Salardup, San Blas

So we were doing some brisk sailing around San Blas, zipping between islands so quickly that it often left us wanting to do a bit more sailing.  But we had a trip to Locombia (Colombia, but I’m sure you got that) in which we’d have plenty of sailing.  Against the wind, waves, and current. So  these short, fast hops were fine with me.

We overtook a larger monohull, which is always fun.  It may sound petty, but when you’re sailing – it’s a bummer to have another boat blow by you.  So it’s good that doesn’t happen often.

Salardup

We pulled into Salardup in front of a monohull that left about an hour ahead of us.  It was a little tricky as said monohull took a weird angle, and I didn’t realize it until we’d already taken the inside track – but we kind of cut her off.  It wasn’t intentional.

She pulled in right behind us, but as we were first, we had a chance at some prime real-estate.  I nosed NOMAD up to a little sand spit in about 10 feet of water.  No boats in front of us, which meant our view from the boat would be an unobstructed view of a beautiful Caribbean beach, with water a thousand different shades of blue.  We watched the anchor drop, it hung and we got straight to the anchor beer and setting up our tent-shade-thing.

We recognized more than a couple of the boats in the anchorage, but nobody that we’d consider friends.  A quick run by the charter boats in the area and we figured out who we knew and who we didn’t.  In short:  we didn’t know any of the younger crowd.

Luke packed our beach-invasion bag, which consists of enough alcohol to cover a small country, a few hammocks, music playing devices, fresh ceviche, some playing cards, a book or two, etc.  And then we invaded the beach.  It wasn’t quite as epic as Normandy, but we made a good show of it.

As soon as I went to the local Kuna -in-charge, he told me his outboard was broken.  I’m not quite an outboard mechanic, but I’ve learned what can keep an outboard from running.  And I can tell if something doesn’t look right.  So Luke and Amanda began setting up our little beach party spot – and I began troubleshooting our Kuna host’s outboard.

Outboard troubleshooting

During this our friend in the monohull, whom we thrashed on the way here, came over to lend a hand with his tools.  I was happy to have the help.  As soon as I took a look into the outboard I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy fix.  We check all the usual – cleaned the carb, checked the plugs, etc.  Of course, almost everything we looked into had some problem with it, including a missing bolt – which holds the carb onto the head.  A fairly large deal.  And it wasn’t pushing water through the engine.  And it was leaking gasoline like a sieve. Well…

We tried for more than an hour and the only thing I managed to do was find a myriad of problems, get a few sea-urchin spines stuck in my foot, and lose my sunglasses in the water.

Volleyball

Eventually I gave up on the outboard, and so did the Kuna.  They decided to put up their sails, and forego the troublesome outboard; I prefer this method too – mechanical stuff fails quite often in this environment.

Sailing > Motoring

I was starving and wanted a drink.  I dove straight into the ceviche, then made a drink, then took a quick survey of the island.  We weren’t alone, and there was a volleyball net.  Luke got a volleyball and then the real fun started.  First up was a German and American girl.  Luke paired up with the German, I got the American.  They had to leave before our game was over.  Then we were alone on the island again.  About the time I started to think we should head back to the boat, a dinghy full of drunken Englishmen and Englishwomen came ashore.

Ceviche!

Quick introductions were followed by a game of rum volleyball. Which is volleyball, with lots of rum.  Compared to our English friends, we all seemed very sober.  The cycle started with a few volleys, followed by a drink-break.  Then we’d cool off, and wash off in the crystal-clear water.  Then we’d go play another game of volleyball.  A fun afternoon, for sure.

Volleyball

Back onboard we heard the Englishfolk partying late into the night, but Luke was out almost immediately on the trampolines.  Amanda and I cooked.  Then we ate, watched a movie, and went to sleep.

Naturally, the wind picked up overnight, turning our tent-shade-thing into a loudly flapping tent-sail-thing.  I finally convinced myself to get out of bed and take it down.  With the Englishfolk passed out, and our tent-shade-thing silenced – it was finally peaceful enough to sleep.

Salardup, San Blas