Coming back from a potty break

We completed our transit with no problems right before dark and picked up a mooring at the Balboa Yacht Club for the night – the club restaurant was shut down for Covid, but we found a burger joint close by for a crew farewell dinner.

The distance from Panama City to our next destination of Coco, Costa Rica was 550 Nautical Miles. The winds en route this time of year are notoriously light, so we stocked up on fuel in jerry cans to extend our range from 350 to almost 500 miles just in case. As it turned out, we got lucky and had a fabulous sail out of Panama Bay and around Punta Male in 12 – 25 knots of breeze and positive current, making 200 Miles in 26 hours to Isla Jacarita in the Coiba National Park in the Coiba National Park for an overnight stop.

Coiba National Park is on the same corridor as Galapagos Islands and is teeming with Marine life and dense jungle. Once a penal colony it is now an eco park. Scuppers and Gary pumped up a paddle board (well mostly Gary did) to go to shore to say HI to the howler monkeys and take a potty break (well mostly Scuppers did). By the way, Scuppers now has her own Instagram page where she shares experiences with other dogs interested in cruising,

https://www.instagram.com/sailingscuppers/

The balance of the trip had some decent sailing but was mostly a motor boat ride. It did get Gary a chance to experience some nice sunsets and dolphin watching. He also was the lucky winner of the midnight watch off the OSO peninsular where we ran into some heavy tropical downpour for his 3 hours in the cockpit. He is now an expert of darting back to the radar screen to figure out just how heavy the next squall might be!

We are now tucked into Marina Papagoyo for a few days. Gary is flying back home from here and we are waiting for some heavy forecast winds over the week end to blow by before out next 450 NM leg to Chiapas Mexico.