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!
Mark and I are still in Avea Bay, on the southwest side of
laid-back Huahine. It is an attractive bay with a long stretch of yellow sand,
a few houses tucked away amongst palm and other trees and relatively clear
water. The deeper part of the bay is framed by a shallow sand bank which was,
until recently, our preferred anchoring spot. When the current and wind turned
extremely funky one day, and Irie ended up pulling on her anchor the “wrong
way” (anchor behind us and we were pulling forward – the anchor was still being
dug in, but because of the shallow water, the chain could possibly rub against
the keels in this position), which has NEVER happened before, we decided to swap
our 6ft depth for 42ft. Here, the current is less strong and when there is a
rare breeze, we face into it, which provides some cooling off effect during
this hot and humid summer weather.
No other cyclones have come our way yet, fortunately, but
the last couple of weeks have been very grey and rainy. Our portable generator
is doing a fine job of keeping our batteries charged and our computers
“active”. Once in a while, a charter boat joins us in the anchorage, but
mostly, we are by ourselves. We do a lot of work on the computer and a WiFi
service onshore allows us access to the internet through our paid account and
our Wiriepro. To get a little bit of exercise, we swim laps around
the boat or stretch our legs along the quiet road. A small grocery store, about
a mile away, offers fresh baguettes and non-fresh staples, a friendly lady
sells fruit by her house and an interesting looking marae in the area has a
dumpster next to it, so we are basically set for a little while. :-)
One day, we tried to beat the odds of the rain Gods and set
out for a hike up and over a mountain to reach the village of Parea. The path
was not too muddy and we managed to climb all the way up. We followed the
ridge, but did not see a trail descending on the other side. So, we retraced
our steps down and walked to little Parea along the island road instead. Being
all hot and sweaty, we welcomed the first rain shower, resting on the trunk of
a tree. When the second downpour arrived, we made use of a covered bench. Rain
is a part of life here during this season, and as long as I can protect my
camera and other “valuables”, I don’t mind getting wet, just like the locals.
As long as the sun comes out at some point, so we can dry all our stuff. This,
she finally did a couple of days ago. We are happy with the temporary change of
weather and have swapped our computers for household and boat related chores to
take full advantage of the sun’s qualities and the lack of gloominess!
