British Virgin Islands to San Blas Archipelago - Preparing for the Pacific

Long, hot, humid days follow as she heads down into the cauldron in the south west corner of the Caribbean Sea known as Panama. Visions of swamps, mangroves and mosquitoes along with stultifying heat are conjured up to play upon the imagination of her crew. The fine wind holds and our ship bowls along making an extra thirty nautical miles a day due primarily to that union of her shaft and that object of her desire, the shiny new brass feathering propeller. She is surprised and very pleased with the difference it makes and shares this with the captain who now thinks he is so clever! The following wind pushes her along, dragging her own microclimate with her creating a kind of vacuum, so everything above water level is cooking, including the crew! Coleridges’ famous lines from the ‘Ancient Mariner’ float up in the haze:

‘All in a hot and copper sky, The bloody sun at noon, Right up above the mast did stand, No bigger than the moon.

Day after day, day after day, We stuck, nor breath nor motion; As idle as a painted ship, Upon a painted ocean’ STC - 1799

How to paint a picture with few words? Although a lengthy poem, Coleridge says it all about the Doldrums, in this short passage.

Life on board is moulded into a routine and one day runs into another, smoothly, seamlessly, like a never ending Mobius Strip. The Captain, lounging languidly in the cockpit, shaded by the awning, glances lazily astern and suddenly leaps bolt upright, staring into the water where the fishing lure is swimming some one hundred metres in their wake. He cannot believe his eyes as a huge darker blue shadow angles up toward the lure, gives it a little nip, disdainfully turns, and sinks back into the depths. Several pounding heartbeats later he is able to splutter a shout to the others, who pour out of the companionway to see what all the fuss is about. Seeing nothing and believing the Captain is going delirious, despite his postulations regarding a monster marlin, they retire once more below – poor fellow! However, he knows, as does she, that indeed it was a large billfish of some kind, as its’ gleaming bill had cleared the water whilst it inspected the lure. He put it down to curiosity and added it to his store of knowledge on pelagics.

Brilliant green flash in the last of the suns early evening rays, flinging off rainbow droplets, each a prism of colour, signals a solid strike on the trailing lure. In comes a beautiful 7kg Mahi Mahi. These gorgeous fish, when first out of the water, are a kaleidoscope of brilliant colours, sometimes blue, sometimes green and/or gold – hence the Spanish name for them, ‘Dorade’. She is quickly filleted and placed in the ships refrigerator in preparation for dinner. Sibling crew announces dinner with a couple of strikes on the ships bell, and our crew tuck into the ‘catch of the day’ with relish. Served up with straw potatoes, slivered carrot, tomato, red pepper, salad, hot bread and a glass of chilled chardonnay her crew will enthusiastically quaff it all down, relaxing in the cockpit in the last soft glow of the tropical evening, distant pink and rose cumulus stacked to the ceiling – could there be anything more enjoyable? ‘Why do they have to go to those lengths to feed themselves?’ she wonders when all she needs is wind in her sails?

With Cartagena sunk astern and well across the gulf of Darien, she alters course a few degrees to port to intersect with the San Blas archipelago. This little forgotten corner of the globe interests her immensely. Early morning with the sun behind and rolling gently on the moderate swell she approaches the first bunch of islands cautiously. At this point only palm trees are visible. Gradually other landmarks slowly rise out of the sea to reveal more small islands, white beaches and some tiny buildings. Many reefs are also visible, darkly lurking under the surface to catch an unwary visitor. Her crew are being extremely canny because the charting in this area is inaccurate at best, and whilst she knew the way in, she let them practise their conning skills. There were going to be many more situations similar to this, once they entered the Pacific and sailing amongst those South Sea Islands. Besides, it made them feel good and gave them bragging rights at the next nautical bar they happened upon. Dropping anchor over her nose in Porvenir, just fifty metres from the Custom house, she comes to rest. That was about the extent of their harbour – a small pond encircled with jagged reefs. However, the ground is good with the anchor holding well.

Extract from my ebook ‘Voyage of the Little Ship ‘Tere Moana’ downloadable from my sailboat2adventure website website for Sailors

Vincent Bossley is a sailor and publisher living on the Northern Beaches in Sydney. He has his own website on www.sailboat2adventure.com for cruising sailors, sailors preparing for their lifetime sailing adventure, armchair sailors, virtual sailors and anyone who has ever dreamed of sailing off into the oceans of this beautiful planet of ours. He offers a package of extremely useful dollar saving tips that could save the voyager many hundreds of dollars and more, plus a FREE one hundred and thirty five page ebook download ‘Voyage of the Little Ship ‘Tere Moana’, of his sailing adventures in many of the exotic paradises around the globe. You can visit him anytime on www.sailboat2adventure.com

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