If you imagine tropical paradise to be small islands of fine white sand covered in coconut palms and surrounded by coral reefs then the San Blas fit the bill. You can live on a staple diet of coconut, lobster and octopus and also sell these to local hotels and passing yachts for enough income to clothe you and buy fresh fruit and veg from the mainland (if you don’t commute each morning to your own allotment in your dugout canoe). You can house yourself using palm timber and thatch and have enough time to make Molas that sell throughout central America. You might get a couple of fishermen living on an island or a whole village where every square inch is thatched buildings with narrow walkways between. One island we visited had a father, his two young sons and another man living in splendid isolation, to whom we gave water, rice, sweets, and writing and colouring materials. The Gunas are a matriarchal society where the men marry into a woman’s household but where divorce and separation appear to be commonplace. We hoped to spend some time in one village finding out more about their culture but unfortunately the village chief’s wife died 15 minutes before we arrived and we were asked not to walk around.

Anyone cruising the waters of Panama must have a copy of the Panama Cruising Guide by Eric Bauhaus. It is full of a wealth of detailed information and the charts and waypoints are more accurate than the chart plotter. According to our plotter we have anchored in the middle of at least one island. Much of the charting has been undertaken by Eric himself and he zooms around at up to 35kts scanning the seabed. Quite how he does this within the reef strewn San Blas Islands we don’t know. There is so much information we imagined Eric to be a wizened octogenarian who has spent years and years in these waters. But no, according to his photograph he is a relative youngster.

On the logistics front Annie is in Seventh Heaven. Thom, visiting us from his Sadler 28 in Santa Marta recommended the app ‘estorage'. Annie invested £4.99 and is now photographing everything on board, recording its storage location, putting in the use-by date for food, rearranging stored items to fit in better categories. Everything from spare parts, tools, repair materials, food, electrical equipment to games is being recorded and catalogued. In Panama we will go through all the external lockers, item by item. You can even scan an item using its bar code. No more frantic searching in the wrong place for items urgently required. Meals are planned around use-by dates. We just have to remember to update the schedule every time we use something and pray that the iPad never packs up.

When discussing sailplans with Ian and Steph on Nautilus (an Ovni 395) it transpired that they sail almost everywhere (downwind) using a Parasailor (a spinnaker with an aerofoil wing and slot set into it) and rarely use their mainsail. Apparently it is a very stable sail and they do not need to use a pole. We had heard from others that Parasailors are too powerful and a handful to fly comfortably. This, combined with the cost of a new one at around £8k for a boat of our size, had dissuaded us from the option. We do have a cruising chute but this doesn’t set well with the wind from directly behind and I am now taken with the Parasailor option again. Annie however has brought economics to bear and doubts the cost effectiveness, given that we have been fine so far with mainsail, genoa, staysail and cruising chute. I might keep an eye out for a second hand one…..

For the last week or so we have had no wifi and therefore no news. We last saw that Labour had capitulated to “the will of the people” and voted through Article 50. The Tories will frustrate any amendments in the committee stages and so we imagine the slow motion suicide that is the UK continues - as reflected in the tattered remains of our EU burgee that will be allowed to wither along with our national interest and dignity.

Quote of the journey thus far - “A litre of water is more than enough for a perfectly adequate wash” - Annie.