Spectacular storm clouds roll over Shelter Bay daily. At night deafening thunderclaps rattle the buildings and jagged lightning illuminates dripping rainforest. Add the to that eerie calls of the howler monkeys and it is all…

Friday was one of those boat days when things went smoothly. How such days stand out. To be honest, I didn’t think it would all happen. When I arrived back in Panama the boat sat…

A word about transit of the Panama Canal. The Canal Authority makes a big deal of the 4 lock transit. That is quite understandable for a 100,000 tonne container ship whose fee may exceed $400,000,…

Our line handlers arrived at 1 o’clock – 3 cheerful local blokes supplied, along with fenders and lines, by Roy Bravo. We motored across to flats anchorage and jilled about for an hour until our…

After breakfast pancakes Miss Perfect and I went for a swim. I was already out of the water when the lads pointed out a crocodile approaching from the shore. A big fellow – perhaps 3…

 After a long, interesting day on the lake and in the locks, we entered the Pacific Ocean just at dusk. Heavy rain and increasing wind against current made for a lumpy sea as we attempted…

The Balboa locals tell us that the weather for our arrival was highly unusual. Our pilot was unable to transfer to the tug supply boat to go ashore, which is apparently unheard of. As he…

While Maxine is ashore flirting I sit in the cockpit, watching a spectacular lightning show to the north. With a gentle evening breeze and a small cervesa, I find that Act 2 of Walkure is…

Almost a saga indeed. It has been a  week since the rubber coupling replacements arrived from USA. Maxine and I got the old coupling off the prop shaft and reassembled it with the new rubbers,…

We have now run the engine under power and all seems to be OK. We depart in the morning for the Colombian island of Malpelo, about 300 miles southwest. The trick is to get across…

Anchored on the south side of the island, famous both as a refuge for the Shah of Iran and for the protracted negotiations which took place here under the palm trees, settling the status of…

I’ve written before about the delight of snugging the boat down in a secure anchorage after a passage. It doesn’t seem to matter how brief the journey. It was only 20 downwind miles from Contadora, with…

We left at the top of the tide to clear the sandbar south of Isla Canas and motored south through the narrow, reef-strewn Santelmo pass on the southern side of Isla Rey. Here at Rio…