I put Ruth and Will onto shore yesterday at Las Brisas anchorage in Panama City in the good care of Roosevelt. Roosevelt was the taxi driver who took us around town the day before for provisioning and the like and the guy is a real character! Hopefully they made all of their hotel/flight connections!

After setting them ashore, Jim and I did a few tasks in preparation for leaving. Then a huge squall came through the anchorage and we watched as a few boats drug anchor. (How that could happen I have no idea. When we weighed anchor it was all we could do to get it off the bottom and then we had to labor to rinse the mud off of it!!) Anyway, Jim and I motored over to the nearby marina and filled up with diesel and water and then motored over to Las Playitas anchorage where we drank rum till midnight with Jason from s/v Nirvana. Nirvana is a 80s-vintage Baba 35 that Jason just purchased and is sailing back to Portland.

We woke up this morning a little foggy in the head, but not too bad. Must've been that $40 bottle of sipping rum Jason brought out that cleared us up! In any case, the intermittent windlass now seems DOA as I had to bring the darn anchor up by hand and manual windlass. It was a long, slow chore, but nothing broke in my body, so I guess all is good! We have been motoring in a southerly direction all day to a 5k northerly, with intermittent sailing. We got the kite up twice, which was good training for Jim. But the last two days have been hot, hot, hot. I am looking forward turning the corner and heading north again. (We gotta get around this one point before we can do that.)

It is kinda weird after several weeks of a VERY full boat to be out here with just Jim and I. Loneliness and homesickness find their way in from time to time, but I manage to keep distracted enough to where it isn't much of a problem. It is pretty amazing when you live in close proximity to your family 24/7 how much you notice the separation. Very different from the hustle and bustle of city life where sometimes you feel like ships passing in the night!

We'll sail all night tonight and some of tomorrow. I have a couple of anchorages in mind..I just haven't made up my mind yet. It kind of depends on how much mileage we put under the keel today and tonight.