Depending on where you live, you might be familiar with the
following situation. It’s summer and the air is heavy. It is so hot and humid
that you can barely breathe. You move slowly, trying to run your errands
without much motivation and you so wish you could take a nap or read a book,
because that is about all a human body can handle in a climate like this. But,
it is too hot to sleep, unless you don’t mind waking up in a puddle of sweat,
and who has time for sleeping anyway? On stagnant days like this, a massive
storm is bound to happen from the moment the temperature cools down a bit. On
stagnant days like this, you might have actually come to expect some thunder
and lightning, and a healthy dose of rain by nightfall. The plants will be happy; nature needs it, you think. Tomorrow will
be a nice and crisp day again!
Stagnant days like this, is how the summer in the San Blas
islands looks like, feels like and tastes like. Every day. The best way to cool
off is by jumping off your boat in the magnificent blue water. Again and again.
But, how about the storms? Ha! Even though it is very hot and humid every day,
this doesn’t mean it rains every day/night. Nobody would cruise or spend whole
summers here otherwise, right? The storms are unpredictable. They might arrive
during the day, they might be visible only in the distance, they might approach
and engulf you, they might come from the east, west, north or south, or they
might not arrive at all for a few days.
Usually, when they do arrive, this is what happens: Mark and
I would see some lightning in the distance, likely over the mountains on
mainland Panama. This is nothing special. Then, the lightshow moves a bit
closer and we watch in awe, high up above, in the clouds. As if continually lit
by an amazing spotlight, the sky turns white-greyish, all around us, every few
seconds. The spectacle becomes even more intense, when the thunder is audible.
Soon enough, the first raindrops fall and we retreat inside, where we base
ourselves near a porthole or other window. Then, the wind arrives, but we don’t
worry about that. We have good and oversized ground tackle (anchor and chain).
With our faces pressed against the glass, we have a good view of our
surroundings every time lightning strikes. By now, we sometimes see the eye
blinding lightning bolt hit the water. We count… How far away was that? Let’s
hope no boats were anchored there!
Sometimes, we hold our positions for hours and pray to
not get hit. Sometimes, we think we can’t do anything about these storms and go
back to bed. The deafening thunder vibrates through Irie and makes her shake.
Lightning brightens the night sky all around us. I use the powerful flashes to
locate the glass of water or find my way downstairs. Who needs lights in this “illuminating”
weather? Finally, unannounced, it is quiet and dark again. The squall has
passed, sometimes for five minutes, more often for a few days, until the next
one arrives. We, our boat and our electronics survived another San Blas summer
storm and we even collected fresh rainwater to clean our sweaty bodies!
