January, to the San Blas
Five weeks in Cartagena was just not enough, but the circumstances dictated that it was time to leave. The harbour waters are a hot zone for growth and Sea Cycle was filthy, bottom fouled, decks and rigging covered in grime from the dry gritty city air. Also there was the fact that we weren’t insured although that seems less of a reason to worry about the longer we stay out. Our carrier won’t cover for Cuba, Haiti or Colombia or the waters surrounding any of these places. Sometimes I am not too sure if we wouldn’t be better served by investing the insurance money in better ground tackle or a bigger bilge pump if we could take the weight. When you think about it, the insurance is really a bet against yourselfSailing departure windows were only going to get shorter and scarcer as the winter trades started to fill. A favourable weather window of four days seemed to be opening up. We finished provisioning, filled up with water and fuel, checked out and headed for the reef strewn outer Colombian island groups known as the San Rosarios and San Bernados. Our first stop was at the San Rosario group where we skirted along the eastern reefs and came up in the anchorage at Isla Grande from the south-west. It was a late arrival and a planned early departure. We spent the evening there enjoying the swimming and pouring copious amounts of water over the decks to start the process of cleaning the boat down. At 0800 the next morning we set off on a motor sail heading southwest to the San Bernados. Here we had a waypoint for the supposed entrance on a photo copied tourist pamphlet which friends had marked up for us warning about missing buoys. Such is navigation in the southern Caribbean. .We nervously approached the channel between the largest island of Tintipan and Macreo. We had three converging channels all using red right returning, which depending on your angle and the missing buoys made for a nerve racking entry. We had to feel our way in with Deb on the helm and myself perched up on the bow as we threaded our way through some very thin water trying to use the light and our polarized sunglasses. At one point we had to reciprocate back out showing only six feet under the sounder but finally we made it through into deeper water and anchored behind Tintipan the larger island. We were joined later in the day by several other boats all of which took the longer but more prudent route around the island. The next day was spent off loading the dinghies and continuing to wash down the boat. We have now had the hard dinghy for a year but it has only seen the water twice and after looking at the clear decks the decision has been made to sell it off at the first opportunity or failing that, give it away to the Indians. Maybe I can get my face on a totem.

The weather reports indicated a tightening of the weather window with a call for increasing seas due to a northern swell but accompanied by light winds starting in 48 hours. This can make for a slow rolly and sloppy passage so we decided to leave on the Sunday morning hoping to make landfall on Monday morning at Isla Pinos in the eastern San Blas before things got worse. The San Blas are also known as Kuna Yala an autonomous territory inside the republic of Panama and home to the Kuna Indian tribe. We decided to take a route out of San Bernados a few miles to the south by looking for a charted entrance shown at the western edge of the reef. The chart showed a narrow deep water channel but it wasn’t mentioned in any of the literature. The local guides did mention another preferred route with eleven feet in the middle but no mention of the charted exit. This is not unusual when the charts are based on old admiralty soundings from the last century Early morning light is not the best time for threading a reef especially when compounded with a flat or overcast day. In these situations the best vision comes around noon when the sun is directly overhead or behind you so you can see directly into the water. Again polarized glasses are invaluable. The best tool for navigating these waters is by eye if the sun is correct. We have had too many situations where the charts and especially the electronic ones have been off
In the end we spotted the channel with its dark blue ribbon running between the yellow and turquoise reefs and using the visible western reef as a guide we passed through to deeper soundings where we set the main and then rolled out the jib and reached off for Isla Pinos 120 nautical miles awayTo be continued......