San Blas Islands 4 March 2024.

It was another lovely day when I woke with hardly a cloud in the sky and the different blues of the water were showing their best. I sorted out a fly home and return from Tahiti in August and I also applied for and got an Esta (US visa) which took some time as these things are never simple when your photo does not work or it will sort accept your passport etc!!

We had ordered some Guna bread and Focaccia from Ibin so Joyce and I went ashore to collect it. We also decided we would have a meal there this evening as a change rather than a lunch. We reserved a table for 4 at 6.30pm and collected our Focaccia and bread rolls. Once we had had a coffee etc we headed off to the reef for a snorkel. This was the reef behind us where we could see breaking waves and we had seen once dinghy earlier go to the reef presumably to do the same thing. We motored over in the dinghy and anchored where we thought looked good and headed off to the reef to the west of us. This turned out to be a good spot where there was a lot of coral, sponges and fans as well as a diverse range of fish of all sorts of colours and I took a load of video on my Gopro. It was a lovely reef and did not seemed to have suffered too much as I suspect it was not visited too often.

We all clambered into the dinghy which is not easy straight from the water and headed over to the Island to our East which looked nice with palm trees, sand and some huts. It was beautiful and especially so due to the fact that at its Northern end it had a reef and shallow water which provided a wide range of different blues etc. It was almost like those bounty adverts we used to get on television all those years ago (for those who are old enough to remember!!).  It was clearly a home to many Guna Indians so we did not want to encroach and saw some pigs in little wood sties. What was not nice was the sign of some rubbish and they clearly burn what they can but it is a shame in this lovely environment that this is an issue and of course every visitor brings rubbish although there is nowhere to leave it.

Having explored we returned to Stormbird for lunch – which was the focaccia, bread, tomatoes, garlic etc and cheese. We all had a siesta and then did emails, read etc. We then swam off the back as it was so hot and I tried to rub some of the black stuff which had started to form on the hull. It came off easily with a brush and we will have to clean the hull before we go to the Galapagos.

We rested on deck and admired the view we had and the series of Islands around us. The solar panels we have charged the 24volt system to 100% despite the fact that it also runs the fridges and freezer which is great but it is not connected to our 12-volt system so by the evening I needed to charge this and at the same time I thought I would try our washing machine and see whether it still leaked. It did not so we had fixed it which was good.

We headed off about 6.25pm to the Island with Ibin’s restaurant on it while it was still light and pulled the dinghy up on the beach. We walked along the path lined with conche shells and found the restaurant as it became dusk. It was just a large shack bit it had flags on its roof inside from nations throughout the world donated by visiting yachtsman. We sat at a nice table with the water below and had a great meal. We were given ceviche to start with which was raw fish with lemon and ginger which was excellent followed by mahi mahi fish with spaghetti and then coconut cake for dessert. We had some rum and coconut juice to wash it down. It was a lovely meal in a great location and a change for us. This was really the first restaurant we had come across in the San Blas. Next to us was a young American couple who had come from the US and had about 3 months a year to travel. I wish I had done that when I was that age.  

We returned to the dinghy in the dark and by torchlight launched without anyone getting wet and by torch we found our way back to Stormbird. We had left the anchor light on and a light in the cockpit.  As we approached Stormbird we noticed in the water some lumps of florescence which were bright green for about 2-3 seconds and then they disappeared. It was odd but magical. I looked at them more carefully and what seemed to happen was that they went bright and just before disappearing they seemed to emit a substance/spraying a substance and at the end of that the light disappeared. I have never seen anything like it and David thought it might be cuttlefish.

It had been another great day in such a memorable place.       

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