Reach is now in the Pacific. We called the Caribbean Sea home for many a cruising season and can’t help but miss that azure paradise. Yet new adventures and oceans are calling.

The months prior to our canal crossing were spent prepping the boat for extended voyages, along with other similarly situated cruisers.

Preparations now go beyond boat projects to planning for the transit itself and obtaining a long-stay Visa to our next destination, French Polynesia.

Last year, we took advantage of the convenience and safe harbor in the marina to spend quality time with friends and family (and birds!). Planned land travel saw us in Costa Rica, USA and Baja Mexico. The value of this time cannot be overstated.

Any sailor knows how isolating cruising can be, even in near and especially in distant shores. We (I) need to balance this with camaraderie and human interaction. It takes effort to make and keep these connections. But I realize that I (we) would not be out here as long as we have without making that effort a priority.

Costa Rica

Our Panamá visas were about to expire and leaving the country was required to reset us for the next six months. We booked a spring birding trip with Juan-Diego Vargas starting at the Nest Nature Center that he and his wife Maria conceived and created ~ fantastic hosts.

So far, it turns out that custom, private trips are my preferred way of birding travel. This way, I can set the pace with my birding style that I might characterize as quiet and slow observational intensity, research-oriented and educational to satisfy the scientist in me, also requiring reasonable endurance.

An excellent match with a birding guide is so important and that is also a big part of my research, in addition to studying the birds of a new region.

Juan-Diego was just such a bird guide, with exceptional bird and regional knowledge. I especially appreciated his intellectual approach to ornithology (& all things) coupled with entrepreneurship and innovations, from creating a private bird refuge to photography & videography. He created an itinerary for our trip covering a variety of habitats, including Lake Nicaragua on the northern border and the iconic Arenal volcano.

This was our first visit to Costa Rica. The country is gorgeous with its many volcanoes and is predominately rural outside of the city of San José.

The birding of course is first-rate. I sheepishly admit that I still have a photo backlog from this trip. We did manage 264 species (36 lifers) in 5 days.

The food was next-level based on our Central America experiences. Also next-level was a notably more expensive economy from other countries in the region. We spent two days in San José after our birding tour, but that might have been two days too many. Even though we visited some museums, there is nothing much memorable about this city for some reason.

USA

In late summer, we took a trip to the States to visit family. Our trip to Michigan coincided with a heat wave.

We were able to attend Ashton & Victoria’s wedding that was simply gorgeous all the way through to the fire-y sunset!

We had a great time with Mark’s sisters, going to the county fair, street concerts and the obligatory Soggy Bottom burgers in Flint.

Maryland was also full of family fun and the obligatory steamed crabs… not to mention good beer.

We got some beach-time in, hiked the parks and took our daily exercise walks/runs to work off all of the extra indulgences.

It’s always appreciated to be allowed to fit ourselves into the daily rhythms of family and just live life, even if for a short while, with our loved ones.

We were able to visit my high school friends, college roomie, former Pfizer friends, and friends who we met on our Galapagos cruise who lived in the area.

In ALL of these cases, we are so grateful for the time people carve out for us and just sharing some simple, daily moments with them. It is also hard not to be “just around the corner” from each other anymore. It makes the time we do get to spend together all the more precious.

Baja Mexico

Thanks to a birthday party invitation, we could not pass up the opportunity to visit friends Charlie & Lizz at their home in Baja. It had been about six years since our last visit with them on Kaya in Turkey. Man time flies! They were sorely missed during our recent cruising time in San Blas, since that is where we spent so many years sailing together.

We were definitely overdue for a visit to see them and it was our first time to Baja. During our stay, we met new bonus-friends, many awesome people who we’ve heard much about but hadn’t yet met.

The full Baja experience included a little desert birding (a guide for a day trip in Los Cabos turned out to be my first non-match in birding style), offshore fishing, birthday party festivities (including a first, being part of a dance flash-mob!), beach driving on dry dusty roads, underwater time, and LOTS of margaritas, guacamole & fish tacos!!!

It was another memorable Reach/Kaya reunion for the ages and we must continue the tradition… where next‽

Panamá

The remainder of our time was spent last year in Colón at Shelter Bay Marina. It was low season over the summer and fall months, commensurate with rainy season. As usual, several boats were hit by lightning during this time and fortunately we were not one of them.

Despite the weather, the birding in the area was the best ever. I got to know the habitats and and the birds so well that by migration season I could walk out and spot up to 100 birds in one morning. It was a great way to hone my skills and knowledge, having the benefit of immersion to study the environment and species behaviors. It’s always fun to share nature time with good friends too!

Mark continued the constant work of optimizing Reach (fitting for a Boat Blog update someday) ~ a few highlights include:
—Glass in crash bulkheads in both bows
—Replace turnbuckles
—Replace trampolines
—Install fuel polisher
—Purchase liferaft
—DC isolators on all electronics
—Haulout for bottom job & polish
—Replace watermaker membranes

Marina time was also good for regular exercise at the gym and on the roads, pizza nights at the restaurant (when the pizza oven was working), and socializing with other cruisers and local friends.

Eventually, it was our time to transit the Panamá Canal. We worked with our long-time friend and agent Roger and he made sure all of the paperwork and logistics went seamlessly. Tito and his crew were hired through Roger as our line-handlers.

I can’t say that the transit itself was stress-free. It’s all a bit more intense when it’s your boat/home. We had a cleat break due to a mishap. Plus my role as galley slave to feed seven people three hot meals over 24 hrs was full-on.

I’ve always believed that it is mostly based on good-will that small, pleasure vessels can transit this engineering marvel at all. Our cost is just a drop in the bucket, by several orders of magnitude, compared to the commercial traffic that transits daily. It certainly takes extra personnel in the shore-side line handling plus advisors to get us through.

Overall, it is both a momentous accomplishment, while at the same time being a fairly routine transit. And, after all of that excitement, Reach is now in the Pacific.

New Chapter

Costa Rica

USA

Baja Mexico

Panamá

San Blas