PANAMA POSSE

We were excited to join the Posse and make our way down through Central America to Panama. Although most cruisers spend time in Mexico, we were more focused on putting miles under our keel and exploring outside of our familiar North American waters. The Posse was great in providing us the information we required to sail through Central America and the Panama Canal. After a week of seminars, we head out to see the rest of southern Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. After two months in Mexico we made our first landfall in El Salvador, crossing the Bahia del Sol bar, where Gargoyle went surfing (https://youtu.be/wsn-Xtifq7E) and then headed to Nicaragua to take in the volcanoes, rum and cigars. After relaxing in Nicaragua for two weeks in preparation to take aboard more friends in Costa Rica, we suddenly found borders closing around the world due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our list of possible destinations quickly dwindled to only two options. Return to Canada or remain in Nicaragua until a sense of normal returned to the world. We had planned for many things however the virus and the effects it had on the world were not one of them. After a great deal of deliberation, we decided to continue our adventure and weather the pandemic in Nicaragua. We are very thankful to the staff at Marina Puesta del Sol as they made our 5 month stay feel like home as well as to Dietmar and the Panama Posse (www.panamaposse.com) for keeping us up-to-date on the ever evolving situation on the pandemic. It is now July; the 2019-2020 Posse is over and we have decided on a different route as we attempt to navigate both hurricane season in the Caribbean and the continuing impact of the virus.

When countries started to open, we made the decision to start moving South to the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador and then sail back to Panama in November. This allowed us to transit the Canal to arrive in the Caribbean at the end of November and capture the full sailing season.

See our Central America Playlist on YouTube for more on our journey -