Day 9: The San Blas Islands – 14/01/10

For some reason, both Mike and I wake up early.  Well, when I say early, it is about 7am but given the time we went to bed, it’s early for us.

We potter around for a couple of hours then Mike and I go over to see Susan and David to return their book, then over to see Irene and Dick to say hello, then to Penny and Peter to see if Penny remembers saying she wanted me to cut her hair!  So a morning of socialising.

I want to go up the mast to take photos as the coral reef should look amazing from above but by the time we get back to the boat it’s too hot to go up there so we pick Jim up and take the dinghy to the islands and walk around it, paddling all the way round in the white sand.

Photo:  Mike and I on Green Island

Photo:  Man Friday aka Captain Mike

Photo:  Posing with a palm tree

There’s nothing there except palm trees, driftwood, butterflies, hundreds of odd shoes and the remnants of many beach barbecues but the colours are beautiful.  I see bright orange butterflies and tiny cornflower-blue ones but they don’t stay still long enough for me to film them and the sun is so bright I probably couldn’t find them looking through the camera anyway.

   Photos:  Beach views of uninhabited Green Island

When we get back to the boat we have a simple lunch then a very long sleep.  Jim wakes earlier than us and fends off sales pitches from a whole family of Kuna Indians who arrive in their dug out canoe and try to sell him “mangy bits of cloth” (their traditional molas) and fresh fish, and a French lady in a very skimpy bikini trying to sell jewellery.

By the time I eventually wake up it’s too late to go up the mast for the photos and the sky is pretty grey anyway.  Maybe tomorrow.

Early in the evening Mike turns the water maker on and nothing happens.  He takes the filter out and it is black with oil.  This is strange because this is exactly what has happened to David’s water maker yesterday.  Mike changes the filter but still nothing happens so he has to dismantle the aft cabin – again.  I leave him trying to figure out where the problem is while I sort through what is left of our fresh provisioning (not much), throw some stuff out and attempt to put a meal together with what is left.

Two hours later the water maker is fixed after Mike by-passes the water non-return valve and re-primes the whole system.  He and Jim celebrate with a couple of dark and stormies and we have dinner.  While Jim washes up, Mike sits looking pleased with himself and I wash the salt off the windscreen and side screens ready for them to be rolled up tomorrow.  Then it’s time for bed.