N 09*35' W78*41', Sun Blas, Saturday, May 10.
Jarek
Mon 12 May 2003 20:47
not cover damages from exposure to extreme (?) humidity. Well, dear
Motorola, I thought that Iridium phones were intended to work in remote
places where the conditions may well be extreme. I have also gotten a new
phone number with the new phone: (8816)-314-21590. A minor inconvenience.
We have been anchored at Chichime Cays for several days - resting, reading,
swimming, rowing and doing minor maintenance chores. My favorite pastime is
doing breathing treatment, of course. It gives me time to ponder on a
variety of silly things. This time it is the Almighty SCHEDULE. I suddenly
realized that having lived almost whole my life in the iron grip of this or
that schedule I have not been able to avoid scheduling during my cruising
years. Of course, I am not talking about following the schedule of Nature -
it would be silly to neglect coming of a hurricane season, or for that
matter, visa or health limitations. The fact is, however, that by making a
variety of voluntary commitments (taking people aboard, planning to meet
somebody somewhere, setting a distant destination) I am setting a schedule
which then has to be followed. Then, at a certain point, I am getting
delayed and have to catch up. Hurry up, Jarek! You won't make it there on
time! The weather is not too favorable, or it would be nice to spend more
time in this beautiful place but I have to go! Is it a sad case of a freed
slave forging hastily new shackles of his own? On the other hand, is it wise
or even possible to cut all the ties to the society? Well, it calls for more
thinking. It is OK, I have more breathing treatments to come.
The rainy season came to San Blas. We motored and motor sailed from Colon in
rain. The seas were sizable and confused. Wind was variable and several
thunderstorms passed over our heads. It has been raining ever since with few
hourly breaks. I do not mind the rain, though, remembering the oppressive
heat during our first trip to San Blas. In spite of the charm of pretty
peddlers we postponed buying molas for later. The offers of fresh fish,
however, were irresistible: we bought fish, and then more. The price was a
bargain, too, so we filled the freezer. Then, before we started preparing
the dinner, our new friend, Rocasjano, brought some fish cooked the Kuna
way: baked on a grill of twigs in a very hot smoke (at least, that was what
my limited Spanish allow me understand). Just enough for a big dinner! How
could we resist that $2 offer? Next day Rocasjano came to borrow a dollar to
buy some sugar. I almost gave him the money, but then had a better idea: did
his wife have any molas for sale? Si, por supuesto! In no time he brought
his mother and sister with a nice assortment of molas. We picked up a few
nice ones and Przemek took several pictures with the two beautifully clad
ladies in the back- and foreground. Everybody was quite happy and Rocasjano
decided to go with us to Cayos Holandes that morning, with his dugout in
tow. Well, as we started lifting our anchor another boat arrived so he
dashed to it with his ladies trying to sell molas. Business first, I guess.
We did not wait.
That Kunas are good with paddling their dugouts is to be expected. I tried
it - it does take a bit of strength and skill. Sailing those crafts, though,
was what really impressed me. They rig it with a sort of sprit main and a
jib. There is no centerboard, but I have seen a dugout tacking skillfully in
a narrow channel and moving quite effectively up the wind. It seems that
they paddle the dugouts on shorter distances; when going further, they rig
them with sails. We also saw several bigger boats propelled with an
outboard. The civilization is sneaking in.
Cayos Holandes strech East - West over a distance of eight miles. We
anchored in a lagoon at the east end, not far from the spot we got grounded
before. The place is much bigger than Chichime, there are fewer Indians here
and beaches and water are much cleaner. The matter of being further from the
mainland, I guess. These are the outermost islands, some seven miles away
from the coast. It is beautiful here, of course, but when the wind died down
later in the evening the sand fleas reminded us that we anchored too close
to Ogop Piriadup Cay. It is raining quite heavily and "Skin-so-soft" (Avon)
seems to work so we will re-anchor tomorrow. Note: We are having several
hour periods with no rain at all every day.