San Blas Islands 24 February 2024.

We woke at a reasonable time and had breakfast. It was still cloudy but as the morning went on the weather improved and the sun started to shine. An old 3 master ship called Pelican came into our bay and anchored. It was built in Le Havre in 1948 and was originally a boat bound for the Artic. It is now a training ship and it had a lot of youngsters on board. It looked enormous.

I had to fix David’s shower pump which was not working and also the rubber seal on one of his windows was loose which I glued back. This was satisfying and I also checked the bolts on the propeller shaft which seemed tight which was good.

We decided to move on from Porvenir and I chose Chichime Cays some 4 miles away. It can get quite popular and there is a narrow entrance to get into the bay (between reefs) which is an anchorage between two Islands. We upped anchor and set off and moved out between the reefs of Portvenir and then we were in open water for about 3-4 miles before we approached Chichime Cays and we had to come slowly through reefs on either side and we crept into the anchorage. Whilst there were several boats here we found a good space in the middle and anchored in about 10m of water.  It was idyllic. There was turquoise water all around and there were two Islands on either side with palm trees and with a white sandy beach shore. In front of us some half a mile away was a reef where you could see the waves crashing on the reef.

Once anchored we had to have a swim and explore our new domain. The water was clean and there was a reef was about 40 m behind us and there was a lot of sand and weed and a few fish. Once we had cooled down we had a salad lunch and a number of us had siestas. We then decided to explore and took the dinghy to the nearest Island. We walked around the Island which took us about 15-20 minutes. The water was lovely and clear and there were a few huts of the Guna Indians where they clearly lived with their families. There was a bit of rubbish around which was sad but it was a beautiful location and we could clearly see the wreck on the reef.  We realised you probably needed a local to take you out there,

Having walked around this small Island which I think is Palm Island we headed over toward the other Island but stopped in between in a shallow area to have a snorkel. Whilst there was lots of sand and weed there were not many fish except very small fish. We headed over to the other Island and walked around it as well. It took about the same time and this time there were some huts you could rent I guess. It felt like the sort of Island in the Castaway film.

We returned to Stormbird for a shower and then had sundowners on the rear deck whilst the sun went down. It had been a chilled day in a wonderful location and we felt very lucky to be here. Jonas cooked a chicken curry supper with rice which was very good. Time for bed

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