Friends in far places

While waiting for my friend Frieda to arrive tonight, I was greatly entertained by two of the most friendly and colorful characters, whose names will not be mentioned for fear of incriminating them.

Sitting at the bar waiting for Frieda, we drank beer, (they) smoked cigarettes and we chatted and laughed and exchanged stories, I thought my stories were interesting, but I have to say theirs were better, well at least much more entertaining and colorful. 

These two fun loving guys have really lived the life, visiting, living in, and experiencing some of the most interesting, frightening, dangerous and diverse cultures; they have even been involved in gun battles, God Forbid. 

They told me stories that made my hair curl, and said that I should use the stories for my blog, unfortunately I’m not sure where I would stand legally if I was to repeat anything they told me, particularly as one of them is still on one country’s wanted list. I suggested they start their own blog, which, if they do I will absolutely pass on the address.

The point to all of this is, just to reiterate that this crazy life style of mine leads me into places where I meet the most diverse selection of interesting, colorful and fun loving people, who (unlike me) are not afraid of danger or adventure, and go after it,  grab it with both hands and shake the life out of it.

If Only I Could!

Oh if only I could be here, in these wonderful islands, and visit all these incredibly amazing places without having to actually sail here, (“beam me up Scottie”) words can not describe how bad I am at  sailing, so I’m not even going to try, because those of you out there that love me (thank you) and are (incredibly still) my friends, and happen to love sailing, will never be able to understand my fears.

I love the amazing places that I get to visit, the incredible people I am so unbelievably fortunate to meet, and the adventures I have that most people will only ever only experience through books, television or magazines, but honestly if any of you could actually see me cowering below decks during a rocky crossing leaving the “ship work” to whoever is unfortunate enough to be aboard with us, you would be ashamed of me. 

Truthfully, I’m ashamed of me; did any of you read my “Bee in the candy jar” blog?  I want the candy but I don’t want all the scary stuff that you have to endure to get the candy.

Edi was my last victim, for the crossing from Aruba to Cartagena, he had to stay on deck and work two shifts because (mummy) was sleeping, the look I got when I finally emerged from my cabin was not cool, but he had every reason to be pissed off he had stayed on deck all night just so I could hide below the covers and sleep.

Today Daniela gave me that same look when I eventually emerged from my escape burrow, because I had bolted below like a scared rabbit as soon as the crossing got rough, leaving her and Bob to deal with everything.  Fortunately Daniela is not a nervous wreck like her Mother, but she hadn’t felt well, and yet endured the discomfort in order to help her Father with the passage, while her pathetic Mother hid below decks…

Seriously, I didn’t ask for this, I started this adventure with Bob because it’s what he wanted, it’s always been his dream, and well, yes actually I must admit I do want the adventures, and all the incredible perks which are priceless.  I want all the candy without any of the pain.  I’m not asking for sympathy, I don’t deserve it, I’m just such a nervous ninny and don’t cope well when the going gets rough.  Where’s the Viocodin?

The Swimming Pool

Thursday 13^th January

Today we made the very wise if not very late decision to move to an area of islands here in the San Blas referred to as “the swimming pool”.

The past 5 or 6 days have been quite cloudy with only the odd outbreak of sun, possibly because we were so close to the mainland of Panama, which is all rainforest. 

Danni has been less than impressed with the weather lately, its bad enough that she’s trapped onboard alone with her parents, and can’t swim ashore because of the 15 foot crocodile, but no sun really is just too much to bare.  Having said that we have taken advantage of the few hours of sunshine in between the clouds to explore the surrounding islands, swimming in just the clear water off the beaches.

Having made the decision today to move to the swimming pool, my thoughts ran along the lines of “OH crap, more sailing and just another bloody island”, I think the cloudy days had started to get to me too, and you all know just how much I love sailing!

But, OMG how wrong could I have been, the sailing was actually bearable, we had 18+ knots of consistent wind, and were able to manage a very pleasant sail across at a steady 9 knots of speed.  The seas here off the Panama coast are big, but the winds give Daisy wings and we just fly smoothly along.

Approaching the swimming pool I was absolutely gob smacked, the islands are jaw-droppingly beautiful, prettier than any picture postcard or photo-shopped photograph.  The sea between the islands is an indescribable pallet of colors.

We brought the sails in and motored between the islands, through gin-clear water where you could see the grains of sand on the ocean bed, which was littered with sea stars.  The color of the water in the anchorage was so blue and so clear, exactly like a swimming pool, it wasn’t hard to see how this place came up with it’s name.

Daisy at anchor, at the swimming pool

I excitedly scoured the boats through the binoculars looking for Bamboo, my friend Roxanne’s boat, she said they would be here, sadly I didn’t see them, I had really hoped to catch up with them here, but they have either come and gone or not arrived yet, we will catch up later.

All the clouds are way off in the distance, and we have uninterrupted sunshine.  Danni jumped in the water only to discover the current is so strong she barely made it back to the boat.  We are anchored off Barbeque Island, so named because everyone uses it to have barbeque picnics; there is even a hut and a table for cruisers use.  The huge reef behind is dramatic to look at with the enormous waves crashing over.  There is a strong wind, which is cooling, and there is no rocking or movement of the boat, so it’s a very comfortable anchorage. 

None of the islands here are inhabited, as far as I can tell, and we are quite a long way off the Panama coast so there probably won’t be so many (if any) Kunas selling fish and vegetables, we’ll have to wait and see.

We are down to our last loaf of bread, and 4 liters of drinking water, and the locker is full with the garbage, so our time here will be limited, but we will come back.  We have friends who are planning to visit in the coming months, so we will absolutely be bringing them here.

Men in Thongs, No, No, No!

So the anchorage we’re in has a few other boats, mostly French, and they all seem to know one another, and being British, we are a bit of an oddity here, and definitely out numbered.  There’s a lot of constant activity with people going from boat to boat in their dinghy’s, and one guy in particular provides us with endless entertainment as he proudly stands up while driving his dinghy wearing only a bright turquoise thong, although Daniela informed me that it wasn’t actually a thong, more of a sock with some dental floss attached! “I can’t help wondering what the croc would have thought, “less chewable fabric to get caught in the teeth, and immediate access to the meat!  Please don’t read more into this statement”.

While I am absolutely not a fan of men wearing thongs (unless they’re gorgeous Italian models), or in fact any male over the age of 5 wearing  a Speedo, I have to say I have always loved the French, I admire their couldn’t care less attitude to life, they truly don’t give a damn; they always do exactly what they want to do, and usually with a style and panache that most of us can only envy.

In defense of the turquoise thong clad Frenchman, I have to add that he did have a great figure, and a fabulous tan (in comparison horrific images of my parchment white ass spring to mind) and I have to say only the French and Italian men can usually get away with this sort of exhibitionist behavior.

The majority of men over the age of 30 it seems commonly sport fat rolls and huge beer guts covered with hair like inhabitants from the local zoo; and the idea of any of them prancing around in a thong is both disturbing and scary.

While discussing the topic with Daniela, we both collapsed with laughter when attempting to name men we know who would look good in a thong, we both agreed, American and English men are far more attractive when appropriately dressed in fashionably long shorts, and the thongs left to the Italians and the French. 

Sometimes more is better!
P.S.
As I'm attempting to avoid any law suits, I declined from posting pictures of the offending men!

Jellyfish & Crocodiles

Sunday 9^th January

So, I have to take back what I said earlier; there are in fact jellyfish here, not that many, but they’re larger and have a much more painful sting, as poor Danni found out today.

Bob is still recovering from his cold so he stayed aboard while Danni and I swam to the island again.  We were about half way back to the boat when Danni suddenly yelled out, a large purple jellyfish had wrapped itself around her arm, she quickly shook it off but not before it stung her several times and then it wrapped itself around her leg.  I called for Bob who was still on the boat and fortunately watching us; he immediately brought the dinghy over to pick us up.  Danni’s arm and leg were red hot and burning with a clear line of stings.  We applied ice and antihistamine, which seemed to help a little. 

I had told Bob to take Danni back to the boat and said I would swim the rest of the way.  About 10 minutes after we got back to the boat I noticed people on  neighboring boats standing on their bows pointing at the island, a few minutes later one of them came over in her dinghy and said “crocodile”.

The rest of the afternoon was really entertaining, on the bow of Daisy, watching a group of drunk French people from the neighboring yacht’s on the shore cavorting about, laughing and being silly joking about the crocodile, and splashing and swimming about exactly where Danni and I had just swum not 20 minutes earlier, in the exact same spot where we had all seen the Crocodile.  It surfaced for about 10 – 15 minutes at a time, enough for me to take some photographs. Possibly the most scary thing about the Croc was the speed with which it moved and it’s length, it was at least as long as our dinghy, maybe longer, a possible 12 – 15 feet, they do grow up to 15 feet.

Taken from aboard Daisy, at a safe distance!

Crocodiles and caimans are abundant throughout Panama, and frequent the saltwater marshes and sometimes the open water between the islands in the San Blas as we were currently witnessing. Attacks on people are rare, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t exercise caution when swimming.

While we were all busy croc (and drunk French people) watching, 2 magnificent eagle rays swam past Daisy, huge, beautiful, incredible creatures.  It was exhilarating watching all the wildlife, but I don’t imagine Danni and I will be getting back in the water any time soon!

Some time later, having talked to some other boaters, we discovered that the croc is quite well know on Green Island and he even has a name (which the boaters couldn't remember).

Also he is 15 feet long.  So if you visit Green Island keep your eyes open!

So Much Food

Something I read over and over, and everyone told me before I came to the San Blas was be sure to provision well before you leave because you can’t buy anything in the islands.

Wrong! You really don’t need to bring anything other than the basics, like spices, long life milk, butter, wine, beer, sodas and water.  Every day we were able to buy fresh fish from the Kunas, they would bring it out to the boat, snapper, mahi mahi, lobster, crab, langoustine, grouper etc, etc… It was all freshly caught, and really, really cheap i.e.: $1. per fish, $5 for crab, $8- $12 for lobster, and that’s not per pound, that’s each!   Also the vegetable boat would arrive a couple of times a week, with almost all the fresh fruit, vegetables and salads you could want. 

Our biggest problem was garbage disposal, the Kunas offer to take it away for $1 a bag, but we didn’t give it to them because all they do is dump it on the islands, so we collected quite a few bags in our chain locker, all organic waste went into the ocean, but its surprising just how much plastic and tin one collects in a couple of weeks, so we had to store it ready to dispose of properly once we reached the mainland.

Starfish in Paradise

Friday 7^th January

This morning we were entertained by a pod of Dolphins swimming around the reefs in the anchorage.  They were fishing and showing off their acrobatic skills by leaping out of the water and performing incredible aerial acrobatics.

After breakfast we took the dinghy across to one of the small neighboring islands that Katherine had recommended for snorkeling.  The water here is Gin-clear and the reefs multiple and shallow, we paddled over the shallow areas and dropped anchor in a sandy spot.  The ocean bed is literally littered with beautiful cushion starfish the size of dinner plates. 

A cushion starfish, this photo was taken through 3 feet of water, its this clear.

We found a great snorkeling area, and Danni found a giant puffer fish, the snorkeling was good, but it doesn’t compare with Bonaire, although the islands make up for that with their natural untamed beauty.

Most of the boats have left now; leaving only 4 of us in the anchorage so it’s blissfully quiet.

The water was very calm in the afternoon so Danni and I swam to the island and walked all the way around, climbing over the occasional fallen palm and carefully avoiding all the starfish at the waters edge.  The sand is pearly pink, spotlessly clean, and soft as talcum powder; the lovely palm fringed shore and turquoise water create a real glimpse of paradise.  There are no mosquitoes, the water is perfect for swimming, it’s cool bath temperature and seemingly free of jellyfish.  It would be very easy to spend a month here on Green Island.  The constant breezes keep you cool day and night.  Swimming back to the boat Danni and I came across a floating coconut, which provided a convenient float for me to hold on to while I paddled lazily back to Daisy.

One of the pristine beaches in the islands

I did some more painting this afternoon, and joked with Bob about making lots of paintings and selling them to the other tourist boats!  Unfortunately I don’t think I would make enough money to keep Daisy afloat, nice thought though!