Sailing Into Freedom

We get to Linton Bay and anchor and head to Sabanitas where all the supermarkets are, about 90 minutes away. But we are in for a tragedy. The supermarket does not have Oreos and Margarida’s smile evaporates. It is a sad time until she brightens up and realises we can go to the other supermarket in town where yes oh yes we find the holy grail. We use up our entire budget on groceries hoping to stay away for months…we need to save up for a lift and hardstand fees and the canal crossing.
We set sail as soon as the groceries are packed and hope for some large Colombian swell to hit us during our journey. Alas this doesn’t eventuate with Margarida being very thankful of that. And we finally arrive in San Blas again where I show you the best way to enter the maze of reefs is. It was a great sail but we wake the next morning to a problem no woman can put up with. Our bedroom has saltwater leaking into it so somewhere from the toe rail to the staunchions to the chainplates there is a small crack and we must find it. We both rip out the wooden trim on the toe rail and search and repair with Margarida working like a workhorse. Hopefully our repairs will do the trick.

We find a wreck, reccy it with the drone and go out for a look and scare the stuffing out of Margarida in the process. Ha, just wait til you see the facial expressions of the toughest girl on earth. Priceless.
We snorkel and catch a nice snapper and BBQ it on the beach. Afterwards, Margarida has a go at the drone since she is unhappy with my excellent drone flying skills (feel free to replace excellent with dodgy) and reckons that she can do a better job. Well she does do an excellent job of entertaining us and her drone skills are not too bad either.
Bad news hits us as well. We get stripped by the local Congresso (authority of the Guna people) who take us for the remaining cash in our wallet so we have to sail back to civilization to check the bank and hope some funds can be had. Luckily the sailing back was awesome with no breakages.

Just wait to you see the drone footage of the Hollandaise Cays, it is breathtaking, quite simply a jewel in the sea. Margarida takes a run on a huge sandbank and looks for shells and finds them in their 1000s although not quite what she was looking for. She also does her bit in reducing the local population of lion fish and enjoying it as smoked fish. It is delicious.

We borrow a sailing dinghy and I try to teach Margarida the finer points in sailing but I fail miserably and we have a fight. Dont worry we make up and discuss it openly for all to see. Ah couples ought not to try and teach each other sailing…oh no, kitesurfing is next in the future for Margarida. Should cause some dramas too.

Margarida greets the day by swimming to the nearby island.
I find a stick (yeah I know I am talented) and make a wakeboarding handle and we teach Margarida how to wakeboard. We are on the way to getting her skill level up to tackle kiteboarding.
We enjoy deep fried snapper over the bbq which although filling up our arteries saves my life from a falling coconut.
A happy girl on board means she must have happy hair so we go through Margarida’s routine and I take on being her slave for the hair and grooming process. Living on a boat has its sacrifices but who wouldn’t want a lifesize doll to wash and brush her hair well for a little while anyway.

We are told by an ancient Guna man of a bushwalk that follows a pipe that leads to a mystical magical lake where the Guna’s pipe their fresh water from. I get a first hand look at how Gunas do repairs on this pipe and I like what I see. Nothing but quality here too.
We visit a place called East Cocos Banderos and I visit the remains of a wreck and come face to face with a barracuda. On coming back we meet my second favourite bird, a booby bird, which doesn’t really seem to be scared at all of humans. And no I don’t like the bird because of its name.
A huge mass of sargasm comes to surround us so before it starts stinking we make our getaway and head to West Cocos Banderos and have a late afternoon BBQ of snapper.

Here’s a surprise, our dinghy blows a seem and captain bodge needs to come up with some dodgy rescue. We go to a local market to try and find some PVC glue and a water pump but we have no luck although I run in to a cousin of mine. Margarida takes a test drive of an underwater scooter and I can’t help but admire the water and bubbles.
I see to the water pump and get it going again by stripping parts from another broken pump and we take a look at Nargana, one of the main towns in Guna Yala where we can stock up on some fruit and veges.