Three months since our last blog. WOW, where does the time go?

So after Peter and Patti left us and we're in St Thomas, Tradewinds calls us and says "can you do a charter her in St Martin and then seven weeks in Panama?" "Okay..."
So we wait for a suitable weather window and decide we don't want to bash our way to St Martin and arrange for a mooring ball rental in Charlotte Amalie harbour. Off we go to SXM on a brand new 52' cat...beautiful. Then it's off to Panama and Boca del Torro. If you've never been, GO...it's great. Boca Town is like walking into a 70's movie scene c/w love, peace and joy at every corner. Hostels everywhere and everyone seems to be under 25yrs old. Surf City. 70's hippie music and all.

While there I decided to take advantage of the great price and finally did my Open Water dive certification. Made my first dive a night dive and have been loving it ever since. It's a complete ZEN moment while you're down there. I can't get enough of it and with Tradewinds I can dive free 3 or more times a week.

While in Panama we get a call (again) to ask if we want to extend our time here for a few weeks so we can take the boat through the Panama Canal. How quickly can we all say "YES". The trip was amazing. So much history in that area. So much wild life. One night on the Rio Chagres we slept under the stars and listened to Howler monkeys in the trees around us. We saw wild Parrots everywhere and as you flash the light along the river banks at night green eyes of the croc's come flashing back. We saw the town of Portabello with it's Black Jesus where all the gold and silver was loaded and bound for Spain back in the 1500-1600's

The trip through the canal was an adventure for sure. We leave the Caribbean side with it's 1-2 ft tides and are greeted on the Pacific side with its 15' tides. A trip to the island of Tobago just outside Panama City was stepping back several hundred years into the past.

We finished off pulling the boat out onto dry dock at some old fishing marina. They had a big platform that raised the boat from underneath and put you on a rail system and parked you in the yard. I never saw so much rust i all my life as I looked across the field of steel fishing boats. We arrived at hight tide and while there the tide dropped to expose the MANY sunken fishing boats sprinkled through the anchorage. it makes navigating the harbour very challenging and we were lucky to get a bit of local knowledge.

We finally finished of in St Martin once again for two more weeks of charters on the new 52. A complete dream to sail and handle. I really didn't want to give it back, but alas, Kathrian was waiting in St Thomas and needed some attention after a slight mishap when she decided to leave her mooring and go sailing off by herself one day...ouch. Maybe she went looking for me.

So here I am now looking for a spot to put her up until about end of November. Going home to Canada for a while to check in with family and friends.