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!