Dinghy Exploration and Breeze's Birthday

Friday was Breeze's birthday so Debbie had invited us back, the day after Thanksgiving, to celebrate it on BLUE SKY. We started Friday morning by wishing him a happy birthday on the net and on the VHF radio. We agreed that we would go over to BLUE SKY in the afternoon for more partying and a bit of guitar playing, but before that, we'd all go out for a dinghy exploration.

We departed RHAPSODY on DITTY and headed for BLUE SKY where Damon, from BRUIDAIRE, in his dinghy, joined us and Debbie and Breeze (and Hobie dog) in their dinghy. Damon had the most experience around the reefs and little islands, so he led the way. From the anchorage, we made our way slowly between two islands, only 20-30 yards apart, over some reefs visible just inches below our puttering outboard, to a nice little island, called Yauala, with a pretty sand beach where we all parked the dinghies and went for a walk. We walked the entire circumference of the small island in about 20 minutes, chatting about this and that, and in general just enjoying the beautiful day.

Then it was back in the dinghies for a short ride around the main island, where we could see RHAPSODY anchored about 1/2 mile away, and on to the "resort island" of Iskar where we stopped to check out the Kuna resort, called Sapibenega (www.sapigenega.com). The resort was pleasant, with 4 separate thatched hut buildings of 2 rooms each. Each room had two double beds, ceiling fans, a clean, modern hot and cold water bathroom, and windows which beveled open onto the sea. They even have 24 hour electricity, thanks to the large bank of solar panel cells. The rates were between $75 and $100/day, all inclusive, I hear. It was very pretty, and on the way out we stopped at the palapa restaurant and had a birthday beer for Breeze. Our guide-waitresses even sang Happy Birthday in Kuna!

From there, we returned to our respective boats at about noon. After a bite of lunch, about 2:00, we headed back over to BLUE SKY for an afternoon celebration of Breeze's 34th++ birthday! It was great fun as gifts were given and the guitars were broken out, tunes were sung, and a good time, with good feelings, was had by all. Happy Birthday Breeze!

We spent one more sleepy day at Snug Harbor. BLUE SKY left that Saturday morning for the border towns of Puerto Olbaldia, Panama and Sapzurro, Colombia. They need to leave the country for 72 hours to renew their visas, and so we won't see them for a few weeks. Later on Saturday, two new boats in from Cartegena, Colombia anchored nearby, one Swedish-flagged, the other Canadian, named WISHBONE. Ray and Vonnie from WISHBONE came by for a few minutes in the afternoon for a visit. Otherwise, we just took it easy all day on Saturday, even watching a silly DVD that night for entertainment.

When we got up easy the next morning, on Sunday, BRUIDAIRE had already left the anchorage and in short order we did the same. About 10:00 am, we pulled up anchor and RHAPSODY left Snug Harbor bound for the more eastward islands.