Tag Archives: cruising

Sweet Kuna man carving wood

Carti Islands: Provisioning: Part I

The Carti Islands are a small group of islands that are among the busiest and most densely populated islands in San Blas.  There are four islands that make up the Carti Island chain: Tupile, Yandup, Sugdup, and Muladup.

While staying at the Eastern Lemon Cays, you can almost make out Carti and the mainland.  Usually it’s hard to see with the clouds, rain, and weather.  It is a 9-mile sail from the E. Lemon Cays to Carti (too far for the dinghy) but too close to put any amount of canvas up.  Especially being that we had less than 5 knots of wind.

It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the water was smooth as glass, and the trip was short.  From the distance of a few miles, you could see Carti Tupile and Carti Sugdup.

The first island you see is Carti Tupile on our approach to the island chain.  We visited this island and did a quick walk around, but did not buy anything.

Carti Tupile Island

Carti Tupile Island

Carti Sugdup, is such a fun name.  Sugar Shack was on Sugdup!  This is a busy little island specializing in the sale of Guna Handcrafts and molas.  They also have a make shift panga fueling station, very similar to a U.S. gas station on water.  Many kids were running up and down and over this structure giggling along as they played.  We were not certain where to park the dinghy so we selected a spot off to the side of the fueling station.

Carti Sugdup Island

Carti Sugdup Island

Carti Muladup is the last island in the chain and is overflowing with huts and a large structure on the eastern side featuring a red roof.  We did not make it ashore to this island

Carti Muladup Island

Carti Muladup Island.

As we advanced on the anchorage, the water turned to a ghoulish brown making us happy that we were not running the watermaker.  We dropped the anchor and made our way to Carti Sugdup.

A small dirt path led to a semi closed gate that took you between two huts.  We were not certain this was the “walkway”, but we proceeded onward.  As it turned out, this is a road.

Matt on a street on Carti Sugdup

Matt on a street on Carti Sugdup

We came to a local market which was inside a man’s home.  The owner added shelves for his products along the walls between his hammock (bed) and personal belongings.  He was very friendly, spoke to us in Spanish and offered us bread for the next day.  To our amazement, he had an uber fancy professional stand mixer which stood out like a sore thumb among his other belongings.  We continued exploring, trying to keep track of landmarks as there were no signs to tell us how to get back to the dock.  You sort of weave in and out of communities of huts, hoping you don’t intrude on their personal space.  Many have no doors or windows and you just sort of look in as you pass by as they are almost always trying to sell something.

During our discovery, we passed by a small cafeteria and a beautiful nativity set.

Carti Sugdup Cafe

Carti Sugdup Cafe

Life size nativity set in the center of the island.

Life size nativity set in the center of the island.

We also met this really nice older gentleman who was working on wood carvings.  He was so nice, but was very hard to understand as he only had a few teeth, spoke softly, and in Spanish.  We caught every 4th or 5th word.  But he was so very nice and invited us to his home to see his work.

Sweet Kuna man carving wood

Sweet Kuna man carving wood

We found our way back to the dinghy and set out for Carti Yandup.  The Bauhaus guide book mentioned a “store” on Carti Yandup, so we headed there next.  We were doing ok on general provisions, but we were out of bread and almost out of fresh fruit and vegetables.

Stepping onto Yandup, we were greeted with a few concrete buildings with green grass and a raked dirt path.  The concrete buildings were a stark contrast to the huts made out of bamboo and palm fronds.  We meandered our way through the village, peeking in a few huts and smiling.  We determined we were both too shy to actually go into people’s homes to see what they had for sell.  Our loss as we later found out.

BUMMER: Leaving Carti:

  • Didn’t find the market
  • No trash area
  • Kuna Museum closed

Feeling a little discouraged, we departed the Carti islands without any provisions and proceeded to Gun Boat Island for the night.

Sugar Shack Motoring

San Blas Islands: Beauty Abound

After a week in Linton Bay, we needed a change, so we pulled up anchor and headed back to the San Blas islands.  It was not an ideal time to leave as the winds were pretty strong, but we needed to go and did not want to get stuck in the doldrums that were forecasted later in the week.

The anchor chain was pretty mucky, so we pressure washed it as it came up which made for slow going.  But, Davey, our hook which is a “spade hook” came up clean.  Get it?  David Spade?  Ya, weird sense of humor, I know.

We made it through the reefs and around the corner with the wind on our nose.  We were going to head north before we headed east as the wind and waves would push us south and we did not want to be pushed into the reefs.  It was going to be a bumpy and uncomfortable ride.  Estimated 45 miles at 5 knots would take 8.5 hours.

Sugar Shack Motoring

Sugar Shack Motoring

Within a few hours, Matt noticed that the batteries were not charging correctly.  The engines should be providing 118 amps and we were only getting 18 amps. Crap!  Matt fussed with the regulator but was not able to get it working properly.  No easy task while under way, in a hot engine compartment, under heavy seas.  Something to fix when we are at anchor.

A few hours later, Matt discovered that our Starboard tank was empty.  WTF!  We turned the watermaker on to fill up Starboard that was at 1/8th of a tank.  We didn’t want to make water while in Linton Bay as the water was murky and we were toward the back of the anchorage where the trash and debris flowed past us.  With the watermaker running, we should have made 20-30 gallons and yet the indicator showed empty, 0.  Not good.  Matt climbed back in the engine room only to find a bilge full of water.  The pressure from the watermaker caused a hose to pop off giving a new escape route for all of our freshly made water – into the bilge instead of into our tanks.  Matt replaced the hose, and we were back in business, but now it would take over 10 hours to fill just the starboard tank.

Later in the afternoon, I alerted Matt that the wind speed and direction stopped working.  Not again.  It would give us wind direction but no speed or speed and no wind direction or nothing at all.  Crap.  This is our new wind vang that we just put up a few weeks ago.  The data would come and go throughout the rest of the day, all we could do is carry on.  Seems like a day for breakdowns.

Luckily, fairly easy repairs – hopefully.

  • Matt fixed the watermaker leak on the starboard tank with a new hose.
  • Matt thinks the charging issue is a short or a fuse.
  • Wind Vang not diagnosed yet, but I am sure Matt will figure it out!

While Matt was fixing things, I was at the helm most of the day fighting off the urge to get seasick.  We had an average of 33-35 knots of winds with gusts over 40, an average of 4 meter waves (12’) with some peaking 5+ meters (15’) at 5-6 second intervals.  It was a rough passage, but we made it to San Blas before dark.

Sailing Log to San Blas:

  • Total Miles 49.2
  • Average Speed 5.1 knots
  • Max Speed: 9.4 knots (must have been a rogue wave)
  • Total Moving Time: 9 hours, 39 minutes
Panamarina Anchorage

Isla Linton and Panamarina

There is not much to do in Linton Bay.  No trails to hike, no beaches to explore, and only a few islands close enough to visit by dinghy.  We walked around the very small village of Puerto Lindo, in about 10 minutes and didn’t see much beyond the small huts where people lived.  So, it was time to visit the remaining two areas:  Isla Linton and Panamarina.

Panamarina is small marina just around the corner from Linton Bay Marina where we were anchored.  It lies in a protected mangrove creek and offers moorings and haul out services. So, we hopped in Sweetie and headed toward the area where there is an inlet that takes you directly through the mangroves.  Before you get to the inlet you have to navigate around a reef, which lucky for us was easy to spot with the early morning sun.

The inlet opening was pretty wide with huge mangroves on either side.  It is amazing to see how the roots of the mangroves intertwined with one another to form a strong barrier able to withstand strong storms.

As you continue down the river, the inlet becomes narrower and the mangroves stretch overhead meeting in the center to create a magnificent canopy.  It was so pretty hearing the birds sing and come to life as we moved through their neighborhood.

Beautiful canopy of trees on the way to Panamarina

Beautiful canopy of trees on the way to Panamarina

We weren’t going very fast because we weren’t in a hurry and we did not know how deep the inlet was, so we just enjoyed the ride.

The inlet deposited us into a bay where more than a dozen boats were moored.  We checked out the boats and made our way to the dinghy dock.

Panamarina mooring field.  Photo courtesy of Panamarina website.

Panamarina mooring field. Photo courtesy of Panamarina website.

Ashore, there are two yards.  A short term working yard and long-term storage yard.  Unfortunately, everything was closed as it was Sunday and Christmas Eve.  But it did afford us the opportunity to walk around the property.  Next to the office is a restaurant / bar with a pretty decent looking menu.  It also appears that they have several services available to cruisers such as mechanical, electrical, canvas, and carpentry.

After we returned from Panamarina, we went to visit Isla Linton.  This island is uninhabited except for several monkey families that live in the hills.  The monkeys usually come down to the dock in the afternoon and have invaded the abandoned house near the beach.  We were told that they appear to be friendly at first, but they quickly get agitated when they realize you intend to move on.

When we visited the island it was late morning, early afternoon so we were not expecting a monkey encounter.  We pulled our dinghy onto the tiny beach just in front of the abandoned house.

Abandoned house on Isla Linton

Abandoned house on Isla Linton

There is a lot of brush, weeds, and overgrowth here so it makes it challenging to navigate the shore. But, I found a small worn path and headed to the house where I wanted to find a monkey.  Just one, to take a photo.  The house had a retched smell and was littered with waste, no monkeys – just an old alligator hide tacked onto the wall.

Alligator skin tacked on to wall.

Alligator skin tacked on to wall.

Not much to see on this spec of land, so we took a few shots, howled for the monkeys, and left when our call was not returned.

Matt hiding from me

Matt hiding from me

Exploring Wins and Losses:

  • No monkey
  • Alligator Skin
  • Cool services at Panamarina