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An underlying tension was building as we neared the end of our carefree cruising in the San Blas Islands. Before long we were going to have to claw our way out of the far southwestern corner of the Caribbean Sea, and the options were multi-day passages east or north. Both directions are daunting with steady trades blowing from the east and an acceleration zone along the Colombian coast that builds the seas up. Jimmy Cornell’s “World Cruising Routes” suggests that the best m

Enjoying the beach at Waisaladup Island, commonly referred to as Emoji Island The Caribbean coast of Panama offers an outstanding and popular cruising ground. While many think Panama runs north-south, it is in fact oriented more horizontally. Once through the canal, we sailed west to Bocas del Toro in early December, returned to Shelter Bay for a quick trip home for the holidays, then travelled east to the San Blas area Jan – March. It was a memorable and special few mont

Rainbows were frequent during the rainy season at Shelter Bay Marina. I’m finally getting to my most procrastinated blog post yet! Beagle Spirit spent several months in Shelter Bay Marina during the off season. Getting her ready to be stored safely and getting several boat projects done while she was out of the water and before the start of our next cruising season was a lot of work, work, work. Perhaps I needed to be reminded why we are doing this cruising thing to drum u

Pangas moored in the tidewaters behind the small village of Pixvae We had been communicating with Omar, an employee in the Port Captain’s office at Puerto Armuelles, on What’s App so extensively that we felt he was a good friend before we even met. Our check in process turned out to be an interesting immersive cultural experience in itself. To begin, we were scheduled to arrive during Holy Week. We learned that Holy Week in mostly Catholic Costa Rica and Pan