Adventures with David & Gail

Vessel Name: Wildest Dream
Vessel Make/Model: Caliber 47 LRC
Hailing Port: Dallas, Texas
Crew: David & Gail Dodgen
Home Page: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/wildestdream47
15 June 2013 | Dinner Key Marina, Miami, FL
20 May 2013 | Dry Tortugas Nat'l Park, Florida
18 May 2013 | Dry Tortugas, Florida
14 May 2013 | Puerto Isla Mujeres, Q. Roo, Mexico
10 May 2013 | Lighthouse Reef, Belize
05 May 2013 | Guatemala
01 May 2013 | Ram Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
26 April 2013 | Livingston, Guatemala
23 April 2013 | French Harbor, Roatan, Honduras
20 April 2013 | Le Bight, Guanaja, Honduras
18 April 2013 | Vivorillo Cays, Honduras
10 April 2013 | Providencia, Colombia
01 April 2013 | Providencia, Colombia
23 March 2013 | San Andres
22 March 2013 | Off Nene's Marina, San Andres, Colombia
12 March 2013 | Red Frog Marina. Bastimentos
10 March 2013 | Boquete, Chiriqui, Panama
10 March 2013 | Cruiser Casa, Panama City
10 February 2013 | Panama City, Panama
02 February 2013 | Red Frog Marina, Bocas del Toro, Panama
Recent Blog Posts
15 June 2013 | Dinner Key Marina, Miami, FL

My how time flies!

My how time flies! – Well, I must confess to being a little overwhelmed and getting mixed up into the real world pace again faster than expected. Here it is mid-June, we have been back in Miami for almost 3 weeks, back in our house for almost a week, and I have not updated the blog. My sincere apologies! [...]

20 May 2013 | Dry Tortugas Nat'l Park, Florida

Back in the US, kinda!

Back in the US, kinda! - We are on US soil! There is no immigration or customs office out here so there is no way to clear into the US. So we are kinda' illegal aliens! But we are flying our Q flag and no one seems to care. Or maybe they don't know what it means. Anyway, we are getting closer to [...]

18 May 2013 | Dry Tortugas, Florida

Isla and beyond!

Isla and beyond! - We stopped in Isla Mujeres to officially clear into Mexico, wait out some weather and do some provisioning. Actually US immigration really doesn't care about where we started from to reenter the US, and they don't ask for a Zarpe so we could have gone on to Florida without stopping [...]

14 May 2013 | Puerto Isla Mujeres, Q. Roo, Mexico

The last flag!

The last flag! - Having skirted along the outer cays and atolls of Belize, we headed north to Mexico. I went to the flag bag that we have been using for the whole trip to store our courtesy flags for each country and it only had one flag left. It was the Mexico flag. All the others had been used and [...]

10 May 2013 | Lighthouse Reef, Belize

Belize it or not!

Belize it or not! - Sorry. I could not resist! We planned an 18 month trip and we are now into the 18th month so it is time to head home. We have about 800 miles to go with Belize and Mexico yet on the itinerary. We could go nonstop or we could take our time. Or we could stop a few places as we [...]

05 May 2013 | Guatemala

Guate!

Guate! - The ride into Guatemala City, or Guate for short as the locals call it, takes you along the Rio Montagua river valley as it winds is way up to the mountains. The Rio Dulce is at sea level and Guate is at about 6000 ft. so the climb is steep at times. Plus it's mostly a rural two land road [...]

Mouths of the Bull!

02 February 2013 | Red Frog Marina, Bocas del Toro, Panama
Gail
Mouths of the Bull! - We left Shelter Bay headed west about 150 miles for Bocas del Toro. The winds were forecast to be north at 15-20 which would put us on a nice beam reach. But first, pulling out of Limon Bay, we encountered large swells and nasty chop as we cleared the breakwater (which, by the way, is made of specially formed concrete blocks that look like giant jacks (like the child's game). Their interlocking shape makes them create a strong breakwater.) After clearing the breakwater, turning west and setting the sails, things smoothed out considerably!

Of course, the other interesting part of leaving was seeing the ships that either had just transmitted or were about to transit the Panama Canal. Seeing those ships was cool. It is amazing to realize that even larger ships will be coming through when the new canal section is completed. (Now scheduled to be ready in 2015)

Once we were out and had maneuvered around the many ships, we headed northwest. We pulled out the sails and were actually on a comfortable beam reach (yes that point of sail does exist). We settled in for our first 100 mile leg to Escudo de Veraguas. We were actually going too fast! We were clipping along at 7.5 to 8 knots which was going to get us there too early and arriving in the dark. But one thing that we learned crossing to Panama was not to slow down because the situation could change, and it did. About 2:00 am the wind died and the current grew stronger against us, so we turned the motor on for the last 6 hours and pulled in just before 8:00 am.

After a few hours of sleep, we put the dink in the water and went to explore the south side of the island in search of baby boobies mentioned in the cruising guide. We did not see any but the island is very intriguing with unusual rock formations and very clean beaches. However, the wind stayed west and had clocked further south making the anchorage very rolly, so we decided to leave the next morning. We may try to go back as we leave this area if the weather permits.

We headed another 30 miles to the west to Laguna Bluefield (named for the Dutch pirate Blauvelt), a much more protected bay. We spent two nights there and then headed on toward archipelago of Bocas del Toro near Bocas Town. The wind was light and the current strong so we basically motored across and ran the fridge!

We are planning to return to Miami for the Miami Boat show and needed to check out where to leave WD while we were gone. We anchored near one of the marinas, in a very calm anchorage surrounded by mangrove islands. So calm and peaceful! We were just about to head into the Red Frog Marina to check it out when we heard our name being called. Our friends, John and Cyndi from Cynergy, who we had left in Turtle Cay marina last week and had pulled into the Red Frog Marina the day before, were coming back from a local restaurant. We took the opportunity to catch up with them and to check out the Red Frog Marina.

We decided to go back to Los Secretos for pizza with them and to watch the pro bowl. Well, we ended up with rum punches and a few slices of the owner's pizzas, since the pizza oven closed before we got there. The owners were very gracious and have taken us under their wing providing us with info on area, including which are the best grocery stores, and with a personal tour of town.

The next day, we took the dingy across the bay, about 4 miles, to check the other marina near town and to catch up with Peter and Gail from Jabiru and Bob from Spirit, who we had traveled with from Colombia to Panama. We also checked in with the port captain and did our first tour of Bocas Town.

Our friends Mike and Kay from Finisterre also came in this week, as did Chuck and Deb from Neytiri. So we have spent time exploring the local beach, finally going back to Los Secretos for pizza, exploring in town and now we are about to pull into the Red Frog Marina to get WD settled for our departure and some much needed laundry cleaning.

We are here in what is supposed to be the dry season. Not sure what the rainy season would be like since it has rained (sometimes two or three times) every day that we have been here. But there has still been lots of sun too. It is a beautiful part of Panama.

Our next challenge it to get back to Shelter Bay, transit the Canal, visit the old city of Panama, and catch our flight back to Miami. Seems simple? Wait and find out!

A couple of other quick notes: 1) Sometime in the past week we crossed 80 West which is only significant as that is the same longitude as Miami. So we were directly South of there. But at about 9 North we were still about 1000 miles from home. 2) We also keep a daily log of our trips and adventures on WD which inlcudes a rough estimate of the miles traveled. We bought her in November, 2002 and sometime last week we turned the odometer over 10,000 miles. We think of it as a major milestone.
Comments

About & Links