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Starblazer - 27/01/2014 – Back to civilization (wi-fi)!



We did go to the Lemon Cays the following day, carefully following the waypoints from the pilot book. John was worried as the reefs seemed to be very close to the boat but we never saw less than 12 metres of water until we reached the anchorage. As we were anchoring a dugout canoe with an outboard was hanging around, as soon as we were settled they approached. Venancio introduced himself and gave us his card, Venancio Master Mola Maker! He came on board and showed us a large selection of tremendously intricate molas, sadly all rather expensive. He explained that some take a week to make and you could tell from the thickness that there were many layers, not just the two or three of the cheaper ones. We had the princely sum of $42 left after checking in at Porvenir so sadly had to ignore many of his masterpieces but I did buy one.

Snorkelling in the San Blas islands has been a disappointment, with poor visibility and few fish. In the Lemon Cays we did see some magnificent cushion starfish in a variety of oranges, yellows and beige! We left the Lemon Cays to head towards Shelter Bay Marina, making two overnight stops on the way. Isla Linton is a deserted island offering good shelter, inhabited only by monkeys. Apparently they are friendly until you go to leave then they can bite so we didn’t go ashore! The next stop was Portobello, once an important harbour where the Spaniards shipped their treasure from so, not surprisingly, it became very attractive to pirates including Henry Morgan. There are the remains of two forts, built to protect the ships from pirates. In one of them there are many ancient cannons, though the area was being used as a football pitch by some boys who had to stop whenever a tourist went inside to have a look! The town itself was once quite imposing with the remains of a magnificent Customs House still standing. Many of the houses are semi derelict though there are also some new, large houses. There were many children, all seemingly riding new bikes, and scores of dogs. One house had a monkey in a cage in its front garden. Sadly there was no cash dispenser so we spent our last $2 on a beer between us! We felt obliged to buy a drink since we had tied up to the new dinghy dock outside the bar. Andreas, from the Norwegian boat Saphir, kindly bought us a second beer.

We are now in Shelter Bay Marina until Thursday when we begin our canal transit. This morning the ‘admeasurer’ came on board to fill in some forms and measure the boat. The overall length turned out to be 50cm longer than
the registered length and the beam was also greater, we won’t be telling that to marinas! On the other hand, if we go back to Holland it will be useful to know the maximum beam when we have to enter a mooring box. We did
get a bit stuck in one in Fair Encounter which was wider than John thought.

More soon
Joyce


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