Sailing to Panama

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Day 90
Guess what, another early start ready to set sail. Met up with our team and took taxis at 6am to the port to meet captain Mark and Melody. Away by 7, we were all very excited about getting out in to the open sea. About 2 hours in to the sail we were lucky enough to be joined by a group of about 10 dolphins jumping up and down alongside the boat. A good start!
Spent the day reading books, listening to Ipods and getting to know everyone. We seemed to be ok with the sea sickness but Julie the danish girl was really suffering! Mark had told us about a new discovery that listening to music extra loud balances out the veritgo so helps your body to cope better, tom had his in most of the time!
Took turns overnight doing 1 hour shifts looking out for obstacles, the boat was on auto pilot so nobody had to steer which was abit of a relief! Tom did the sunrise shift qand was lucky enugh to see some more dolphins knockin about for company. Mark was up bright and early the next day so I managed to avoid my shift...bonus. Still didn't get much sleep though, being chucked around against the side of the boat.

Day 91
Another full day of sailing and little activity. We were behind time because of strong winds so didn't arrive at the San Blas Islands till well after dark, by which point we were in bed.

Day 92
Ventured out of the boat in the morning and we were in paradise! We had anchored in the middle of about 4 little palm treed islands, all completely devoid of human inhabitants. Had some brekkie and then Mark took us off in his dinghie to one of the islands so we could have a little sunbathe and swim. Then went and did some snorkling. Saw loads of fishies and a MASSIVE spotted eagle ray. Pretty cool. Mark was out with his spear gun trying to catch us some munch!
Went back to the boat and Captain made us some delicious fish tacos, which were pretty special. We were glad they were good as he had been telling us about them repeatedly since we met him. He loved them almost as much as he loved his ice store.
For the rest of the afternoon we just lazed around the boat soaking up the rays and beers.

Day 93
Was pissing it down when we wolk up...devastating. We did make some good fried eggs though. Slapped Cool Runnings on the plasma TV and chilled out. Some people went snorkling again but the rest of us were feeling too lazy and didn't think it would live up to yesterdays snorkling.
In the evening there was a little get together with the other folk who had their boats anchored in the San Blas. Most of them were old leather skinned yanks but they brought nice food (including the best pudding ever) so we weren't bothered. After dark went back to the boat and watched another film and then crawled in to our cubbie hole bed.

Day 94
Had to set off early as we had a long trip to Portobello in Panama, which is where we were saying our bye byes to Melody. On the way we went past more of the San Blas islands, all very nice. A couple of them just had one palm tree on and nothing else but white sand. En route to Portobello Mark cought a fish on the line at the back of the boat. He didn't think it was anything special at first, but then when he reeled it in it was a big fat barracuda! Pretty savage, the boys took turns picking it up, I just took the snaps! We also bumped in to some Kuna people on the way, who live on the San Blas. We didn't like them though because they wouldn{t let us take a picture even though we gave them loads of fruit from the boat.
Arrived in Portobello in the evening and found a shabby little hotel and finally had a wash after 5 days. Ventured out for some food which was pretty disappointing after the boat food. Finally got our heads down for a nice long sleep on dry land.

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