Adventures of a Tribe

Cartagena, Colombia to San Blas, Panama

Posted on December 19, 2016 Updated on December 19, 2016

The sail to San Blas was once again, so beautiful. We started out on a beam reach, which slowly turned into a downhill run. Some of the swells that pushed Tanda Malaika forward were 15 – 20ft. As we climbed them, we’d sometimes slow to 4 knots, then surf down them at 8-10 knots. At one point while I was at the helm early hours of the morning, we hit 14 knots. What a peaceful gentle roll…a push from the ocean and a pull from the sail…When we arrived in San Blas it was 3:30am. We don’t like to enter new places at night because not every obstacle is marked on the charts, so we pulled in by the first islands we came to and dropped anchor as soon as we saw could make out a sand patch in the light of the moon. I was anxious to wake in the morning to take a look at our new surroundings, and when I did, I instantly loved our new back yard. Beautiful lush islands were all around us,

And gorgeous reef to explore at our stern.

Once we’d completed our morning chores, we all jumped in and looked around below the water line. The Caribbean never disappoints! Large blue-green parrot fish and bright yellow tailed damsel fish swam through the big round brain coral heads. Danny, the creatures and I played in the water for a while, then ventured back home to relax some more. A Kuna man moved out slowly in his dugout, watching closely along the shore line for things to harvest.

One cannot pick coconuts here, because every coconut is owned by the Kuna. The are happy to sell them to you though – usually for $2 a piece.

Since the Keck Family are joining us at a little island named Carti, which was about 20 nm away, we figured we’d pick up anchor and head that way. Unfortunately due to some airline delays and cancellations, Aundrea is not going to be able to join us, and the Keck Family will be with us about 20 hours later than planned. We are so excited for them to arrive. As we motored out we passed many perfect little islands. They are the absolute perfect definition of a tropical island. White sand, bright green palm trees, a tiny breeze blowing through…

On some of the islands, small grass huts stood firmly in the sand with thatched roofs, and finally we reached Carti where many huts were arranged together. Smoke was rising here and there from late afternoon fires which were being lit for meal preparation,

And children could be heard laughing and playing somewhere inside.

Three Kuna women made their way home in a dugout, confident on the water they know so well.

The Creatures watched closely, fascinated with their surroundings.

I’m not sure what Aidan did to provoke Jude (and I wasn’t getting involved because she probably had good reason), but he was tied to the mast for a while. Some people use the corner for time out, while some use other measures…

After anchoring we watched the beautiful sunset as locals made their way back home,

and silently thanked our Maker for yet another beautiful day of life.