After a hectic day of trying to clear out of Panama, a taxi ride to Colon and paper shuffling, we set out late on the afternoon of the 16th for our 215NM run to a tiny little island owned by Columbia, Cayos De Albuquerque.
The water was bumpier than we anticipated. Leaving Shelter Bay, passing through the breakwater into The Caribbean and leaving The Panama Canal behind, the winds bounced around us blowing 25 knots. The wave heights hit up to 9’ averaging around 7’ at 8 seconds, Anna Mae performed flawlessly.
The captain maintained a positive attitude, his first mate was not much help through the night. I’m glad to have Tom and Susanne on board. Early the next morning I managed to take a few shifts, I am experimenting with motion sickness medication, enough said...
By late afternoon of the 17th we could see our destination in the distance. A large reef surrounds the two islands of Cayos De Albuquerque with a tricky entrance of many shallow areas. One of the Islands is a Columbian military base and the other a small fishing camp. Our VHF radio sounded as we approached. A not so happy Spanish voice expressed in unfriendly terms that we were not welcome, although our Columbian Zarpe and crew list showed that we could drop our anchor in Columbian waters.
Bill and I had our eyes on the charts trying to decide which mapping program was the most accurate, Nobeltec, Coastal Explorer or Navionics on my IPad. Tom and Susanne gave us hand signals from the bow. Watching the depth sounder made all of us very tense. Continually conversing with the Spanish voice on the VHF that we needed to anchor before the sun set. Attempting to maneuver out of the coral reef in the dark was not an option.
Eventually we found a spot to anchor and repeating No hablo Espanol Senor the gruff Spanish military voice relented and reluctantly allowed us to stay and we settled in for the night.
We woke the next morning to blue skies, and a visit to The Columbian Military Base on the island. As we approached a very young man with a machine gun approached and escorted us through sandy walkways shaded with palm trees and lined with conch shells. I wanted to scoop up as many as I could, but was afraid that might be frowned upon by our Columbian friend with the machine gun, so I refrained.
The military base is very primitive. The 20 or so soldiers on the island live in a small building with bunks stacked three high. None of them look to be older than 25 or 30. When they examined our passports, exit papers, Zarpe and crew list from Panama indicating our entry into Columbia they decided all was okay. Several even smiled and attempted to joked with us. My Spanish isn’t great and Bill’s even worse. Bill was talking with them in his famous Spanglish dialect. They all laughed, I’m sure not with him but at him...
As we walked back to our dingy one of the soldiers knew I had my eye on the conch shells stacked in piles along the bank and lining the walkways. I wish I had a picture, but was told no photos permitted. One of the soldiers got a huge smile on his face and asked me to wait while he got something for me. I thought for sure I was going to add a big beautiful conch shell to my collection.(Cherie you would have been in shell heaven). Instead of the shiny shell I was anticipating he walked out from behind a palm with a live sea turtle and handed it to me. For the time being the shell was forgotten, I was instantly in love with the little turtle.
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| Our new crew members. |
My first thought was why do you have this little guy and please tell me you don’t eat them? They all laughed, indicated they they helped the turtles as they migrated to the island to lay their eggs. This little guy was about 5 years old. As I was holding him his front flippers slapped at my hands and he stretched his neck toward the water.
Two of the soldiers asked to come aboard Anna Mae for a tour. The turtle was snuggled in my lap as we all made the short ride dingy ride out to Anna Mae. I petted the turtle behind his head and on his tummy, he was so soft.
After a quick tour of Anna Mae and a few pictures, we filled a bag with drinks and some food the soldiers could share with their buddies. We had a little ceremony when we set our turtle free, he swam away quickly with a smile on his face.
Today we snorkeled off the reefs surrounding the islands, the crystal clear water is beautiful with so many colorful fish and amazing sea life. We saw a large lion fish hanging out in a cave along with a multitude of colorful sea life.
Anna Mae sits alone in this anchorage, it’s a beautiful area and from the sound of things not many boats are allowed to stay. We visited with a couple of fishermen that showed us their catch of the day. They dive down for conch, lobster and fish the various reefs. Most of them are from Isla San Andres.
I’m happy to report a couple of additions to my collection, a mini conch and two puffy sand dollars.
We are happily anchored in a little bay off Isla Andres. We hope to stay a few days and already talked with some locals that want to share a nice snorkel site with us tomorrow.
When my internet signal improves I will share some pictures.
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