To be back in San Blas after all these years feels amazing. The area is as amazing as I remember it. Small islands with white sandy beaches in every direction you look. Even the crowded islands are super laid back and if you wanna be all alone and pretend people doesn’t exist at all you only have to sail for 30 minutes in more or less any direction.
The locals are very welcoming and the atmosphere is just so different from most other places. Sure everyone appreciates a dollar or two but its not about the money. The locals- the Kunas, seems to live a “simple” more traditional life. So far we have not met any locals that haven’t been welcoming.
Everyday we get approached by locals that have been out diving for lobsters that they sell to us boat-people. Sometimes we buy, sometimes we don’t but the big difference between here and many other places is that they will smile in the same way even if you don’t buy anything.
Hit by lightning
This is the rainy season and we do get a lot of rain and lightning often together with pretty strong winds from time to time. Nothing that we can’t handle but a couple of days ago the lighting struck just above our mast and “killed” our wind sensor. Sometimes it feels like we are playing roulette with Mother Nature. Its nothing we can do really to prevent the lighting to hit us and we often hear rumors about boats that got a direct hit! A direct hit would be bad and very expensive- pretty much all electronic in the boat will get destroyed and I can’t even imagine how much that would cost us if it happened.
A Mecca for children
Olivia couldn’t be happier, this is a Mecca for kids. Clean water, clean beaches and safe islands to run around freely on. We have hocked up with another boat named Kapuera and their daughter Rose and Olivia is playing almost every day. Olivia is turning more and more into a water-animal ever since she started to use mask and snorkel. She can spend hours in the water looking for starfish (or sea-stars as she named them).
Yesterday the Swedish boat S/Y Nausica anchored up next to us with their kids Agnes (4) and Tilda (7). And all four girls had an awesome day on the beach together!
Resupply- not the best of places
Not far from here (10 hours sailing) on the mainland there is a marina called Linton Bay Marina. This is the place we sail to when it is time to resupply or if we need something for the boat. It has been multiple attacks/robberies on sailing boats in that area lately so we go there as little as possible. If we go we go straight into the marina instead of staying on anchor. The marina is good and not to expensive so its a great solution for us
The closest big city from Linton Bay is Colon- Colon is probably on my top 10 list for places I want to forget. Who am I to talk shit about Colon but I just hate the place so I can’t help myself. But- it is always nice to fill up the boat with fresh food and drinks so I guess even Colon has its upsides!
Our friends and family left us
My best friend that also happens to be Anna´s brother came to the boat in early July. Jonas and me started our sailing career together back in the days on a 63 feet Wharram Catamaran that we sailed together for almost 3 years- so we have strong ties besides the fact he is Annas brother.. Lucky for us Jonas girlfriend Mia is also amazing so our weeks together was almost too good to be true.
The weeks we had together was a perfect mix of sailing and beach life and even a bit of city-life: Cartagena, Islas de Rosario and San Blas. Besides beach life, spearfishing, paddle boarding we also managed to squeeze in a jungle trekking trip and a whole day of horseback riding. Olivia talks about them all the time and we hope to have them back on our boat in not to distance future.
Bruno- the Brazilian machine
When we were in Cartagena we bumped into this Brazilian “hippie-traveling-dude” that has been working all over the world as a helping hand for families that lives an intense life style. This guy is awesome, besides speaking fluent Portuguese, French, Spanish and English he is amazing with the kids. This guy has really improved ours and our kids life by a million time.
Suddenly me and Anna have more time for the boat and from time to time we can actually hang out together like in the old days- without having a drawling baby in our lap. Viva Bruno and welcome to the family!
// Daniel, Anna, Olivia, Theodor and Bruno
In San Blas hat man die Qual der Wahl bei der Auswahl der Segelboot. Die Preise sind überall ähnlich jeodch unterscheiden sich nach unserer Erfahrung die Ausstattung der Segelboote. (Kein oder nur kleiner Kühlschrank, Klimaanlage, Freizeitgeräte, Qualität von Food, Frischwasserverfügbarkeit…)
Wir hatten das Glück mit Baydreamer 2.0 und hatten eines der wahrscheinlich best ausgestatteten Segelboote um die San Blas zu entdecken. Andere Touristen haben da von unangehnehmen geschichten erzählt, wie; begrenzt Wasser zum Duschen; fühlten sich nicht willkommen auf den Boot da der Kapitän nur immer Fernseh geschaut hat; Immer mit dem Motor unterwegs, da einmal zuviel, das andere Mal zu wenig Wind; wenig frisches Essen, da der Kühlschrank zu klein….)
Baydreamer war für uns die perfekte Wahl. Wir konnten uns bewegen, vom Kühlschrank uns bedienen, Freizeitgeräte benutzen.. als ob das Boot unseres wäre. Wir waren 8 Nächte auf dem Boot und hätten es noch viel länger ausgehalten. Vielen Dank an euch Daniel, Anna, Olivia und Bruno.
Auf unserer 1.5 jährigen Reise von Canada nach Uruguay zählt der Segeltrip mit euch zu unseren Highlight!!! http://www.wuessenoed.com
150% zu empfehlen