting wood, food or working on a new hut or ulu. Some houses even have radios or TV’s running. Some try to outdo the neighbors music. Each house seems to offer or sell something different. One house has a lime tree, where the other has a mango tree. Some have a pile of squash stashed in a corner, others have plantains or coconuts. Some even grow peppers or tomatoes along side the huts. In San Blas are a lot of albinos due to a lot of incest. In Rio Diablo alone we saw at least 20.

In the meantime the wind was howling in the 20 again, that’s what the trade winds are all about. It took several days for it to calm down again and we had spent one week already in Snug Harbor.

Our next destination was Isla Mono, only 10 miles further east from Playon Chico. Yet another beautiful anchorage, well protected between reefs, islands and the mainland. This was the fist anchorage, where the ulus went by without stopping, but all gave us a friendly hello. On one of the return trips, one of the ulus couldn’t start the outboard, so we let them tie on to our boat. I gave them some water and we watched the two trying to fix the engine. The 4 horse seemed to get more air then fuel, so Sid dug in his tools and found a hose connector to the engine. Voila, the engine ran and two happy guys, left for town with a purring engine. Would have been a long row back to the village. After they left, we went ashore one of the islands, where the kunas are building new ulus. We walked around the island for a bit, then ran the dingy around to other islands and into the mangroves where, we had watched the ulus disappear. Where do they go, we couldn’t find any way, we were surrounded by mangroves. I guess you have to have local knowledge to find the hidden passages through the shrubbery.

January 18th, we went into the town of San Ignacio de Tupile, which is two island from Isla Mono. We started to run out of all kind of things and were living of canned goods. This town seemed a bit more modern and much cleaner then the previous villages we had visited, but also here we couldn’t find any fresh veggies, nor fruits. Except for mandarins, which turned out to be mandarin limes, I tell you sour, sour, sour. We found some chicken wings and hot dogs and bought some more gas for the generator and the dingy. We had to run the generator for an hour everyday, due to overcast skies. Also our batteries are in need of replacement. While in town, we tried to buy a bottle of rum and a case of beer for our traditional 4 o’clock cocktail, but this place is dry. They only get to drink or buy booze on holidays or fiestas, oh well. We’ll just sip on water, it’s healthier anyway?

January 19th, we were still in Isla Mono, the trades were still blowing in the 20’s, so no go yet for us. Comfy headed from Cartagena to San Blas and had a miserable ride, although he was going with the weather. We got up extra early, hopped into our dingy and drove to the Mono river. This yet is the best river adventure we’ve explored. Didn’t see any monkeys, but the place sure was loaded with all kind of birds. One of the barren trees which was overhanging the water, had a round whole on top of one of the empty branches and two red headed wood peckers where feeding the babies. How, neat, we got pretty close to them and they didn’t even bother.
This river is winding its way into the jungle. In-between we saw primitive banana plantations, sugar cane and other tropical fruits, which Kunas keep up. We went as far up the river as we could and then took a cold bath in the refreshing and clear water. Sid even washed some clothes, what a guy. He’s been so good, he’s been doing the dishes everyday, since my hands started acting up again. My hands are allergic to soaps, some veggies- and fruits juices and are eating up my hands, the humidity doesn’t help either, so Sid is doing all the dirty work for me, thanks Schätzli.
On our way back we drifted down the river and watched many birds some we’ve never seen before, we even got very close to a falcon.
Back to the boat I opened my IBM computer to upgrade this news letter and I be darned if that damn thing broke down on us again. It has been just a little over one year since we had it fixed.
The following day we ran out of propane, yikes! Just good we have the Generator and the microwave. When we had them filled in Pedro Miguel they only filled them half way, so one lasted for only two weeks and the other for 3. Since the weather looked a bit more promising, the winds had died down for two days and the water seems to get calmer as well, we decided to do the jump over to Cartagena.

January 20th we left Mono for our 158 (+30=188) miles to Cartagena. It looked real promising, the water was pretty calm, although we did have some 6 footers, but they were far apart. It was a bit of a messy ride, but it was tolerable. The wind blew around 10 knots. We motor sailed for most of it, since we had a noserly blowing again. We wanted to make it to our destination before the winds were blowing the usual 20 to 25 knots. We had a pretty good trip until 50 miles before Cartagena. By then our ETA should have been 12:30, which would have meant record time. Well, first the Auto Pilot took a dump, so we had to hand steer the boat. The wind picked up and started to blow 20 knots, the sea got higher and the 8 to 10 foot wind waves got closer and closer together. To head for our way point we had to head into the weather, but since the waves where so frequent, high and nasty, we had to change course, to make it more livable. In other words, the last 50 miles turned into a 80 mile trip from hell. Since we were heeling to starboard so much, the engine started to suck air instead of fuel, or at least that’s what we thought. We had to turn the engine off and started to sail really good. It was a messy ride and very uncomfortable. Poor Crystal was sick the whole way. The funny thing about that, Sid found her in the very front of the V-Berth, every time the boat slammed down a wave, Crystal was curled up but in mid-air, before slamming down on to the cushion, kind of funny, but poor thing. Then the chain locker kept opening up and the chain kept falling into the V-Birth. Everything in the V-Berth which wasn’t bolted on, came flying down. Hours later, the wind died down again and we needed help from the motor, but had to wait for the waves to calm down a bit. As we turned the engine on again and motored into the weather, at 3000 rpm’s we were only doing 2 to 3 knots, must be a strong current. Now we were motoring an almost parallel course of Cartagena back and fourth. Then the wind started picking up again and we could turn the engine off. Finally we had a really great sail, but still couldn’t follow our way point and still so many hours to go. Around 18:00 we had 4 more miles to go to the brake waters of Cartagena, pulled the jib in and turned the motor on. The boat wouldn’t move, only doing 2 to 3 knots. Sid realized that it wasn’t a current we’ve been fighting all day long, nor the fuel problem, we had something wrapped around the prop and there was no way to get into the rough water and take it off. Slowly we closed on the breakwater, by now it was 19.30 and dark. As we entered the harbor, 5 or so fishing pangas with screaming fisher men surrounded us. They had nets spread out all over the small entrance to the harbor. It took quite some time to finally get them to lead us around the nets. Since our original plan was to head to Florida, we of course had no charts for this harbor. We drove around for two frustrating hours before we finally found Club de Nautico and the anchorage. We were tired, hungry and exhausted. Since it was so rough out there we couldn’t take the generator on deck to cook some hot meals in the microwave. I didn’t feel my best all trip long and had to fight getting sick. Our meals were cold canned green beans and beets, dehydrated fruits, crackers or nothing at all and not enough water. It was a long 38 hour trip, but we made it and are so glad to be in Cartagena. All trips are good, some are just better then others. We were exhausted for a couple of days.
Yeah, we’re in beautiful Cartagena and that it is. Can you imagine it’s cheaper to eat out then to cook at home. I’m going to like it here just fine, yeah, no dishes for a while. We’ll be here until March or April. From the middle of March on we’ll be looking for a weather window to head via the Cayman Islands to Florida.
But in the meantime, we’ll be enjoying Cartagena and of course get a lot of work done on the boat, next to all the eating in the many wonderful restaurant here. There goes our weight!

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