Day 1, After an overnight sail to the San Blas we awoke at the edge of the Guna reserve where we departed the Santana to pay the $20 entrance tax and officially depart Panama.  The day was spent snorkelling at a shipwreck inhabited with coral and schools of fish. After this we continued further into the isles spending more hours swimming in pristine waters and lying on beautiful beaches. In the evening our chef James cooked a lovely meal of Snapper and we spent the night drinking rum from coconuts around a bonfire on an island inhabited by a local chief called Rico.

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Day 2, Nursing a slight hangover we set course for a series of even smaller islands on the edge of the open water crossing to Colombia. Here we spent the next two days snorkelling the shallow reef garden and walking around the Crueso-esque islands, true paradise. Carrie even practised yoga on top deck which was quite a challenge. In the evening we enjoyed lobster and played cards.

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Day 3, More island exploring and snorkelling before starting our overnight sailing through the reef break to the open water crossing, bleeeuuugh! It was a very bumpy night, lots of crashing through the waves.

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Day 4, We continued bobbing up and down (up to 3 metres), up, up…down, crash!! Constant motion = laying down and sleeping inside or fresh air on top deck, trying to read and play cars to pass the time and not focus on how queasy we felt. Needless to say, we didn’t catch much sleep.

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Day 5, We awoke to the sight of land and pulled into the marina of Cartagena, Colombia. We entered via the old fortifications and could see the new high-rise towers of the city. We thoroughly enjoyed our trip and highly recommend sailing the San Blas, despite the open water leg of the route, it was totally worth the seasickness to visit the tropical islands.