The Holandes Cays is only about 20 miles from the East Lemon Cays and even nicer. The entrance through the reefs and islands is as easy as the Lemons even though it appears a bit complicated when you look at the chart. Luckily there was enough wind and or current to move along at 3.5kts making me happy. A few other boats making the same run under power passed me around noon having left later than me and arriving earlier but of course burning all of that precious diesel, I was very satisfied just to have enough wind to make a sail of it. Plus I didn’t know how much Diesel I would need going to Colombia and it was difficult at best to find fuel since I left Colon Panama. When I did finally leave the Holandes I had only used about Five Gallons since Colon Panama over the last month.

The first anchorage I chose is known as “The Hot Tub”. It has a VERY narrow cut through a reef where you can easily see the bottom and the reef on both sides so entering was no problem as long as you keep your eyes on the water rather than the GPS. There was only one other boat and I anchored on the opposite side a considerable distance away. My spot was close to a long narrow cut in the reef that was amazing snorkeling and great fishing. Once again I struck out with the spear gun, but in just one snorkel I saw a large nurse shark, spotted eagle rays, large lobsters and boatloads of other reef fish, even one very large jack (I think) that I took a pathetic shot at and of course missed. For me the best part of the anchorage was the fishing. I usually keep a few slim-jims in the tackle box for when I don’t have any other decent bait. I didn’t get any hits all evening until around 11pm, then I had a nice size jack, then an hour later another, and two other fish I wont try to identify (you can look at the picture) but they were all great eating. After two days in the Hot tub I had the engel/refrigerator running with several filets for later and a belly full of fish so I was ready to move to another very nearby anchorage (only one or two miles) “The swimming pool”. This anchorage seems to be one of the most popular anchorages in all of San Blas. I think there were around 10 boats, several faces to put with the voices and names that I had been listening to and talking with on the SSB radio net daily. I knew from the radio that one particular person had a lot of success spear fishing the reefs around the anchorage so I asked him if I could go out with him and learn some pointers. Sure enough he speared a very nice Red Snapper and I got a smaller Blue Runner or Jack. When I say smaller it was a perfect size meal, I even had to cut the head and tail off just to get it to fit into the frying pan, sorry I didn’t get a picture of him. The reef itself was a great snorkel, this was a wall about 10 feet deep running along a cut between two reefs leading all the way outside to the ocean.

The next day I fished the same area alone with no success but again, it’s such nice snorkeling I really didn’t mind. Plus I would later find out that my spear gun was insufficient for anything more than very short ranges but Ill explain how that got straightened out in Colombia.

One reason why people like the “swimming pool” so much is that you can anchor in around 10 feet of water and clearly see the bottom all around you as opposed to the 30ft deep anchorages in most other areas of San Blas. It’s nice to just jump off your boat for a swim and easily see reef fish, Often rays and sharks, lobsters, all within a hundred feet or so of the boat. There are also several different types of reefs to swim. Some of them are little mountains that pop out of deep water where you can free dive down to 30 feet or swim near the top of the underwater “mountain’ in only 3 to 5 feet. Other areas are like big shallow fields of amazing coral. Pam, another single hander there offered to take me out for a night-dive/snorkel witch seemed it bit odd at first but was great. Basically you go snorkeling with water-proof flashlights after dark and the result is all kinds of creatures that you normally don’t see during the day. We saw a few small octopuses, lots of anemones that seem to mostly only come out at night, weird sea spiders, lobsters, and the coolest part is that a lot of the fish are just sleeping around the coral, so you can right up to them and even touch them if you want, even though it wakes them up and scares the heck out of them.

It seems like a lot of the semi-permanent cruisers staying in the swimming pool have formed a very tight community, every week there is a pot-luck dinner and sundowners on BBQ island were people chat and swap books and food, then drink until dark. This was probably the nicest anchorage I’ve ever been in, only lacking the seclusion found in some of the less popular places. Other people reported catching ocean trigger from their boats but I didn’t have any success catching fish on a hook. I was still very happing just to spear my first fish, lots of other cruisers caught fish trolling along the reef in their dinghies and one even got a 35 to 40lb Red Snapper on a spear, along with two other large fish (see pictures from Holandes). I could probably go on raving about San Blas but I’m already in Colombia trying to catch up the blog so this will have to suffice unless anyone has any questions. Next the passage from San Blas to Cartagena Colombia!

The trip from Chichime to the Lemon Cays was very short, only a few miles with light wind and I didn’t even bother with the main sail only flying the Genoa part of the way. The entrance caused me a bit of grief since the charts in my Panama Cruising Guide did not completely agree with the paper charts. No harm done but I did abandon my approach twice since I was expecting closer to 60 feet of water under the keel yet I only had 10 feet or so. I just motored VERY slowly hoping not to bump into the reef that I could clearly see looking over the side. That’s one down side to single handing, you can’t put a look-out person on the bow to alert you of visible obstructions or to point you towards the deeper water. Once I crossed the reef there was plenty of water in the anchorage, almost too much! The anchorage is between a few islands with a very deep hole in the middle, over 50 feet if I recall correctly, with a few eight to ten feet deep areas near the islands, not really an accommodating place if you have more than three or four boats in my opinion. I decided the safest place was in ten feet of water over 150 feet from another boat. After an hour or so the other captain came over is his dinghy and told me I was too close, that was the first time I’ve had that told to me ever even though I have seen plenty of cruisers complaining about it to others. Stupid thing is that we were not very close but this guy decided he needed 300 feet of chain anchored in only 10 feet of water giving him a 600 feet swing, so in fact with the ground tackle he ignorantly chose to deploy I was too close, but it just seems awfully rude to me, putting out well over three times maximum chain needed and taking up half of the anchorage, and unnecessarily damaging coral heads as he swings on his chain.

The lemon Cays had an interesting looking little restaurant and hotel (huts) that I never checked out since I was trying to save money. It was small and secluded and the only customers I saw were ferried in on a small launch presumably from a nearby island. Since I was only here for two days I didn’t do as much snorkeling or walking on the islands. I spent one full day attempting to spearfish on a very nice reef. Once again the best spots always seems to be cuts in a long reef where you can snorkel inside the protection of the reef or swim out through the cut into very deep water. I even took a shot at very large barracuda (and missed of course), I think finally after swimming with them for a month I’m no longer nervous around them, even the ones that are five feet long or so.

I also bought my first Mola here from a Kuna Indian, they are decorative hand-sewn cloths, see my pictures. After two days I moved again, this time to the more popular West Lemon Cays again only a few uneventful miles away. The West Lemon Cays anchorage had a lot more space, probably 15 boats could squeeze in even though there were only five to eight boats at a time during the few days I was there. Unfortunately I can’t recall the snorkeling so it must have been ok, but I probably didn’t find the best spots. What I do remember was that there was good fishing right from the boat, as long as you were willing to stay up at night to land the fish, the first night I caught two nice size Yellow Snappers? And two other large pan fish.

The West Lemon Cays had Kuna Venders in their little dugout canoes (ulus) just as aggressive as in Chichime, at one point I saw at least four Kuna boats together close in upon a large sailboat as they were anchoring, all competing to sell their Molas, fish, and lobster. One nice thing about the East Lemon Cays is that there is a very little store (a hut about the size of a typical bedroom) with only the most basic canned goods, oil, rice, potatoes, booze, etc. I didn’t need anything and it wasn’t very cheap however they also sell fresh baked ‘Kuna Bread” that look like little foot long baguettes for something like 15 cents a piece, very good when it’s fresh.

While I was there I heard over the Cruiser Radio SSB net that one sailboat in a neighboring island group had lost a dinghy and motor over night. Only a few days later I saw a Kuna transport boat pull into my area with an inflatable dinghy! After one VHF relay I was able to contact the owner and establish that it was indeed hers so I rowed over to talk to the Kuna who found it while making his daily runs transporting fuel from the mainland out to a small island, he agreed to wait a few hours while the cruiser sailed over to pick up the dinghy, they negotiated a $100 reward for finding it. Unfortunately I suspect the motor will never be found. From what I’ve heard from most people is that theft and crime is very rare in San Blas and Kuna Yala, but I suppose a dinghy left in the water with a new 10HP outboard for the taking is just too much temptation.

Most people actually hoist their dinghy up in the air or on deck with a halyard for the night to protect it, or pull the engine off and leave it chained in the cockpit. Leaving your dinghy and motor in the water back in Colon Panama was almost a guarantee it would be stolen. Something else to point out, is that while James (atomvoyages.com) was helping with the refit and equipping of salsa he insisted I get a small 3.5HP or so motor rather than something bigger. It seems that nearly every time an outboard is stolen it is 10 or 15 HP, something to consider when buying a motor. Mine also very light only 30LB or so, uses very little gas, only downside is that my dinghy will not plane out so I max out around 4 or 5mph compared to the 15mph I could probably do if I had a 5hp or bigger.

Over all the West Lemon Cays is a very nice anchorage, the local islands like most other places had a few families living on them that were friendly and didn’t mind cruisers exploring the islands or having happy hour on the beach. I could have stayed longer but I needed to get to Cartagena since Jen and Dave were flying in within a few weeks, one last stop, Holandes Cays.

Hi Everyone, I just came back from visiting Kirk in Cartagena.

Kirk is doing great! He looked great and was in overall good health. He is also an excellent cook! He cooked for us almost every day. It is amazing what he can do with that little burner.

He is also making a lot of friends at every port. He ran into some people from Panama that were very excited to see him. His Spanish is also great, I don’t know what Dave & I would have done without him!

We spent about 3-4 days at the Rosario Islands (Islas del Rosario) and snorkeled just about the entire time. Dave fixed up Kirk’s spear gun, so he should be good to go.

Back in Cartagena we saw a lot of the historic sites and walked around Old Town (Centro) a lot. Kirk is an excellent haggler and got me a great price on an Emerald necklace. Just when i thought i had the final price he saved me another $25!

Since I have already been to the South Pacific (Fiji) I can’t wait to visit Kirk in South Africa. I am going to start saving now!