It must be time to head north. Man, can this place get hot, hot, hot!!! But what really tells me we have overstayed our welcome is the rain and thunderstorms.

We made it through motoring and sailing the first night out. It was a tough workout with the constantly changing conditions requiring something to be done at all times. Roll the jib out and sail. Head up. Head down. Roll the jib back in and start motoring. On and on all night long. But I suppose it was better than one day in the Carib. when we reefed and unreefed something like 5-6 times!!

The next day we just kept on motorsailling. It is light around here and I think we will be doing more of this as we head north. We picked Islas Jicaron to anchor for the night. It is about 200 nm from Panama City. We got there just before sunset and saw a monstrous thunderhead developing to the west. We were about a half hour late as we anchored in a torrential downpour. But it allowed us our second shower in as many days, so Jim and I aren't smelling each other's B.O. just yet!!

But what came next really shook us both up. We had one clap of thunder that was so close that in addition to the normal loudness of thunder, we also heard what sounded like a 12-gauge shotgun going off. It shook me to the bone. And I am pretty sure Jim was pretty shook up too. He was telling me how he got hit by lightning once on the beach while living down in Panama, and I don't think he has forgotten!!! After a not-so-quick chicken stew dinner we both turned in early. I mean, what else are you going to do? It is raining cats and dogs outside and the lightning is just too scary to watch. So by 2000 it was lights out!!

Today is more of the same. But without the wind we can't make the time and distance we want, so I have had to modify our anchorage to Islas Secas. After that we will do another overnighter to Golfito, Costa Rica. Lots of porpoises out here and Jim is going crazy not having a fish line in the water. He is good at reading the fish and there are TONS of them out here. There are also lots more islands than I thought there would be. It makes for an interesting archipelago for island-hopping. This morning we had howler monkeys calling to us....We didn't go!