Providencia was a 4 day run from Ile a Vache which began fast in 10 foot seas on a broad reach. Llyr is a great trade-wind sailboat: she loves wind off her beam at 15 to 20 knots or more. During the day we could run with all sails and 7 knots which feels screaming fast with all the noises and action of water and wind. At night we’d go to the mizzen and either staysail or genoa and Llyr would settle nicely into the waves with her power balanced and needing little adjustment. As we neared Providencia, the winds slackened as forecast.
Providencia, an old volcanic island, is part of an island archipelago, including San Andres and Santa Catalina. Though located about 100 miles offshore of Nicaragua, it belongs to Colombia. We were learned that this island was first settled in 1631 by English Puritans who arrived aboard Seaflower, a sister ship of the Mayflower that colonized Massachusetts Bay! Today, the island culture is Anglo-Caribbean and most residents descend from those early English settlers and African slaves.
Providencia is part of the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve and includes the largest MPA in the Caribbean and Latin America. The MPA is locally managed by CORALINA. Apparently, great effort has been made to include fishers in conservation efforts for the archipelago and marine zones now designate different types of activity. We were not able to stop in San Andres, the more developed of the islands, and only had a couple of days to gather our impressions in Providencia, however, we were still puzzled by the complete lack of any indication of fishing livelihoods in Providencia. There were no fishing boats in the harbor; nor did we see any fish for sale in the markets! We also learned that the island has no high school, so that after primary education–which includes significant environmental programs –the young people have no choice but to go off island to school. As we learned, not many people return to the island given the very limited options for making any kind of a living. While tourism to the archipelago is strongly promoted (“with ¾ of Colombia’s coral reefs”), there was not even that much typical tourist development in town.
Our observations and findings from our time in Providencia, including a review of the Reserve literature and website, continue to lend weight to our reflections on the challenges of building robust models which integrate biological and cultural diversity to support local development over the long haul.
A weather window opened for Panama with the prospect of high winds to follow in the central Caribbean a few days later, so we decided to move on. We anticipated a 2 day run to Bocas del Toro, with diminishing winds as we approached the Isthmus.