14 nm to 2 nights at Los Almacigos, Isla Cebaco

The journey from Isla Catalina to Isla Cebaco was a short one, to say the least. After pulling up the anchor and 5 minutes of motoring we rounded Catalina and Gobernadora and Cebaco were right there in view. We were headed for an anchorage on Isla Cebaco called El Jobo, and figured it to take all of an hour and a half to get there. On the way over, talking on the VHF with DELFIN SOLO we heard that they and KETCHING UP had checked out the anchorage already and determined that it was too deep, around 70', for easy anchoring, and so they had all moved over to a different anchorage, the one at Los Almacigos. So we motored up between Gobernador and Cebaco, about an hour further along, and pulled into the anchorage at Los Almacigos in the early afternoon.

The anchorage at Los Almacigos featured a small fishing village - maybe 4-5 houses and families along with and assorted anchored pangas. The village was nestled in at one crook of the indent, and the rest of the mile long strip of island was mostly jungle with a few signs of settlement, a palapa or house, here and there. There was a prominent, if small, church, visible about 1/2 mile from the "main" village, right along the stretch of beach where all of our boats anchored. Tahsin and Rengin said that they had walked to the village and not found much there, so we never bothered to check it out.

When we arrived on RHAPSODY in the early afternoon, plans were already underway to get together on DELFIN SOLO for cocktails and snacks, and by 5:00 we had taken the dinghy over to their boat. Rengin had made fresh bread and and a sweet potato salad that everyone loved. To top it off Ashley from KU made some strawberry cheesecake and chocolate cakes. We stayed on DS until well after dark, chatting and drinking, hearing about WAHOO's trip up to Puerto Mutis, laughing at rascally boatcat Gatito, and finding out more about each other through the colorful tales that everyone shared.

Our second day in Los Almacigos, in keeping with the mundane realities of life on a boat, all three boats decided to take their trash into shore to burn it. So that morning we lugged it all in the dinghies to the beach by the church . Everyone from all three boats was there for this "community" event! As is our habit, we tried to set a good example for the boys as we made the fire for the trash. We walked with them and policed the beach for a hundred yards or so in each direction for litter, mostly finding the ubiquitous plastic coke bottles and usual stray sandals and odds and ends of jetsom, which we brought back to the burn area for disposal. We got a good fire going and after a while we added each boat's burnable trash, in turn, to the fire. This took several hours, and everyone took turns working the fire.

The three boys from KETCHING UP were, as usual, full of energy. So, to help burn up some of that energy in a positive way, Tahsin had set up an "Obstacle Course" for them! There were branches, sticks, and rocks set on the beach that marked the course. They had to quick-step around branches, climb over and under logs, run up and down and around the beach, and even had to swim about 30 feet in the ocean to complete the course. It was great fun to watch as Tahsin timed each youngster with a stop-watch, and Griffin, Wils, and Cooper took turns running the course, noisily splashing and laughing and in general being boisterous young boys. In keeping with the spirit of the day, later Tahsin strapped his diving knife to a whittled tree branch and made a spear. Then he set a target on a tree so the boys could practice "spear throwing", which, understandably, was a big hit with them.

After the second night in Los Almacigos, we decided to move ahead of the group and head over to the next anchorage around the corner on Isla Cebaco, called Platanal.