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The San Blas Islands
By Ewan | March 31, 2009
We set off from Aruba with some distance to cover over the top of South America to get to the San Blas islands just off the Panamanian coast. The route is well known for producing some of the most wild conditions on the worldwide cruising circuit, and we weren’t to be disappointed. Conditions started off very favourably – one night without much wind, but the rest of the first couple of days was mostly very pleasant sailing downwind in about 15 – 20 knots.
From here the wind built over the third night and into the following morning. At this point we were probably carrying a little too much main, and managed to snap the wire running through the kicker. Briefly we tried a jury kicker, but unhappy with the strain on the boom, and not really keen on snapping it we put the main away and opted for jib only. With the strengthening wind the #4 jib was still managing to push us along at a steady 8kts over ground (there is a considerable following current over this passage). The wind continued to build throughout the day, as did the seas. By dusk we opted to bring the #4 down and put up the storm jib (thinking also about slowing down over the last 200 miles to time our arrival in the middle of the day to aid reef navigation into the islands). This was fine for a little while, until whilst Alex was on watch and everyone else below, we were pushed around by a breaking wave, which spun is 180 back into the wind. A brief discussion followed, the outcome of which was to bring down the jib and deploy our series drogue.
We’d set up the bag with the bridle on top and the line flaked down through the bag to a short length of chain in the bottom which is also tied to the bag. This setup allowed us to throw the bag over the side once we’d secured the bridle lines around the stern cleats and onto the winches. The drogue worked very well and held us pretty much stationary in the water (but still making 2.5kts over ground with the current) which allowed us to get some sleep in between cockpit watches and bailing the boat out (turns out the boat leaks quite a bit when the waves are coming at us from astern).
The following morning at first light we winched the drogue back in (less of an ordeal then we’d thought – you can bring the drogues in over a winch provided you’re careful and you have some one tailing – they won’t go through a self tailing turn), reset the #4 and carried on. There were still some fairly serious breaking waves around and we got caught a couple of times. One of which pushed us over and caused Duncan to fall out of bed and land ribs down onto the chart table seat. This caused him some serious discomfort and left Ewan and Alex to cover the remaining watches between them.
During that day and the following evening, the wind and seas eased and we made landfall in the San Blas islands the following morning. All told the damage report included the kicker, a dent in the wheel, a bent duogen yoke, a couple of bruised/cracked ribs and lots of soaked kit.
Comedy (ish) moment of the passage for me was pumping out and degreasing the bilges in the saloon. Some diesel had got into the bilge water which had then got all over the floorboards making them very slippery - think wet soapy plastic sheeting and then put it all in a boat rocking from side to side. Then you’re armed with a bucket and either bailer or sponge and you’ve got to get the water into the bucket – whilst bracing yourself to stop sliding from one side to the other. Then when you’ve got the bucket about 2/3 full (any more is just not worth it because you’re going to spill it on the way to the sink) you need to walk very carefully (over the slippery floor) to the sink in the forepeak to get rid of it. And then repeat… One of those times that you either laugh or cry!!
Once in the San Blas Duncan and Alex checked us into Panama and themselves into the local hotel. This was in particular a great relief for Duncan to be able to sleep on a bed that wasn’t moving – much more comfortable when you’ve got bruised/cracked ribs.
Ewan and Mairi stayed on the boat and worked through the boat over a few days drying everything out. The Duogen in particular needed some attention, but was up and running after a few hours of cleaning and some delicate soldering work.
We met some interesting folk travelling through Porvenir and met some of the local Kuna Indians including a man who paddled up to the boat in his dugout canoe with his young son and climbed aboard for a rest. $10 later he was in the water scrubbing the bottom of the hull whilst we dressed some burn wounds on the little boy’s feet.
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