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Location: Heading NNE along the coast of Panama in route to Costa Rica We left Panama City after one night moored at the Panama Yacht Club. Calling it yacht club is a bit of stretch since the buildings burnt down last year. But there is a fuel dock and taxies waiting at the head of the pier. K2 and I went to town that night to our favorite Italian restaurant in Central America "Italianianies" Seriously they have some of the best Italian cooking we have had on the road. The next day was provisioning day. K2 and I stayed aboard while Chris and Dean made a trip to the sailor's friend in Panama City: Costco. When they returned on the shore boat it was loaded to the gunnels with Costco sized items: 5 lbs of Gummy bears, 2.5 lbs of Deluxe Whole Mixed Nuts, bags of salad, the big box of stuffing mix, stacks of assorted meats and on it goes. The cockpit of "Thanks Larry" was pilled high with stuff - and the cockpit of catamaran is 8' x 10' so you can see this is not an ordinary provision trip. The wind was blowing lightly as we motored away from the Balboa Yacht Club and within an hour Panama City was just a memory as we slid across the Panama Gulf and the Pacific Ocean. Having sailed a great deal of the Pacific Ocean I had always wondered how it got it name. In my experience it has rarely been peaceful. But seeing it as how Balboa might have from the Isthmus of Central America - peaceful it is. Smooth calm water has stretched before us for two days, and unfortunately that means light winds as well. Of the past 48 hours we have truly only sailed 12 hours - the other 36 we have ridden the Yanmar tractor. This nice thing about this catamaran is the fact that is has two engines. You can motor along just fine on one. Besides saving fuel - it also limits the noise to one hull. So much for the advertising statement of "perfectly isolated engines". They are pretty quiet, but there is never a question if they are running. With the engines running there is never shortage of power or hot water, But who needs hot water, the instruments say the sea water temp is 93 degrees. While the motors are whining away we watch for traffic, read, sun bath, catch up on sleep from the 4:30 am Panama transit days and of course eat. There has been a lot of traffic. About a large freighter an hour - but mostly they take a more outside approach. We are staying 4 or 5 miles within the shoreline and the freighters are out at 8 to 10 miles. According to the navigation program we are little more then one day from Quespos, Costa Rica. We will have very little time there, maybe one or two days as we have a flight from Puerto Rico to St. Croix on April 19. And we still need to arrange travel from Quespos to Puerto Rico. It will be the end of one adventure and the start of another. Once we are in St. Croix we will take a ferry to St. Thomas and crew on a boat for the 27th Annual International Rolex Cup Regatta. And after that we fly to France for a week to see about details on the construction of our boat. Kim and Kim |
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