San Blas Islands to Colon

 

Dear all,

 

After a choppy 6 days from Bonaire to the San Blas Islands, we were delighted to be able to say “Land Ahoy”.  Only it wasn’t just singular, we were arriving in the San Blas Islands and all we could see on approach is a mass of tiny islands covered in palm trees see photos.  Some Islands are so small that they only have a single palm tree, idyllic.  Pictures just can’t justify its beauty, but we can try, see pictures!

 

Its paradise beyond what we ever thought could exist.  The Islands are inhabited by the Kuna Indians, there are over 365 Islands in total, some totally uninhabited and others with just one or two families.  They live in bamboo huts put together by bits of string!  They are very friendly people, and don’t mind you walking around their Islands.  The Kunas are very traditional, and protect these traditions to the extent that although they welcome their visitors, they also ensure that they don’t stay long, and women aren’t allowed to marry outside of their race!  Their lives seem so happy and completely idyllic!  They travel between the Islands on dugout canoes that they call Ulu’s.  The men are incredible fit, and on our first day a canoe full of Kuna men approached the boat offering to catch us lobster!  How could we refuse!  The lobster was cooked and BBQ’d by Alan and Stu and tasted delicious!  We really are in paradise!

 

We took full advantage of the excellent snorkelling around the beautiful reefs in surrounding the Islands.  We took the boat to a few Islands to go exploring, each time met with Kuna Women trying to sell you their embroidery!  We snorkelled around an Island called ‘Dog Island’ as there is a freighter just 4 metres below sea level and a haven for beautiful fish!  Stu and Laura saw a Barracuda…eek!  We also explored

 

We found a really cute restaurant called ‘Bienvenidos’ We were the only guests and we ate the only dish on the menu chicken with lentils and rice!  We were served by an elder lady who wore their traditional dress.  Stu and Laura then took a walk around the Island Wichubhuala Island one of the only Islands without palm trees but made up of lots of bamboo huts to make up this bustling village!  It was clean, friendly and such a great atmosphere!  See photo of Stuart posing with the Island volleyball team, while we were there, it looked like some inter island volleyball tournament. 

 

We sailed overnight to Colon, the entrance port on the Atlantic side of the Panama Canal. We have berthed in a marina called shelter bay, it is a 30 minute bus ride into the centre of Colon which is a busy run down city renowned for not being safe. Tomorrow our agent and the Canal authorities are coming to measure the boat and set us up for a transit through the canal planned for Thursday or Friday this week. 

 

Hope everybody at home is well,

Love from Ocean Lady

 

Snorkelling!!

 

 

The dinghy dock in Porvenir

Lobster for supper!

 

Welcome to Paradise - the San Blas Islands

 

Can you spot the lion?

 

The local volley ball team

Lots of Wind!

Dear all,

The last couple of days have been fairly rough onboard Ocean Lady, winds
have been up to 45 knots at times. But other than a few rogue waves coming
into the cockpit we are all doing well.

Even with all this wind we have found ourselves again slowing down to avoid
arriving during hours of darkness - there are some nasty fringe reefs and
the area is not well charted. Our "new" chart still has depths in fathoms
and was last updated 11 years ago.

Looking forward to a few relaxing days in the San Blas islands which sound
fantastic before heading over to Panama.

Hope everybody is well,

Love to all

Ocean Lady x

Going to fast!!

Dear all,

The last 24 hours has seen consistent trade winds of 25-30 knots, clear
skies making excellent progress.
We anticipate arriving in the early hours of Monday morning so we've taken
in a little bit of sail to slow ourselves down.

Life onboard is good, we were treated to a lovely beef curry last night
cooked by Laura and tonight Margaret has chicken and leek surprise with
roast potatoes and parsnips.

Love to all,

Ocean Lady x x

En-route to the San Blas islands

Dear all,

After a lovely few days in Bonaire, Ocean Lady and her crew are off again.
An eventful first day featuring, a tropical line squall, sea birds trying to
land in the cockpit at night, another yacht en-route to Panama and a bumpy
seaway with and without wind!! We now have and Easterly breeze of 25 knots
and Ocean Lady is settling in to being at sea again, managing a fantastic
140 nautical miles on day one - Approximately 500 miles to go.

Love to all at home,

Ocean Lady xxx

Commenting on the blog

Dear friends and family,

 

A few people have been asking how to comment on our blog. Firstly, I believe you need to be signed up to the blog rather than just viewing.

 

Then beneath one of our posts click on the “0 comments”

This should come up with a box for you to write your comment and then click on “Publish”.

 

Hopefully this helps.

 

Stu

Commenting on the blog

Dear friends and family,

 

A few people have been asking how to comment on our blog. Firstly, I believe you need to be signed up to the blog rather than just viewing.

 

Then beneath one of our posts click on the “0 comments”

This should come up with a box for you to write your comment and then click on “Publish”.

 

Hopefully this helps.

 

Stu

Slowing ourselves down to get to Bonaire!

Hi Everyone,

 

We said our goodbyes to Grenada on Wednesday 11^th January around 4pm local time (8pm GMT), we intended to keep 150 miles clear of the Venezuelan coastline, so we anticipated a 3 to 4 day trip.

 

Winds were good leaving Grenada with 20 knots firmly behind us meaning Ocean Lady was flying through the sea with twin headsails towards our next destination.  Margaret settled back into life at sea well, and the men were happy to be back sailing.  After almost a month on land, getting back into the night watch routine was tough! Laura developed new strategies to keep her awake at night…exercises!  After 45 minutes she got bored and resorted to watching ‘Only fools and horses’.

 

Fantastic sail the whole way!!! With Ocean Lady comfortably reaching 6-8 knots we were set to arrive a day earlier than anticipated, Stu and Alan were in their element!  That was until they realised that at this speed we would arrive in Bonaire at night, not so good when entering a bay famous for its coral reefs! Our only option dare I say it was to slow ourselves down so that we would arrive in daylight! (picture Stu and Alan putting reefs into the sails through gritted teeth! slowing the boat down from a comfortable 8 knots to 5).

 

We arrived in Bonaire at 6:30am to the sun shining and a flock of pelicans welcoming us to their island! The island is lovely, civilised, the people are friendly and very welcoming. US$10 for a buoy and no immigration/ entrance charge.

 

The island is famous for its diving, whilst none of us are going diving we have been snorkelling and it has the potential to be great, we will be exploring some more sights later today. We hired a jeep for the day yesterday and had a nice day out driving around the island seeing all the hot spots. National park to the north, very volcanic in appearance and lots of cactuses, goats and wild parrots! Through Rincon the oldest village, slave huts, lots of dead coral washed up, flamingos, windsurfers in Lac Bay, salt pits and finally back to a super market – our favourite pastime!!

 

 

Next stop will be the San Blas Islands close to Panama before we transit the canal. 

 

 

Laura featured on another boats blog!!

(http://www.sailblogs.com/member/littlegreenboat/?xjMsgID=205507)

 

 

 

 

 

Ocean Lady leaves Grenada

Hello Everyone

 

Sorry for the long delay in sending our next instalment, we have been busy enjoying ourselves, and soon we will be setting sail to our next destination - Bonaire!

 

Since our last blog, we booked a bus ride with 4 other boats (Spruce, Blue Moon, Christina Pearl and Secret Smile) for a tour of the Island.  Grenada really is the ‘Island of Spice’, spices grow everywhere! Especially nutmeg, it can be found in almost anything healing potions, food, ice cream, jelly, jam, Rum punches, the list goes on! So it’s no surprise that Grenada is the 2^nd largest exporter of nutmeg to the rest of the world, a claim that they are extremely proud of!  We were taken to ‘Laura’s spice garden’ where we were talked through the origins of all the different spices that we are used to cooking with, really interesting.   

 

We then took a hike through the rain forest to a set of waterfalls called ‘Seven Sisters’ we had a lovely swim underneath them, ate our picnic and were treated to some impressive diving from our guide.  After we hiked back, we drove through the bustling city of Grenville, and then onto the Belmont Estate which is a cocoa processing plant! The men were delighted to drag the ladies away from all the chocolate so we could move onto the rum distillery.  Stuart was devastated to find that rum was made in what looks like a cow shed J It wasn’t the cleanest of places!  I can confirm it has not put him off drinking it!  We then drove along the west of the Island and back to our anchorage.  Grenada is a beautiful island, full of lush green rainforests, beautifully kept gardens stunning beaches and very welcoming locals!  A great day out!

 

 

New Years Eve we sailed the boat back along the coast to Le Phare Bleu marina ready for our big party to see in the New Year!  Blue Moon, Christina Pearl and True Blue joined us! We started of with drinks on True Blue and then moved onto the restaurant and bar for a fantastic evening of live music and great food!  Free alcohol all night, so you can only imagine the hangovers the following day.  New Year ’s Day a group of us were going to Hogg Island, a small island famous for its Sunday afternoon BBQ laid on by the locals.  What a great way to nurse a hangover, beach BBQ, live reggae music overlooking the most lovely anchorage and sunset!  Really something special! To save us taking Ocean Lady out of the marina as Alan and Margaret were due back the following day, Stu and Laura stayed overnight on Christina Pearl.  Thanks to Steve on Christina Pearl for your hospitality. 

 

The following day Steve dropped us back to Ocean Lady, and a full day of cleaning to welcome Alan and Margaret back to Grenada was ahead of us.  They arrived at around 5pm and finally Ocean Lady had her full crew onboard.  It was great to have them back! 

 

Since Alan and Margaret have arrived we have been busy preparing the boat for its next passage, provisioning up and fixing things that needed fixing like our generator.  Every morning there is a Cruiser’s network on the VHF radio at 7:30am, it gives you news, weather, social events and an opportunity for boats to help each other out.  It’s now our alarm clock, and we’ll miss it when we move on from Grenada.  The ‘net’ advertised a meeting for all boats heading west through to the pacific. We met some more cruisers all with similar journeys in mind to us albeit on different time frames.  The cruising world is very accommodating and it seems anyone will go out of their way for anyone else, so since the meeting there has been a lot of data and chart sharing.  We met up for drinks with our friend Jan who has been a great host to us here in Grenada!

 

We treated ourselves to another trip to Hogg Island for the BBQ, reggae dancing and socialising.  We managed to say our goodbyes to a lot of the people we have had fun with over the past few weeks.    We are now ready to move onto our next stop Bonaire, and will be setting off at some point tomorrow.  We anticipate it taking about 4-5 days depending on the wind.   We would just like to thank Jan, Spruce, Blue Moon, Secret Smile, Christina Pearl and all the other boats that have helped give us a great time here in Grenada.  We are now looking forward to the next adventure.  We will be in touch as soon as we settle back into life at sea!

 

Love to all

 

Ocean Lady