Ali Tupu

After spending a few uneventful days in the Western Lemmon Cayes we finally got a good weather window yesterday to sail southwest towards the archipelago Tadarguanet (in Kuna means 'where the sun sets'), also known as Islas Robeson. Our destination was the western most island in the archipelago named Isla Gerti or Ali Tupu in Kuna. We started our 12 mile sail on a beautiful sunny day with 12 knot winds and 2 to 3 foot swells both out of the NE, right behind us. Now what's a sail without a little excitement, right? About three quarters of the way to Ali Tupu as we were sailing only with the headsail downwind the halyard that holds the headsail up broke dropping the jib down to the deck. Fortunately David made his way quickly to the foredeck to start gathering the sail while I got the engine started and us back on course before helping David. We were lucky that we were able to retrieve the sail before it went into the water where either the sail or the lines could have been lost or fouled in the prop. After looking at the part of the halyard that came down with the sail it appears that the shackle broke. So today I'll have to go to the top of the mast to retrieve the halyard that is stuck up there, splice on a new shackle and get our sail back up and furled.

As we made our way towards Ali Tupu we skirted some of the other islands in the Tadarguanet archipelago. Very small islands, smaller than a city block and packed with traditional cane homes. Some of the islands are only big enough to house one or two little homes. A short time later after weaving our way around the numerous shoals we reached Ali Tupu and dropped anchor. No sooner than the anchor hitting the water we had numerous dugouts all around us with people from the village. For the next two hours we were bombarded with requests to charge people's cell phones as this village has no electricity. We accepted a handful of cell phones to charge but with so many requests we finally had to start turning people away. Unlike many other villages no one came out to sell molas but we did have the chance to buy some coconuts and oranges from one gentleman. We're hoping today that some fresh seafood will make it's way to Bruadair.

After dropping the anchor, dealing with our visitors and having lunch David and Jan and ourselves took the dingies to the main village with our guide Jancito so as to pay our respects to the village chief. At the chief's house we made some small talk, met his wife and paid our five dollar visitor's fee. Jancito also gave us a tour of the village and introduced us to some of his friends. Though Ali Tupu is considered one village it actually consists of four small islands. Two of the island are exceptionally small, one has just enough room for two cane homes while the other four homes. There are not too many people that speak Spanish in this traditional Kuna community but since a school was recently built here some of the children are learning Spanish and are eager to translate for us.

After taking a quick tour of the largest of the four islands Jancito took us to the second largest island which is where he lives. He gave us a tour of his small home of 20 years and introduced us to his wife and young girl. There are 12 families that live on this island however there are a lot of people living in a small space. Grandparents, parents and children all live together and are considered one family. There are 60 children living on this island. After our visit we returned to the boat and gathered our laundry then took it back to Jancito's wife. She agreed to do our laundry for $5, a bargain for both parties involved. Jancito offers cruisers a variety of services including river tours, boat cleaning and trash disposal. He's scheduled to arrive this morning to clean Bruadair's bottom which has a fair number of barnacles and other growth. We also decided to make today a project day, fixing the jib halyard, top off the batteries with water and try to help Winterlude fix their inverter. Maybe tomorrow will be a play day.