Sun, Swimming and Snorkelling in the San Blas ..... May 2012
Balvenie
Mark Farrell & Amanda Church
Mon 7 May 2012 19:00
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07 May 2012
Over the last 12 days we have been slowly making
our way west through the San Blas Island Chain. We have now reached the
"triangle", the popular cruising ground (with other yachts at last) and are
anchored at Coco Banderos 09:30:77N 78:36:96W, an absolutely
stunning group of four small islands, with brilliant white sandy
beaches, coconut palms swaying in the breeze, and all fringed by
coral reefs. It's so pretty here it's the cover shot on the excellent
Panama Cruising Guide. The sun has even come out and the patches of blue
sky are increasing - after some cloudy and wet days.
We have several proper blog updates ready to post
and had hoped to do them yesterday at the local village which provides internet
at the school, but we forgot it was Sunday. We didn't stay an extra night
as the teeny no-see-um bitey bugs were out in force and we are only just
starting to get rid of the last round of bites.
We did manage a quick trip ashore to provision
at the very basic looking stores, we hunted through them all and did much better
than we had hoped. We are now in possesion of the islands supply of bug
spray, mosquito coils and baby oil to keep the nasties at bay. On the
fresh produce front we found bread, tomatoes, cooking and eating bananas,
pawpaw, limes, carrots, peppers, onions, potatoes, cabbage, pumpkin, celery and
one lettuce - way more than we had hoped for.
We will be staying around this area now for a
while, we are below the hurricane belt, the anchorages all look very protected,
the water is clear, there were no mosquitos or no-see-ums last night, we
even get cell phone coverage when we swing in one direction. The village
is about 5 miles away so we can do that in a days outing when we get low on
fresh food again, and maybe we will find the school open next time to post our
blog updates with photos.
Meanwhile we will continue the odd text update from
time to time via email on our satphone (best purchase we made last season,
especially now as our SSB radio has gone into a coma).
A huge HAPPY BIRTHDAY goes out to Marks Mum,
Jackie, who has a very big birthday on the 8th. She's had a hard year
after not being at all well earlier in the year, but she's improving all
the time. Don't have too many sherries Jackie.
xx
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