San Blas Island (Sailing - Columbia to Panama)

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The day before we were due to set sail, Kate and i walked around Cartegena again picking up last minute bits, eating more street food and taking pictures of the local landmarks before heading to the marina to meet Gisbert, our captain, and board the 16 person boat that we had all to ourselves. We set sail shortly after to the sun started to set. As we left the protection of the harbor and entered the sea it got really rough, i managed to eat some very delicious stew, but ended up feeding the fishes about an hour later!!! :-( i was really sea sick and didn't really sleep all night as the storm got worse, lightening and thunder with rolling seas like you wouldn't believe. Another lucky to be alive moment i thought, but in the morning Gissy wondered what all the fuss was about.

As the sun rose on our first morning, the waters got calmer and we sailed the whole day towards the San Blas Islands. We let out a fishing line and were told by Gissy not to expect much more than sea cabbage......... so when we reeled in a 10kg tuna, we were pretty happy with ourselves. We all helped to keep the fish on the boat until it had stopped spasming (sorry vege's out there), then Gissy started filleting the fine specimen. 20 minutes later, we were sipping Sundown and eating the freshest sashimi i think i will ever eat, watching the sunset out to sea. We cooked more tuna in the stir fry that evening but i think Gissy will be eating tuna for a while yet!!!

After sailing through the night again and at about 5am the next morning, we arrived at the San Blas islands, it was stormy and raining, but it didn't deflect from the beautiful islands and aqua waters we were surrounded by. The area is inhabited by the Kunas people who own everything on all of the islands, including those which are too small to live on.

Kate and I took the kayak out explored the islands. After a few hours, the storm looked like it was going to get worse, so not wanting to get caught out in the open water we headed back to the boat in time for some of the Kunas to be passing and offered them some lunch!! They mentioned that they had a five year old back on one of the islands so we gave them some leftovers to take back with them. Later that afternoon we kayaked again and passed the same women who invited us onto their island and we met the boy, who was tucking into the food we had provided, it was a sweet set up that they had but very basic living, like castaway without Wilson.

Today, Friday, was the best day so far. We snorkeled over a ship wrecked and got our passports stamped for Panama. Not at the same time like, our passports were dry for the stamping. Before leaving the San Blas Kate Gissy and I all larked around in the water taking photos of us jumping off the boat in strange and wonderful ways before we set sail for another night of sailing into Panamanian waters. It was an amazing trip even in spite of the sickness!!

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