15^th February 2013 - Shelter Bay Marina, Panama.

The three men on board thoroughly enjoyed the five-day sail to The San Blas Islands. For me, though the first three days were a bit of a blur due to sea-sickness although after that it was very pleasant – watching the dolphins and Pilot whales cruising alongside us and resuming our ARC tradition of taking afternoon tea while listening to Alan’s podcast of Desert Island Discs.

         Arriving at the San Blas Islands was very special, like nowhere we had ever been before – 365 tiny sandy islands, some with nothing more than a couple of palm trees and others full to overflowing with thatched straw huts, providing homes to the indigenous Kuna Indians.

         Alan went ashore at Porvenir to check in while we bought a couple of langoustines from some fishermen paddling along in their dug-out canoe. Excellent value at just $20! Will volunteered to cook the beasts, and with the help of Rick Stein’s cookbook, did so to perfection. Later we bought some red spider crabs which Alan wrestled into the cooking pot and also cooked to perfection – just a shame they produced so little meat.

We anchored between Islas Tuwala (‘George’) and Ubican-Tupu (‘Nellie’) where we were visited by numerous other canoes full of men, women, children and dogs – some just being friendly and curious, but most driving a hard bargain selling “molas”. These are colourful appliqued and embroidered squares of material, up to four layers thick, which can be made into place-mats, bags, ladies blouses, etc.  Although of varying quality, they are all miniature works of art, with miniscule stitches and great attention to detail. Needless to say we ended up with several each!

We visited both George and Nellie Islands – Nellie apparently being the most populated of the islands with 49 huts squeezed so closely that we had to turn sideways to pass between them. Everyone we met was extremely friendly, inviting us to take a look around their homes and even hold their pet Toucan.  Each island had its own little shop selling just a handful of items – mainly bread, soda water, potatoes and chewing-gum.

Although we were told they still live today as they did some 100 years ago we did notice there were a lot of cell phones in use and one young lad had obviously got his hands on some very strong hair gel!

Next we motored down to Gunboat Cay where we had a roast beef lunch to celebrate the captain’s 62^nd birthday and then moved down to Gaigar where Alan and I accepted an invitation to go ashore on an unnamed island to the east with some of the Kuna Indians, to attend a child’s naming ceremony. It was quite bizarre being the only westerners among these colourfully-dressed people who just nodded and smiled at us as they ran back and forth, carrying gourds full of chicha (a local drink which didn’t seem alcoholic and didn’t have much flavour either, but they obviously enjoyed it). I only managed a couple of sips but Alan gallantly drained his cup.

Early next morning we upped anchor to head towards Panama. Unfortunately Richard lost his footing while securing the anchor pin, treading back onto the UP button, so the anchor snapped into place and sliced off the top section of his right index finger.

He was unbelievably calm about it – Will said he didn’t even say, “Ouch”, let alone anything worse, and just walked calmly back to the cockpit.

As ship’s nurse I had to dress the wound and persuade Richard to lie down with his finger elevated but he calmly took out his phone and sorted out transport to a hospital in Panama City where a plastic surgeon would be available to treat him on arrival. The surgeon was apparently the “top man” and did a good job of tidying up the damaged finger but sadly for Richard and for us, the surgeon advised Richard not to return to Sulana because of the risk of knocking the finger.

Richard was devastated as it was a long-held ambition to transit the Panama Canal and to visit the Galapagos Islands. He flew home two days later but the good news is that the UK hand specialist he’s  seen thinks the Panamanian surgeon has done a good repair job – although he might need plastic surgery at a later date.

Richard had been a great asset to Sulana’s crew. He was very entertaining, lively, funny and enthusiastic about tackling all sorts of jobs along with his “whippersnapper” mate, Will.

Get better soon, Richard!

While Richard was staying in a hotel near the clinic where he was treated, Alan, Will and I went to visit him and then left him to rest while we sampled a genuine Latin-American mardi-gras on the last day of Panama’s Carnaval.  As you can imagine, it was a very colourful and noisy affair with huge floats and beautiful men and women in stunning costumes.

Our taxi ride home afterwards at about 11.30pm took us through dense jungle on the road back to Shelter Bay, where eagle-eyed Alan spotted first a heron, then a possum, THEN an ant-eater which just ambled across the road in front of us, not seeming to be bothered about our headlights at all. The driver said there are sometimes 4m long alligators in the ditches and he has even seen a black panther!

Yesterday we were pleased to welcome Jack Ollington on board. He quickly got to work with Will, whizzing their way through Alan’s job list, so it was with a clear conscience we were all able to go partying with the other Oyster “families” at Fort San Lorenzo, perched spectacularly above the entrance to the Chagres River. It was a fun day out and a good opportunity to make some new friends.

Sue