Headed off from Panama City via a taxi to Albrook terminal, a bus to Colon and then a bus to Portobello to link up with our sail boat. We were meant to leave at midday and we had arrived at the infamous Captain Jack's hostel by 10.30am to discover we were now not leaving until 3pm.
With some time to kill we left our packs with Captain Jack & headed to a local Fonda for some early lunch & then to a tienda for extra sailing supplies.
Back at Captain Jacks I helped a whole heap of Aussies from the Independence sail tour to sort out their immigration issues before playing cards with the daughter of one of the hostel workers - the four year old diva - Angie. Captain Jack offered us complementary shots of Cuban sipping rum to help pass the wait time. It was super smooth & the perfect sweetener :) it was also at Captain Jack's that Becky, Lindy & I met Gunter & Anna, the German father & daughter joining us on 'The Perle' for the next five days.
At 3pm we met Mirek, our Polish Captain & Henrique, the volunteer 2IC, loaded the dingy and did a few trips to & from the small but majestic (14ft?) yacht. Living conditions aboard are pretty cosy with us three girls needing to share a small bed but we all had a welcome rum & dry and got acquainted.
We cooked dinner & then set sail towards the Sanblas islands. The plan was to sail through the night at a very slow pace, arriving at sunrise & avoiding any issues with the reefs around the islands.
Lindy, Becky and I all fed our dinner to the fishes throughout the night and snoozed on deck until the rain forced us in. Poor Lindy was extremely unwell, Becky seemed to recover & Gunter & Anna were absolutely fine! I felt better after I was sick & then tried to help the girls. Spent most of the night shuffling from the cabin to the deck trying to find my sea legs, snoozing as well as learning to steer!
