We continued a slow passage westward, calling in on small settlements and exploring rivers and islands as we continued up the chain of islands and bays towards civilisation. Men in dugout canoes, occasionally with sails up, would cheerfully wave at us as they made their way to their coconut plot or garden they had created in the forest.
We loved the silence and magical experience of being on our own in a small bay, surrounded by trees and with the incredibly thick virgin rainforest of Guna Yala as a backdrop, amazingly some of it never visited by humans. We explored rivers and lagoons, snorkelling over beautiful coral in clear waters with no-one else within sight. We watched dolphins feed close to the boat and tried to communicate with men who came over in dugout canoes as they tried to sell us Molas, fish or lobster. We donated suncream to a couple of albinos – a man and young girl, who must really struggle under the fierce sun, their skin covered in scabs as they tried to shield their sensitive eyes from the strong morning sun.
We bought a few Mola and I sewed them into cushions, enjoying the smell of smoke from a fire that seeped from the beautiful needlework as I imagined the women carefully sewing the colourful designs by hand in tiny, neat stitches.
We sailed on, intending to call in at one last Guna village before hitting the more crowded and visited Western San Blas islands, but the wind was so perfect and we were enjoying a great sail, we decided to keep going and make the most of the conditions. Sure enough, no sooner had we made the decision, when a number of boats started showing on AIS – the days of having an anchorage to ourselves in San Blas were now behind us – and we wove our way through reefs and shallows into a sheltered anchorage with ten boats, including Zen Again, already enjoying the clear turquoise waters that lay between several palm tree lined islands in the Holandes Cays.
We approached the small island of Banedup in our dinghy, following a channel marked by sticks poking up from the shallow coral and landing on a sandy beach in clear water. We were met by Ivin who owns a small restaurant on the island. He, his brother and sister live in small huts and grow coconuts, bananas and papaya which they sell to visiting cruisers. They also make delicious coconut bread rolls, delivered fresh to the boat each morning with Ivin paddleboarding out to us in the strong current, greeting us with a smile that was as warm and delicious as the bread rolls.
We decided to treat ourselves to a meal one night and, together with Zen Again, headed to the beach as the sun was going down. We had one of those magical evenings, eating a lobster dinner under a thatched shelter on the sandy beach with a warm breeze cooling us down and the sound of crashing surf hitting the reef a few meters from where we sat.
On board we have two fridges – one is small and used as a fridge with a very small freezer compartment that makes excellent ice cubes for our sundowners. The other is a large ice box that can be either a freezer or fridge. We refer to it as the chiller, as we keep it stocked with beer, tonic, wine, fruit and vegetables in the cavernous depths of the unit. A few weeks earlier it had stopped working so we re-organised the fridge, removed some of the alcohol, and loaded it up with all the vegetables until it was bursting, making finding things we needed a real task, particularly at sea when the complete content of the fridge was in danger of being deposited on the galley bench beneath it! We deduced that the reason the chiller had stopped working was because it was out of refrigerant gas which meant there was a leak somewhere in the system. I put out a call for help and had three fellow cruisers approach us to see if they could resolve the problem. One was in the next bay so we upped anchor, wove our way through a very narrow channel and settled ourselves in the sheltered bay next to the boat that had answered my call for help. Once we’d dropped the anchor, Steve dived in to make sure the anchor was set correctly and upon returning announced there was a huge shark beside our boat just lying on the bottom of the sea. Feeling very nervous about swimming around such a large creature, we both jumped into the dinghy and, with snorkels on, dangled over the side to see if we find it again. Sure enough, there was a 2m nurse shark right beside our boat in about 4m of water, just casually minding its own business while we looked down on it with wide eyes and bums in the air from the safety of our dinghy!!!
Mike was from South Africa and had been cruising since 1999 with his wife, Laura. He is typical of so many in the cruising community where he was keen to help other people with less skills than him and quickly discovered what was wrong with our chiller. It turned out to be a lose wire as well as needing a gas refill and very soon the plates were getting cold and the beer was being placed back in the chiller! We just love being part of this amazing group of people and really hope that one day we will be able to rescue someone like we have been helped so many times.
Christmas was fast approaching and with it, the anchorages were filling up with boats wanting, like us, to enjoy the holiday period in a tropical paradise. Our friends on Ruffian arrived and we had a wonderful time catching up on the happenings of the eight months since we were last together in Dominica while the number of boats in the anchorage and new friends expanded. We took numerous snorkelling adventures, enjoying being able to explore again with Iain and Fi as we quickly fell back into the ease of their company. We booked Christmas lunch with Ivin on Banedup Island, and 11 of us sat down under a thatched shelter on the beach to enjoy a lovely four course meal. This was followed by a number of challenges that Steve and I had set our friends, which culminated in a blind-folded dinghy race and celebratory drinks on board Cerulean. It was all great fun and made for a memorable day.
On Boxing Day we pulled up anchor with Ruffian and Zen Again to continue our journey west, enjoying a great sail in flat seas as we made good speed, arriving in Chichime – a protected anchorage with a narrow entrance between two reefs infront of two small coconut tree lined islands. We snorkelled in the strong current before having a final sundowner on board Cerulean with Mike and Nicki from Zen Again. The next day we were sailing to different destinations, marking the end of our three months journey together. We first met in Gosport, UK in June 2020 when we had 5NM of water under the keel and we had now visited 11 countries together with 10,000NM sailed on Cerulean! We will see them again in a few years in New Zealand and hope to sail with them around our familiar home waters.
We continued our journey SW with Ruffian, and anchored in front of the small town of Portobello, only a few miles east of the entrance to the Panama Canal. The town had been a significant port in the 1590’s due to its protected harbour and became one of the most important sites for the transportation of gold and silver from South and Central America to Spain. For over 150 years fleets of galleons were sent to Portobello to collect their valuable cargo, so the town was heavily protected with three forts and large batteries of canons in each. The protected harbour was now scattered with deserted yachts, washed into the muddy shallows and left to decay as the forgotten boats slowly fell apart. The small town was almost deserted when we wandered through the narrow, potholed streets against a thick forest backdrop. There is a large white church that houses a famous black Christ and worshippers walk on their knees from as far as Costa Rica to pay their respects. Repurposed American school buses are elaborated decorated and now serve as public transport as they career down the rutted roads towards the large city of Colon less than 50kms away but a world away by comparison!
It was a lovely quiet anchorage with the sound of howler monkeys breaking the evening silence as their calls echoed around the harbour. Lots of birds flew around us from Pelicans, flying very low over the water, to a large flock of white Egrets and small swallows darting between our rigging and all around us.
We continued after a couple of days, motoring into the wind, through hundreds of tankers waiting to go through the Panama Canal. As we passed the channel marking the entrance into Shelter Bay and the beginning of the canal, it was a strange feeling to know we would be making that journey in a few week’s time. On we motored until the entrance to Rio Chagres came into view with breaking waves marking the narrow passage into the river and a large fort dominating the headland. We led the way over the shallow sand bar as rolling waves pushed us up the river. I must admit to having white knuckles as we meandered our way through the entrance, and was relieved when the depth started increasing again – not somewhere to enter in strong winds or rolling seas. We motored up the glassy river with thick jungle bordering the banks hiding the many crocodiles that inhabit the area. Howler monkeys called out and birds screeched, swooped and mesmorised us until we found a peaceful place to drop the anchor, out of sight of any manmade structures but within a few miles of one of the busiest shipping passages in the world.
The Chagres River was dammed in 1910 to create the Gatun Lake which supplies the water for the locks of the canal, so we took our dinghies up the river about 5 miles to have a look at the dam and get our first sight of the canal. One problem faced us on arrival….. Steve and I had forgotten to bring shoes! We walked in our barefeet for a few miles on hot tarmac, prickly grass and stony pathways but it was worth it to get a feel for what lay ahead of us in a few week’s time. We watched two large tankers making its slow passage through a lock into the Gatun Lake where a cruise ship was waiting for their turn to pass through on the other side.
On the walk back to the dinghies we spotted a group of Howler Monkeys in the trees close to our path. We watched as the family quietly fed on leaves, allowing their young to forage and swing through the branches before gathering them up and ensuring they did not stray too far from the group.
We remained anchored up the river for a couple of days, enjoying the tranquillity, birdlife and feeling of isolation, even though the occasional hoot of a large ship reminded us that the canal was not far away. At night we shone bright torches into the mangroves to see the red eyes of crocodiles reflected back at us. Sadly we could only spend two nights in this wonderful place as we needed to continue west so, with Ruffian following us, we motored back out of the narrow entrance for a long motorsail to Bocas del Toro where we would be leaving the boats for a couple of weeks so we could adventure inland with Ruffian.
CREDIT: Huge thanks to Ruffian for the amazing pictures – all the drone footage and the best of the rest, labelled in pictures!
So wonderful to read and wow, yes those fabulous photos!! Thanks for sharing xxx
So exciting!