Week 67: San Blas (32nm)

A quieter week as we settled into the rhythm of life in San Blas, but struggled not to look ahead to the impending challenges of the Panama Canal, the transition to life aboard Serenity in the Pacific with more than just the two of us, and the Pacific crossing itself.

Captain’s Log

8th Dec: Spent the morning investigating the health of the batteries as Laura had spotted the voltages dropping off over night, which turned out to be one of those issues where the diagnosis will need at least a few more days of experiments – thankfully we were able to restore them for the time being (and use the excess power to make a load of water). We then set sail to rendezvous with Hoodoo at a new anchorage only to discover that the wind was making it a bit lumpy, so we changed to a more protected spot and agreed to touch base with Hoodoo the next day.

9th Dec: Upon poking our head through the hatch in the morning, we discovered Hoodoo had moved first thing and parked right next to us. We spent a wonderful day with them free diving an amazing reef drop-off (later discovered to be known as The Cathedral), where we bagged a couple of lobster. Hoodoo had a beach grill they wanted to test, so we went ashore to the tiny nearby island and had an odd food medley (everyone’s stores are now running low) and watched the full moon rise – see Story of the Week below.

10th Dec: Hoodoo had to begin their journey back to Colon as they had arranged for an earlier canal transit, so we parted ways with plans to reunite on the Pacific side. Laura then spent a day working on the new dodger, only to discover we were low on sailing parts and would need to wait for supplies with our new crew before it could be completed – at least we still had a way to source things from America, and it’s not like there aren’t other projects on our list 🙂

11th Dec: Started to work our way back towards civilisation, and since the wind died we motored the 12nm to Los Grullos – only difference is now when we motor we make water, which doesn’t make it seem as wasteful. Laura managed the watermaker on her own for the first time and made over 100lt without any issues. Once we anchored up, I dove in the water and found a triggerfish circling the boat, which after a bit of Tom and Jerry I managed to shoot with the speargun. We had chosen Los Grullos as it had a little restaurant there, and we had an enjoyable meal of fish and potatoes with a KLM flight crew that was exploring the area on a long layover.

• 

12th Dec: The forecast for a day of strong winds was borne out as it picked up overnight and since we had some protection in our anchorage we decided to stay put. Laura spent a day baking various loaves whilst I tinkered on some other projects, before we tested out some two player rules to Catan that turned out to be a great modification. I offered to cook the trigger fish but then helpfully burnt myself forcing Laura to save the day (again) – suspicions have now been raised as to whether my accident prone schtick is a chore avoidance strategy…

13th Dec: The wind eased and so we were able to make the short hop back to the West Lemmon Cays, which we realised was the first anchorage we’d revisited in our entire time in the San Blas (and even now we were using a different channel to get in)! It really does feel like you would need at least a year to fully explore all of these 365 islands, but we’ve got a good sense of them in our 28 days.

Story of the week (in pictures)

Hunting for seafood with other cruisers and then a beach grill is a story we have told before, so we thought we’d simplify this one into a set of photos that best captured the idyllic setting that we were fortunate to have to ourselves for an evening.

Parting thoughts

As wonderful a setting as the San Blas has been, Laura and I have found all the peace and solitude here to present quite a challenge to our relationship with each other. The combination of stresses from a number of difficult and long-lasting boat problems, with very limited options to spend any time apart or with other cruisers, and also the distractions of organising our Panama Canal transit / preparations for the Pacific have turned Serenity First into a bit of a pressure cooker at times over the last few weeks and as a result we’ve ended up fighting over a lot of stupidly small issues that always appear laughable upon reflection. If anything, the island paradise setting makes this worse, as it is the type of place that we dreamed of visiting when this voyage was only a pipe dream, and you start kicking yourself for ‘wasting it’ in senseless squabbles.

If there is a silver lining to this unfortunate reality, it is the friendship that we’ve struck with Yanell and Missy on Hoodoo, which developed in part due to our difficult experience turning out to be a common one. Knowing that we weren’t the only ones struggling to live this picture perfect lifestyle has really helped to release the pressure cooker valve and appreciate each other a bit more, and thus make Serenity First feel a bit less ironic. After all we’ve been through together the last couple of years, it turns out there is still quite a bit to learn about marriage afloat…the good news is that we are still both committed to growing together and that is all that matters in the end!