November, 2008

San Blas, Panama

We went over to visit Tom and Julie on Gris-Gris.   They are from New Orleans and we have talked to them a lot on the radio, but, not spent much time in person.  Nice people, very helpful.

We heard on the net this morning that Roberto and Any on Deux Pieds are in the San Blas and looking for us.  We have not seen them in over a year so we were most excited.   They are at the Eastern Coco Bandero Cays, about five miles away. 

Well, we couldn't stand it, we are on our way to see Roberto and Any, our good Argentine friends.    They heard us on the radio say we were headed their way.   They do not talk on the nets, because they do not feel their English is good enough, (but their English is much better than our Spanish). 

When we arrived to the islands, they came out in their dinghy to meet us and was waving and blowing the air horn.   How fun! 

What a wonderful reunion!     We all went snorkeling and fishing this afternoon. (Well, I sat in the dinghy taking pictures).

The local school here has wireless internet....if you sit on the steps.  So, we are trying to download our website, but not sure it was successful.

So, we all returned to S/V Deux Pieds for a few games of farkle.   What fun!   We had our own fiesta.....and, the girls won

!

There are two small island villages joined by a new walking bridge.   The village names are Corazon de Jesus (heart of Jesus) and Rio Diablo (river of devil) which is now called Nargana.   The parade began around the basketball court and circled it several times, then went across the bridge to Nargana, and each group performed on the concrete at the high school.

The drums played very loudly and very repetitious.   Same beat, over and over and....over.  We could dream of it in our sleep.

Each group, mostly children, were dressed in their costumes and very nice.

After the festivities, we bought some diesel to top off our tank ($4.50 a gallon).   Then, all three boats pulled up anchors and headed to Esnasdup.  Our home.....

Roberto returned to Deux Pieds around noon, and called me on the VHF.   They decided to have a picnic on the beautiful island, so I packed up some chicken, made a salad, and packed drinks and headed to the island for a barbeque.

It tasted wonderful!  Any brought her famous potato tortilla, which was such a treat.   But, it started raining, so Sonny had to return to Valentina (quickly) to shut our hatches.

We gathered on Deux Pieds again this evening for another round of farkle.   Kay won!

Time to go play!                                               

We all went in the dinghies to the beautiful island and burned trash and cleaned up the island.   Dennis did not have a spear gun, so we loaned him one of ours, and he said, "My next fish....will be my first fish!"    Well, that little fisherman shot four fish on his first day!  Awesome!   He is hooked now.

He prepared his catch into fish cakes, and we enjoyed them on S/V Glide to celebrate his catch.

This morning, on the net, Dennis asked if anyone had a spear gun for sale.  After discussing it, Sonny and I decided to sell him the one he borrowed from us.   Pam said it was an early Christmas present for him.   We are excited for him.

Deux Pieds left this morning for Porvenir to get a zarpe, and Valentina and Glide pulled up anchors and headed to Gunboat island, about 3 hours away.

We are going to the Robinson Cays tomorrow, to reunite with Ingi, a Kuna girl we met last year.

Upon our arrival at Gunboat, a ulu rowed out to Valentina with a Kuna lady, a man, and a young boy.   The Kuna lady exclaimed, "Valentina......Sonny!"    She remembered us last year from Checheme.   Wow....it was cool.   We remembered her and her son also.   We told her we would come ashore to see them (and their molas) in about 30 minutes.

Later, her brothers rowed out to Valentina in their ulu selling fish.   We bought four nice fish, for $3.  Sonny cleaned them, then used some for bait.

He put a baited hook over the side, when we heard a fish, we jumped up to see.   No fish, but our hook was straightened out.

So, Sonny put a BIG hook on the line and more bait.  About five minutes later, we heard a noise, jumped up, and we are the proud owners of a 6' nurse shark.   It is dark, so we are just going to keep him swimming around our boat tonight, and deal with him in the morning.

At 6 a.m. we decided to ask the Kuna guys if they wanted to clean the shark for us for $5 and they can keep some of the meat.   They were excited!

The Kunas came out to Valentina in their ulu and pulled him into their ulu with them to take it to the island to clean him.

After several hours, a dull machete, and two tired Kunas, we had the meat in zip-lock bags, ready for the freezer.   A well spent $5.

We gave them a chunk of meat, but they really wanted the shark fins and skin.

We soaked our meat in salt water to help it not have an ammonia taste.

Then, at 8:30 a.m. we pulled up anchor, along with Dennis and Pam on S/V Glide, and headed to the Carti Islands about two hours away.   There is a doctor there, and Sonny and I both have sore throats and want to get some medicine, before we head out to Bocas del Toro soon.

We both saw the young doctor (28 years old), and he gave both of us a prescription for Ibuprofen and antibiotics.   Our total bill was $20.  So well worth it.

Then, we pulled up anchors and headed about two hours away to the Robison Cays, where Ingi and her Aunt Florene live.   Of course, for more molas!

We are having Ingi make us a Valentina mola and we will pick it up in 4 months, when we return to San Blas.

We came back to Valentina after being on the island all afternoon.   We fried some of our shark....and....it was.....delicious!   Very, very good!

We had many visitors to the boat in their ulus selling molas, fish, crab, lobster, limes, etc.   We gave each of the children some candy.

Sonny could have started a business charging cell phones for them.   We had three cell phones at one time charging on Valentina.   They have no power at all on their island, and their cell phones are their lifelines to communicate to their families and friends on the other islands.

Ingi does have a solar panel that she uses to charge her phone.

We went into shore to talk to Ingi and I took four big bags of stuff for her family off our boat.   The older women love old eye glasses.   With the intricate handwork on the molas, it is necessary for them to see.

Then, up came the anchors again and we headed to the West Lemon Cays to reunite with Roberto and Any on Deux Pieds.

We had dinner together and played farkle on Deux Pieds.  Fun night.....until the chitras arrived.  During the night, the wind died, and the bugs came alive.    All three boats got very little sleep and voted unanimously to depart early in the morning.

Glide left early, then Deux Pieds and Valentina came about an hour later.   We talked to Chris Parker, the weather guru we subscribe to, for a weather forecast to head west towards Colon.   He said we would have NW winds for the next few days.   So, we will relax in the East Lemon Cays a day or two and hopefully, feel 100% before heading out.

Demetrio came by in his ulu asking if we wanted lobster or crab.   He said the large lobsters are $2 and small ones are $1.   We told him we would like some large ones and he said he would return at about 1 p.m. with them.

Some other fishermen came by in an ulu selling a very large snapper.   We bought him for $6.  They even cleaned it for us.

We went over to S/V Sapphire this evening, along with S/V Blue Print and S/V Deux Pieds.  Then, we went over to Deux Pieds for some of Any's delicious fish.

Forecast is for NE winds at 10-15, and it started out north winds, but, as we are headed west, the winds, of course, clocked around to the west, so we motored all day.

We arrived at 2:15 p.m.   In this anchorage, we found old friends, Joel and Patricia on S/V Brahms (with the baby grand piano on board), Owen and Betty on S/V Hiatus, and Sandy on S/V Little Bit.    It is so nice, everywhere you go, you know people.

Roberto and Any are headed to Colon, so they left early this morning.

It is about 156 miles and a 35 hour trip.   Not fun....but there is a full moon tonight, and we should pass all of the Panama Canal ship traffic early in the day.

So, we pulled up the anchor and headed out.   It was a dark, dreary morning with rain on the horizon.

The seas were lumpy; the current was against us; and, the wind, of course, turned on our nose.   But, hopefully things will get better, the closer we get to Bocas.

The night-time is so pleasant with the full moon.  It is a very clear night, no squalls or ships are even showing up on our 36 mile radar, at the moment.  Nice!  The chart says it is 3,104 feet deep here.   Not sure I want to dive down to verify that.  ; )

Owen on S/V Hiatus met us for a  9 p.m. check in tonight on the SSB to check on us while we are underway.  He is a good guy and a fellow Texan.

We continued on.....at only 3  1/2 to 4 knots.   What a slow....long trip!   We normally go 5-7 knots, but the wind is on our nose, and the strong current is against us the whole way.  Not fun.

As we neared Bocas del Toro, our speed started picking up.   We finally were getting some current with us.  Within one hour of Bocas, we got up to 6 and 7 knots.

We decided to follow our tracks on our chartplotter to weave around the islands to go to a Bastimentos anchorage.   It was dark when we dropped anchor.   A good night's sleep was awaiting us.

Happy Birthday to our sweet friend, Karen on S/V Bear Necessity.  We wish you salty water in your future.

Sonny replaced the motor in our electric head today.   The other motor still works...just makes noise, so we put a new motor on.  He 'is' still a plumber, sometimes.

We decided to get off the boat awhile today, so we walked across the island to Red Frog Beach today.  It was a rainy, windy day, so we came back to Valentina and ate lunch.

We went to bed at 8 p.m. and by 11 p.m. our feet hit the ground at the same time.  (Hard to do from 'our' v-berth).   The wind began howling and continued all night.   The anchorage does not have good holding and boats are notoriously dragging.   So, Kay could not sleep and stayed in the cockpit all night, watching.   Another long night.    The wind was a constant 20 - 38 mph all night.

The weather report is more of the same for about another week.  

What a dreary day.....the wind is howling, the rain is blowing, and the anchorage is rough and the boats are rocking.   No one is even getting their dinghies down, the water is too rough.  I prepared a big pot of soup and we stayed on the boat and rested and played farkle.

We did get some sleep that night though.   It was still very rocky and rolly, but we would just wake up and look out every hour to check the boats around us.

Bad weather is supposed to continue for another week.  So, as Sonny says almost everywhere we go......we are "just so glad to be here"  (in the marina).

Tonight, is potluck at the marina.   We we prepared chicken alfredo and enjoyed dinner with our new friends at the marina.

But, we all about froze!   It is raining, the wind is blowing....and...it is down to 75 degrees!

It may sound like we have been deprived by not having all the modern 'stuff', but, we really prefer the simple lifestyle.   We listen to the news every morning on our SSB, so we can keep up with the situation in the world.   Sometimes, it is better to hang our heads in the sand and not know.

I checked our satellite weather on the internet, and here is where we are:

You can click to enlarge the map, but the blue circle at the bottom, we are to the left of it, so more rain is headed our way.

We are just thankful we went ahead and came all the way here from Linton, rather than stopping along the way.

We have another grandbaby due, our 9th!  We are excited to be there for it and our other 6 grand-daughters and 2 grand-sons.

Gentry and Jennifer Our newest grandbaby is due Dec. 10th

It is just crazy.   This Low that is sitting over us has caused such havoc.  But, we are safe and sound in the marina.

The confusion continues, but we do have cell phone and internet today. 

There were 90 people there.   A lot of food, very nice.

We came back to our marina in time to see the last half of the Dallas Cowboy game.

Happy Thanksgiving from Valentina.

We are so thankful for so much.  

We wish you a very good day and a thankful heart. 

We have so much to be thankful for.

♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥  ♥

We are continuing do projects to get the boat ready to leave.

Mack and Mary of Carerena Marina had everyone at their house for potluck dinner tonight.  And....pecan and pumpkin pies!  What a treat!