Mai 13 – June 08, 2025; 19300 nm and 2271 days after departure from La Rochelle

We managed the 600nm from Cayman to Linton bay/ Panamá in 5 days. Apart from a broken shackle, the trip was easy and unspectacular. Though the broken shackle did bring us in a scary situation. Shortly after the sun had set on our first travel day a big bang sound made us jump. Immediately after the unpleasant noise the boom started swinging back and forth like crazy. Not good! That meant the main sheet was somehow not working anymore. Fortunately that again all happened in light wind conditions. I’m pretty sure sailors do have guardian angels who control just a little bit the dangerous situations! That said I have no clue how we could have controlled the boom banging forth and back in stronger winds. Therefore we were of course more than grateful! A spot light and El Capitano somehow controlling the boom helped to enlightened us what had caused the swinging boom. The shackle which holds the block to the main sheet had given up. The little thing literally had a breakdown so that the sheet was no longer connected to the boom. That little shackle (see below) had so much to carry on his little shoulders, we couldn’t really blame it after such a long time of holding up. Again, only thanks to the light winds (or to the guardian angels?) we were able to replace a spare shackle and could peacefully sail on. (Btw, I’m always impressed by watching physics. Isn’t it amazing that just by using a tackle, when the rope is threaded through the pulley, it provides a mechanical advantage that amplifies the force applied to the rope? Just fascinating !)

Linton bay had changed since we left about 18 months ago. The funny spaceship like water apartments were moved more outside of the marina, which made the marina look much more welcoming. A very well equipped chandler had moved in underneath the restaurant/bar. That as well made the marina look tidy and of course was a big goody for all sailors. Also to our happy surprise it was now even possible to do customs and immigration in the marina. Such a huge improvement!!! We were more than happy about that as it saved us almost a whole day. No need to go to Portobelo to get checked in – great! Oh and I almost forgot!! Now even the ATM did work. Getting and spending money got easy in Linton.
We enjoyed being back and were very excited about the arrival of our new dinghy. Yes! We just couldn’t stand the broken pressure floor on our not really old dinghy anymore. El Capitano had tried endless times to fix the bottom, yet it still required at least two times a day pumping up air. Plus with a soft floor we couldn’t plane anymore it was just all a “pita” (excuse language)! Really annoying as we used it only just over two years. My guess, it was a Monday-built-boat, what else could it be?! Anyway it took us a looooong time to find the dinghy we wanted. No doubt a hard bottom floor is much more comfy, stable and tough. Yet we needed a boat which we could put away when on long passages to be able to use our wind vane. Inflatables were just easy to roll up and stowed away somewhere in Altimate’s belly. But all hard bottom boats, at least big enough to carry 4 people were too big to put them on our bow between the mast and the stay. But that would be the only place we could place a hard bottom tender. Somehow it felt like a catch-22. So we just had to look for other options. Some inflatables come with aluminium roll up floors or with battened floors. That seemed to be the solution for us. However to build up the boats sounded almost impossible to do on deck. To put the battens correctly into the dinghy a flat floor was needed to be able to secure the rims nicely into their space. But it is not flat at all on Altimate’s bow and space is rather limited. We were frustrated and fed up with looking when luckily by chance we run over a company, which provided a hard bottom floor dinghy with a movable transom. That sounded indeed very interesting! We immediately checked all the measurements and package sizes and realised that this boat would actually fit on our bow! Yeahhhhh!!! Now we knew what we wanted and had to find a provider who would sell and send it. That was actually another “pita” but in the end we found one shop in the US and also managed to let it be delivered to Linton Bay. Even though we had to spent a crazy amount of money for that tender – I think we could have bought a triple size boat for the same prize – we were still so happy and excited about it.

Surprising but very much appreciated was the fact that the boat arrived earlier than expected. That gave us the freedom to leave Linton whenever we wanted. Now, all we needed to do was organising our errands. No waiting for the dinghy. Yeah! After a couple of days of just enjoying the laid back atmosphere of Linton with a new dinghy, freshly made juice at the Karla’s juice bar, a nice lunch at Nancy’s place or just a little stroll to the village Puerto Lindo, we took the bus to Sabanitas to buy groceries. We felt lucky to arrive in Sabanitas as we once again had the pleasure of a crazy fast driving bus driver. Although we knew, it was once again a scary exciting experience. E.g. Overtaking other busses in blind corners and only being faster a tad bit didn’t feel so good. I have to admit I would have preferred a slower driver! Am I getting old? Who knows? However luckily we arrived safely at the supermarket and two filled up grocery trolleys later we were sitting in a taxi back to Linton. (No, not because of the racing bus driver because of the convenience!) The weather was unfortunately already very rainy season like. Most of the time it was overcasted and boy it did rain so much! So it was on our grocery day. We were lucky to get our shopping dry back to Altimate. I thanked Zeus for having a break of having a fit of rage. Or was it some other god who was responsible for thunder and lighting? However we were fed up with the weather! It was extremely humid, hot and the anchorage unbearable rolly. So no reason to stay longer. Less than a week after arriving in Linton all errands were done and we were ready to sail to the San Blas islands.

After a long cloudy day trip (46nm) our first stop was in the Lemon cays in Nugnudup. (I have to get used to the funny Guna Yala island names again.) Here we stayed two nights and fortunately the weather was a little better and it was not quite as humid anymore. We had another stop in Waisaladup (that was the island where we saw the monkey when the kids were with us, a couple of years ago, just in case someone remembers) before arriving at the “pool” at Banedup. It was so great coming back! Debbies boat Runner with a complete new make up was still at her place and awaiting us. So were Ilka and Doghan from Macera. Ivin, the chief Guna cook, Myrta his sister and her husband José and Levy also recognised us. It did feel like coming home! Though a lot has changed at Banedup. Ivin had built a pretty big restaurant area. I’m not so sure I like it that much as the previous simple but cosy atmosphere was missing. On the other hand it was now possible to sit with many people together protected either from the sun or the rain and still have a nice breeze. What was actually kind of amazing was that he started to built a little island with palm trees and a small hut. Using old coral, conch and other stones, the islands provided small fish and lobster already a new home. His goal was to provide a comfortable accommodation simple but with enough luxury to get honeymooners or other couples coming. They would have their own little beach and reef and a Guna style decorated apartment with bathroom and ventilation. So far we only saw the building shell but to me it looked already pretty cool!!!

Also very different at the pool than two years ago were the many boats at the anchorage. We remembered being sometimes alone with Debbie at that time of the year. And if there were more boats we were talking about a couple more. Now it was packed. 25 plus boats we easily counted. Star Link and the Congresso of Guna Yala officially permitting charter boats to take tourists around the islands, was probably the reason for that increase of boats. As unusual the picture of so many boats was as handy it came in regard to volleyball. There were always enough people who like to play. Like that the first weeks passed by in a blink. In the mornings we did boat projects, snorkelling, trash burning or whatever was needed to be done and in the afternoons we played volleyball, had once in a while a potlucks or a bon fire. San Blas was like having holidays!!!