The Flamenco Food Court and La Playita

Monday, January 13 was a quiet day. We did school and chores in the morning, and more chores in the afternoon. We didn’t venture out until dinner time. 

This time we walked farther down the causeway, to the restaurant at Flamenco Marina, which was about 1.5 miles away. It was a gourmet food court with a fancy bar in the middle, and Eric was eager to give it a try.

Continue reading

The Smithsonian Punta Culebra Nature Center

Sunrise on Sunday, January 12

We spent the morning doing boat chores. At around 1000, Eric went up to the marina office and saw three raccoon-like creatures in the parking lot!

At about 1215, we headed out to lunch. There were three people standing under a tree in the parking lot, looking intensely up at something. Eric and Keith kept walking, but Christi stopped to see what they were looking at. It was a sloth!

Continue reading

Welcome to Panama City, Panama

Continued from yesterday… At 0400, we approached the anchorage for the large boats coming from/going to the Panama Canal. We could have done circles for two hours until dawn broke, but since the ships were not moving, were lit, and all had AIS, we were confident that we could navigate safely. 

Even though there was plenty of space for us to navigate between the vessels, we still felt quite close to the monstrous ships that we passed. 

A couple small pangas came really close to us during the twilight approach to the marina. At one point dinghy zoomed across our the bow so close that it made our hearts skip a beat. Here is a photo looking back at the large vessel anchorage as dawn broke.

Continue reading

Keith’s Perspective on the Passage from Puerto Chipas to Panama City/Le point de vue de Keith sur le passage de Puerto Chipas à Panama City

This week has been really boring. We’ve been at sea the entire week. We left for Panama Saturday morning of January 4th. On Sunday I learned that yogurt tastes the same coming up as it does coming down. I played a lot of video games, listened to a lot of audio books, and ate a lot of food. We saw some dolphins, birds, and even a few turtles.

Cette semaine a été très ennuyante. On a navigué toute la semaine. On est parti pour le Panama le 4 janvier au matin. Dimanche j’ai appris que le yaourt a le même goût quand tu le vomis que quand tu le manges. J’ai joué à beaucoup de jeux video, écouté beaucoup de livres audio, et mangé beaucoup de nourriture. On a vu des dauphins, des oiseaux et des tortues. 

On the last day, I made myself some nachos, but other than that the trip hasn’t been eventful (this was written on the 10th of January). 

Le dernier jour j’ai fait des nachos, mais à part ça le voyage est très ennuyant.  

Passage from Puerto Chiapas to Panama City – Days 6 – 7.25

Thursday, January 9 — It was another ominously grey day with light wind. The lack of wind made it very hot outside, so we again ran the AC. There was very little wind chop, but the swell had increased in the wee hours of the morning to 3 – 6 feet from our port side at relatively fast intervals, so it was a bit rolly. In the late morning/early afternoon, we went through a pass between two islands, which gave us a little reprieve from the swells.

The conditions varied throughout the afternoon and evening, but overall, conditions were pretty good. Eric saw some dolphins and Keith saw a turtle. And, we saw lots of birds.

Continue reading