11 nm Sail to the Green Islands

As our time in the San Blas Islands was growing short, we decided that we would visit one more isolated anchorage, one more deserted island, before leaving. So, from Isla Tigre, we made our way to the cluster of islands which includes Green Island, aka Kanlildup, and several others. It was a nice 10 nm trip, and after we motored out of the narrow channel of Tigre, we sailed all the way around the north side of Green Island, turned the corner, and did not put the sails away and start the motor until we were well in the channel to the anchorage. We used the waypoints and instructions from the Bahaus book to take us to a narrow anchorage about 100 yards off of the main island. When we arrived there was only one other boat there, a catamaran about 1/2 mile away, but during the day several other boats arrived and anchored around us in a fairly tight cluster.

As the weather was pretty nice, the first thing we did after dropping the hook was to go snorkeling. We took the dinghy to a beautiful little beach at the east end of Green Island, donned our gear and snorkeled several hundred yards out and around in a circle. Although in this first snorkeling place we did not see much coral, at one point we found ourselves surrounded by millions of tiny fish. It was really neat and weird. See the first three snorkeling pics below to get some idea of what it was like to swim amongst them.

For our other snorkeling spot, we took the dinghy around to some coral reefs off the west end of the island, where we anchored the dinghy and snorkeled through the coral heads. Although not the best snorkeling we've ever experienced, it was still pretty nice, with 30-50 foot visibility and quite a bit of life to see. At one point I came upon a 5' shark but was too surprised (and a little bit scared) to take a picture, so I turned around and swam away from it. There were numerous fans and a lot of small fish, too. After snorkeling, we returned to RHAPSODY for afternoon naps, followed by cocktails and dinner.

Through the rest of the day, most of the other boats left the anchorage until there was only one boat, a French catamaran, that remained with us in the anchorage for the night. Fortunately, they too left the next day, and so on Monday, December 8, we had the whole Green Island complex to ourselves. Although we could see several sailing ulus passing by in the distance, none approached RHAPSODY, so we weren't even visited by any Kunas, and so, for our final San Blas island, we had a truly peaceful and isolated experience. During the day, we took the dinghy to Green Island itself and had a very nice walk around and criss-crossing the island, looking at all the plants and birds, beautiful palm trees and jungle, and in general taking in these final sights. We were already a little sad, knowing that the following day we would be leaving this beautiful place.

On Tuesday morning, as expected, we were somewhat maudlin about leaving. Nonetheless, our time was running out and it was time to go, so we upped anchor and left Green Island.

Snorkeling Pics