The Holandes Cays is only about 20 miles from the East Lemon Cays and even nicer. The entrance through the reefs and islands is as easy as the Lemons even though it appears a bit complicated when you look at the chart. Luckily there was enough wind and or current to move along at 3.5kts making me happy. A few other boats making the same run under power passed me around noon having left later than me and arriving earlier but of course burning all of that precious diesel, I was very satisfied just to have enough wind to make a sail of it. Plus I didn’t know how much Diesel I would need going to Colombia and it was difficult at best to find fuel since I left Colon Panama. When I did finally leave the Holandes I had only used about Five Gallons since Colon Panama over the last month.

The first anchorage I chose is known as “The Hot Tub”. It has a VERY narrow cut through a reef where you can easily see the bottom and the reef on both sides so entering was no problem as long as you keep your eyes on the water rather than the GPS. There was only one other boat and I anchored on the opposite side a considerable distance away. My spot was close to a long narrow cut in the reef that was amazing snorkeling and great fishing. Once again I struck out with the spear gun, but in just one snorkel I saw a large nurse shark, spotted eagle rays, large lobsters and boatloads of other reef fish, even one very large jack (I think) that I took a pathetic shot at and of course missed. For me the best part of the anchorage was the fishing. I usually keep a few slim-jims in the tackle box for when I don’t have any other decent bait. I didn’t get any hits all evening until around 11pm, then I had a nice size jack, then an hour later another, and two other fish I wont try to identify (you can look at the picture) but they were all great eating. After two days in the Hot tub I had the engel/refrigerator running with several filets for later and a belly full of fish so I was ready to move to another very nearby anchorage (only one or two miles) “The swimming pool”. This anchorage seems to be one of the most popular anchorages in all of San Blas. I think there were around 10 boats, several faces to put with the voices and names that I had been listening to and talking with on the SSB radio net daily. I knew from the radio that one particular person had a lot of success spear fishing the reefs around the anchorage so I asked him if I could go out with him and learn some pointers. Sure enough he speared a very nice Red Snapper and I got a smaller Blue Runner or Jack. When I say smaller it was a perfect size meal, I even had to cut the head and tail off just to get it to fit into the frying pan, sorry I didn’t get a picture of him. The reef itself was a great snorkel, this was a wall about 10 feet deep running along a cut between two reefs leading all the way outside to the ocean.

The next day I fished the same area alone with no success but again, it’s such nice snorkeling I really didn’t mind. Plus I would later find out that my spear gun was insufficient for anything more than very short ranges but Ill explain how that got straightened out in Colombia.

One reason why people like the “swimming pool” so much is that you can anchor in around 10 feet of water and clearly see the bottom all around you as opposed to the 30ft deep anchorages in most other areas of San Blas. It’s nice to just jump off your boat for a swim and easily see reef fish, Often rays and sharks, lobsters, all within a hundred feet or so of the boat. There are also several different types of reefs to swim. Some of them are little mountains that pop out of deep water where you can free dive down to 30 feet or swim near the top of the underwater “mountain’ in only 3 to 5 feet. Other areas are like big shallow fields of amazing coral. Pam, another single hander there offered to take me out for a night-dive/snorkel witch seemed it bit odd at first but was great. Basically you go snorkeling with water-proof flashlights after dark and the result is all kinds of creatures that you normally don’t see during the day. We saw a few small octopuses, lots of anemones that seem to mostly only come out at night, weird sea spiders, lobsters, and the coolest part is that a lot of the fish are just sleeping around the coral, so you can right up to them and even touch them if you want, even though it wakes them up and scares the heck out of them.

It seems like a lot of the semi-permanent cruisers staying in the swimming pool have formed a very tight community, every week there is a pot-luck dinner and sundowners on BBQ island were people chat and swap books and food, then drink until dark. This was probably the nicest anchorage I’ve ever been in, only lacking the seclusion found in some of the less popular places. Other people reported catching ocean trigger from their boats but I didn’t have any success catching fish on a hook. I was still very happing just to spear my first fish, lots of other cruisers caught fish trolling along the reef in their dinghies and one even got a 35 to 40lb Red Snapper on a spear, along with two other large fish (see pictures from Holandes). I could probably go on raving about San Blas but I’m already in Colombia trying to catch up the blog so this will have to suffice unless anyone has any questions. Next the passage from San Blas to Cartagena Colombia!

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