Sailing to Las Perlas

Take Off
Jörgen Wennberg
Sun 7 Feb 2016 03:30
8.62 N
79.03 W

On the 7th of February we left Panama City to sail south to the Archipelago of Las Perlas. We all enjoyed a lovely afternoon sailing half wind in 20 knots of wind.

 

Las Perlas Islands, Panama




The Archipelago of Las Perlas is made up of more than 220 islands and islets, only 90 of which are named and ever fewer are inhabited. These islands first gained notoriety in 1513 in the days of Vasco Nunez de Balboa’s discovery of the Pacific Ocean. It is said that he encountered a group of Indians, resplendent i pearls, paddling boats who told him of the islands and their rich pearl beds. Although he never actually went to the islands, he named them “Islas de Las Perlas”.

We anchored at the little island called “Mogo Mogo” where we gathered all 5 kids boats and other boats from the World ARC. We started of with a beach volley ball game and played until the tied took over our play ground. 

 

The kids were then happy to play together and Jörgen even more happy to relax just where he wanted to be!

 

We then had a barbecue on the beach together. Hot dogs and melted marshmallows were very popular among the kids.

  

The day after our French friend Eric sailing on the Norwegian boat “Overseas Express” had gone spare fishing and brought back these beautiful fishes that we cooked on “Heidi”. Lovely dinner!


The day after “Heidi” with our friends Cécile, Daniel and Raphaël invited us over for breakfast for pancakes and Nutella. Guess whose breakfast is the most popular…After that we were welcome to stay doing the French homework: Alex in the cockpit and Raphaël on in the saloon.

 

Inez got then a luxury tour with Cécile on the paddle board while we brought lunch over to “Heidi".

 

The day after we sailed further to Contadora Island where we prepared the boat for the Galapagos, which means cleaning the hull from everything! No sea gras nor barnacles (sjötulpaner) are aloud. When coming into Galapagos 2 divers inspect every boat. If the boat is not clean enough they send out the boat at sea at 70 miles from shore to reclean the boat. So we did not want to take the risk and decided to do this properly!

First we went to hire diving gear. In order to bring back the bottles we also had to hire a golf cart.

 

Then we had our amazing super woman on board: Nilla and Ellen! They took the hard job and went down diving and cleaning. The hardest was not the cleaning: it was the current being at 1,5 - 2 knots that made it quite a challenge! They said it was like trying to keep still in a flooded river!

 

Nilla properly prepared with all the right gear needed!


 

   


These girls really deserved a proper lunch after this huge challenge!

 

  

On the last day Alex and Inez enjoyed a whole day together with the other kids doing a movie together. Ariana, 13 years old, being the only girl with Inez had written the play and directed all the boys. This was also a challenge! Alex and Inez also got a role in the movie, to be shown at the Prize Giving Dinner in Galapagos. Guess the topic of the movie...

 

Alex playing his line! And then a well worthy swim after working so hard for the day.

  

On our way to the Prize Giving Dinner….


…for Leg 2 from Santa Marta (Colombia) to San Blas (Panama). This evening the swells were very bad so in order to all make it on to the beach, there was a massive get together to get all the dinghies safely on shore without rolling over. The dinghy garage.

 

Drink tickets on Jörgen, And the winner is….. 3rd place for Take Off!! We manage the podium once again ;-)