Yesterday afteroon as planned, we left the Holandes and moved around to Chichime, which is one of the western-most anchorages in the San Blas.
We had skipped this place on the way to the San Blas in March, because the anchorage had so many boats in it. It is a good anchorage, with nearly 360 degree protection, and the usual 'first stop' for boats arriving from the west. It has a deep lagoon between two picturesque islands, and surrounded by reef. We were surprised to only see one other boat there when we arrived.
The guidebook says that there is 'no permanent settlement' here, so we were also a little surprised to see all the Kuna here. There are at least 6 or so huts scattered across the two islands. It's probably cooler and less buggy out here during the summer months. And of course it is lobster season.
We had barely gotten the anchor secured when we were visited by an orderly procession of Kuna ulu's (dugout canoes). One of the ulu's was selling crabs for $3 apiece. Now these aren't small blue crabs... they are giant coral crabs, with a 'wingspan' (claw to claw outstretched) of about 18". Just one crab makes 1-2 meals for 2 people. We bought two of them. We took some great pics of trying to get the live crabs into the pot of boiling water.
Another boat offered fresh lobster. Dave bought 3 'slipper lobster' for $5. He declined the smaller 'langosta' (basically, lobster shorts). I told him later that we should have bought them all, and 'liberated' the small ones, if they're still alive.
One of the boats asked us to charge his cell phone overnight, which we were glad to do.
We gave the lobster boat, who had 2 kids in it, 2 4-packs of Oreo cookies. Of course within 10 minutes we had 3 more boatloads of kids asking for cookies. Dave told them we were out, but we'd bring them more when we came back in a week.
The last boat was an old man asking for cooking oil. We gave him a cupful in a container.
We were also visited by Venancio, one of the more famous 'Male Mola Makers'. We already have about 4 exquisite molas by Venancio, but told him we'd bring the kids back to buy one from him.
The weather here has been really unsettled... overcast and stormy looking. We had quite a bit of thunder, some lightning, and threatening clouds last night. But it finally came thru during dinner and just rained a little. There doesn't seem to be much wind in these thunderstorms... not like the 45 knot gusts we get in Florida.
We feasted on crab for dinner, and cooked up the rest and put them in the freezer.
We got going early this morning enroute for Linton, a 45 mile trip. We plan to meet our friends on Infini there for a day. We last saw them in Honduras.
Of course since we are moving west, the wind has been out of the west for 2 days. There is a low above us causing a counter-clockwise circulation in the wind patterns. But even if the wind was in a good direction, it's so light that we couldn't sail anyway. So we are again motoring.
We've been dragging a fishing line everywhere we go, and have had some luck. On our trip from Colombia, Dave caught a nice tuna. We had 'seared tuna' for dinner that night. Today we have already caught 3 fish, but threw them all back, two bonito, and one big barracuda.
On Monday we head for Colon, where we think/hope we have a slip at the Panama Canal Yacht Club for a few days. They don't take reservations, but it's a slow time of year, and Infini told them we were coming. Colon is not a very nice city, and the Yacht Club is the only safe place to hang out in a boat. We need to provision and collect Nicki and Phil when they arrive on the 13th. Then we'll head out for the San Blas again.
So sad that you have no respect for wildlife. Crabs are actually highly socialized creatures and feel pain.
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