9:33.388N  78:56.894W

What a great greeting we had when we finally arrived at Porvenir! Sheila and Freddie (Miss Tippy) jumped in their canoe and paddled over to give us a much needed hug. It was great to catch up with them as they have had their own awful drama. Twenty four hours out of The British Virgin Islands en route to San Blas, the spinnaker pole broke away from the mast and hit Brian on the head, knocking him out and leaving him with a 6 inch gash to the head. Sheila and the children managed to get him back to the cockpit bring the sails in, retrieve the broken spinnaker pole that was banging into the side of the boat and turn the boat around in heavy seas. After calling the American Coast Guard she headed to Puerto Rico some 9 hours away, all this time Brian was drifting in and out of consciousness. The coast guard were in contact with Sheila the whole time and were waiting to help her navigate the boat into the harbour where an ambulance was waiting to take him to hospital. The good news was after a CT scan and observation Brian was allowed back to the boat where he had to rest for nearly a week before making the 1000 mile journey to Porvenir. Miss Tippy arrived at Porvenir the day before us to a very noisy reception and Brian is now sporting a very serious hair cut and a rather large scar!

There is no village on Isla Porvenir, just a small Kuna hotel, customs and immigration offices, a shop selling molas and a very small air strip. After checking in with Customs and Immigration and obtaining a cruising permit we headed to the hotel for a much needed beer! That evening we met up with Gaultine III, Blue Magic and Mercury Rising (who are all sporting new haircuts having shaved their heads in sympathy with Brian) for a very interesting meal of Chicken, rice and beans.