San Blas Islands 1 March 2024.

I woke and heard the sound of the water crashing over the reef some 200m in front of us. I looked out of the window and it was a lovely sunny day. As with most mornings I was one of the first to awake and a cup of earl grey is a good start. I check my emails and messages but this depends on whether I have Starlink on which gives me WIFI anywhere in the world. Starlink takes quite a bit of power so I turn it on when I need it and do not have it on all the time.  

Carolyn made some delicious pancakes for breakfast. It is a very simple – 1 oz of oats, two eggs and a banana which you mash with a juicer and it makes 4/5 delicious pancakes which you could make at home. Do try it and let me know what you think? We decided we would move on and got the boat ready. We were not going far and we could see the anchorage some 3 miles away where there were a lot of masts. We upped anchor and moved carefully around the reefs which surrounded us and then we were in open water again and then navigated around an Island on the way to Green Island, which was described as a lovely, sheltered Island. We approached the Island and there were three prongs to this anchorage. The left-hand prong was shallow and did not have much room. The right-hand element was a bit close to a reef for my liking and the centre which had quite a bit of room. We anchored in the centre and at the back where we had plenty of room. In front of us was a lovely palm tree Island with a sandy shore and it looked uninhabited. It may sound blaise but there are so many Islands like this here and as far as the eye can see – that is the beauty of this place.   

It was a very hot day so we chilled and had a light late lunch. A Guna Indian came by in a canoe and we bought two spider crabs and they were put in the freezer for about 20 minutes. Carolyn then apparently killed them with a mallet and a winch handle. They were then put in the fridge in preparation for supper.

As the wind was light I wanted to get out our pole which is attached to our mast to see if it was really too big. Whilst we have had it out before we have never properly used it and it looks so big and heavy and it is almost as if we needed to cut it. The pole is designed when going downwind to keep the sail (the genoa) out and to stop it collapsing. The sail sheet runs through the end of the pole and back to the cockpit so if you have the pole up you can bring the sail out and in or reef the sail without moving the pole. So once up it can sit there and it is very flexible. It runs on a track on the mast so you can wind it up and down its track. The idea being that when in position it is horizontal. The key is to have 4 lines attached to the pole so you can manoeuvre it up and down and forward and back. Therefore once it is out you fix it in position so it does not move. Clearly you have it either on the port side or starboard side and may have to move it over to the other side when required. The aim of this exercise was to get it out and to put it in position and then bring out the genoa sail and see how it looked.  The reason we have not properly tried it before is that when we have tried it – it has been very heavy and cumbersome – but this is a big boat.  

We attached 4 lines to the pole and then raised the pole and brought it down its track to a horizontal position making sure the forward and rear lines were tight. We had put the genoa sheet in the jaws at the end of the pole before we raised it.  We then gradually brought out the sail to see how it fitted. There was a little bit of wind and this is tricky to do when at anchor as the boat may try and sail off!!. However as always normally when at anchor the wind is in front of you as the boat lies to the wind. On the first attempt which we did briefly we kept the genoa sheet in its usual position which seems to be the wrong angle as the pole takes the sheet quite a way out. Anders of Yaghan had told me that he takes his sheet out of the usual position and the cars and brings it through the guardrails (where you can undo them on the side) and to a winch. We tried this on our second attempt and it seemed to work. It also seemed despite what we had thought that the pole may not be too long after all. The new turning blocks I planned to fit in Panama may be helpful too. This may sound boring readers of this blog but we should have tried this properly before and we will do so in future. In fact if we get a downwind opportunity we may try again in the San Blas.

We also had not had Puffin out – our nestling sailing dinghy which is tied on the deck in front of the mast. We had to undo it to get the pole out. Puffin is a little wooden dinghy built by my friend Mark and which is cut in two. The front nestles into the back part -hence the name – a nestling dinghy. We bolt the front part to the stern. With 5 bolts with rubber washers so it does not leak. We then fit the mast which is in three sections but which makes a 5 m mast. The sail fits over it in a type of zipped sock and we then attach the boom and the rig the sail. We had only had it out once before and without Mark it took some time to work it all out with Carolyn and Joyce being former dinghy sailors. After a few hours we had it all rigged but by then the wind had got up (12-13kts +) and as Puffin is quite a frisky dinghy (i.e. easy to tip etc) so we felt it best to wait until tomorrow to sail her. Annoying as it was.

We retired after all this to have a beer on the deck. Then Carolyn steamed the crab in the pressure cooker but when done there was no real meat in the shell and all the meat was in the legs. After some time getting everything out I probably ended up with two mouthfuls of crab. It was very disappointing and not what we expected. We ended up having to have potato and tuna and sweetcorn instead.

The anchorage as I write is full of lights and quite a lot seem to go for blue lights. Normally you have an anchor light at the mast top but you can have lights at cockpit level so any boats moving know you are there. Some now have strobe lights!

It had been a good day on the whole and we will probably stay here tomorrow winds permitting and give Puffin, which is tied to the stern as we speak, an outing. The stars as always are lovely to see in this lovely part of the world.

I had a WhatsApp from John Hayes of Constantine Law who wanted my opinion on something. It was good to talk to him and I put my work hat on quickly and hopefully helped. I think now I am glad I am doing what I am doing! If any at Constantine Law are reading this I wish you well and send fond regards.  

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