Barbara and Paul San Blas 2013
slideshow
It is hard to know where to begin describing the
magnificence of the San Blas islands and the fragile beauty of the coral reefs
there. Our five week exploration began
fairly dramatically with a stiff sail out of the protection of Shelter bay near
Colon Panama to open ocean and 15 knot winds “hard on the nose”. After a brief moment of “Hove to” in rather
confused seas we continued eastward and near the end of our first day of
sailing were gifted by bottlenose dolphins riding our bow wave which we took as
a blessing for the coming weeks.
After two days of sailing we finally reached the San Blas
islands archipelago which number over 340 small islands on the North East coast of Panama along the Caribbean Sea. The islands are largely uninhabited and range
in size from a few kilometers to ones that support a single palm tree bent over
by the prevailing winds. These are the
ancestral lands of the Kuna Indians who still maintain some autonomy over the
“Kuna Yala” territories as they are known locally.
They are a hardy seagoing people who still travel the length
of the San Blas in their hand hewn dugout canoes many powered by only paddle
and makeshift sail. They frequent the
more popular anchorages selling anything from fresh caught fish to vegetables,
coconuts and the traditional “Mola”
fabric art. Fortunately it still seems
that most live a traditional life with only a few western world additions. In
the small town of Nargana with its neighbor town Corazon de Jezus it is not
unusual to see grass huts with cell phone reception dishes placed outside.
During our time in the San Blas we enjoyed incredible
weather for the most part and spent a great deal of time exploring the vast
coral reefs by snorkel and by kayak. The
underwater world here is absolutely stunning.
Vast forests of sea plants and grasses and the largest offering of
“Brain “coral we have ever seen. The
waters were crystal clear and supported an endless variety of corals, sea plants
and small fish. The one thing we noticed
was that there were very few larger fish and in the whole time of sailing we
only caught four fish. Only one of which was an eating fish and one sucker fish
that found our hook twice.
The other side of this tropical paradise presented us with a
true picture of mans plastic waste as it piled up on the windward side of every
island we visited. Endless heaps of
plastic drink bottles, plastic cutlery, oil containers, syringes, shoes and
anything else plastic or buoyant enough that it could float in on the tide.
The other shocking event we witnessed was the black rain
that fell on us. After taking a few days
on boat prep and repainting the decks with “anti skid” for our later journey
north we had a few days of fairly hard rain.
At first it was a joy to have this fresh water gift from the sky so we greedily
collected as much as we could to ease our use of the water we carried. Once the rain let up we noticed a dark sludge
in all our collection containers and on the freshly painted parts of the deck
we now had black water spots that would smudge if we wiped them.
This was repeated again over the next few days as the
weather became more unsettled. The
saddest thing is that there is no industry within hundreds of miles of the Kuna
Yala and the winds that brought the rain came in from the open ocean with the
nearest landfall being Africa.
Our time in the San Blas was a true blessing with the joy brought
by Kuna Indians who visited us and the magnificent crystal clear azure blue
waters and the coral gardens we played in.
Now after
five weeks of cruising the San Blas we are now about to shift into prep for our
1400 nm journey north to Key West Florida.
Our provisioning will be extensive as we do not expect to make landfall
until Key West after approximately two and a half weeks of straight sailing in Open
Ocean.
We hope you enjoy our collection of images of our visit here
to the San Blas islands of Panama. Wishing you fair winds and following seas
Barbara Ann and Paul
|
