Like most days here, we went snorkeling and fishing today.   But, this was the "Land of the Big".   We stopped in the dinghies at one area of reefs and all snorkeled and fished, then, the guys wanted to see if they could find the spot where we got the 83 lb. jewfish.   So, we anchored the dinghies where we thought it might be.   The guys got out, looked down, and Sonny immediately asked me to hand him his spear gun.  We knew it was a good spot.  The girls stayed in the dinghies while the guys checked it out.

Then, Sonny and Gene started calling us to come check out the jew fish.  They said it weighed at least 200 lbs.  Whew!  We all got our snorkel gear on,  jumped in, and swam over to where they were.

"The Land of the Big"

This place was amazing.   It is not like anywhere we have ever been underwater.  When we got near the place where the huge jew fish was, there was a cloudy wall from the top to the bottom, about 40 feet.  When you get closer, you could see it was zillions (is that a word?) and zillions of tiny, tiny fish.  

Like the little neons in an aquarium.  You could not see through them.   You could swim into them, and they would part.  Or, they would be surrounding you.   We finally did see the jew fish, and, yes, he was so huge.  The guys agreed "not" to shoot this one.   We have no more room in our refrigerators or freezers to put this one after our "big" guy last week.

But, all around were 'big' fish.  There were tons of snappers and groupers about 20' down, and Kay counted 11 big tarpon, as big as we are, probably weighing 100 pounds each, swimming around us.  

   There were two nurse sharks on the bottom resting, one was about 12 feet long and the biggest sting ray, we have ever seen. His wing span was at least 8 feet.  

And, we were at the top of the water, just watching everything.   It was so awesome, I just wish words or photos could portray it.  Chris, S/V Akka took these underwater pictures and shared with us.

Doug, from S/V Kay Linda in Panama also called in.

We met Gunnar and Greta at French Harbor a few months ago.  They just purchased their Panda 35 in the Rio a few weeks prior and were planning on crossing the Pacific.  

When we heard the may day, we did not clearly hear their position, but some of it. Then, Sail About came on the 14.300 frequency and called may day again. Then, the ham guys could turn their antennas to him and get his position. He was between the Galapagos and Marquesis, 700 miles out, alone, in a storm and his fore stay broke loose, from the fitting down on the dolphin striker at the water line and water was coming in the fitting. His bow sprit was torn loose and his anchors were banging against the hull. He was in 12 -14 foot seas with 20+ wind and squalls.

We were anchored near Queen Mary so we went over to their boat and Gene started relaying from the net to the boats. It was an all day affair. Gene was great!  There were two other sailboats out there, Mokisha and Damarri, and they headed his way and the coast guard had two ships head their way. One sailboat was able to reach them by dark and the other boat had to turn around because of the seas and squalls, they were going a negative one knot. So, the one boat stayed with them all night, nearby, until a big cargo ship came the next morning to rescue them. They had controlled the water pretty much and were safe during the night.

.

Click here for a link to the Maritime Mobile link for the story.

At Last....a Good Weather Window.

We, along with our buddy boats S/V Queen Mary and S/V Akka, pulled up our anchors that had been dug in at our home in the Hobbies for over a month, and headed southeast to Quito Suenos.   It is a total of 150 nautical miles, so an average of 5 mph, that will take 30 hours or more, depending on wind and current against us.

This is the most critical leg of the trip from Roatan to Panama.  It is 50 miles east, which is into the wind and waves, and, in an area of known drug runners and drug traffic.  Due to this, most of the time, this would not be a comfortable all night sail.  But, we had our two buddy boats nearby at all times as we stayed within one mile of each other and we had a beautiful moon that lit the way for us over the glistening water.   It was a good all-nighter. 

S/V Akka with Monte and Chris on board.  They are from the Oregon/Washington area.  A pleasure to travel with.	Sunset during our night crossing.	S/V Queen Mary and S/V Akka stayed within a mile of us while traveling through this area.

While doing a night crossing, it is so very, very dark out there.  Some of the stars will even glisten on the water because it is so dark.  The times of excitement are to check on the chartplotter to see when the moon rises and when the sun rises, so you are not sailing in complete darkness.   This morning, after  the sun finally came up, Gene on Queen Mary, called us on the VHF radio and said, "Let the fishing tournament begin".  So, we put our fishing line back out.  We have not caught anything since we left the Hobbies.  But, we do not fish at night.   Getting the big fish on board and cleaning them in seas, especially in the dark is not fun at all.

Just when we had prepared our juice and homemade lavender rolls (compliments of Monte on S/V Akka, when, all of a sudden, the fishing pole started screaming.   So, we both jumped up, and Sonny grabbed the line while Kay began to slow the boat down.  Of course, we have all three sails up, and the motor going at 2,000 rpms.  Then, while Sonny was reeling him towards the boat, Kay went below to get gloves, the camera, and some rum to pour in his gills to kill him.  He really pulled hard, ran with our line,  and fought a good fight.  He was such a beautiful bright blue/green/yellow color. We finally reeled this guy up to the boat and Sonny snatched him with the gaff hook and managed to get him aboard.  He was a 44 inch mahi mahi and lost his bright, beautiful color as soon as we got him out of the water.

We arrived at Quita Suenos this afternoon at 2:30 p.m. and will rest up before moving on to Providencia as long as the weather cooperates.  If the wind picks up, we will have to leave immediately, as there is no protection from the wind and waves.

Well, we are rested and ready to go check out these huge ships that, years and years ago, ran aground.  We are anchored here, 118 miles from land, in the middle of 'no where'.

We took our dinghies to one of the aground ships today and snorkeled around.  The fish and live coral were absolutely beautiful!  It was amazing the number of bright colored fish around the reef, and we saw two nurse sharks swimming around.  The water is so clear.  It is hard to imagine that we really are here.  We still constantly ask each other, "Can you believe we really are here?"

While snorkeling, you feel like you are in the middle of an aquarium, looking from side to side in amazement of the many different species of fish and coral.  Just beautiful.....did I happen to say...."Life is Good"?  We are very thankful.

The wind and waves started picking up, so this afternoon, while we were all eating fish aboard Valentina, we all discussed our situation and decided rather than to wait until Friday morning to leave as previously planned,  and rock uncomfortably on anchor all night, we would go ahead and leave in a few hours....so we all got busy and prepared our boats for the crossing and pulled up anchors at 5:45 p.m., an hour before sunset.

Monte and Chris, S/V Akka, were still having trouble with their engine and unable to run it, so we decided we were not in a hurry and we would just sail no matter how much or how little wind we would have.   The trouble was....there was NO wind....so we were booming at 1.5 knots and would arrive at our destination in 30 hours.   Then, when the wind picked up a little, and we were sailing at 3 knots.  Now our arrival would be in 15 hours.....half the time.   Great!

We only saw one fishing boat along the way, who stayed away and we never heard from, but our three boats stayed within one mile of each other during the crossing.  We figured if we were that close, if one of us had trouble, we would be close enough to assist.  We are learning to appreciate buddy boats tremendously.  Peace of mind means a lot when you are out here at night.

Judy, on S/V Lone Star Love, woke up at midnight to check on us on the SSB radio for a check in.  It was appreciated by all three boats.

We started seeing the mountain of Providencia a few miles out, then we spotted the sea buoys and motored into the channel to the anchorage at 9:50 a.m.    Sonny and Gene got the dinghies down and went to the channel to help Akka in, without a motor.   All is well,  We are all safely anchored.   Our location is:  N 13°36.74   W81°22.444

We are anchored between Catalina Island and Providencia Island.   It is a very protected, good anchorage.   There is a nice sidewalk along the beach at Catalina Island you can walk along and a walking bridge between the two islands.   We realized today, that Kay has only walked on land, off the boat one time since we left Guanaja 46 days ago.   We snorkel and swim almost daily, but no islands to walk around.   It is good to be able to go for a walk again.

Even a better thought......we have gone 46 days without spending a penny.

 

Mr. Bush, the Customs and Immigration Agency for Providencia, Colombia, comes to your boat after you hail him on channel 16 to check you into the country.

Today was a play day. 

All three couples rented motor scooters and we drove around the island twice.  It was fun.  We stopped all along the way to eat different foods from the local stands.

There is a nice sidewalk along Catalina island, to the port side of our anchorage.

We made a circumnavigation of the island of Providencia in our dinghies.   Sonny, Gene, and Brenda snorkeled while Kay stayed in the dinghy.  She had burned her arm on the over door while making peach cobbler yesterday, and did not want to get into the water until it was healed.

Sonny shot a snapper, and it broke his spear, so Gene came to the rescue and shot him again.   We did capture the snapper and all four of us had him for dinner.

We pulled up anchors at 3 a.m., along with S/V Queen Mary, S/V Angel Heart, and S/V Namesta'.    S/V Akka is staying one day longer to make sure his motor is ready for the trip.   We went from Providencia to San Andrés. It is a 12 hour trip.   We dropped anchor at 3 p.m. in San Andres after a calm day of motor/sailing.   We had less than 10 knots of wind with 4-6' seas and swells, every 8 seconds.   It was nice.

We had a flock of dolphins swim along with us in the deep, deep, blue water.   We counted 25 at one time.  I video taped them and one was jumping flips in the water, while another one was jumping in and out of the water about five times.   It was just awesome.  They are so cool to watch.   They will swim under the boat and turn over, as to look up at you.   These were different from others we had seen.  They had a white mustache and swam along with us for a long time.

Gene, S/V Queen Mary, called us to tell us he caught a Mahi-Mahi.  He said there were two sitting on a plastic chair floating in the ocean.  He caught one, but the other one was still sitting in the chair tying his shoe, so maybe we could snag him when we went by.  : )

Well, we did not snag him in the chair, but we did snag a 44 inch one a little later.   We will have fish in the harbor (tomorrow night).  Queen Mary was nearby, so they took pictures of our catch.

Our buddy boat, Queen Mary, was able to get photos of our mahi-mahi catch while underway.

We all neared the island of San Andrés and thought we had made a wrong turn and were arriving at Miami.   We saw skyscrapers.....well, for Central America.   We were excited.   We have not seen such buildings since we were in Guatemala City.  We are anxious to check out the town and find an internet cafe.

We took our zarpe and boat documentation to the nearby marina at 4:30 p.m. to meet the agent to check us into the country.  Although, we checked in and out of Providencia for $40, a Colombian island, you have to check in and out here also.  Our fee here is $62.   You have to get a tourist card here.   Every country and island is different.  But, we have sure enjoyed them all.

The cruising guide says, "San Andrés is only a flyspeck in the middle of the western Caribbean Sea, yet this little Colombian possession has more to offer in facilities and amusement than any place for hundreds of miles in any direction."   It sure is fun to explore.

We bought a new little camera, as our other two have quit, and these places are way to beautiful not to have pictures of.

We stopped at Captain Morgan's cave, which is a cave that runs underground, about the size of a football field, to the ocean.  We did not go through the cave, only to the cave.

	Tour around  San Andres Isla

Another stop was at a blow hole.   The waves from the sea would build up and come through this cave to spew out water and air.   People would stand near the blow hole, only to have the powerful air blow on them.   It was fun.  Brenda's sunglasses were blown into the air about 30 feet and landed nearby.   Sonny had his sunglasses around his neck and the wind broke them.

             Kay, Karyn and Cecilia

Cecilia is a local who is beautiful inside....and out.  She has been an invaluable assistance to all of us in the anchorage.  She brings us mangos and guavas, has free raffles for necklaces, and  even let Queen Mary store their frozen food in her freezer, while they had refrigeration problems.  She is a wonderful help to us with a smile at all times.   She even washes our clothes for "whatever we want to pay".

	Contrary to what we believe, the Colombian islands are very safe. There are few Americans who come here, no tourist, mainly cruisers.   Most of the tourist here are Canadians or the locals from the mainland of Colombia.  The children and people here are happy and friendly and are glad you are on their island. Different from other countries we have been to, they love to have their pictures made, and see the image on your digital camera.

Karyn and I walked around town, window shopping while our guys headed back to the boats.   We were ready for some "girl" shopping and the guys had already had enough shopping.   We met up later at Nini's Marina.

Mike bought a Panama hat similar to Sonny's.  Looks good!

It doesn't matter the size of the boat......sunsets cost the same in an anchorage.