That mean old Customs Lady in Golfito messed up Costa Rica's last, best chance for us to spend time and money there. That'll show 'em. Since we were illegally in the country, we moved quickly and silently up the coast. Sailed 272 miles in mostly calm seas, from Golfito in the SE to an overnight…
Golfito's a nice place. If they let you in. By 2014 we were pretty well experienced with checking into and out of all kinds of countries, and we'd already been in and out of Costa Rica once. Our check-in with Immigration this time went as smoothly as usual. However, our next stop – Customs –…
Islas Secas translates to the "dry islands." I assume this means there are no natural springs anywhere on these islands, but I don't know for sure because I have been spoiled by The Fox's reliable Little Wonder watermaker, tra-la. We sailed 34 miles from Bahia Honda to the Secas for 3 days of fishing, snorkeling,…
Still talking March 2014 here. Don't judge. Almost immediately upon reaching the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, we encountered flocks of cormorants, brown pelicans, terns, and gulls fishing among the anchored fleet o' freighters waiting their turn to go through the locks. We saw more sea life in that one spot than we had…
Some details: The weather was typical for Panama in March – humid daytime temps in the 80s, intermittent showers alternating with sun breaks. In contrast to our DIY south-to-north transit in 2011, this time in 2014 we decided to hire an agent for the north-to-south transit. We had our reasons; among them, that the logistics…
Criminy. No posting in FOUR YEARS? Inexcusable. As is always the case, life got in the way. Amazingly, none of the life events was very negative. To summarize 2014-2018: On March 21-22, 2014, we successfully transited the Panama Canal from north (Caribbean) to south (Pacific) — no thanks to adverse breezes & currents, and a…
Governor's Harbour is a historic town about 5-1/4 miles SE of Alabaster Bay. It was once the Bahamain seat of government and may very well have been one of Eleuthera Island's pirate hangouts back in the 18th Century. The town has brightly-colored houses lining the hillsides, giving lots of visual texture to the area. The…
Alabaster Bay is a broad bight about 10-1/4 miles SE of Hatchet Bay. It is open to winds from any westerly direction but the depths are good. Holding varies; the first visit there in January 2012 we picked up a large rock on our first anchoring attempt but we held in hard-packed sand on our…
I have decided to describe where The Fox has been, by tracing a roughly NW to SE path that starts at the northern half of Eleuthera Island in the Far Bahamas, and will end at the islands and cays in the SE Bahamas just above the Turks and Caicos islands. First stop: one of our…
The Bahamas have many anchorages that are not good for all-around weather protection. Many are downright roadstead-y. Generally, our 6'2" keel resulted in The Fox anchoring a bit further offshore (thus less weather-protected) than other, shoal-draft boats. However, we could anchor in most if not all of the top cruiser destinations. We just had to…