Bocas Archipelago - over to Bluefields

After Red Frog we motored a little further down Hospital Bight (so named for the hospital that was there in the early 20th century) to Bahia Honda. Bahia Honda was a relatively tranquil spot for the night. Just the usual noise of children playing and dogs barking as there was a small village nearby.

The next morning we had a look at a tiny marina that we had been able to see from our Red Frog anchorage. As we were to discover there were hundreds of very sheltered spots amongst the mangroves of the archipelago and obviously some people had taken the opportunity to create mini-marinas for people looking to leave their boat in a safe, cheap place. This particular marina was full with about 8 yachts on the dock.

Entering The Gap

From Bahia Honda we motored through a very narrow channel known as The Gap. The channel wasn't very long and was shallow in parts so we had one eye on the depth sounder all the way.

The Gap opened out into a large expanse of mangrove islets that we cautiously motored through, again having to watch the depths closely, as we made our way in a generally south direction. While mostly there is mud on the bottom there are also coral heads, hence the need to move slowly and being alert to changes in the colour of the water indicating a change in depth and possibly coral. Nice to be in a steel boat though!

Mangrove islets south of The Gap

Once out past the mangrove islets, we passed between Isla Bastimentos and Isla Popa and made a change in plan to head for Laguna de Bluefields, another hour and a half or so away, rather than stick to our original plan to stop at Cayos Zapatilla (2 small coral cays known for white sand and snorkelling). We were able to hoist the genoa, although still ran the engine as the wind was light.

We arrived at Bluefields mid-afternoon, having an impromptu race as we entered the Laguna with a kiyuku (local indian canoe) that was sailing along. Ivan did stop the engine to try to make it a more even competition. We set anchor at Punta Allegre once we had established where the coral reef was in order to make sure we weren't in danger of drifting on to it. There was another yacht in the tiny bay, flying a British flag. We didn't waste any time getting into the water to cool off and swam over to introduce ourselves to Frank. Frank has a 44ft Herreshof steel ketch  that he built himself in London 20 or so years ago. He kindly pointed the local man selling crayfish from his kiyuka in our direction that night!



Kiyuka under sail at Bluefields





Dinner!



The next day we began a walk across the tip of the island, through the forest from Punta Allegre village to another village called Cusapin, but gave up after about an hour as we could see the mud was just going to continue, making it very slow going. The locals had warned us it was a 3 hour trip and very muddy!

Punta Allegre village

We stayed 2 nights at Bluefields, enjoying some swimming and watching the locals paddle their kiyukas past us. Sometimes they would have a handful of fruit or vegetables to sell us. Othertimes they would just look at our boat or test out their English on us. Ivan got quite a funny fright once to look up from something he was doing in the cockpit to find two young children peering over the edge of the cockpit from their kiyuka! They are quite silent when they paddle up.

Track to Cusapin