Saga47swan Sailing

𝘽𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙚 𝙗𝙮 𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙚𝙧 - A 50cc blast from the past! 🛵✨

We did an island loop and it had a bit of everything:
✨ Checking out the gorgeous, crystal-clear views at 1000 Steps 🌊
✨ Watching elegant flamingos strut their stuff in the north lagoons 🦩
✨ Cactus liquor tasting before noon (hey, it’s five o’clock somewhere!) 🌵🍹
✨ A very adventurous local lunch—Iguana curry for Chris (too many bones! 🦎) and a delicious goat curry for me 🍛
✨ Learning the maritime history of the south, where massive, colorful obelisks guided old sailing ships to the correct anchoring spots to load their salt cargo. ⚓
✨ Taking in the beauty of the white salt pyramids, contrasted by the heavy, sobering history of the tiny slave huts by the water. 🤍

An unforgettable day on two wheels. If you love diving, snorkeling, or windsurfing, add Bonaire to your bucket list immediately!

𝘾𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙢𝙗𝙞𝙖’𝙨 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙠𝙚𝙥𝙩 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩

They call it the Lost City for a reason! Built around 800 AD - making it nearly 650 years older than Machu Picchu - Ciudad Perdida is hidden deep within the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains.

Map pins don’t do justice to this ancient wonder. To get there, you have to hike for days through the tropical rainforest, cross rushing mountain rivers, and climb over a thousand ancient stone steps.

Seeing the massive stone terraces open up amidst the clouds makes every single blister worth. It’s an incredible, sacred piece of history that is still protected by the local indigenous communities today.

Would you brave the jungle to see this view? Link to our YouTube video below👇
https://youtu.be/a8lvhKeEpDg?si=fmxAnuvy58OihwUx
📸Simon and Tomer

𝘾𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙇𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖 🇨🇺🇵🇦🇨🇴🇧🇷

Believe it or not, Saga has reached Latin America.

Since arriving in Cuba and now cruising the beautiful San Blas Archipelago in Panama, Duolingo has become one of our most important pieces of navigation equipment! Learning Spanish has been a slow journey, but little by little a whole new world is opening up. What once sounded like a stream of unfamiliar words is now starting to make sense, making it easier to connect with people and experience the places we visit.

Out here in the islands, English is often the minority language, so our Spanish lessons continue daily as we prepare for the next chapter: Colombia. And beyond Colombia lies Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

If all goes to plan, Saga will arrive in Brazil at the end of January before continuing south along the spectacular South American coastline. Looking further ahead, our 2027-2028 adventures will take us from tropical Brazil to Patagonia, and onward across the Pacific.

It's exciting to see the route on a chart and realise that we're no longer planning it—we're living it.

If Latin America, offshore passages, remote anchorages and true sailing adventure are on your bucket list, we'd love to hear from you.

Adventure awaits with you at the helm.

𝙃𝙞𝙩 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙨𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙣

Last night we experienced our first “Chocosana” storm also called C**o de Pollo.

In the region of Panama, the locals call these very particular clouds “Ass of the chicken”. They are dense storm clouds that look like an inverted funnel or cone pointing to the ground. They are usually accompanied by heavy showers, huge thunderstorms and hurricane winds that circulate in the cyclone direction, lasting between 30 minutes and a couple of hours.

We were hit by a C**o de pollo last night, the sea state picked up very quickly with gusting wind above 40 kts. - at 2 am, a yacht came flying past us towards the nearby reefs - their anchor was dragging. Lucky, the crew got the boat away from the reef and re-anchored.

Our anchor also dragged slightly and we got close to another vessel and decided to move our anchor, which was quite a task at 3 am in the morning in 40 kt of wind and heavy rain. Took us about an hour and we were safely anchored with 7 x scope with no yachts up wind.

At 4:30 am the wind died as quickly as it had started.

Luckily, no yachts went on the reef, this morning we spoke to another yacht, they had dragged and found themselves in less than 3 metres of water next to the reef - a close call, they are now anchored in 12 metres.

What’s our key learnings?
1. Always prepare the yacht for heavy weather ✅ ( stove away Bimini, sun cover, swim ladder, dinghy etc)
2. Chocosana usually blows from SE, so make sure you can swing 360, and especially to NW / N . ✅
3. Check if anyone are anchored upwind (SE ) from you - if they drag, you are likely to be in trouble. We were very lucky last night that the yacht didn’t hit or got their anchor dragging entangled in our chain.
4. Have headsets for safe communication ✅ Our worked perfectly despite the howling winds and heavy rain.
5. If hit by a Chocosana be ready to go on deck ( PFD handy ), keep look out, have spotlight and signal horn ready. ✅

𝙎𝙖𝙣 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙨 | 𝘼𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙤 𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙧

Dropped anchor at Porvenir for our official check-in after arriving from Jamaica.

First things first: enough chain out, a little side transit, then some revs astern to make sure the anchor was properly set. Before we even had time to settle, we were already surrounded by friendly offers — courtesy flags, seafood, molas...

We asked everyone to come back later while we headed ashore for the immigration process. Sure enough, they were all waiting patiently for us when we returned to Saga47swan - Welcome to San Blas.

𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 | 𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙨 𝘾𝙖𝙮𝙨, 𝙎𝙖𝙣 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙨

The "veggie and fruit" boat comes around every 3 days. Not much can be grown on the islands except for coconuts, so all the fresh vegetables may be coming from Panama city or elsewhere.