These islands are a group between Santa Marta and Shelter Bay. Largely rather badly charted you have to keep a good watch out for reefs. We arrived very early one morning and had to stand off waiting for more light to go close to Turtle Island to anchor. We ended up just short of an uncharted reef that luckily Max spotted from the bow that was difficult to see from the flybridge! We had one good day here before an annoyingly strong wind got up and kept up for the next 4 days. There are two quite cute beachy shacks for drinks and meals. One, Ibin’s, even has a Michelin star! And it famous for their lobster/crayfish. They are plentiful in these waters and we saw a few on our snorkel on the reef. There were drinks ashore with the other WARC boats the two nights we were there.

Iban’s on the water

The beach at Turtle Island

We parked ourselves on them a couple of times

Swing seat at the bar

The dinghy approach to Iban’s

The crazy seats in the water

A boat came by with lobsters

The lobster feast

As we were in the first transit group for Panama Canal we had limited time here but got sick of the wind anyway. We made one overnight stop at Chichime Island which had looked pretty good in photos but in reality was a bit daggy – the buildings not really even all that picturesque close up and a massive amount of rubbish, plastic bottles, bags you name it blown all through the coconut groves and along the foreshore. Some effort had been made to clean up around the shelter shed and huts but that was about all.

Basic little huts on Chichime. Some have floors some are on the sand - they have hammocks for beds.

The landing at Chichime

They look idyllic - but we were disappointed with the rubbish

Chichime

A very quick drink out of the wind.

Shelter Bay was nice break from windy anchorages and dodgy coral reefs! We had been in contact with a friend from the Turkiye cruising days so we thought we’d rather get in and see them than hang around the islands. To our very pleasant surprise there was another boat from those times in as well. We had Australia Day with them and a number of other occasions as well. Brian and Lyn from Perth on Aerial and Ken on Antares.

This is where the boats wait to go through the canal. There is an anchorage full of huge container ships and tankers all waiting their turn too.

This is the company w hose ship got sideways and blocked the Suez not long ago. Hope it doesn’t do it here!

Shaunagh made an apple pie to take for Australia Day BBQ

Off to Australia Day BBQ - Shelter Bay Marina

With Lyn, Brian and Ken.

This tree took out the marina power one night and half a day. Very hot with no aircon.

On the scotch - a proud, if scary tradition from Turkiye - the bottle went!

These buildings line the foreshore at Shelter Bay on the way into Colon. They were left by the Americans after the Canal hand over to Panama. the locals have ransacked them over the years.

One surprise we got was Max and Shaunagh deciding to leave us. Shaunagh had decided that the cruising life away from home was not something she wanted to continue with. Shocking timing really. Max put us in touch with a young couple he knew who were between jobs and we have engaged them. There is going to be a delay for us while they renew a visa meaning we will miss the WARC time in the Las Perlas Islands. We can go there ourselves whilst we wait for them which would be better than sitting in a marina – only 2 hours away on the other side. Max and Shaunagh will stay with us through the canal and till the change over.