Salardup, San Blas

During this our friend in the monohull, whom we thrashed on the way here, came over to lend a hand with his tools.  I was happy to have the help.  As soon as I took a look into the outboard I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy fix.  We check all the usual – cleaned the carb, checked the plugs, etc.  Of course, almost everything we looked into had some problem with it, including a missing bolt – which holds the carb onto the head.  A fairly large deal.  And it wasn’t pushing water through the engine.  And it was leaking gasoline like a sieve. Well…

We tried for more than an hour and the only thing I managed to do was find a myriad of problems, get a few sea-urchin spines stuck in my foot, and lose my sunglasses in the water.

Eventually I gave up on the outboard, and so did the Kuna.  They decided to put up their sails, and forego the troublesome outboard; I prefer this method too – mechanical stuff fails quite often in this environment.

Sailing > Motoring

I was starving and wanted a drink.  I dove straight into the ceviche, then made a drink, then took a quick survey of the island.  We weren’t alone, and there was a volleyball net.  Luke got a volleyball and then the real fun started.  First up was a German and American girl.  Luke paired up with the German, I got the American.  They had to leave before our game was over.  Then we were alone on the island again.  About the time I started to think we should head back to the boat, a dinghy full of drunken Englishmen and Englishwomen came ashore.

Ceviche!

Quick introductions were followed by a game of rum volleyball. Which is volleyball, with lots of rum.  Compared to our English friends, we all seemed very sober.  The cycle started with a few volleys, followed by a drink-break.  Then we’d cool off, and wash off in the crystal-clear water.  Then we’d go play another game of volleyball.  A fun afternoon, for sure.

Volleyball

Back onboard we heard the Englishfolk partying late into the night, but Luke was out almost immediately on the trampolines.  Amanda and I cooked.  Then we ate, watched a movie, and went to sleep.

Naturally, the wind picked up overnight, turning our tent-shade-thing into a loudly flapping tent-sail-thing.  I finally convinced myself to get out of bed and take it down.  With the Englishfolk passed out, and our tent-shade-thing silenced – it was finally peaceful enough to sleep.