Sailing Through the San Blas Islands!

On Sunday, March 8th, I made my way to Club Nautica in Cartagena by 6:00pm to meet up with other people who would be sailing on the Alessandra for a week on the Caribbean through the San Blas Islands!

The boat was built in 1988 and is 65 feet long. It sleeps a total of 20 people and is surprisingly more spacious than I expected it to be.

My room has three beds in it, there’s another area with 6 in it, a third section with 8 in it and of course, the captains quarters! You can also choose to sleep up on the main deck either in a hammock or on a cushioned area apart from where the crew sleeps.

Our captain is Rudi: an Italian man who has been sailing for over 40 years. There’s Andrea and Carlos who are also on the crew to help navigate through the Caribbean Sea. Andrea is Italian as well and Carlos is from Colombia. (I am currently waiting for a photo of Rudi, but Carlos is in blue and Andrea is rocking a pirate hat below).

The first night we put our belongings down underneath, met the captain and then had some time to run to town to grab any last-minute items (aka beer 😜). I went for pizza with three others: Manu (France), David & Danielle (England). We were scheduled to set sail by around 4:00am on Monday the 9th.

I was feeling so nervous about it that I immediately took a Dramamine which I’m thankful for. I just thought about how I could feel the boat rocking so slightly while it’s docked so I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when we’re out at sea.

I made it to bed by 10:45 and found my bunk surprisingly more comfortable than I thought although, I learned very quickly that sleeping horizontally on the boat is less than ideal, so learn from my mistakes if you're heading out sailing. 😅

The next day was probably the third worst day my body has put me through EVER (my wisdom teeth removal being the second worst and asthma attacks being the first). I was SO sea sick - I just threw up all day and couldn’t even keep my medication down. I’ve never had such severe nausea in my life so I suppose sailing is not the life for me afterall. I was in full on survival mode and completely relied on the people I met less than 12 hours ago to help me get through that first day and a bit. I asked for water refills, fruit (although I could barely eat it) and a bucket. What a way to get to know others, hey?

The rest of the day continued that way until I finally was able to keep down some sea sickness medication for a half hour (I only knew the time because I heard music playing from the crew in the kitchen and figured that 7-8 songs HAD to be around 30 minutes!) After that, I felt much better and even captured a few photos of the ship and the sunset as I tried to eat an orange and some crackers. We sailed on open waters for a total of 29 hours. I’ll admit that I was pretty nervous for majority of it as the boat rocked so far each way, I just kept thinking “this thing is going to capsize!” and was regretting recently watching Titanic on Netflix. 😂 I continued to tell myself that I should only panic if the captain began to panic, so that method seemed to help.

Luckily I was able to keep a sea sickness pill down long enough for it to work and by the time the sun went down, I felt much better. I laid near the stern of the boat nearby the captains areas where I just rested on the floor with a pillow. I told myself “I am never going to leave this spot” but eventually found my way to another area of the boat for dinner. We ate risotto for supper (our captain is Italian and chooses primarily Italian cuisine to eat) and all of us went to bed shortly after. I took a gravol and was seriously thankful it worked because it sent me into a dozy state to be able to fall asleep.

The next morning we made it to the San Blas islands by 11:00am! Going to sleep the night before, I kept counting down the hours until I could be on land again. Before hopping into the water, we had a family breakfast which included eggs, bread, cheese, sausage and fruit.

The afternoon was spent swimming, snorkelling and checking out nearby islands on our own. We relaxed in the sun, drank beers, read books and chatted. It was a lovely afternoon after what was such a treacherous start! We had carbonara with zucchini for lunch which was lovely to fill us up.

We docked at another nearby island and had risotto for supper. The island had a few other catamarans anchored so we swam to shore and walked around the island which took perhaps 10 minutes to go all the way around.

We played drinking games and got to know each other throughout the night and I went to bed by midnight or so. Being docked at an island where the boat barely moves makes the biggest difference! The night prior, since we were on open ocean, I was woken up multiple times by bags falling over or even rolling onto my bunk mate: Alexandra. (Which, by the way, is an incredibly interesting way to get to know someone, in case you want to try it sometime haha!) There was even a few times where the boat rocked so far over to the side that water dropped into our room and woke us up! I slept with my towel over me from there on out.

Wednesday March 11th, most of us were up and out of bed by 7am. I hopped into the ocean and went for a swim/float to start my day and that was magnificent. It’s ridiculously easy to float in the ocean - you can cross your ankles and have your arms above your head and still have no problem floating which I LOVE.

Breakfast was served a few hours later and I sat and enjoyed coffee with Joyce, Francesco, Millie & Martin - all people from Germany or Poland. It rained most of the morning so I read my book (Eat, Pray, Love) and relaxed on the boat while Andrea played guitar and people ate fresh coconut and hung around.

The sun came out a couple hours after (rain never lasts long in the Caribbean!) and we were treated to a freshly caught lobster lunch on the other side of the island! We were served lobster, coconut rice, two types of salad and fresh bread all together as a family-style meal.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent just hanging out in the water before heading to another island. There are a total of 365 islands so we had many to choose from!

We had spaghetti with bolognese sauce for supper and watched the sun go down while keeping an eye on the fishing lines. A guy on our ship, Marc (Holland), was even fishing with line around a beer can 😂. Another Marc (also from Holland) caught a puffer fish so we had to throw it back but that was the extent of what we caught throughout the trip unfortunately.

At night you could see the stingrays jumping out of the water... or more so just catch them as they splashed back in. Before this trip, I didn’t know they did that!

I woke up the next morning by 7am and went up deck for a cup of coffee in the sunshine. We found out that the Kuna people were closing access to the islands and that Colombia closed the border to boats and ships coming in to port because of the Coronavirus. So we sailed to a separate island where Rudi took our passports to see if we would be granted entry into Panama and what the deal was with the islands.

We weren’t allowed on the island and therefore didn’t have to pay the Kuna tax ($20 USD per person) to them. However! We were thrilled to hear that we were all issued entry stamps into Panama so that was a relief. The next issue is that we learned that the Porvenir port was closed so instead we must sail an additional 7 hours north to (hopefully) enter through Puerto Lindo. Fingers crossed we are able to get in there!

I hopped into the water and snorkelled with a few others for a while and didn’t see too much but the coral reef is always fun to look at, in my opinion. I just think of Finding Nemo and how its just a busy neighbourhood down there! My favourite fish I saw was this small, 4-inch long fish that had blue and black stripes (and from my googling, it is called a bluehead wrasse) There were also beautiful bright coloured fish and star fish that were close to shore.

For lunch, the Kuna people sold us fish they caught that day! I couldn’t tell you what kind of fish it was, but it was delicious nonetheless.

It was served with a baked potato, garlic sauce and a salad which was refreshing in the heat.

We anchored between two islands and spent our last day swimming, walking around the islands and relaxing (obviously a lot of this was done throughout the trip!😂) This island was my absolute favourite - the water was crystal clear and warm, the sand was soft and the Kuna people even sold cold beer if you wanted one!

That night we were treated to a bonfire on the beach and danced to music under the moonlight. The group of people we were with were so much fun and mostly everyone danced and had a great time. It was the latest night we had throughout the week... we were all in bed by 1am 😂 but all of us were usually awake with the sunshine so that makes for a long day!

We started sailing to Puerto Lindo by 7am the next morning and I made sure to take two seasickness pills when I first got up because I didn’t want to risk being sick all day. They made me super loopy so I just returned to my spot beside the captain and let myself doze off while laying in the sunshine.

After a couple of hours I got up and there were dolphins jumping alongside our ship which was a pleasant surprise. ☺️

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We arrived arrived at 1:30pm to the port (pictured above) which was earlier than expected! I was able to connect to wifi for the first time in a week and was COMPLETELY overwhelmed with how much the world changed the week I was off the grid. What a week to be away, hey?!

All of us learned about the absolute chaos that coronavirus has caused in the world and I think we could all agree it was better not knowing!

Before heading to Panama City, we had lunch which was pasta with snail... the giant ones that come out of a conch shell. It tasted better than I anticipated but I still wish no one told me what it was I was eating until after I was done! The photos below are from when (I assume) we got the snails - the Kuna man would take a machete and break open the shell then take the snail out and put it in the white bin beside him. It was super gross to watch, if I’m being honest.🤢🐚

We unloaded our belongings and said goodbye to everyone before heading to Panama City with a 2 hour car ride. Of course, we had to get a group photo before leaving.

Overall, it was an incredible trip and I’m thankful I had this experience, although I could have done without getting so seasick. If you have the chance to go to the San Blas islands, I highly suggest it because they truly are paradise! 🙌😍

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I probably won’t post now for a little while as I had flown back to Florida to be with Kurt for a couple days AND THEN came back to Canada after finding some loopholes within my insurance. I am just self-quarantining and monitoring my health for the meantime and hope to head back out on the road as soon as things begin to get back to normal!

Chat soon & stay healthy!

T