We are back in Panama City on a mooring buoy at Balboa Yacht Club. We arrived yesterday afternoon after a lovely and fast sail from Contadora Island in the Las Perlas. We enjoyed the tranquillity and beauty of the islands. We haven’t found any great snorkelling spots; there were some strong currents which made swimming sometimes impossible. However, we found some delightful anchorages, all on our own in charming spots. Definitely a part of the world we would recommend to go to.

On a less positive note, we lost the crew we found to cross the Pacific with. Let’s just say that he wasn’t what we expected him to be and he left the boat as soon as we arrived back in Panama City yesterday. So we are looking for somebody else and even consider the possibility of doing the passage on our own.

We had a nice relaxing day today. As we have internet connection here at the yacht club we caught up on our emails this morning and had Skype call conversations with our Mums and a few friends. Good to hear all the loving voices. Then we went shopping for bikinis ((ok, maybe that was more for me although Mike was very involved in the choosing…) and cigars (definitely for Mike!) at a giant Mall shopping center called Allbrook. We then took a taxi to the Old town of Panama where we had clams in garlic, seabass and shrimps for lunch. Really tasty. We took a walk around town, visit a few gift shops – we didn’t buy anything this time -  and now we are back at the Balboa Yacht Club writing this blog.

We received some disturbing news about another earthquake in Christchurch, NZ. We hope that our friends and family who are there at present are all ok.

We should be here for a week or so doing the last of the boat provisioning, paperwork etc and intend to leave for the Galapagos early March.

Will be back soon with more news.

Love

Mike and Catherine