So we left the Swimming Pool.  The wind picked up to 25 knots and was gusting 30+.  We could have moved into the lee of one of the nearby islands, but we were all ready to move.  And with the wind at that level, the best spearfishing was off-limits as the swell was massive.

Familiar Places

We had a brisk sail to the West Hollandes, where we anchored in one of my favorite spots.  We were well-sheltered from the wind for the first night (and had enough to keep cool), but within a day the wind had switched and we were back in the wind-tunnel.  Not entirely a bad thing, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the depth we had to anchor in – it was a little deep for my comfort.  Despite that, we held just fine in the wind-tunnel.

The swell and current were too strong to let us get outside the reef for the best spearfishing and freediving.  We even tried leaving the dinghy inside, and just kicking out to the outer reef – no dice.  The current was ripping, the waves were crashing, and the wind was whipping.  It was worth a shot…

We stayed inside the reef and dove the wall directly next to our boat, which we did just off the mothership – no dinghy required.  There wasn’t much home, but it was nice diving.  On the inhabited island we visited the local Kunas, picked up a love letter for delivery to Chichime (really), and had some laundry done.  Then Lisa and I took hammocks and books to one of the other islands and read, where we met a hippy-Kuna who needed some varnish.  Not a bad day.

Supplies

The next day, the veggie boat came by – and we bought the important stuff:  eggs, fruit, and beer.

Supplies

We had fallen into a routine:  wake up, drink coffee/eat breakfast, then immediately plan the day’s meals.  Cooking was all we talked about, and we kept talking about options until we all got really excited about one.  Then we cooked it.

Luke and Lisa baked almost daily, and when we ran out of flour it was a genuine travesty.  So much of a travesty, that we bothered one of our anchor-buddies for some more flour.  We knew a couple of the boats in the anchorage – but not well enough to really be “friends.”  We chose a big Leopard catamaran because we knew they were Italians, and Italians always have pasta and flour.  Always.  We chose correctly and went home with enough flour to bake another pizza.  Winning.

With flour, there was pizza, bread, pancakes, and crepes.  We ate and drank like kings (and a queen), in a really beautiful place.  But even with that, both Luke and I were getting anxious to start moving again.  While San Blas is really beautiful, really nice to sail in, and truly a paradise – it lacks the epic spearfishing and the occasionally nightlife we’d prefer.  For chartering, just hanging out, or running backpackers – San Blas is a really epic spot.  But I’m not doing that right now.  Right now, I’m sailing around looking for cool spots with big, dumb fish.  And it’s highly-likely that I’ll be back in San Blas for Hurricane Season, I’m not convinced there’s a better spot for that on this side of the world.  So we started talking about where-to-next…

Chichime Again

Lisa had a job coming up and her options for getting to said job were quickly diminishing.  The job was in Chichime, we were about 9 miles away and there was 25 knots of cross-wind.  Her last option was a kayuka (local Kuna dugout), which would have been a very, very wet/rough ride in those conditions.  I caved and we decided to sail back to Chichime.  From anchor up to anchor down it was an hour and a half.  We made great time.  There we hung with Gary, Geoffrey, and saw some friends.  Rachel and Ariel from One World came over from Yansaladup.  Lisa, Luke and I brought hammocks, books, and beer to the Chichime – where we posted up for a couple of hours.  We also met the saltiest guy I’ve met yet, appropriately named Capi Chulo. So salty that he even had the peg-leg limp.  True story.

And then we were bored again.

And we had no water.

And we were out of almost every food item.

No beer.  No rum.  Again.

So we sailed out of Chichime – toward Soledad Miria, where they have something resembling a dock that we could nose S/V NOMAD up to and refill on water.  While we were at it, I sent Luke to buy some rum, some beer, and some Coca Cola.  The necessities.  Luke’s Spanish (though improving) is something between non-existent and horrible, so I was genuinely curious how he’d make-out on his shopping adventure.  He made it back, which was the important part.

Water-filling in Soledad Miria

When we were finally done filling our water tanks, we cast off lines and motored away from Soledad Miria.  We had two choices:  a 20 minute sail to Gunboat Island to spend the night or a longer sail to Porvenir to resupply and think about whether we were heading to Colombia.  We chose Porvenir.

Having learned a bit about this anchorage previously, I anchored much closer to the supplies.  We did most of the resupplying that night, before the sun went down.  A productive day.  The problems started the next morning though…

 

Familiar Places

The Swimming Pool

So we left Green Island with a German hippy onboard (Lisa).  Hippies are always good for a case-study, mostly because I can’t quite grasp the mentality – but I do try.  And the sailing thing is pretty close to hippiedom.  And there are many a sailing hippy.

The good news is our German hippy knew how to cook and clean, and she’d been working on boats for the last few months – which took some of the burden off of me. Luke’s idea of food continues to be popcorn, cookies, and sometimes he splurges and cooks rice.  Though he has taken to baking quite nicely – fresh bread and pizza is a real luxury out here.  In fact, he’s done so damn well at bread and is so fond of pasta – we began calling him Luigi.  The name stuck.

There was no wind for our trip to the Swimming Pool.  So we motored for a couple hours.  I didn’t mind though, because the lack of wind meant we could get to the outside reef and get into the best spearfishing San Blas has to offer.  When we arrived there were no less than 15 yachts anchored there.  We dropped anchor, setup our trampoline-tent-thing, and Luke and I decided to dive.  The diving was phenomenal. We saw nice Dog Snapper, Permit, Cobia (Ling), and Horse Eye Jacks.  Naturally, most of the fish were skittish.  I pulled out every trick in the book – but they insisted on staying just out of range, and just within eyesight.  Though staying within eyesight wasn’t all that impressive as the visibility was probably 100 feet.

Shortly after getting in, I shot a nice Dog Snapper and stuffed it in my wetsuit for safe-keeping.  To date, stuffing them in my wetsuit or keeping them on the shooting line of the speargun has been a solid technique – but I’ve been spoiled.  I’ve been spoiled because there aren’t many sharks where we’ve been diving in San Blas.  Of course, this time there were sharks.  A larger-than-average Bull Shark was the first to show interest, following me around and making a fairly consistent effort to get behind me.  Nothing too worrying, but enough to make me lose the Dog Snapper while I was spinning around trying to keep the man in the grey suit in sight.

I’m pretty sure said shark ended up with said Dog Snapper, as I noticed it missing but wasn’t able to find it. Meh.  I wasn’t going to lose any sleep over that.

The taxman left, I kept diving.  Next up was a bunch of hole-hunting to replace the lost Dog Snapper.  Then came the Horse Eye Jacks.  A fairly large school.  I stuck one of those, and he promptly went apeshit.  Which promptly brought in the sharks again.

This time a Grey Reef Shark, which are arguable as dangerous as the Bull Shark.  This one was much more brave/curious than the preceding Bull Shark, and certainly wasn’t intimidated by me swimming at him.  At this point the sharks were telling me I needed to drop fish off in the dinghy rather than swim around with them.  I took the hint: I dropped the fish in the dinghy.  Then I saw an Ocean Triggerfish, and wanting to have enough fish to trade – I shot him.  The damn Grey Reef Shark started harassing me again.  We had enough fish to feed our crew for a couple of days, and with the constant harassment by the sharks – I called the dive and we went back to the mothership.

Cleaning fish in the Swimming Pool

After cleaning the fish I found we had more fish than I originally thought. The good news is that we had plenty of Americans in the anchorage – meaning that I could offload some fish and have an excuse to go freediving and spearfishing the following day.  I cleaned the fish, bagged it, and took it to our closest neighbor (the yacht Away) who was ecstatic.  They asked if we needed anything.  We were in a desperate way for pancake syrup.  They had a ton of pancake syrup. Excellent trade.  I can’t tell you how happy that made my crew – after a few days of non-pancake mornings, stuff gets weird on S/V NOMAD.

The next three days were very similar.  We spent the days cooking, relaxing, diving, swimming, and did one day of full day-drinking – using the kayak as a floating bar and the surfboards and lifevests as floating seats.  Fun.  I missed taking a picture of our kayak the next morning – clear evidence of the previous day’s nonsense.  Those kinds of pictures explain things much better than I can with words – the whole “picture worth a thousand words” cliche comes to mind.  This one will have to do – note the shadows on the sand under Luke and Lisa.  Awesome.

Day drinking in paradise

Our last day of light-wind we went for another freediving and spearfishing adventure outside the reef.  Lisa chilled out onboard and made some coconut jewelry stuff. I was honestly impressed by her work.

Luke and I hunted together almost the whole time.  We tried a couple of different spots, saw some decent fish, but were having trouble putting big fish in the boat – they were actively avoiding us.  I was checking holes and caves right beside Luke when I heard him shoot.  Then he yelled at me, then I saw what he shot.  He made a pretty epic shot on a large Dog Snapper – putting the shaft through the front of the fish, right between the eyes, and going back through it’s tail.  That is a perfect shot – the fish is dispatched immediately, and with both it’s tail and head on the spear it is completely immobilized. Awesome.  I was really stoked for Luke, but we were back to a very common conundrum:  what do we do with all this fish?

Snapper in the Swimming Pool

Europeans, Stories, and Scotch

It was early, so we went back to the mothership and tried to trade fish for beer in the anchorage via VHF.  We haven’t managed this yet, but we did meet our new neighbors – all young European guys, on a 32 foot monohull.  They were having trouble finding fish, so we gave them some.  That went over very well.

The following day they came to spearfish with us, but at this point the wind and swell had picked up so much that we couldn’t get outside the reef.  So we anchored the dinghy inside and kicked against the current for awhile to get outside and find fish.  After a couple of hours of kicking against the current, I was far enough outside the reef that I was seeing fish.  Including another very large Cubera Snapper.  He wasn’t fond of me, and quickly took his leave. I trailed him until I saw him duck into a hole, but when I dove down I quickly saw what I expected:  his hole was, in fact, a huge maze of large caves with more entrances and exits than I’d ever be able to cover. So he was gone.  This kind of thing is pretty predictable, but one of these days a big Cubera will make a mistake and he’ll be dinner for an anchorage.

That evening our European neighbors cooked us a lobster pasta, brought some excellent single-malt Scotch, and some nice cigars over.  We ate and drank like Kings (again).  Then we started into storytime.  One of these gents told us about his time in Cartagena, including his escapades with a local pirate and the pirate’s girlfriend.  It’s tough to put into words how hard we laughed.  And, well, the story probably isn’t fit for public consumption.

That night we retired pretty late, but managed to con our European neighbors into giving us a couple of pounds of flour, if we agreed to make fresh bread and French Toast for the following morning.  That’s a real treat out here, and so the exchange was fair.

Our breakfast was delayed, and I reckon we’d be correct in blaming the empty bottle of 15 year The Glenlivet.  But eventually we baked bread and then cooked French Toast.  The guys came over, ate, then left the anchorage, but we spent the next day recovering, cooking, relaxing.  But, all good things come to an end. The end of our Swimming Pool vacation was directly correlated with an increase in wind.

The Wind is Back

When the wind picked up we decided to leave what is now my favorite anchorage in San Blas – the Swimming Pool.  There’s something about a place that has crystal clear water, white sand beaches lined with palm trees, and good spearfishing.

Next stop:  West Hollandes. We knew a couple of the local Kunas on the islands there – one is a master Mola maker, Prado.  Prado has a thing for young gringos with long hair, but he’s harmless.  The other Kuna bossman in the area is Julio. Older and pretty straight-edge, not allowing them to sell beer on the island.

So early in the afternoon, we picked up our anchor and motored out of the Swimming Pool toward the West Hollandes.  We raised the main and put out the Genoa, but with a bad wind angle I decided to motor rather than tack all across San Blas.  It’s a good practice to run the engines every so often as well.  So we motored, again, despite the fact that we all really wanted to sail.

The Swimming Pool

It’s been awhile.  We were outside of cell service and then took a little vacation.  It’s funny how even when you’re not “working for the man” you feel the need to take a break.  I felt the need, we took a break.

Well, we said goodbye to our friends on Fishers Hornpipe.  And we resupplied.  And we filled the water tanks.  Now we’re sitting in Green Island.  We’ll be heading to The Swimming Pool shortly – where we hope to put some fish onboard, get some boat maintenance done, and enjoy some cave diving.

Moving On

Andy and the crew onboard Fishers Hornpipe left Chichime three or four hours before we did – heading to Nargana (same as us).  When we finally got everything tied down, I had resigned myself to not catching them.  But the wind-gods were with us.

We motorsailed for about an hour, but other than that we sailed those 20-25 miles to Nargana.  We lost wind a couple of times, and we never topped 6.5 knots – but shortly we overtook Fishers Hornpipe.  We both wanted shots of our boats under full sail, so I eased up next to them and the cameras started flashing.  Then the board shorts were removed and there were white asses across the whole deck of Fishers Hornpipe, pointed our direction.  I’ll spare y’all that picture.  Here’s my chariot, underway. She’s a pretty girl.

S/V NOMAD underway

Luke and I motored into Nargana when we lost wind, but Fishers Hornpipe stuck it out and sailed all the way into anchor.  By the time they arrived, Luke and I had concocted a plan:  to buy the island out of rum, and sell it back to Fishers Hornpipe for a profit.  As they anchored, I drove by in the dinghy to explain that it would be futile for them to go to shore in search of rum.

Onshore our plans were foiled by, surprisingly, a large stock of rum.  Much more than I could afford.  So we settled for veggies, beer, and a moderate amount of rum.  Then we took the dinghy up Rio Diablo, which was tricky but scenic.  Check it out:

Rio Diablo

 

More Rio Diablo

When we made it back onboard NOMAD, Fishers Hornpipe had changed plans; originally they were going to sail with us to The Swimming Pool, but they decided to take advantage of a weather window and sail to Providencia ASAP.  Which meant that we’d be parting ways forever.   Which meant that we needed to have one last party.  And party we did.

The whole crew from Fishers Hornpipe came onboard NOMAD, where we cooked, talked, drank, and lied about fish for several hours.  At some point in the wee hours of the morning we hugged and shook hands – and the crew on Fishers Hornpipe retired. Luke and I were asleep immediately.

The next morning Andy woke me up pretty early.  He had decided that he wanted the leftover solar panels I had replaced a few months ago.  I dug through the boat, found them, and sent him off to Providencia with a little more solar capability.  We were a little bummed to see them go, but stoked for their next voyage – which would take them from Porvenir (San Blas), to Providencia, to Isla Mujeres, to Louisiana.

Luke and I spent that day recovering and doing a bit of cleaning (funny how quickly a boat gets dirty during a party).  The following day I went back to the island looking for some hard-to-find stuff:  pancake syrup, parmesan cheese, olive oil, etc.  I found exactly none of that.

Moving to Green Island

By this point we were both sick of being in Nargana, so we got things together and headed out for a super-quick sail to Green Island.  We were there before we knew it, and both were itching to sail a little bit more.  We dropped our anchor about 15 feet off the shore of a beautiful, deserted, island.  Then we got hammocks, beer, and burnable trash together and headed ashore.  We burned our trash, and drank beer in hammocks.  It wasn’t a very stressful evening.

Palm trees, hammock, beer, and NOMAD – all in one photo

We came back, Luke made pizza (using a rum bottle to roll the dough), and we ate like kings.

Rum-bottle pizza

 

Early the next morning we went for a dive, hoping to find lunch on the reef.  We were very disappointed.  This was my first time in Green Island, so it’s possible that we simply need to find other spots – but we dove multiple areas that looked very productive on the charts, and there was nothing home.  I did take a small lobster, and we ate him for lunch; but it was hardly a full-meal dive.

Then boat-cleaning started in earnest.  I enjoy having the boat clean, but honestly don’t get a kick out of cleaning it.  That said, Luke cleaned decks while I cleaned inside and now we have a boat that looks less like two surf/dive bums are living in it. Bueno.

Shortly after our little cleaning adventure, Lisa, Corta, and Rafi showed up on two boats.  They came by and invited us to have a beer on the beach.  We happily joined them.  Lisa had some time off, so we decided she’d jump onboard and sail to the Swimming Pool with us for a mini-vacation.  With Luke, Lisa and I onboard – we were bound to have a bit of fun.  And have fun we did.

Moving On

Time Spent in Chichime

I don’t spend much time here ordinarily, it’s a nice anchorage with an excellent view and a pretty steady influx of people moving in and out.  A bit of a social place, but primarily for the international crowd. The downside is that it’s a small anchorage with what can be a tricky entrance when the wind is howling like it has been.  And generally speaking, the spearfishing is ‘meh.’

After the Straya Day party we got a message from some friends in Chichime.  We were only a short sail away, so we headed that direction.  We averaged about 6 knots, but were slogging through some waves for a while at 4 knots.

We could have almost sailed into the anchorage but the entrance wasn’t ideal.  And when we tried to pull in the headsail it got jammed – which made for an interesting few minutes.  But we made it in, got anchored right next to Fishers Hornpipe.  Luke checked the anchor – there was 25 knots of headwind, and I didn’t want to leave the boat unattended until we put eyes-on the anchor.

The next few days were a mix of parties, dinner get-togethers, diving, and surfing.  I think we actually worked on the boat once or twice.  Luke has two spots here he can surf, and I usually end up diving right next to his surf spots – so it’s convenient for both of us.

The Birthday

My birthday was on February 3rd.  We planned a small beach party for that night, but Lisa (another friend here) got work and was leaving on February 2nd – so we decided to celebrate into the birthday (i.e. the night of Feb 2).  Fine by me.  That’s like having two birthday-days.

We started it off correctly by going and exploring a new dive spot in the early morning.  Luke and I started on the Western side of a channel here and worked to the outside reef, where it was blowing like Hell – and therefore had some pretty epic swell breaking over the reef.  The current was ripping too.  Not much home.

So we tried the Eastern side of the same cut.  Dramatically different, despite being only a couple hundred meters away.  We found a huge wall where I almost bumped into a Black Grouper. We were both a little surprised and he made haste in his retreat.  Luke and I dove a couple more times there, then decided to hunt the rest of the wall – then come back and try to sneak up on him again.

On the way be both found lobster and lionfish.  Within 30 minutes, I had two giant lionfish on my spear and two single-serving lobster stuffed into my wetsuit – so I headed back to the dinghy.  Luke found crab, lobster and the biggest lionfish either of us have ever seen.  It was enough for ceviche and dinner.  Boom.

Luke found that Black Grouper twice more, and let off a hailmary spear but missed.  Too far.  I never saw him again after that dive.  We headed back to the mothership.  Andy had returned to Fishers Hornpipe with a new crew – and they were anxious to dive.  So when I told him about the grouper – his answer was “so you wanna go get him?”  There’s no way to say no.

Two hours later we were headed back to Luke and I’s spot.  We guided Andy and crew there, dropped Luke off in the surf, then dropped our anchor near our Black Grouper’s home.  Andy anchored closer to the surf.

Upon diving the wall with said Black Grouper – I saw two.  Both high-tailed it much too quickly for me to give chase.  They were gone.  Andy and I made a plan on how to run those grouper in between us, on the way back.  So we hunted the rest of the reef…  Until I saw my dinghy with three guys in it, heading into the swell outside the channel.

That’s an unwelcome sight.  It means something went haywire.

 

 

Oops

The folks in my dinghy picked up two other divers, and with 5 people onboard they were having trouble keeping the dinghy upright in the swell – so they escaped back inside the channel and left Matt and me to swim.  When we made it back inside the protection of the reef, everyone looked a little worried.  I quickly realized that Andy’s dinghy was capsized and bobbing (without the motor on it). In the middle of large, breaking swell.  Against the reef.  A long ways from either mothership.

We have a problem. Andy’s dinghy had pulled into the breaking surf, capsized, lost the motor, and was bobbing just above the crashing surf.

But there were 6 guys around and two dinghies (one underwater).  That’s enough to salvage almost any tough situation out here.  A quick discussion and we decided to tow the submerged dinghy out with my dinghy – and after getting slammed repeatedly and almost losing the other dinghy in the surf:  we did manage to get it out of the surf.  Then we had to flip it rightside up.  But the swell was huge, and we were in deep water.  So we towed the dinghy back onshore the nearest island.  Then we bailed it.  Then we realized I needed more gas.  So we towed the other dinghy to Fishers Hornpipe, filled up with gas, and headed back out to pull a 115 pound motor off the bottom of the ocean in the middle of huge wave breaking on the reef. No problem.

We got there, Luke drove the dinghy (expertly) and Andy and I drug the engine out of the breaking waves, freediving, into deeper water, where we pulled it aboard my dinghy.  Then we salvaged what we could from the bottom of the ocean in the area (Andy had stuff in his dinghy when it flipped).

I was bleeding from a couple spots, and we had some bumps and bruises;  but it was handled super-well.  We all made it out without serious injury and recovered the important things:  dinghy and engine.

Then it was time to breathe a sigh of relief and decompress.  Both Luke and I were completely beaten.  A little rum helped.  Then I started cooking, we had a dinner aboard Fishers Hornpipe, and then we started the island party.  We were joined by a backpacker boat, the local Kuna, and everyone of Fishers Hornpipe.  That party went like island parties do – we drank, talked, stoked the fire, and just hung out.  A great birthday, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Here’s hoping I spend another birthday or two that way.

Time Spent in Chichime

We’ve been busy around here.  There was some sailing.  There was some diving.  Some boat maintenance.  A couple of parties, my birthday party, and an adventure.  We’ve been in Chichime a while now, and we’re feeling the itch to move.  So we’re off again tomorrow, if nothing breaks.  But before I write another update – I have some things to share.

Something to Share

The first thing to share is an interview with Teddy from SailLoot.  It wasn’t super-easy to connect (on my end), but when we finally got connected – I enjoyed talking with him.  Great guy – here’s a link to the interview.  And here it is on iTunes.  Teddy has a cool site, so it’s worth a click or three.

The second thing is a much-delayed catchup on my much-neglected YouTube channel. So, if you watch this relatively short video, it’ll catch you up.  At least from a YouTube perspective. We have some pretty neat dive video worth showing coming up next.  The only real delay is finding a fast enough Internet connection to upload said videos.  So, you should subscribe to my YouTube channel.

I’ll catch everyone up tomorrow on our latest shenanigans.  Including my birthday, which rocked.  Thanks for all the birthday message, folks!

Something To Share

Straya Day (when pronounced by non-Australians:  Australia Day) – was a success.  I saw old friends, Luke made new ones, and we all made decisions that we probably wouldn’t have in the light of day.  That’s gotta be a successful get-together, right? It’s been a couple of days, so I’ll put it all back together – but let’s start from the beginning.

Straya Day

Stray Day Party Flag

We’ve had periodic announcements about this party for the last few weeks – pretty much everywhere:  SSB, VHF, and most crew on most boats.  We even heard that a couple of the backpacker boats were going to come in (they did).  There was a small contingent that elected to anchor in Yansaladup and take the dinghy/launcha over to the party from there.  I was glad we only had to weave the dinghy back a couple hundred meters to the mothership.

That day started pretty innocently.  We did what we always do – we went spearfishing.  We brought along the nephew of an old cruising buddy and did some fun diving.  This was almost the least productive diving I’ve ever done – right here along Elephante.    I’ve had a good dive on the same reef-wall, but we just couldn’t find the fish this time around.  That said I brought home 4 dinner-fish, enough for a tub of ceviche.  Then when we got back to the boat we cleaned.  And cleaned.  And cleaned.  We cleaned (and I scrubbed decks) until the party started.  At that point I figured I better get to work on the ceviche, which I did.

We made it to the party fashionably late, and thats not such a bad thing.  I handed off the ceviche to some friends and started making rounds, shaking babies and kissing hands.  The list of people that I met and bumped into is long enough to not include it.  We suspected there were 50 yachts in the harbor, and the guests kept coming.

Straya Day

Everything got a little more interesting after dark.  I found myself in a circle around a small fire eating grilled chicken with friends.  That’s a good place to find oneself – on a sand beach, on a tiny island, with friends, a fire, a party, and some food.  I’d call that a win.  At some point everyone began deciding to head back to their boats.  We headed back, had a quick recap of the night’s adventures, and then retired.

Straya Day

Straya Day

The next morning was a predictable mix of hangovers and minor regrets of the night before.  Luke and I had already decided that we absolutely weren’t doing anything that day.  Except to attend the swap-meet, which was scheduled on Elephante that afternoon.  We took it easy, but were soon sucked into some boat-drama;  likely an event directly a result of the shenanigans on Straya Day.

I’d made a friend on a nearby catamaran the night before.  So when they hailed me on the radio, I was happy to hear from them.  But I didn’t really expect to hear what he told me.  Apparently – they had an unexpected crew member come aboard that morning.  One of the backpacker boats that came to the party apparently forgot a crew member that was snorkeling around the island.  You heard that right, a backpacker boat forgot one of their paying passengers when said passenger went snorkeling.  This backpacker boat simply left, and this backpacker was left in a foreign country, in a near-deserted anchorage, without the boat they were supposed to be sailing to Cartagena on.  Bob (my friend on the cat) needed to know who to call and what to do.  I had very few ideas, but could help by getting in touch with some of my friends – who would then get in touch with their friends, who would then put a call out to this backpacker boat when they saw them at the next island.

The kicker is that we had no idea where the backpacker boat was going next.  And this guy didn’t have his passport.  And this guy had no money.  And poor Bob and his family were (more or less) stuck with this liability until the backpacker boat realized their mistake and decided to come back.  Well – we made the appropriate phone calls, sent the appropriate emails, and hailed the appropriate yachts on the VHF.  Then we listened to our own little soap-opera while watching episodes of Justified.  Despite myself and a couple of the other yachts making some extensive requests into the whereabouts of this backpacker boat – it was Bob who figured it all out.  Not a huge surprise because he was certainly the one with the most motivation.

The backpacker was reunited and we went back to our regularly scheduled programming.

The Swap Meet

These are always interesting, and there is always a couple of things worth picking up.  I only grabbed a bit of neoprene and a carabineer.  But I did manage to sell three cruising guides.  Some people made out like bandits.  One World sold a ton of cheese.  Then we decided to have a beer with One World.  Then it got late and we came back to the boat, watched a movie and crashed.

The next day was spent recovering from our recovery day.  And cooking, cleaning, etc.

Chichime

During the preceding two days I’d received a message from two friends in Chichime.  I made one promise to cook for me, and the other said they wanted the extra solar panels I have onboard.  That was enough to make Chichime a stop on S/V NOMAD’s most recent journey through San Blas.  So today, we clean and then sail.  If you’re wondering why we’re spending so much time cleaning – it’s because the boat was starting to look like a bachelor-pad.  And though that’s not quite false advertising, it is a state of non-organization that will drive you mad.

The plan is to spend the next few days in Chichime, where I can do some boat work and hang with friends.  Luke’s probably going to try his hand at a couple surf-breaks in the area.  Then we’re going to sail to Porvenir to deal with checking in, cruising permits, and zarpes.  At that point, I’ll likely be making a Visa-Run to another country so that I can restart my 6-month Visa here in Panama.

The joy of red tape.

Boats and Reefs

There have been 8 boats that were lost in the last month here.  8.  That’s a big number.  NONE of these skippers were first-time skippers.  All of them have more experience than I do.  And they lost their boats in the same areas I sail in San Blas.  Even here, where we have decent charts and where the water is clear enough to visually navigate – experienced captains are losing boats.  In fact, there’s one within sight of me right now, sitting on a reef.

There are various reasons these boats hit reef, but virtually all of them were preventable human-error.  The kinds we all make, especially under stress, on schedules, without sleep, or after getting the crap kicked out of us by weather.  A crew of a recently lost vessel came by S/V NOMAD the other day and it was devastating.  Just months before they’d sold everything and put it all into the boat.  Now the boat is gone, they had to watch the Kuna celebrating as their boat was stripped.  Now that crew is talking about going back to the States to live with their children.  Devastating.

The yacht on the reef here in Elephante is a really salty guy.  He runs backpackers through San Blas to Cartagena and has been for quite a while.  But he made a mistake and now his yacht is so far up on the reef that tugboats can’t pull it off.  And his engine room is full of saltwater, and his hull has a hole in it.  He was selling food, spices, and other odds and ends at the swap meet.  It’s tough when you see someone giving up all hope.

Occasionally, still, when I’m sailing – I get a little tense.  Usually when something breaks, in high wind, when I’m anchoring or navigating around reefs. It’s hard for crew, or non-sailors to understand this.  But when you’ve met enough salty captains that have lost boats, you begin to realize how each small issue can compound and how any small mistake could be the one that causes a complete loss.  So, if you’re crew, or you know crew, or you’re going to be crew, or you have been crew – understand that your captain has it all on the line, and if he gets a little tense when things start going to shit;  it’s probably not a huge overreaction.

The good news:  so far (knock on wood) NOMAD hasn’t met any reefs.  She’s survived a small number of challenging instances during that time-period, too.  So, I’m learning and while doing so – it appears that I’m getting Rule Number One down:  keep the boat off the reef.  Watching the waves crash against this boat on the reef as I write this is a healthy reminder of that most-important rule.  It’s funny how we drastic the change from everyone having fun on Straya Day, to everyone being reminded about boats on reefs happened at the Swap Meet the following day.  Stark contrasts are definitely part of this lifestyle.

Straya Day

It"s Been Awhile

It’s been a few days since I’ve updated, but we’ve been struggling to get internet access.  Even in areas where the phones are reading 3G;  nothing.  To top that off, we’ve blown through 6 gigs of data in only a couple of days – don’t ask me how that happens when we don’t have data…

Sailing Again

First we left Yansaladup.  We needed to re-provision (rum and beer) and get water.  We also needed some onions, I think.  So we headed toward Nargana, where we could get rum, beer, onions, and water.  But we wanted to dive and wanted fresh fish – so we stopped in at Ednasdup for the night.  There we pulled deep into a protected lagoon, dropped the anchor, and got situated for a dive.  We eventually made it to our dive spot- and after a bit of kicking around I found a honey-hole.  There was a huge variety of tasty fish mingling in the current.  I chased a Black Grouper, shot a Peacock Flounder, shot an Ocean Triggerfish, shot two Spiny Lobster, passed on a few snapper, and then pointed out a couple of Channel Clinging Crabs to Luke.  All in the course of an hour or so.

Two Hours of Spearfishing

We were so loaded up that we stopped by the other yacht in the anchorage and tried to trade them fish/lobster/crab for rum/whiskey.  But they didn’t seem to want to barter.  So we ate like kings.  Then we ate some more, then we slept like babies.

The next morning we picked up anchor and sailed to Nargana – averaging a bit over 7 knots.  We were there by 1PM, and saw Andy on Fisher’s Hornpipe. We dropped anchor right next to him, and shortly we were having an anchor-beer together.  Then we went shopping.  First stop – vegetables.  Second stop – liquor/beer.  We literally bought the island out of rum, and had to give some to Andy who was also short on that magical substance.

Then we went back to the mothership, where another friend had arranged a water-dropoff for us.  That consists of a dugout canoe with a bunch of 55 gallon drums of water pulling up alongside your yacht.  How you get that water from the canoe to your watertanks is completely your problem – we borrowed a jury-rigged bilge pump.  It took a couple of hours but we got’er done.

Next up was a belated birthday-party celebration for Andy.  I offered to cook (we were still brimming with seafood), brought too much rum, and we kicked it all off.  The party was successful enough that neither Fisher’s Hornpipe nor NOMAD left Nargana the following day.

Reprovisioned

At this point Luke and I were back into trying to find a dive-spot and put fish in the fridge.  It was about this time that the ARC Rally was passing through as well – so we high-tailed it to the Swimming Pool (a beautiful, shallow, and clear-water anchorage).  When we arrived we saw Gilana, Reach, and Infinity – all friends.  The ARC Rally was interested in some Panama Cruising Guides.  But we were interested in shooting fish.  So we did that first, then we cleaned fish while selling Panama Cruising Guides.

Diving in The Swimming Pool

Prior to this trip, neither of us had dove this particular spot.  But we took a look at the charts and oriented ourselves – then we headed to the nearest channel.  We anchored the dinghy inside the channel, and kicked out of it – against a very strong current.  The current was strong enough that Luke decided to stay in, and I only barely managed to get outside – where there was minor relief from said current.

Once away from the current, the diving was awesome.

Playing with Stingrays

Playing with Nurse Sharks

Playing with Spotted Eagle Rays

I spent some time kicking around, and eventually saw a decent snapper holed up in about 55 feet of water.  A breathe-up, a dive, and I managed to put a spear into the snapper through a tiny hole in the coral.  The snapper freaked – and I couldn’t leave him in the hole – so I fought with him and managed to get him out and pull him to the surface.  The dive was over in less than two minutes;  it felt like a lifetime.

On the way back, with the snapper hanging on my shooting line – I saw an African Pompano.  I was single-banded (only one band on the gun) in case I saw a lobster/crab/fish in a hole.  The African Pompano headed towards me, giving me just enough time to load the second band on the speargun and turn on the GoPro.  When he finally closed the gap, I saw no less than ten – but I picked the largest out and managed to put a spear through him.  It was a marginal holding spot and he also completely freaked out.  I pulled and pulled, trying to bring him to me as quickly as possible – to keep from loosing one of the best tasting fish in the ocean.

Long story short – I captured both the African Pompano and the snapper and we had tons of fish onboard.  In fact, we gave quite a bit away, cooked another large amount, and then gave away some more the following day.  The African Pompano was a hit.  The snapper was good.

Spearfishing in The Swimming Pool

Somehow that night we switched the VHF to 16 (from 72) and turned down the volume.  So when Mike (Gilana) called us for a morning dive we missed it.  Mark (Reach) was onboard talking diving when Mike finally decided to dinghy by and invite us for a morning dive.  We were deep into a pancake breakfast, but we rallied and thirty minutes later we were geared up and ready.  Mike led us to some caves with amazing swim-throughs.  We recorded some on both the big camera and the GoPro – amazing stuff.  On the way, we shot a couple lobster and passed on innumerable Schoolmaster Snapper.  One of the caves had a swim-through that was worth capturing on video, so we did.  Obviously – freediving through caves is dangerous, so please don’t do it.

Freedive Cave Selfie

Eventually we retired and went back to the mothership.  We burned trash, cleaned dishes, drank a beer – and prepared for our evening dive.  Our evening dive was supposed to be with a friend but we got wires crossed and went out alone.  Luckily so.  We couldn’t find the exact cut in the reef to get outside – so we anchored inside and swam out.  Again – crazy current.  But we made it.  And shortly after I made it – I was greeted with a massive Cubera Snapper.  No less than 50 pounds.  In an instant we recognized each other – he realized he was no longer top of the food chain and beat a hasty retreat.  I followed, but gave up chase fairly quickly – I was outmatched in the underwater-racing department.

The swim back to the dinghy was brutal.  Something out of a Special Forces qualification.  I made it, winded, exhausted, and didn’t find Luke.  So I went back out – but took a different angle.  This angle turned out a worthwhile one.

After fifteen or twenty minutes of kicking around and checking holes – I saw a very, very large Black Grouper.  He recognized me at roughly the same time and begin swimming away from me immediately.  I followed him through the reef, into the deeper water for a while – then I tried something I haven’t tried before – I tried to herd him back to where I wanted him (the reef).  It worked.  By kicking hard and heading him off – I could turn him to where I wanted him to go.  But it was futile.  He lost me quickly once he was back on the reef.  Sneaky like a ninja, despite his massive girth.

Black Grouper Chasing

I retired to the dinghy with nothing to show, but we had so much seafood onboard that it wasn’t a problem.  That dive was strictly trophy-hunting.  And we found some trophies.

Back To Elephante

The next day we sailed out of The Swimming Pool early.  We sailed West, heading to what promised to be a truly epic party – the San Blas Australia Day Party.  My buddy Rob was organizing.  Other friends would be attending.

On the way we pulled in our Genoa and hovered in East Lemmons – where we dropped off water and boat-engine-parts to One World.  We’re hoping they’ll make it to the party.  The anchorage at Elephante was slammed.  Nothing less than 40 yachts, and it was expected to be 60 – more will undoubtedly turn up today.

Rob had all of his flags up, we originally dropped our anchor right next to him.  But it was deep, and I like anchoring shallow. So we re-anchored, visited Rob, visited the island, etc.  Then it was time to review footage.  So in preparation for the Australia Day Party, we reviewed video footage, hoping that we could put together something entertaining for y’all.  Fingers crossed.

It"s Been Awhile