Farewell to the San Blas -11 March 2024

It was a windy night with winds up to 20kts but the anchor held well. I was a bit nervous about this as the reef was only about 30 metres behind us. I had the anchor alarm on and it did not go off. I got up in the night a few times and we were swinging around a bit and there was this warm brisk breeze. We were holding well but there were some boats ahead of us and would they drift in the night?  Luckily they did not and we woke to the strong breeze and with us all in a similar position as we had been when it went dark. David made porridge for us all for breakfast and we got ourselves ready to leave. It was a grey blistery day and it was as if it knew we were leaving the San Blas and it seemed to be the right weather to leave as we had had weeks of good weather.

We upped anchor and headed out of the anchorage and navigated through the reefs. I then went to put out the mainsail but the outhaul (rope which helps pull out the sail) was not working. I could not understand why as I thought by replacing the pressure gauge that it had resolved the problem. The wind was blowing 23-25 kts at this point so we got out the staysail having rigged the running backstay which supports the mast when it is used. We made reasonable speed on that but then the wind lowered to about 18-20kts and later below and as we were on a close reach (about 50-60 degrees off the wind) I got out some of the genoa as well. In certain sail angles you can fly both and this was one of them. We were soon whizzing along about 7-9 kts but the sea state was quite lumpy. We headed out from the coast as I thought in deeper water it would be less rolly and we needed to keep away from some rocks. It probably did help in terms of sea state and it gradually declined during the course of the day.

We sailed along quite nicely for some hours and it rained every now and then which gave the boat a bit of a wash. We did shifts of an hour on and an hour off. I got out the instructions for the outhaul and it suggested that when there is a leak air can get into the system and so we needed to get the air out of the system. I decided to ring Transworld Yachts and spoke to Jonathan who said that he was going to another Hallberg Rassy 62 tomorrow with an outhaul problem and he would try and speak to them as well about our issue. Whilst I had read our manual I could not try and sort this out in the rolly seas and I thought it would be good to see what the Transworld hydraulic expert said. It took just under 6 hours to cover the 45 nm to Isla Linton and we had a cheese and tomato roll for lunch. 

There are quite a few rocks around the entrance to Isla Linton and you need to navigate carefully. Bauhaus described this as one of the best anchorages on this coast and sheltered from all directions which is why I thought it would be good to visit it. The Island is uninhabited apart from howling monkeys who appear friendly but can be quite aggressive when you decide to leave apparently. s On our way into the bay there were these odd almost futuristic pods on poles in the water. One of them looked like Stig’s helmet from Top Gear!!. I looked them up and you can apparently stay on these pods. We continued into the bay and I had expected a few yachts to be here but the bay was pretty full. It was pretty with the trees and jungle coming down to the water but there was a marina further up and it was described as a place you could leave your yacht for some time and clearly a number had taken advantage of this and done so. Some it seemed had left them too long as we could see about 6 yachts clearly beached with masts at funny angles as if their anchors had dragged and they ended up on the shore on the south where the water had run out for them.

We found a space amongst other yachts not too far from the Island so we were as far as we could from the effects of the wind and swell which seemed to creep into the bay. The Bauhaus book seemed a little out of date and whilst the anchorage was quite nice compared to where we had been in the San Blas Islands- there was no comparison and it was a bit like being in Osborne Bay in the Solent!!  We really felt we were out of the San Blas and on our way back to Colon.

We had a good fish supper with coconut rice and peas with a light breeze. It was an odd place with many boats empty and little life although every now and then we could hear the howling monkeys and dogs on the mainland. There were swallows and amazons at dusk and so perhaps there is more flies around as well although we did not notice them.

We will head on tomorrow to a famous bay called Portobello which I will tell you about.                  

Opportunity for any Readers/Sailors.

In late May 2024 we shall be in the Marquesas in French Polynesia and we will then move through to the Tuomoto’s before getting to Tahiti about the end of July 2024. There may be some space on Stormbird during this period should any sailor/reader be interested in joining for this period or part of it in what must be one of the most distant and beautiful places in the world. If there is any interest do email me at.  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we head off to Panama and beyond.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com  I can only upload one picture a day and visit our website www.stormbirdgoesglobal.co.uk