Yanisaladup

Yanis island

When we arrived we had to look for a new anchor spot because Fernando was lying on our previous one.

We picked a spot close to the swim island (surrounded by catamarans, who have a 10 times higher chance of being struck by lightening).

The swim island can get a bit busy during the weekend in the middle of the day. But early morning and after 3pm we have the whole place to ourselves.

A mast blast

The first day we were going to mend a few spots on the Genoa’s sunbrella, but had to abort that plan immediately due to a mild breeze, that turned into a squall. Most of that day was overcast. Lousy weather for diving.

But we did manage to send climber Yoren back up the mast. He had to check what damage was done to the top. It turned out that the lightening strike did indeed hit the top of the mast. Everything was blasted off: the arrow on the wind vane, the anchor light, and antenna, …. Leaving the cables hanging out like half eaten spaghettis.

So there was no point in having some of the spare equipment delivered (AIS and radio) to San Blas without antenna. Dad went back to looking at solutions and finding spares.

Snorkeling

The next day the weather was good. It felt nice to be back here. We went snorkeling several times in the following days. 

The second time, dad caught a ginormous barracuda. We saw 2 eagle rays patrolling, a big snail and lots of fish and coral. 

Half of the barracuda was turned into Yoren’s last dinner on board. The other half was turned into pickled fish.

Exodus got crabs

Yoren and I did lots of swimming, and we discovered we have 3 huge sucker fish living under the boat.

And to add to the pets, I am experimenting with keeping hermit crabs as pets seeing that most islands are overpopulated with them. 

I am still figuring out if Capo is jealous. Licking your lips, is that a sign of jealousy?

Stressful Weather

We had a big storm on Monday night and on Tuesday night and dad has discovered that on, before and after a full moon you will get big storms (it was a full moon when we got struck by lightning). We all have had sleepless nights, being surrounded by thunder and lightening.

Capo’s stress is getting worse, after Monday night we found clumps of hair everywhere. And on both nights he came to snuggle with me, looking for reassurance.

Empty cabin syndrome

On Tuesday morning Yoren left for Panama city. Now I feel lonely and bored again, and the weather is making me feel under the weather. Oh well, I guess I’ll become my bookworm self again. I’ve been wolfing down books, studying my hermits, and playing with Capo. 

Energizer Capo

Now that the Midnight storms have stopped, Capo is returning to his old self. He has been racing up and down the deck jumping through windows…etc and enjoying himself.

Mom and I are curious if he will be able to walk properly once he sets paws on land again.

Me and my dad have started to do exercises so I won’t become so fat and lazy that I can’t do push ups anymore

Lunching with Kunas

During a weekend we got invited by River to go to another island. River is a helpful Kuna guy that manages the bar & restaurant at Yanis island, but doesn’t own Yanis island. He has been working on another island, called Missdup (also owned by someone else). They are busy building more tourist accommodation there. They also have a beach bar kind of thing. It is quite a big island and there are lots of dogs on it. Fernando told us that is where Alexis comes from. Alexis is River’s dog that is pampered by everyone. He is the same kind as Katie, white and fluffy. He is treated like a king and has made many babies for the Kunas on the surrounding islands. 

Lunch was really good. Fernando made a kind of chicken stew (made with 5 chickens), the Kunas made coconut rice (mmmm) and dad made pizza breads.

We also met some new people who are Fernando’s friends like Diego (remember from earlier in the blog the guy who was spinning and got his boat stuck) and Mauricio who is anchored close to us. It was funny seeing the Kuna kids who were kind of shy.

Slick Sharks

We went snorkeling on the outermost reef. It’s shaped like this two big patches of reef and in between there is a sandy gully (think of it as a highway). As soon as we got in we saw 3 very active nurse sharks which put mom and me on edge. So dad swam us across to the other reef patch and then he went off to spear fish. Me and mom saw some cool stuff like a French Angelfish, 6 giant eagle rays patrolling the highway and lots of nurse sharks.

Mom decided that she was going to dive down on the side of the reef to look at something and at least a minute after she came up there was a huge shadow swimming through the gully and soon our suspicions were confirmed. It was a HUGE Hammerhead shark (I was so scared I forgot to take a picture, sorry!). Later on we discovered that the Hammerhead shark had been bugging dad whilst spearfishing. Dad was eyeing a big fish and the hammerhead started eyeing dad and circling around. So we made the wise decision not to push our luck and left that spot. We snorkeled a bit at another reef and then went home.

Hermity facts

Did you know?

1. There are two types of Hermit crabs: Land and ocean. Ocean hermit crabs are a lot more colorful. They have dark blue bodies and the tips of their feet are orange/yellow, while Land hermit crabs are orange. If you want to adopt a Hermit crab I suggest a Land hermit crab.
2. Water Hermit crabs are omnivores. They will eat about anything they can find in the water that surrounds them, including small fish, invertebrates such as worms, plankton and any food particles that happen to be floating by.
3. Land Hermit crabs are herbivores. But they can eat unsalted & unbuttered popcorn. I’m feeding them uncooked oats and leaves.
4. Hermit crabs need salt water to bathe in and fresh water to drink.
5. If a hermit crab has 2 spots on it’s back legs (1 spot on each side) than it’s a girl.
6. Hermit crabs change shells as they grow. According to research they change once every three months. But not mine. I had provided them with a whole new wardrobe of shells. And guess what, night number one all three of them changed shells. And the smallest one took forever to make up his mind.
7. Hermits have a weird way of mating. The male holds the female with one claw, and then taps or strokes her with the other or pulls her back and forth. Both crabs emerge partially from their shells, placing their stomachs together to mate.
8. The biggest Hermit crab ever found was 30 cm long!

Greetings from the Exodus crew!

PS 1. Capo requests if you can send in suggestions for catching hermit crabs

PS 2. Gitane asks suggestions on how to keep cats from catching hermit crabs