On Saturday, we finally moved from West Holandes Cays. It was a beautiful clear day – with hardly any wind. So, we just motored out. We headed north first a bit to run into deep waters so we could run the watermaker a while. Along the way, we saw some dolphin and they even jumped over towards us (one of them went up at least 10 feet!). We also saw lots of wood and trash drifting in the wind calm waters. We then headed back southwest to Chichime Cays which were about 6 miles from where we were. The Chichime Cays have two main islands with a blue lagoon anchorage area in between. There are Kuna Indian dwellings on both islands, but the main structures are on the southern island. There is even a bar/restaurant and volleyball court. We saw a bunch of cruisers hanging out there on Saturday afternoon.
We mostly just relaxed on the boat enjoying the scenery and did some swimming while at anchor. In the afternoon, David and I did some exploring by dinghy inside and outside the reef. We even went out to a shipwreck we saw on the reef, and did some snorkeling nearby (that’s where we saw the largest elkhorn coral I’ve ever seen – see the underwater photos gallery in this post for photos of the wreck and the elkhorn coral).
The water colors were really beautiful, every shade of blue and turquoise you can imagine, and watching all the other boats and Kuna Indians was entertaining. A bit of a shock after spending the previous several days in a much quieter anchorage. But, still it was very quiet and there were few lights on shore at night (just flashlights from cruisers going ashore, and someone actually lit a fire on the beach). The next morning we met the skipper on “Simpatica” – a Catana catamaran – and we exchanged some tips and plans for future travels. It turns out he was from Houston, and is also headed for the South Pacific. Soon after, we departed to leave the San Blas and make our way towards Colon, Panama – the entrance to the Panama Canal. More on this later.
For now, check out a few photos showing the Chichime Cays, and our trip over there:
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