Lemmon and Holandes Cays of the San Blas

Friday, April 3, 2015

009-33.660 N
078-51.710 W

Ahoy from the crew of the BlueJacket!

I'm happy to say that we've been enjoying the beautiful waters of the San Blas for the past couple of weeks. After being stuck in the Shelter Bay marina much longer than anticipated, we finally cast off the dock lines and headed to Linton, which was about 27 miles away. It's always a bit scary when you first depart after having had the boat inactive for a long period of time. Despite all of the time that you've spent checking systems, you never know if everything is going to function properly until you're out there. Thankfully everything ran as expected and the biggest issue was that it was rough and rolly once we departed the breakwater of Colon, but everyone who knows the area says that's to be expected due to the shallow waters along that stretch of coastline.

As best we got to motor sail with the jib on the first day as we were headed NE and guess what direction the winds are out of. Anyhow, the flotilla of boats escaping from the marina made it to Linton without any issues and it was great to spend the night on the hook and away from the marina. Bright and early the next morning we headed towards the Lemmon Cays in the San Blas islands. The seas, as you round the corner and make the turn to the E, can get quite large as waves which have been traveling for thousands of miles now encounter land and there are strong currents which interact with the waves, making this area very rough. Throw out whatever sea height forecast you may have and double or triple it. Sue wasn't particularly happy, but once we had turned far enough to get the sails up, which help stabilize the boat, it was much better and we got to sail for the majority of the next 50ish miles.

The San Blas islands are comprised of about 340 islands which stretch from where the above chart shows "Lemmon Cays" to the Colombian border. It is inhabited by about 55,000 Kuna Indians who maintain autonomous rule over the area. While it is part of Panama, they have their own set of governance and rules which are vastly different from the rest of Panama.

This is an incredibly beautiful area with pristine islands and rivers as they don't allow any commercial or industrial development of their land. Almost all of the people live on islands, which until relatively recently, were cut off from what most of us would consider the outside world. Only recently have cell phones been introduced, which has caused quite a shift. All of the land is communal with coconut farming being the primary industry. The Kunas also export lobsters, crabs and octopus.

The women are famous for the molas that they make. These are beautiful appliques which are made up of multiple layers of cloth carefully cut out and stitched together. The biggest problem is that you only need so many molas...It is very common to see to women dressed in their traditional garb, as shown on the right. The men area often seen sailing or sculling their ulus, which are dugout boats with very little freeboard and which they're constantly bailing.

One of the things that you really need to respect is all of the reefs throughout the area. There are large fringing reefs surrounding many of the areas and there are lots of inner reefs and coral heads scattered everywhere. So far this year 8 sailboats have been lost on the reefs. Two were lost just before we arrived. You need to use both accurate charts, good light, your eyes and a spotter up front as well as common sense to avoid becoming a casualty. The picture to the right may look pretty, but the white spot under the rainbow is a 55' sailboat that just went onto the reef a few weeks ago and will never sail again.

When we first arrived in the San Blas, we pulled into a set of islands known as the Lemmon Cays. We had planned on pulling into Chichime, but the anchorage was packed with boats. We later were informed that the anchorage is very popular with party boats as cocaine is very cheap due to it's relative proximity to Colombia. Not where we want to be, so we headed a few miles S to Nuinudup. Almost all of the island names down here end in "dup", which makes some humorous pronunciations and comments!

From there were headed west to the Holandes cays where we eventually dropped our anchor in a beautiful anchorage known as the "Swimming Pool", which is shown above. We anchored in about 10' over a beautiful white sand bottom. There's a fringing reef, which extends above the water in many areas, surrounding the area and provides a nice, smooth anchorage with stunning views. We anchored just in front of a little patch reef which was full of an amazing variety of small fish and which provided hours of fun snorkeling. We also explored the outer reef, which was nice, but not outstanding. Unfortunately the Kunas prohibit scuba diving, so I feel greatly constrained as to what I can see. I think that they prohibit scuba diving to keep people from spear hunting while on scuba. Interestingly, spear fishing is also prohibited, but everyone seems to do it and no one wants to share where they like to go...Frustrating as the only thing that I want to shoot is photos! Speaking of which, the photo to the right is of a Lion fish, which is a very aggressive invasive species that decimates the local reef population. If I could shoot something, I would shoot and kill it!

One of the great things about being here was seeing old friends. We regularly had people over for dinner or happy hour. One set of friends that we haven't seen in about 12 years was Tom & Julie from the sv Kiwi (which became Gris-Gris) when we were in Belize at Light House Reef. It was great catching up with them. We also ran into friends from last year and made lots of new acquaintances at a beach Happy Hour. Life isn't too bad!

Provisioning in these islands is pretty easy...at least for fruits, veggies & fish. Kuna supply boats regularly come by laden with fresh supplies and you just have to tell them what you want. You can even arrange to have them deliver gas and diesel. Many of the other areas don't have this kind of service, but it was wonderful to have it here.

After hanging around the Swimming Pool area for about 10 days, we decided to go to Porvenir to have our cruising permit renewed. On the day that it expired, we put up the sails and headed W for about 17 miles. It was a perfect sailing day with 15 kts on the beam and a fringing reef keeping the seas flat. We anchored just N of the runway (which take up the entire length of the island) and found a delightful place. For some reason we were under the impression that it wasn't a very nice place to hang out. Perhaps due to the swell working its way around the island, but it's sure pretty!

After doing some provisioning on Wichubhuala we headed back to the Lemmons where we said good bye to Tom & Julie as they were headed back in so that they could head back to New Orleans for Jazz Fest. From here were's headed off to explore more of the San Blas.

-- Geoff & Sue

For the cruiser:

In the Swimming Pool we anchored at the back of the white sand area, just in front of the patch reef. This has the advantage of being able to swim to it with using the dinghy, but if you anchor further forward, you have a clear shot at the Digicel tower in Nargana.

We chose to renew our cruising permit in Porvenir because they give you 1 year from the date that they issue it. In offices which are computerized, it's only good until your boat documentation expires, which for us is in September. Considering that it $193 for the permit, that makes a big difference!

Log ID: 2258