Well, we have been talking to cruisers, reading a bit and discussing a lot and this is the current result. as we have changed our plan on a weekly basis it should be taken with a grain of salt but we are pretty excited about this one.

The bottom line is we are not ready to rush through the Panama Canal this year. It needs too much preparation for both boat and crew and there is way too much to see in between here and there. So - we are planning to bounce around the Caribbean this winter: visiting friends in Martinique, scuba diving in Bonaire, Jamaica, visiting friends in Mexico (the Yucatan) then down to the Rio Dulce for the summer. This looks like a fantastic base to explore Central America and maybe take a trip home.

If we are still feeling like another year on the boat then we will head down to the San Blas islands after the, hopefully gentle, 2018 hurricane season and then onto the Panama Canal in early 2019. Anything after that is wild speculation - we shall see.

This does extend our trip quite a bit but it feels a lot more doable and we are very excited about the Central America stopover. Anyway, watch this space - probably a new plan next week when, hopefully, we will actually be afloat.