We arrived in the San Blas much quicker than we expected. The trip was pretty uneventful motoring through windless rolling seas. There was so little wind that we couldn't even pull out the sails to get any benefit. We were following our buddy boat, Claudette on ProfASea and she attempted using her sails but we could hear the slapping as the swells just rocked them back and forth in the calm air.
Our first stop was just inside the archipelago at a small cluster of islands in the Eastern Lemmon Cays. We anchored just south of the island of Banedup where about 6 other boats were already anchored. Coming into the archipelago the water and the sand islands were as pretty as their pictures. Each little one looking like an ideal backdrop for the perfect tropical paradise.
We anchored in about 15' of water that would be the shallowest anchorage in our time in the San Blas. By the time we had the anchor set a pango arrived along side. We weren't totally sure what to expect. We didn't know if this was the local rent collector, someone selling something or one of the many other interactions the Kuna have with yachts.
Walking around Banedup
The San Blas is an autonomous region of Panama run by a group of family leaders known as the Congreso. The Congreso meets frequently and adopts rules and oversees the governance of the region. It was in March of 2020 that this body decided to close travel into Guna Yala, the province that includes the San Blas, because many Covid cases had sprung up among the Kuna people and there are little or no medical facilities in the region. We were on our way there last year when it closed and we returned to Bocas del Toro.
Kuna are a very unassuming people but they don't hesitate to approach yachts for many reasons. Mostly it's to trade or ask for something they can't easily get. Among the islands we have heard of families charging yachts for being there and the head of the family approaches the boat and asks for the "permit fee." We weren't approached during our stay for any "permit fees."
Even in the San Blas boatwork continues. I thought our head base needed a new gasket but it turned out there was a crack in it. I epoxied the crack and ordered a new base.
The boat that approached us was Venancio the most famous Mola maker in the San Blas. Molas are traditional Kuna hand-sewn mini-tapestries depicting images from the Kuna life and is part of the traditional outfit of a Kuna woman. It is a reverse-applique technique panel. Venancio had hundreds of Molas to show us but agreed to come back the next day since we had just arrived. Kuna Molas are prized throughout the world.
Venancio and his Mola's spread out on Amekaya
Venancio was a wonderful guy. In the hours he was with us he explained a lot about Kuna life and culture. He is an institution in the islands among cruisers.
So after a year of waiting we made it to the San Blas and kicked-back after an arduous journey. One of our key decisions was deciding what we wanted to see. We've known many people that are out to see as much as they can as fast as they can. They anchor in a place for a night and then move on the next day. Very early on in our cruising life we decided not to do that but to spend time in each place and get to know it. Rushing around you can get to see a lot of places. But, staying in each spot longer we find to be more enjoyable.
So we spent two nights by Banedup doing exploring, snorkeling and just enjoying being there. Next we moved on to the West Holandes group of islands where we found fabulous reefs to explore. Before leaving Banedup a produce boat came by. Since we had stocked up well in Linton Bay we didn't need much but we didn't know it would be it would be two weeks before we saw another.
We had some great sailing too. Above photo from our spinnaker run to Saladup and to the right our great sail froma Saladup to Green Island.
Provisioning in the San Blas is an art. As a remote outpost there is limited opportunity for shopping. There are some small markets in the larger villages but under the current restrictions going to them is outlawed for foreigners. Many people subsist on fish and coconuts while in the San Blas and there are boats that will obtain provisions but as we found it's hit and miss. We had two regular boats that brought us supplies and the local Kuna came by almost daily with fish, crabs, lobster and bread. One of the supply boats supposedly has people in Panama City going to the major markets and will buy requested items but we found they usually only had the typical veggies and fruit regardless of what we asked for. We'll work with our boats next time to try to do better. But, we always had eggs, bread, bananas and lobster.
Above are two lobsters we bought for $5 each. The Kuna wanted to sell us a huge crab and 6 lobsters for $20 but we had no way to cook or keep them so we just bought the two. Left is after one of our produce boats came and below is a stalk of bananas we bought from another produce boat.
In Guna Yala there are many rules like no diving or spearfishing but seems like many people do it. I did one dive and wanted to do a second but to get a weather window to go to Linton Bay I didn't get a chance to do it. Another issue that the rules haven't seemed to impact is trash. On many of the islands that we visited there were piles of bottles and cans. Most trash is burned or organic garbage is thrown overboard. We gave several bags of bottles and cans to one of our delivery boats because they supposedly get money for them. The rest we hauled out when we left. I tried breaking the glass but couldn't. My plan for next year is that we will smash the bottles into pieces as fine as possible and dump it in deeper water. Glass is made of sand and will return to the natural habitat.
One night we did happy hour on this little island called Wasaladup. There's actually 3 islands by that name in the San Blas but this one is by Green Island. Linda and Claudette posing and a little hut on the island that is apparently used for partying judging from the bottles and cans laying around.
We spent several nights in the West Holandes and saw many boats coming and going. Even though there weren't supposed to be any charter boats, many appeared to be charters. We left the Holandes and had a nice spinnaker sail down to Salardup, an uninhabited island where we spent a few nights enjoying being alone with our buddy boat.
Our next destination was Green Island sort of in the center of the San Blas. We had a very nice sail to there as well. Sailing in the San Blas is very nice because usually the winds aren't really strong and the waves get taken down by the reefs so the seas are generally flat. The distances between the islands is also not very far so it was easy to leave one place late morning and be at the next anchorage early afternoon.
The views at Coco Banderas. Largely regarded as one of the most scenic anchorages in the San Blas.
For most of the time we were the only boat there.
Weather in the San Blas has two seasons. The dry season is December through May and the rainy season is June through November. During the peak of the rainy season daily storms roar through with heavy lightning and thunder. There are also frequent violent squalls during the wet season. That drove our original plan to leave by mid-May. While we were in the San Blas, having arrived in early April, we had some periods of rain and 3 strong thunderstorms that lasted several hours and produced lightning strikes near us. So we left a little earlier than we would have liked but others we know weren't far behind us.
After Green Island we spent about a week-and-a-half in the Coco Banderas islands. We hadn't planned to but it was a beautiful protected spot and there were some very nice reefs to snorkel. For most of the time we were there we were the only boat in the anchorage. From there we headed back to the Holandes with a night at Banedup before heading back to Linton Bay.
We plan to go back to the San Blas in the Fall and will have several more posts about them. The islands are the perfect postcard picture with white sand beaches, clear blue water and huge swaying palm trees. It's very easy to get addicted to the San Blas. I'm sure as travel reopens more broadly the San Blas will get even more crowded so when we get back we will need to search harder to find the secluded islands.
Navigating was not that difficult using the Bauhaus charts to get to the right places and then using visual piloting to enter into approaches to the islands to anchor. Like Belize, the water is deep except where it's not and it's usually easy to see where it's not.
The San Blas had features of the Bahamas and Belize yet much different. We look forward to getting back there in the Fall and hope we can continue our journey to other places after the San Blas.
