After a week of boat-work, we were happy to welcome Rainer aboard who came to visit us. Pretty quickly we were able to switch from boat-work-mode to happy sailing mode again, as we were heading towards the San Blas islands. Before leaving Linton Bay we made a nice little dinghy-tour with Rainer to see a mangrove-tunnel connecting the bay with Panamarina. We switched off the engine and slowly paddled through, to get a sense of the sounds in this beautiful place.
Then, after a quick stop at the fuel dock in the early morning, we headed to the San Blas. Another not very comfortable ride, and Rainer, let’s say, had to adapt to sailing life first. In the afternoon we arrived in the anchorage Chichime, where we spent the next day and got a first impression of San Blas. The next day we were able to fly our spinnaker (it worked!) to an anchorage called Swimming Pool. And what a wonderful anchorage it is: Full all-around protection from the reef, turquoise waters, great snorkeling, sandy bottom for easy anchoring, absolutely great sailor’s community, nice islands around to discover, a restaurant to eat out and regular veggie-boats which come and sell you fruits and vegetables. In this anchorage, all possible sailor’s boxes are ticked and there is not much more to wish for. This is also the reason some sailors stay here for extended periods of time or keep coming back. We met up with our sailor-friends from SY Tahoma – they were always sailing ahead of us and informed us about what to expect from places we got to. Finally, we got to see them in person again. Also, we spent some quality time with Rainer and celebrated his birthday together. After two and a half weeks, it was time for us to drop him off at Green Island, where he was picked up for his trip back home. We spent a great time together!
