15 April 2010 Cayos Holandes
The EJ's Voyage
Mike Everton-Jones
Thu 15 Apr 2010 15:01
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The last 2 days have been "interesting". The
weather suddenly changed, the sky went all black with torrential rain. Just as
we were in our dinghies to go and visit the village of Ukupseni all heavens
broke loose and it started pouring down with rain for at least 2 hours. This is
the Eastern most place we will have sailed to in the San Blas. It wasn't really
worth the effort. The village was a typical Kuna village but some of the
youngsters looked a bit scary. We believe drugs must be a big problem amongst
the young population. The village is attached to land by a long bridge. An
Columbia is not far away, so...
We got back to our boats drenched after a difficult
dinghy ride - no visibility and rain drops hurting like bullets. We had anchored
in deep water in Snug Harbor. Whilst we were away, the wind had suddenly shifted
and we found our boat resting on a shallow reef! Mike pushed her away with our
dinghy, Peter did the same and they eventually freed her. No damage. The rain
was so intense and loud that when I turned the engine on I couldn't even hear it
running. We re-anchored in a yet deeper spot and stayed put another night,
hoping that the next day would bring back the sunshine.
However, when we woke up the sky was still dark and
full of clouds, it still rained but the visibility was a little better. So we
decided to lift the anchor and sail back to Cayos Holandes which we liked very
much. About an hour into the sail, we saw a totally black cloud coming towards
us. Mike quickly put 2 reefs in the main whilst I held the boat into the wind.
The squall surely hit us and thank God for the reefing! We went from 16kts to
35+ kts in a split second. We feathered the sails until the wind calmed down and
all was well.
Then we totally lost the wind and the little there
was, was coming from all sorts of direction. We had to motor the rest of
the journey. Mike caught another fish! Immediately after catching it, a big
one ate our lure. Fishing is becoming an expensive exercise! However, the
Kingfish was excellent and fed the 5 of us very well last night.
Got to Holandes in the sunshine which was very
welcoming and a nice change from the previous days. A turtle followed us
in.
Cayos Holandes is a little paradise. Mike went
diving yesterday with Peter and Andrew. I might have a go at it today. Beautiful
day, sun is out.
We are running short of cash and diesel but nothing
much we can do about it until we get to Colon. Which should be in a week's time
or there about.
How are you all?
Love
Catherine and Mike
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