El Porvenir

19 March 2016

The Gulf of San Blas is quite big with hundreds of islands, reefs and ten thousands rocks that are right at the surface. In between there are ‘channels’ that we can sail in. The Gulf is not mapped well. The British Admiralty provides one detailed chart and that is the area that we are visiting. The chart is based on an American chart from 1921 and has not been updated yet. The offset of the GPS differs from place to place so it is dangerous to trust this chart. The angles and distances are accurate so with help from the radar and the depth sounder we found our anchor spot right south of the island El Porvenir. It’s getting light and we see a lot of tiny islands, beaches, palm trees, mangrove bushes and rocks. There are a lot of traditional houses with roofs of palm leafs. The houses are on poles in the water. The islands are inhabited by an indigenous tribe and are self-governed. After breakfast we go to the mainland to explore.