When we left Shelter Bay Marina of Colon, Panama it was a warm, sunny day. We were full of emotions, sad and excited at leaving friends behind but with hope of seeing new sites ahead. The trip, all 2 ½ miles of it, was uneventful. The coastline is beautiful with its mixture of palm trees, very large hardwood trees and rocky, low coastline. The water was flat calm. At the entrance of the river is Fort San Lorenzo. It is mostly gone now, crumbled away with time and covered by vines. The river runs out at the mouth causing some wave [View Full Entry]

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Before traveling to Escudo de Veraguas, Sandcastle was flushed out of the Chagres River as the flood gates of the Gatun Lake Dam were opened to spill off excess water dumped into it by torrential downpours of rain for three days running! Once out of the river we had to make up our mind whether to push on to Bocas del Toro, an overnight trip, or go back to Shelter Bay Marina, a two and a half hour trip. Bocas won as we didn’t want to spend the money for the slip. However, the seas were sloppy, bumpy, the deck wet [View Full Entry]

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During the past year and before deciding we would take Sandcastle home, Roger and I toured Kuna Yala. We were fortunate to meet a group of sailors who enjoyed similar types of site seeing and entertainment that we do. This resulted in a great 9 months of fun and good living. Steve aboard Liward loves surfing and guitar so does Roger and Jeff of Dragonfly. Paul of Dream Weaver played the percussion. Thus the group "Los Gringos" was born! Every island we visited was entertained by the Los Gringos. In return, the Kunas, welcomed us with open arms. Sometimes the looks [View Full Entry]

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Here we sit in Shelter Bay Marina after having hauled and painted the bottom contemplating the trip ahead. Although exciting it is sad to be ending this phase of our last 5 years sailing the Carribean. We will be leaving behind an army of new friends from all over the world who have experienced this wonderful country with us. We take with us hours and hours of memories. Each and every stop held exciting new people, foods, cultures, wildlife and friendships. We learned to be self-sufficient and frugal something we would never have learned safe and warm at home working 24 [View Full Entry]

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