This time of year brings trade wind season, a pattern of predictable strong winds from the north-east. This makes anchoring more predictable as it doesn’t require 360* swing room, though always desirable. When anchored behind a protected reef the ocean swells are kept at bay, crashing on the outer reef and sending up salt spray that will coat your boat and grow saltcicles!
Time now to move to the inner reefs closer to land… we finally left the Pool after a month! Fresh fruit and vegetables are scarce so we first took a trip into Nargana, one of the more populous island villages complete with Christmas trees this time of year (yes, that one is made of beer cans!).
This is one of the few places where you are able to re-supply with diesel, gasoline & propane, as well as cellphone cards, beer and food.
You just have to weave your way around and know where to “turn left at the 4th hut”.
Anchoring in the lee of another island, we celebrated the holidays with our San Blas cruising family. There was an abundance of food, drinks and the desserts included shortbread Christmas cookies and a black forest cake.
We rang in the New Year together the following week in another lovely anchorage well-protected by shallows while the trade winds built & built.
The winds in 2015 started off over 20-25 knots steady making the water rough and silty and cutting down on our snorkeling and fishing time.
Several more boats have since gathered in this anchorage as there are few places to hide from the relentless trades. This was conducive to kiteboarding for our friends, while we caught up on our sleep and reading time. Funny how when the winds reduce to below 20 knots it feels like a mill pond.
