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Costa Rica Tracks

Can’t sleep and while tossing in the heat and noise I remembered I had not posted our Costs Rica tracks. Enjoy.


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Final Panama Tracks

Here are our final tracks from Panama.


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I have also reworked our Route page on the main website bringing that up to date.

San Blas/Canal Transit Tracks

I’ve finally managed to upload our tracks for the San Blas and our transit of the Panama Canal. Enjoy.


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Shelter Bay

We had what I thought was a very exciting sail from our last anchorage to Shelter Bay marina. If we thought we’d been playing slalom with the tankers in the shipping lane it was now dodgems sailing into Colon bay. The bay is protected by a massive break wall and the entrance is marked with impressive markers. Sadly we took no pictures as we were concentrating on jibing the boat and more importantly avoiding the tankers coming in and out and jostling for position. In the end we timed it nicely by aiming broadside at a tanker entering the bay and jibing in behind it. It was a bit of a squeeze as the maneuver was based on our sailing slower than the tanker (which we were initially) but the tanker slowed down, presumably to comply with speed limits. We were catching it up through the entrance but were then able to veer off to starboard and get out of the lane. We then had to pick our moment for our final jibe to Shelter Bay marina as the bay was full of anchored tankers and we had to pick our line. To give you a sense of the trip, here is our track of our brief travels so far in Panama. If you zoom out you’ll see our passage from Cartagena.


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The dock we were given at the marina had less than two feet clearance either side but we made it in ok and tied off. The morning then proceeded with talking with the agent, the sail maker and sorting out a few things with the kids on the internet. Helen started on cleaning the Cartagena grime from the boat.

At 1pm we took the bus over to the large Rey supermarket for hopefully our last provisioning trip. We have to assume we’ll get nothing bar lobsters and crab in the San Blas so we’re taking no chances. A large part of what we purchased yesterday were soft drinks and juices.

On the bus back to the Marina we met Penny and Peter from InnForAPenny II. They were a great help getting our supplies on and off the bus. They invited us over for drinks on their boat in the evening after we’d unpacked. That all took a bit longer than we expected and by the time we’d showered we arrived a bit late. We had a few bevvies on their boat before heading off to the marina restaurant together for an evening meal.

This morning I’ve managed to upload our past pictures. If you’re an active reader you’ll need to go back to see the last couple of slideshows.

We’ve decided to stay here one more day to avoid rushing. Also the weather doesn’t seem to be calming as soon as predicted so we want avoid a slog up the coast.

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Happy in Cartagena

Yesterday we woke to clear skies and relatively still waters so we up anchored and left before 8am. I was glad of the effort to take waypoints the day before as this made transiting and exiting the reef stress free.

There was little wind so we motored all the way back to Cartagena, this time taking the longer route via Boca Chica to see a different view and to live a little in history as this was often the entrance taken by invading fleets.

Now that we’ve settle into Cartagena we probably won’t move until we leave for Panama next week so here is our current position and our tracks within Colombia.

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Once back anchored we were soon met by Gerald from Whiskers and made plans to meet up in the evening for the Wednesday Happy Hour. I also called the A/C guys and the stainless steel guys to line them up to complete their work. The A/C guys are due in at 8am this morning and the s/s guys were due to show up at 2pm although I had to wait until 3pm before they arrived.

I also caught up on emails, etc. We received one email from a couple who live part time here in Cartagena who have been following our blog. They have invited us round to dinner this evening which we’re looking forward to.

Back to the work. Mounting the mast was mostly completed yesterday afternoon leaving a little work to be completed today. They will also arrive around 8am (they say). If we’re lucky they’ll arrive along with the A/C guys and I can save a dinghy trip. That leaves me to complete the install of the wind gen. Shortly I’ll check cable lengths, etc and see what I have that I can use and what I need to buy later this morning.

Yesterday evening, after dropping of the s/s guys, we headed off for Happy Hour where we met up with the Whiskers as well as Tom and Marge from 3/4 Time among others. The six of us ended up in the nearby burger joint.

Either today or tomorrow we’ll head off to the fresh fruit & veg market where I am told I can also pick up cheap water cans. I’ve also made a promise to the folks on Panda to help them set up their boat network. They heard what I did for Whiskers and are looking forward to the help.

Once the two sets of work are done we’ll be free to relax. We’re booked on a city tour on the 7th of December but beyond that we’re free to go.

Finally – I’ve uploaded pics for our time in the Rosarios.