Thursday, 7 April, 2011. A (Rainy) Lay Day. After two very long days, we planned on making this a lay day, hoping for good weather so we could play with the kayak on the beaches and coves of Veraguas. We got our lay day, we did not get to play. It rained all day. Not a Tropical rain, more like a New England rain – steady but not very hard, totally overcast without discernible clouds. Very unusual for this time of year. We enjoyed the day anyway. I finished Jack London's “The Voyage of Snark”. Deb read some but mostly made Christmas presents for when we go back to NE. And she made spaghetti and meatballs for dinner – her favorite meal. If tomorrow is gorgeous, we will stay and play; if it is terrible but still safe and reasonably comfortable, we will stay and hide; if it is in between, we'll pack it in and head home.

Friday, 8 April, 2011. Going Home. The morning was definitely NOT gorgeous, but neither was it terrible. It wasn't raining and there was a moderate wind, mostly W. We decided to head for the Zapatillas. We could make it all the way home today, but we would have to push and would arrive near dark. Not a problem except that the house is all locked up and we would need to unpack, etc., etc. So even if it is not great weather for enjoying the Zapatillas, it will be a good place to stop for the night. Or so we thought at first. The wind proved too weak and too close to our rhumb line to really sail, but it was great for motor-sailing. We made 6-7 kts despite the continuing adverse current. We reached Zapatilla by 1:00 PM and realized that it was Friday and Rana Azul was open tonight. It seemed a perfect plan: Sail to Cynde's and see her and then go to Rana Azul and see lots of our friends before actually going home tomorrow. So that is what we did and it worked out great. It started to rain just as we arrived at Rana Azul and stopped before we left. We had a great meal, saw several friends, and had a great time. Deb even made friends with Coco, their new parrot and let him walk on her arm up to her shoulder and fed him and everything. Tomorrow, home.