09.50N 78.32W The San Blas Islands!  They remind me of when I holidayed in the Maldives 28 years ago – picturesque beyond your dreams – hundreds of tiny little sandy mounds, barely above sea level, covered in palm trees and huts and surrounded by atolls.

On closer inspection of the engine the other morning we could see that the edge of the belt had shredded– making the whole belt skip off – hence the alarm sounded as the engine was no longer being cooled.  We have spare belts on board and fitted a new one but within a few hours the edge of this had been chewed up too, although it thankfully remained on the pully.  The alignment of the pully must be ‘out’ - so today we need to address that.  We also need an electrician when we get to Shelter Bay Marina in Panama as the ring mains for the 240v side of the electrical system has a short – we have temporarily overcome the problem by wiring in an extension lead directly to the generator and plugging the battery chargers into the extension! Not ideal with all the wires trailing through the boat in mountainous seas but a solution for the time being.

Luckily we didn’t experience any ‘square’ waves for which I will be eternally grateful.  Sailing alongside Zippy was comforting….

Sailing with Zipadedoda……

We did get huge seas though on the third day – coming up behind us so big it seemed impossible that they would not crash down on top of us – but miraculously we were lifted up, up, up and then whooshed down, sometimes corkscrewing and travelling extremely fast.  Somehow this wasn’t frightening – more exhilarating. We had a few real ‘slaps’ from the side and were all lashed on twice in the cockpit, one strap going each way to make us rigid….. Shaula III, Gio Franco and Barbara, the Italian contingent, have not been so lucky – they had a total knock down yesterday, 100 miles out, took on a great deal of water and have serious damage to the rigging and possibly the engine.  We think they have sustained personal injuries too but are now in a semi stable condition and are proceeding to Shelter Bay. 

Our Twistle is a mixed blessing – in the early morning of the last day the wind dropped off completely, the sails luffed and the poles managed to twist themselves into a jack-knife and embed themselves firmly between the shrouds – nightmare.  I steered whilst Paul and Bennett donned motorbike helmets and managed to wrestle the poles out and back into their resting hoops on the guard rails.   The largest genoa has a few holes punched into it by the pole, thankfully all in one panel, and needs urgent repair.  As I write the boys are tackling the engine and are successfully realigning the water pump pully…..

Once we had anchored yesterday, surrounded by quite a few other boats, off Porvenir the dolphins and flying fish came out to play almost to order and the setting was complete. We had a real clean up – cockpit, fridges, cupboards etc.  David and Jennie came over for ‘dinner’ and I managed to rustle up a chicken curry, stir fried duck and vegetables with rice.  Too many bottles of wine were consumed by all along with, shall we say, an eclectic accompaniment of music! We grass hopped from Reggae to Davy Crocket to David Grey and dare I admit it Russ Conway – David was not wholly impressed!!  A magical evening though.

A little flying fish…..

Porvenir with Kuna Indians in their dugout canoes

 Porvenir has the shortest runway I have ever seen and it’s very busy with aircraft whizzing in and out flying so low we were advised not to anchor the boat in the flight path!! On arrival we were immediately greeted by some Kuna Indians in their dug out canoes who were very courteous – offering for sale their hand made molas (embroidered material jerkins), hand carvings and pots. A little girl named Alicia asked for some sweets but her mother admonished her immediately.  Amazingly, they understood every word of my Spanish which is more than I can say happened in Spain!!  A great confidence booster for me as the Spanish used to look at me blankly with my attempts.   We spent our last US Dollars on Union Island and so have had to borrow some money from one of the other Rally participants as there is no opportunity to get money from an ATM ashore here – there is a ‘hotel’ though with a ‘restaurant’ where we are told you can order a chicken or fish dinner for 5 US. I think we will go there tonight.

I must make my flag today – Panamanian I believe – and clear temporary customs.  Because it is Saturday we can expect to pay 20 US Dollars and the same again for overtime plus 8 US Tax plus 2 US Tax per person.  We really don’t have long enough here to appreciate the country fully but at least it has been an amazing snap shot experience and one that we know now we would like to return to. Tomorrow we will sail to Lemon Cays which is purported to be one of the prettiest anchorage spots.

Some yachts have sailed straight to Shelter Bay Marina in Panama whilst the others are all converging here today for the Rally Support and then round to Portabello for the briefing.  We have our Panama transit dates confirmed now and we have another couple boarding Anahi and helping us as line handlers as each boat requires a crew of five;  once through the canal we will be bussed back to go through on Zippy to help as their line handlers……. Quite a performance in store for us……