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.