On our way to Panama

Jan. 1, 2009-Happy New Year-we got underway at 6:00 A.M. and had a better sail with winds of 12-15 knots and we averaged 8.5 knots under sail. Another long day and night and now my motion sickness patch was running out so I didn’t feel too great by morning. We anchored at Providencia (heaven in Spanish) at 7:45 A.M. on Jan. 2nd. Technically there are two islands-Providencia and Santa Catalina that are joined by a pontoon bridge. We called “Mr. Bush” on the VHF radio as he is the agent to do our clearing into Columbia. Even though this island is 100 miles off of the coast of Nicaragua it is owned and governed by Columbia-almost 400 miles away. Mr. Bush made an appt. to meet us at the dock-he is a very well spoken Columbian and is very proud of his island. We walked to the immigration office and then to his office- we were given a visitor’s visa and clearance for the boat-of course, it will cost us 200,000 pesos ($100.00 U.S). by the time we clear in and out. There are very few tourists here and the islanders seem to like it that way. Very clean and it reminded us of Des Haihes Guadalupe.

Jan. 2-Jan. 6-We spent our week here at Providencia exploring the small town, hiking the beautiful trail on Santa Catalina, attending Mass on Sun. at the village church. The Mass was in English so that was a treat in itself. We snorkeled on the reefs near the anchorage and visited with friends on Kaya Song (another Canadian Boat) and Surprize who are headed to Panama to go through the Canal and up to Washington. Even though we were only going to San Andres which is another Columbian island, we still needed to check out of Providencia so had another visit with Mr. Bush on Jan. 6 to complete that process.

Jan. 7-We got underway at 7:00 A.M. and had a good sail to San Andres where we anchored at 3:00 P.M. We called Rene-the agent here to check in and met him at Nene’s Marina. Now when we call Nene’s a marina we use that term rather loosely. It consists of one small dock and open porch, small office and tienda but tied up to the dock are 2 mega yachts-100+ feet. As we approached the dinghy dock we saw our friend, Peggy from Mystery. We had cruised with Ted & Peggy in the E. Caribbean in 2002-it was so exciting to be sharing an anchorage with them again. We were also pleased to see “Little” Dragonfly in the Harbour-we met them in Port Royal 2 yrs. ago. We gave Rene our boat papers and invited our friends onboard DejaVu for Happy Hour.

Jan. 8-Jan. 16-San Andres is a beautiful island about 9 miles long and a mile wide. From the Harbour we can several high rise (8-10 stories) hotels & resorts. There are only 6 cruising boats and numerous small fishing boats at anchor. The water is very clear since we are only ½ mile from the reef. The 2nd day here we joined 3 other boats and rented 2 golf carts to drive around the island. There are some beautiful beaches and we made stops along the way for refreshments and to visit the Baptist Church that was founded in 1844. We had a good lunch in a local diner. We spent the rest of the day walking around the island looking for the best supermacardo and ferreteria (hardware stores). The mode of transportation on the island is mostly by 125cc motorcycles and the main road is very busy with them whizzing by. The infrastructure is excellent and there is very little trash, the people are helpful and friendly and the tourists are mainly from mainland Columbia and Costa Rica. The grocery stores were well-stocked and we have been provisioning in anticipation of spending time in the San Blas islands before going to Colon. On the Aveneue de las Americas there are many specialty retail stores selling everything from expensive exotic wines to Chanel perfumes and Coach handbags.
Every day we are on the tour of the tourist boats-a 35’ -30 yrs. old wooden trimaran covered with bodies and playing loud disco music and the rum is flowing; also a pirate look alike ship that plays rap; also a large 2 store catamaran with Macarena type dancing. They cruise right by our stern taking pics and shouting holas and hi’s. Luckily it’s all over with by sundown and surprisingly the music from shore hasn’t been too loud.
The rest of our days are spent onboard doing chores, reading, cooking and listening to all 3 nets to get weather reports. We’ve had winds from 10-20 out of the E to NE – comfortable, no rain and we are waiting for the seas to drop for our 240 mile run to the San Blas Islands off the coast of Panama.
Yesterday we spent most of the day tracking down propane. It seems they haven’t had a delivery for several weeks and when they did get propane last week, there were so many people waiting that it turned into almost a riot and they had to close the gates. We managed to hail a taxi and “Leonardo” spoke English so he took us to the Provi Gas. They were just locking the gate but he talked his way thru it and we left our tanks to be filled. Leonardo met Joe at 4:00 and they picked up the tanks. These are great accomplishments here in the islands.
A couple of nights we’ve gone ashore with our friends and have had super hamburgers from the “hamburger trailers” that set up along the street. It’s been nice to feel comfortable enough to leave the boat at night and walk around the island.
Our plans are to get our Zarpe from Rene today (Sat. the 17th) and get underway Sun. or Mon. for the San Blas Islands. Unfortunately Mystery and Dragonfly are headed the opposite way so we’ll be saying goodbye to them.