Over and under

Over the line. Last night at 23h44,19GMT/UTC we crossed over the equator into the southern hemisphere. Hauled out all the goody's and had a party... so much so we did not cook any of the Mahi Mahi for dinner. From there it was one long night into the wind that was coming straight at us from Galapagos. The wind fluctuated from nothing to 25kn and switched direction continuously. Eventually we only had up the main with a reef and the motor going... another expensive diesel night. In between all this it poured with rain.
Today at 13h00 local time( we are now six hours behind GMT)we dropped anchor. Our position for the next week or two is: 00° 44'S and 90° 18'W. This is Academy Bay on the island of Santa Cruz in Galapagos. We contacted our agent for here and he will be out shortly with the navy etc in tow to sign us in and inspect the boat. After that we will go ashore and walk around...get the ol legs stretched. We will try updating the blog etc with photos if we can get onto the internet. Till then...

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Birds, sunsets and flying fish.

Cruising with Papillon
15.00 Local 19 April
Course: 240°
Distance covered last 24hrs until 01h00 UTC: 111 nm
Distance to Galapagos: 153nm
Position 0°32 N 087°57 W

Well the number of birds is definitely improving and today we even saw a Frigate bird all the way out here. Did a check and he is 87nm from land. They cannot land on water so have to fly time. Many others out here park up on floating trees, logs etc if they feel like a break. Last night a Booby made many attempts to land on board his worst attempt being a bum slide over the solar panels, feet out front heading for the wind generator.... luckily he fell of the back. At four this morning some other bird made friends with the wind genny with a thump from the first blade and a twick from the second as it cast it off to the water below with a splosh. A little later there was another flying around us and hopefully it was the one that got whacked coming back to see what had hit him.
When the wind does not blow then the sea turns to glass. Some of the most magical sunsets happen when the sea is like this. The other evening we had been motoring all day and the sea was flat. As the sun set the sea turned yellow and then to a yellow to green metallic colour. This then turned to an orange to green colour and the orange to blue and on to purple. These metallic colours are so beautiful and yet they never come out as such in the photos. So close your eyes and picture a slow moving ,wavering mirror and begin with yellow, then....
There are many flying fish around and in the mornings we throw them overboard. Around here the squid also land on deck and those are for the pan. Unfortunately with the full moon the squid are not around. Since being in the Pacific there is another fish we should enter into the category of flying fish. That position must go to the rays. Time and again you see them break the surface heading for the sky and the wings beating rhythmically ... but to no avail... gravity hauls the back with a splashing belly-flop. Some are persistent and will try over and over again, one going for the record jumped twelve times. Life is always a celebration.
Tday we are making good progress with a nice wind. We put out a line and took it past a large floating log and Bingo... Mahi Mahi. They are so beautiful in the water. As you reel them in the whole family comes along to say goodbye. Today we had over 45 of them around the transom when we pulled our catch on board. Great for supper tonight.... the last for a while in the northern hemisphere. We should cross the equator at around seven this evening. So our first islands in the southern hemisphere tomorrow... it's been a great 8 days. For now it's off to flush the toilet a few times before it changes direction and swirls around the other way... so till Galapagos....

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Light winds and slow progress

Cruising with Papillon
15.00 Local 18 April
Course: 240°
Distance covered last 24hrs until 01h00 UTC: 109 nm
Distance to Galapagos: 279nm
Position 01°28 N 086°16 W
Not much happening out here. We spent a lot of time motoring and the wind is still very light. Looks as if we could get in to Galapagos on Wednesday.... hopefully it will not be too late as then we will have to hove too for the night. A little more wind would help... it is light and from the south so we are sailing very close to the wind and the swells roll the boat causing the sails to flap about. Last night we took all the sails down and motored all night till we got some wind at 4am. Otherwise all is going well.

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Having a whale of a good time

Cruising with Papillon
15.00 Local 17April
Course: 240°
Distance covered last 24hrs until 01h00 UTC: 86 nm
Distance to Galapagos: 382nm
Position 02°23 N 084°43 W
Well we are having a whale of a time out here.... never mind the floating rubbish, it's the large night time visitors that are a worry. In the early hours on Sandy's watch there was this blowing noise. After some checking, the whale/s were spotted. That was the end of Colin's sleep as he was hauled up on deck to check this lot out. The one far larger than our yacht, was on the surface a few meters away. We are 13m that would make them 15 - 20m...WOW (what a whopper). At times they were rather close with one blowing off the bow and his tail churning the water right next to the boat. Being full moon... okay almost... one could see them clearly but could do nothing to move out of their way as they seemed quite content to make our boats acquaintance ... must have been the music.
Sailing wise it's not going so well as the wind is not blowing and we are not going. Only 86nm is rather low even though we milked the breezes all day yesterday with genaker. This morning we had a massive rain storm and the wind did 180° shifts. We saw it in the dark just before the moon burnt out and left us in the dark. It was massive on the radar screen and we had no wind to sail away from it. It rained for about three hours and the left and we were sailing a glassy sea without a ripple on it. So on with the engine and burn up the diesel... very sad... seven hours of motoring and a light breeze is only now trying to push through... so off to see what we can catch in the sails. Till next time...

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Rolling of the miles to Galapagos

Cruising with Papillon
15.00 Local 16 April
Course: 224°
Distance covered last 24hrs until 01h00 UTC: 123 nm
Distance to Galapagos: 470nm
Position 03°28 N 083°40 W
Well another good days sailing with the wind remaining changeable. The night was most pleasant with flat seas and a fairly steady boat, so we all managed to get some good sleep. Our friends on the other two boats, Sharkita (NZ) and Fidelio (Austrian) are in close range and enjoying similar conditions. The wind has been really good and the longer it stays like this the less time it will take to get there and the less very light breezes to no wind cost a lot in diesel.
All's well on board and we have the genaker up at the moment with the wind on our beam. We are just managing to keep along the rum line and do not wish to get out to the west of it.
It is amazing the amount of tree trunks etc out here. Even though we keep watch all the time we mostly see them when they are on our beam. Some of them are double the length of our yacht that easily puts them past 20m. Some have small diameters like the palm trees and others that could be a meter plus in diameter. May our bow stay clear of all of them and any other junk floating out here?

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Two great days so far

Cruising with Papillon
15.00 Local 15 April
Course: 224°
Distance covered last 24hrs until 01h00 UTC: 157 nm
Distance to Galapagos: 590nm
Position 04°45 N 082°12 W
The sailing so far has been really good and we have had more wind than expected. Yesterday the wind was 20-25kn from the N and stayed like that most the day. Overnight we had a mixed bag of wind and did a few sail changes. Today the wind has been a mixed bag as well with it slowly moving all the way to the SE. It has been cloudy today which has kept life on board a little cooler... no rain as yet. Last night was a lovely night under the stars with a fair size of the moon lighting up everything. The stars are like sitting in an old shed with all the sun peeping through the rusty pin holes. Today we had a large striped marlin jumping around the boat celebrating his life and freedom. We had no lures out which is good as he would weigh around 70-80kg and with us doing 5-7kn downwind he would demolish our fishing gear. Many people always want to catch big fish ... great for the photo album... but then how much fish can you keep and eat. We like the little 4-8kg fish.
So that it for now ...we hope that this wind lasts

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On our way to Galapagos

Well we have finally left the beautiful Las Perlas islands and are on our way to Galapagos. We left in very light conditions and spent the day milking the breezes just to keep some air in the sails. At times our best speed through the water was 1.5kn with another 1.5kn of current in our favour. It was a long very hot tiring day. In the evening the wind came up and has climbed all night to above 30kn.we are storming along and have two reefs in and some jib out to balance it all and with the current are keeping above 8kn and surfing up to 12.5kn. The yacht is all over the place and sleeping has not been easy. Even though we had such a light day yesterday, we will have done over 150nm for the last twenty four hours. Our position at present is: 06deg25'N and 80deg12' doing 7-8kn on a heading of 225deg.
Plenty of dolphins yesterday but guess that we will not really be seeing them today as well as the odd swallow. Had a lovely curry last night and looking forward to a good day today.

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Still in Isla Espiritu Santo......Las Perlas Islands

Well we are still here in the Las Perlas islands. The islands where we are are sparsely populated if at all. The anchorage that we are in is surrounded by islands that are unpopulated with large trees and rainforest, little streams and plenty of birds. At low tide there are beautiful white sand beaches that disappear again when the tide comes in. The trees go all the way down to the water's edge with some mangrove types growing in the water, and at very high tide, get covered with sea water. Many of the trees on the islands are sprouting and the various colours of green against the darker evergreens is stunning. As the sun traverses over the anchorage the colours all change as the angle of the light and shadows change.
The water around us is full of fish (and sadly many jelly fish) and there is always some activity going on. The tuna and trevally/jacks bail up a shoal of smaller fish and then have a great feed jumping out of the water in their exuberance to catch them. The fish have little peace as they are also subjected to an aerial bombardment by the pelicans who hit the water at a fair speed. Their head goes in to scoop the fish as the rest of the body flick-flaks over the top. They then sit on the water as if stunned but are actually getting all the water out of their pouch (the bottom half of the beak). A few stretches of the neck and down go the fish and its take off time again. It's just wonderful to watch them as they skim along the water surface with the tips of their pin feathers millimetres above the water. The terns are also in for a feed and many of them skim over the water and then catch a fish as they go. They then get chased by the frigate birds who hope that they will drop their catch. Some of the frigates manage to catch their own food but most seem happy to take it off some of the other birds in great displays of aerial combat.
So you may ask when we are going to move on!!! At the moment the wind is light or totally in the wrong direction. There is some stronger wind on its way but directly from where we want to go. There is nothing on the grib file to show any change at this stage and believe me when there is a change there is going to be a whole flotilla heading off as there are a lot of boats sitting and waiting. Some have decided to go and have had a mix of fortunes and have motored, sailed and sat adrift waiting. Some have had some current help them... others the current has been against them. So for now we will enjoy the islands and slowly change from fresh to tinned food.... but hey, the scenery is worth it.
That all for now till we write again....

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Isla Espiritu Santo......Las Perlas Islands

Yesterday we left Contadora and headed south through the Las Perlas to a lovely anchorage between Isla del Rey and Isla Espiritu Santo. The islands are beautiful and covered with large trees. It is beautifully quiet here with only four other boats. As we are close to the islands we hear all the birds calling. As the evening closed in the birds slowly went to sleep, all the night life got going. There is an owl that stays up and we heard him clearly all evening. The fish around the boat were lighting up the water around us because of all the phosphorescence in the water. It was beautiful to just sit on deck and take it all in. The sail down was more of a motor down as the wind was very light. The water was a dirty brown colour and the only thing that we could think of was that it could be an algae bloom as there are no major rivers that flow into the sea here. No fish this trip but with the colour of the water that was no surprise. We will spend a day or two here and then will move on south around to the bottom of Isla del Rey. Hopefully the water will be cleaner down there as we need to make some water. Yesterday we had the engine on for 4-5 hours and only made about 20 litres before we sailed into the dirty water. We can generally make 45 litres an hour. So today we will dinghy around the islands and see what we can find. At the moment we are waiting to get going to Galapagos but there is little to no wind for the next week. Some boats are tired of waiting and have decided to go on, but they will be heading into a light wind on the nose and very little promise of any decent wind. The problem with this is that one tends to use up all your diesel and replacing it at the Galapagos islands is costly...like everything else there!
Well that's it for now from these lovely islands... till we write again.

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Las Perlas

Yesterday we left Panama and headed offshore to the islands known as Las Perlas. They are about 36nm from where we were anchored off the causeway in Panama. When the Spannish first arrived here the indians tried to give then pearls for their safety and freedom. The Spanish took the pearls and wiped them out. Today the islands are a weekend get away for those that live in the City of Panama. Weekend the place can get busy but at the moment it is all very quiet. We are anchored off Contadora where there is a small village on the island. It is the largest village in the islands, but there is not much here. There is a runway and planes arrive all day. Looking at some of the houses there are a few very rich people that have their weekend "Cottage" here with pools etc all over looking the sea. It is very dry at the moment and the trees have not yet decided to sprout even though its so hot. I guess that they are waiting for the rains to start.

We motored all the way over as there was no wind untill we almost got to the islands. We unfurled the jib and motor sailed the last hour or so. We caught two great tuna on the way over... within the first two hours... so pulled up the lines for the rest of the trip. We shared some fillets with some friends on another yacht. Fish for supper, lunch......

As slow as a ... Sloth

One of the animals we really wanted to see was a sloth. The one day we walked to the chandlery and on the way back contemplated going into a small reserve to see if we could find a sloth. It cost $5each to go in and while we were trying to establish if there were sloths to be seen I spied one down the road next to nthe parking area for the chandlery. So no need to enter the reserve and off we went to see the sloth. As we got to it we found another sitting at our feet on the ground. So a double strike and we had the camera. We got some good shots but unfortunately on very weak wifi connections the photos go funny. So here it is... Note the claws on the feet and hands. They spend their life hanging upside bdown and as a result their hair hangs theopposite way to allow the water to run off.

Panama... the City

Well what a difference to Colon. The city is liberally scatterred with 100 story or there about sky scrapers. The shopping malls go on for ever. One of the malls ...Multiplaza Pacifica... has all the top end shops and was not that busy. We enjoyed walking around there as it was really different and bigger than anything that we have been in for a number of years. The other centre we went to was even larger with many more shops with very cheap clothes etc. It was interesting to see that these shops actually had many clients unlike the other one where we looked at a shoe shop and a pair of not so great looking shoes but with the right lable on cost $1250.00. Getting around is easy as there are many taxi's and one can usually negotiate a fair  fare to where you are going.

We paid the fresh produce market a visit that is open every day. The prices are totally unbelieveable and we went to town on stocking up with fruit and veg. 3pineapples $1...4kg of bananas $1.65 just great stuff and fresh from the growers. When we got there we hired a Kuna Indian with his trolly to cart all our stuff(only $2) He was very good and with his limited English he showed us around and made sure that we got a fair deal. We often got him to get the price and pay. What a great experience!

The anchourage where we were was not the best and the water was filthy. We could not use our watermaker and the sides of the boat became real grimey with oil and other dirt. The wind carried a fine soot that it deposited on the boat.... on everything and everywhere.... YUCK

It is time to get out of here

Colon

Looiking down the centre of the main road in Colon looks pretty but is not the safest place to be. Walking down on either side of this street is not advised. There are markets everywhere with everyone trying to eke out a living. These photos were taken from the safety of the bus

One road back and you find the buildings falling down and filth everywhere. you would not be able to venture down any of the side streets at all. There are plenty of poplice... almost on every corner all armed ready to start a war. most buildings are locked and only let you in once they see you at the door.

As for the anchorage nothing much better... broken down wrecks dirty water shoreline etc



Very glad to leave this place!!!!!

Crossing over to the Pacific

Since Sunday things seem to have happened in a rush. We were told that we would get through the canal on the 19^th but still needed to phone in to see if there were any changes to the schedule. Come Sunday night and we were told that we would be going through the canal the next day. From there we were flat out reorganising the boat for three more people to sleep as well as doing shopping for food for the trip and sorting out the boat. We left the anchorage at 2:30 and went around to the flats to wait for our pilot/advisor. He was due at 5:00pm but they do sometimes move you earlier so we had to be there ready and waiting. Our advisor arrived on time and we headed off to the first of the locks. As we approached the first lock we rafted up with two other yachts. We entered the first lock behind a small ship and tied up. It was still light and was amazing how fast the lock filled. The currents are incredible and the water boils all around the yacht. We repeated this exercise another two times as we climbed up to the Gatun Lake.  From the top lock we motored about a mile to where we all tied up to two large buoys. We spent the night here and at six the next morning our advisor for the trip across the lake and down the other side arrived. The lake is full of islands covered in rainforest. We took a shortcut called the “Banana Cut” which goes through between lots of the islands. It takes around 3-4 hours to motor through to the first of the locks on the other side. The first lock is stand alone after which you have to motor over the Miraflores Lake to the next two locks. While waiting to enter the next lock a large crocodile swam by. It was the only one we saw on the lake but they are pretty common. By 1:00pm we exited the last lock and were finally in the Pacific Ocean. After dropping off our advisor we headed all the way down to the sea and around the causeway where we anchored with a great view of Panama City. Roy and Margaret that came with us as line handlers returned to Colon and the next day Che who helped us as well went back. We went into town with Che and walked around the old city. The next day we returned to Colon by bus to line handle for Roy and Margaret on Barnstorm. The first day was long as we were supposed to leave the flats at 3:30pm but finally got away at 7:30. We only reached the lake at 1:15am. The advisors arrived at 6:00am the next morning, so all in the trip was very tiring. We have been through twice now and are now focussing on the road ahead to Galapagos. We will try updating photos when we get a good wifi connection Till then....

San Blas Islands.... Photo's

Porvenir was where we signed in to the San Blas Islands 

This was the first time I had seen a dugout canoe and they are truly amazing craft

The Kuna ladies dress in beautiful traditional dress but do not like being photographed

The islands are all small and the dwellings on them blend in well being made of palm fonds.

in the larger islands there are many concrete structures but not on the outer islands

Many small islands are unoccupied and covered in palms.

But every palm has an owner, so.......

Sign on tree at Porvenir.

A typical dwelling out on an island in the Holandes Cays.

This is the view from our anchorage in the "Hot Tub" in the eastern Holandes Cays

Barbeque Island and the "Swimming Pool" Anchorage

Daily one is approached to but molas... this is the master mola maker showing us his excellent work

Besides molas they sell fish, veg and anything else they can. The crayfish, crabs and octopus were great. we kept them alive in a large "spanish" bucket so that they stayed fresh... and tasty

The canoes are shaped out of a single log. They are paddled and sailed.

Leaveng the Coco Bandero Cays

Another small island full of trees

Lemon Cay the only place there is a "pub" ashore.

His father was selling fish and he climbed aboard, but no smile

Bye for now

Colon ... entry to the Panama Canal

Having spent a few days in Portobello it was again time to move on. It was a pleasant four hour downwind sail to Colon. The entry to the harbour is very easy and we anchored off Club Nautico. What a shock to the senses. Visually ... we were surrounded by wrecks on the shore and old boats tied off to the wharves. Smell... the aroma of rubbish burning on the far side of the harbour and a disused bunker boat that was giving of strong fumes from the left over fuels inside. Noise ... the rumble of engines from all the ships that are in the port or on their way in or out. Balance ... waves caused by the wind are fine, but then you get rolled around by the wakes of all the service boats running up and down the port. Well after quiet islands surrounded by nature, what a mess.
Going ashore is no better as the area is very unsafe. You need to take a taxi to anywhere that you want to go to. There is also nowhere really to go ashore, however Club Nautico does allow you to tie up to their dinghy dock for US$5 a day. It's not the best of places and must be the most run down Club Nautico that we have come across; at least there are security guards there so the dinghy is fairly safe. The taxi's often come past the gate and are, at least, very cheap. The security guards are all armed to the teeth and the police look like they are ready to go to war. You have two police on a motorbike with the back cop carrying an Uzi submachine gun at the ready. Any decent looking houses are barricaded like we have never seen before and sadly there are few of these homes as most of the lovely old building in town have either collapse from lack of maintenance and repair or are about to fall apart. The city is filthy and it is sad to see the poverty and the squalor that a lot of the people live in.
We organised with Tito who is an agent for getting through Panama and the Canal. He has been very good and yesterday we did all the initial paperwork. Today we had our boat measured at the flats which is on the other side of Colon. We motored around yesterday and spent the night. We rolled around a lot due to all the traffic in the port and the channel leading up to the locks. After the measuring process...lots of forms, we returned to the old anchorage and then had to go to the bank and pay our US$1500 for our transit through the Panama Canal ($800 is refunded should you transit the canal without any delays). We still have to pay Tito, line handlers ($75 each X three), for the hiring of ten tyre fenders and four 38m ropes....that adds up to around $400. This is an extremely costly exercise. These are just the canal costs and do not take into account your cruising permit for Panama and other immigration and customs fees. Tonight we hear from the canal control when we can expect to get through which we reckon could be in 4-5days.
Three boats go through together rafted together. We spend the night up in the lake and then come down the other side the next day. There are cameras at all the locks and if you google Panama canal live cams you should easily find the site. We will try and post our time that we are due to enter the lock here and you can see us going through. Oh what fun... till then

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Portobello

We have now moved out of the San Blas Islands and are only 20nm out of Colon. We are anchored in a beautiful bay of Portobello. We arrived here yesterday after a good sail down the coast. The winds were between 12-17 knots and we maintain a good 6knots plus all the way. Before leaving we moved from the Lemon Cays to Porvenir to sign out. It was very rolly there and wanting to have a good night's sleep we headed up to the Chichime Cays where the anchorage was flat. The islands had a few Kuna living on them in traditional houses and using their dugout canoes as their main form of transport. What a beautiful setting for our last night in the San Blas. From here we did not have to beat to weather at the start of the trip as we were on our lay line to follow the coast.... so a nice easy start to the day. Light winds and an easy reach for 35nm and then round the corner and a run down to Portobello.
Today we took a walk around the town and visited some of the forts and old buildings. The town is a world heritage site as it was used by the Spanish as one of their main ports to establish a foothold in the area.(1500's) A third of the worlds gold passed through here when the Spanish plundered the area. It was also used as a slave trading area and many slaves were used to build the forts around the bay. As it was a strategic port the English and the Dutch also took great interest in the place and there were many battles fought here for control of the area. The town or at least parts of it were rebuilt on a few occasions after these battles. Today the village is a little run down and there are many buildings in need of repair. The people are poor and their houses fairly simple. Most of the people that we have come across are very friendly and there is a jolly mood around the place... maybe because carnival is coming up and everyone is getting ready for that. Yesterday just after we anchored there was a lot of splashing and thrashing in the shallows. The people ashore quickly headed out to the spot and caught a massive marlin 7-8 feet in length. They managed to get it into a boat and take it ashore. I do not know if there was a long line out for fish and if the marlin had come in for a feed but it was in less than 0.5m of water. Lots of shouting and celebrating!!! I should have had a line out.
Well thats it for now... till we write again.

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Lemon Cays

We are currently in the Lemon Cays where there are hoards of other boats anchored. Today we will cross over to Porvenir and sign out. Tomorrow we will head off down towards Colon and stop at Linden Island that is 40nm down the track. We will spend the night and maybe a day before moving on to Portabella a further 20nm down the coast.
The Lemon Cays are popular as it has a little bar on the one island that is popular for people to meet with other boats. Yesterday we were there and met up with a few other boats from Australia. The chief's daughter had her 7th birthday and they celebrated that with all the yachties gathered there. They had been grilling a large section of hog that they cut up and served with a potato dish ice-cream and cake all on the same plate. Lovely ice-cream as long as you ate it first. As they say.... life is uncertain eat dessert first!!!
Everything on board is good ...we have hardly made a dent in any of our supplies. We have had lots of fish and when we have not caught them we have bought them from the Kuna's in their canoes. We bought two lovely bonita/skipack the other day (US$5) and invited our friends on Toucan to join us for dinner. Had a wonderful evening with them and they also brought some very tasty salads to share. That's what is great about getting together and sharing food... there are such great and tasty dishes that get shared around.
That's it for now... catch up from down the coast somewhere...till then

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Green Island

Hi again as the time flies along.... I cannot believe that it is Friday already and almost the end of February. We are still at Green Island and tomorrow we will move to the Naguargandup Cays, possibly the western side and anchor off Salardup. Well now you know exactly where we are... still in the San Blas islands... on the Panamanian coast. As I said earlier the islands here have great names many that one finds hard to pronounce. We were going to move to Nargana today but decided to have a lazy day here instead. We got a whole lot of Langoustines' and crayfish today that we cooked and then boiled up all the heads and legs to make a wonderful "Lobster Bisque". We had that for supper tonight and after one bowl full you could not eat any more, so we have soup for lunch tomorrow with crayfish salad. The veggie boats have been around almost daily with fresh produce so we have good salad ingredients.
From Salardup we will head to the Lemon Cays for a day or two and then back to Porvenir to sign out. Many boats spend a lot of time cruising here and we have only touched on the one side of San Blas. Boats that have been further east say that you step back in time as the Kuna's there live a very traditional life with little western influence. There are also hundreds of islands to visit and to see them you would have to be here for a year or so. We do not have time to do it, but there are some rivers that run up into the rain forest that one can boat up. The forest here is absolutely pristine as no one has been in to remove the trees for a quick profit. The kunas only use trees for their dugout canoes. There is a lot of wildlife and plenty of birds to be seen. Even on the islands there are lots of different birds.
From Monday there is a total ban on fishing and collecting of seafood for three months. This is applicable to everyone as it gives the fish time to breed etc. Some of the langoustines that we bought today were carrying eggs so I took them and placed them on a small reef that hopefully will not attract the attention of any the divers looking for crayfish. Many yachties here do not follow the rules as they spearfish and remove seafood from the reef. This is rather disappointing as the Kuna work on trust and do not police the area. (Fishing with a line is permitted) There is another side to this and that is a lot of yachties are spear fishing "Lionfish" These predatory fish were introduced to the Caribbean and will kill off all the fish on a reef. Nothing will go for them as they have venomous spines on their dorsal fins that are also harmful to humans. However you can cut off the spines and fillet the fish and they are apparently good eating. Many places ask divers to report any of these fish so that they can be hunted down. Because they are very territorial they do not move from an area where they have established themselves and are easy to find again.
Unlike us we are always on the move. But for now its time to put the feed up and let dinner digest ... till next time.

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Green Island

Hi again as the time flies along.... I cannot believe that it is Friday already and almost the end of February. We are still at Green Island and tomorrow we will move to the Naguargandup Cays, possibly the western side and anchor off Salardup. Well now you know exactly where we are... still in the San Blas islands... on the Panamanian coast. As I said earlier the islands here have great names many that one finds hard to pronounce. We were going to move to Nargana today but decided to have a lazy day here instead. We go a whole lot of Langoustines' and crayfish today that we cooked and then boiled up all the heads and legs to make a wonderful "Lobster Bisque". We had that for supper tonight and after one bowl full you could not eat any more, so we have soup for lunch tomorrow with crayfish salad. The veggie boats have been around almost daily with fresh produce so we have good salad ingredients.
From Salardup we will head to the Lemon Cays for a day or two and then back to Porvenir to sign out. Many boats spend a lot of time cruising here and we have only touched on the one side of San Blas. Boats that have been further east say that you step back in time as the Kuna's there live a very traditional life with little western influence. There are also hundreds of islands to visit and to see them you would have to be here for a year or so. We do not have time to do it, but there are some rivers that run up into the rain forest that one can boat up. The forest here is absolutely pristine as no one has been in to remove the trees for a quick profit. The kunas only use trees for their dugout canoes. There is a lot of wildlife and plenty of birds to be seen. Even on the islands there are lots of different birds.
From Monday there is a total ban on fishing and collecting of seafood for three months. This is applicable to everyone as it gives the fish time to breed etc. Some of the langoustines that we bought today were carrying eggs so I took them and placed them on a small reef that hopefully will not attract the attention of any the divers looking for crayfish. Many yachties here do not follow the rules as they spearfish and remove seafood from the reef. This is rather disappointing as the Kuna work on trust and do not police the area. (Fishing with a line is permitted) There is another side to this and that is a lot of yachties are spear fishing "Lionfish" These predatory fish were introduced to the Caribbean and will kill off all the fish on a reef. Nothing will go for them as they have venomous spines on their dorsal fins that are also harmful to humans. However you can cut off the spines and fillet the fish and they are apparently good eating. Many places ask divers to report any of these fish so that they can be hunted down. Because they are very territorial they do not move from an area where they have established themselves and are easy to find again.
Unlike us we are always on the move. But for now its time to put the feed up and let dinner digest ... till next time.

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