Next stop was to be Careyes, an upscale resort village with magical looking homes clinging to the cliffs. With only two tiny anchorages we had heard it could be crowded. Imagine our delight to find only one boat there. What luck, or so we thought. We dropped our anchor in the empty cove but could not get it to set. In the process of retreiving the hook the windlass seized up and packed it in. Being in tight quarters we chose not to try and reset as it would require much hauling by hand, a backbreaking proposition. Disappointed, we continued north to Isla Pasavera and were overjoyed to have it all to ourselves once again.
After a 3 kilometer walk I finally got a ride in the back of a mini-truck with 6 workers just off from the local Pacifico Beer plant. They dropped me off in town at the fuel station and bid me "bueno suerte" (good luck): my luck was improving. With jugs filled and hauled across the street I waited for a cab but instead got a ride in the back of another truck out to the cut-off road to our anchorage. Flagging down a cab as I unloaded the fuel from the truck, it was the cab that had to wait as I had orders to pick up loaves of banana, coconut and pineapple breads that San Blas if famous for.
Fueled up again, first light found us winding our way through a maze a fishnets enroute to Isla Isabela. Luck continued, for on our way we had the great fortune to come across two Whale Sharks. Steering over for a visit, we hung out with them as long as we dared for a line of 5 shrimp boats, nets deployed, were headed our way. Bidding farewell to our new friends we continued on to Isabela, arriving to yet another maze of nets to be negotiated. We found only two other boats, but, over the course of the next two days, more and more arrived, making for a very crowded anchorage. This was complicated by fishermen stringing nets in and around all of us, at times setting them across our anchor chains. Luck had run out, it was time to move on to Mazatlan for rest and repairs.
