Cost of Living Index Mid 2020

Rank	Country	Cost of Living Index
1	Bermuda	147.77
2	Switzerland	125.69
3	Norway	96.8
4	Iceland	90.19
5	Japan	86.22
6	Denmark	85.02
7	Luxembourg	84.38
8	Bahamas	84.25
9	Israel	82.52
10	Singapore	81.13
11	Barbados	79.92
12	Ireland	78.07
13	Hong Kong	77.9
14	France	76.34
15	South Korea	75.93
16	Australia	75.89
17	Netherlands	74.63
18	Seychelles	74.41
19	Belgium	73.59
20	Finland	72.71
21	United States	72.47
22	Sweden	72.31
23	New Zealand	71.83
24	Austria	71.78
25	Macao	70.18
26	Puerto Rico	70.02
27	Malta	69.26
28	Italy	68.95
29	Qatar	67.54
30	Germany	66.34
31	Canada	66.18
32	Libya	66.06
33	United Kingdom	65.67
34	Lebanon	64.26
35	United Arab Emirates	62.98
36	Taiwan	61.95
37	Cyprus	59.93
38	Bahrain	58.36
39	Greece	57.5
40	Trinidad And Tobago	56.66
41	Croatia	56.31
42	Spain	55.27
43	Slovenia	55.17
44	Panama	55.02
45	Palestine	54.96
46	Ethiopia	54.86
47	Jamaica	54.36
48	Costa Rica	54.2
49	Zimbabwe	54.06
50	Jordan	53.4
51	Belize	53.08
52	Estonia	52.93
53	Mauritius	51.75
54	Kuwait	49.86
55	Fiji	49.65
56	Portugal	49.52
57	Oman	49.42
58	Latvia	49.18
59	Saudi Arabia	49.15
60	Thailand	48.97
61	Suriname	47.95
62	Cambodia	47.91
63	Brunei	47.49
64	Slovakia	46.8
65	Uruguay	46.66
66	Chile	45.43
67	Czech Republic	45.05
68	El Salvador	44.96
69	Lithuania	44.85
70	Guatemala	44.23
71	Cuba	43.85
72	Nicaragua	43.7
73	Honduras	42.73
74	Dominican Republic	41.76
75	Ecuador	40.62
76	Hungary	40.09
77	Mozambique	39.98
78	China	39.51
79	Poland	39.46
80	Philippines	39.25
81	Botswana	39.13
82	Cameroon	38.95
83	Montenegro	38.68
84	Ghana	38.52
85	Iraq	38.49
86	Somalia	38.48
87	Iran	38.47
88	Myanmar	38.47
89	Bulgaria	38.39
90	Vietnam	38.12
91	Namibia	38.12
92	Malaysia	38.09
93	Kenya	37.75
94	Peru	37.64
95	South Africa	37.52
96	Serbia	36.98
97	Albania	36.96
98	Indonesia	36.86
99	Tanzania	36.85
100	Bosnia And Herzegovina	36.57
101	Romania	36.23
102	Rwanda	36.21
103	Bolivia	36.02
104	Morocco	34.44
105	Mongolia	33.97
106	Armenia	33.71
107	Russia	33.66
108	Moldova	33.52
109	Bangladesh	33.41
110	North Macedonia	32.96
111	Sri Lanka	32.93
112	Belarus	32.63
113	Turkey	32.44
114	Argentina	31.18
115	Azerbaijan	31.14
116	Kazakhstan	31.01
117	Brazil	30.99
118	Uganda	30.96
119	Mexico	30.93
120	Paraguay	30.34
121	Ukraine	30.05
122	Nigeria	29.76
123	Georgia	29.71
124	Egypt	29.55
125	Colombia	29.02
126	Algeria	28.88
127	Kosovo (Disputed Territory)	28.42
128	Nepal	28.17
129	Tunisia	27.93
130	Uzbekistan	27.37
131	Syria	27.04
132	Afghanistan	26.71
133	Kyrgyzstan	24.7
134	India	24.12
135	Pakistan	21

source https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/rankings_by_country.jsp

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by OCEANPOSSE

PIRATE CHOCOLATIER

A Pirate Botanist Helped Bring Hot Chocolate to England

William Hughes was a buccaneer with an early recipe for “the American Nectar.”

 

If you had met him the year his famous book was published, you might have mistaken William Hughes for a mild-mannered gardener. By that time, he had settled into his role at the country estate of the Viscountess Conway, a noblewoman and philosopher, and had published a book on grapevines. But the old man was more than a tottering plant enthusiast. When his treatise on New World botany, The American Physitian, dropped in 1672, its contents revealed a swashbuckling history.

“He was a pirate chocolatier,” says Marissa Nicosia, Assistant Professor of Renaissance Literature at Penn State Abington and co-founder of the Cooking in the Archives blog. Nicosia recently recreated Hughes’s hot chocolate recipe for the Folger Shakespeare Library’s “First Chefs” exhibition, a celebration of the first American culinary celebrities and the indigenous and African people who shaped American cooking.

William Hughes had not intended to become a chocolate celebrity. When the Englishman, who was a botanist by inclination, set out for the New World sometime in the 1630s or ‘40s, it’s possible he had never heard of cacao at all. “Britain was late to the game in terms of exploiting the resources in the Americas,” says Amanda Herbert, an Assistant Director at the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Hughes’s botanical studies, and his piracy, were a game of catch-up with the Spanish. His treatise on American botany, one of the first eyewitness English-language accounts of cacao planting and production, alerted the English of the New World resources they had yet to exploit. His notes on hot chocolate preparation, gleaned from encounters with indigenous, colonial European, and African Americans, helped bring the intoxicating brew, once regarded with wariness, to the tastebuds and imaginations of England’s upper classes.

But first, Hughes took to the high seas. He writes that he served on “his majesty’s ship of war,” a polite reference to privateering. At the time, English ships often had charters from the crown entitling them to capture and exploit ships from other countries, a kind of state-sanctioned piracy. Hughes’s ship privateered its way around the Caribbean, from Jamaica and Hispaniola to Florida. As a low-ranking sailor, Hughes was often stuck with the dangerous and tedious job of venturing out in a longboat to explore unknown coasts. But that gave him plenty of time to work on his passion project.

Hughes published his famous  A treatise on American botany in 1672. Cooking in the Archives/Public Domain

Published decades after his return to England, The American Physitian includes notes on sugarcane (“both pleasant and profitable”), lime (“excellent good against the Scurvie”), and prickly pear (“if you suck large quantities of it, it coloureth the urine of a purple color”). But the longest entry of the book is dedicated to cacao, “that Fruit, which is the chiefest-ingredient of the deservedly-esteemed Drink called Chocolate.” This drink was so piquant and tempting, so symbolic of the lush riches of the New World, that Hughes dubbed it “the American nectar.”

While he was one of the first to write about it in English, Hughes wasn’t the first to bring chocolate into the European archive. That honor goes to Christopher Columbus himself, who, on his fourth voyage to the Americas, in 1502, encountered a boatful of indigenous people off the coast of Honduras. Their cargo contained a number of strange pods, which a stymied Columbus could only describe as almonds.

Indigenous Central Americans knew better. They had been consuming chocolate since at least 1400 BC. Pre-Columbian cultural artifacts are full of images and traces of cacao, which they fermented, crushed, and drank with hot water for special occasions. The Codex Zouche-Nuttall, a 14th-century document from the Mixtec people, depicts a couple marrying by sharing a frothing cup of the beverage. Scented with vanilla, honey, and other florals, colored red with annatto, and crowned with a signature crimson foam, cacao embodied life itself. “There was a lot of play around chocolate being like blood,” says Marcy Norton, Associate Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania, who wrote a book on chocolate.

Indigenous Americans also presented cacao to diplomatic guests. It was, perhaps, in this context that Europeans first encountered the drink. In 1518, a group of elite, likely Mayan-speaking Caribbean people presented a Spanish expedition with turkey stew, corn tortillas, and a cacao drink. The Europeans loved the turkey and tortillas, says Norton, but “the cacao drink was very strange to them.”

“Strange” is an understatement. At first, many Europeans simply couldn’t stand chocolate. Benzoni, an Italian traveler in 1500s Nicaragua, said that chocolate was more fit for pigs than humans. A Jesuit traveller in the 1500s compared the foam—one of the most important aspects of the beverage for indigenous Americans—to feces.

By the early 1600s, however, tastes were changing. Maybe it was because Spaniards had spent a century sipping chocolate in diplomatic meetings with indigenous leaders, part of the strategic military alliance that enabled European conquest. Maybe it was the addictive shock of caffeine in the era before coffee and tea captured Europe. Or maybe, as Norton argues, it was a result of the ever-permeable nature of colonial relationships, in which—without intending to, often without wanting to—the colonizer can’t help but take on the tastes and habits of the colonized.

Whatever it was, by the early 1600s, chocolate had seduced Spain. Sold from street carts and chocolate houses favored by missionaries, traders, and others embedded in Transatlantic networks, the frothy beverage enchanted Spaniards as much as its indigenous origins alarmed them. “There’s a lot of satirical and literary production where people are very playful about how taking chocolate makes you an idolator,” says Norton. The fear was real enough to prompt European doctors, priests, and scholars to debate at length how much chocolate was too much, and whether it could be drunk while fasting.

By the time Hughes traveled to the Americas, Spain and the New World were already connected by the habit of hot chocolate drinking, part of a new transatlantic culture forged by trade in sugar, spices, and human beings. Hughes’s description of common hot chocolate ingredients reflects this worldly milieu of traders and the spices they coveted. Variations of the beverage could include “milk, water, grated bread, sugar, maiz, egg, wheat flour, cassava, chili pepper, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, musk, ambergris, cardamom, orange flower water, citrus peel, citrus and spice oils, achiote, vanilla, fennel, annis, black pepper, ground almonds, almond oil, rum, brandy, sack.”

The bitter undertones of cacao alluded to equally unsettling histories. By the time of Hughes’s voyage, the great pre-Columbian empires had all but fallen. Hundreds of thousands of Native Americans had been killed by European guns, forced labor, and disease. Thousands of enslaved Africans were being taken to American plantations to replace them. As a result of this violent, vibrant exchange, a new Mestizo culture was born, indigenous, African, and European all at once. These people in Empire’s margins—enslaved Africans coaxing sugarcane from island soil; Mestiza ladies mixing indigenous knowledge into chocolate for their Spanish employers or husbands—are the real authors of Hughes’s book.

As with many natural historians of the time, says Herbert of the Folger Shakespeare library, Hughes’s work “was an act of information possession.” His botanical buccaneering was a stand-in for the colonial project as a whole. Like all Europeans in the New World, he extracted resources and knowledge from lands and people that were not his to take. Yet this, says Norton, is the great irony of Europeans’ enduring obsession with cocoa. Hughes may have tried to possess American knowledge, but chocolate, and the indigenous traditions that created it, have possessed Europe ever since.

William Hughes’s Hot Chocolate

Adapted by Marissa Nicosia of Cooking in the Archives for the Folger Shakespeare Library’s “First Chefs” exhibition, part of the library’s ongoing “Before ‘Farm to Table’: Early Modern Foodways and Cultures” series.

Ingredients

This recipe makes two cups of hot chocolate mix.

• 1⁄4 cup cocoa nibs
• 3 1⁄2 ounces or 100 grams of a 70% dark chocolate bar, roughly chopped
• 1⁄2 cup cocoa powder
• 1⁄2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1⁄4 cup breadcrumbs or grated stale bread (optional for a thicker drink)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon chili flakes (substitute 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cinnamon for a less spicy drink)
• Milk (1 cup of milk to 3 tablespoons of finished mix)

Preparation

Toast the cocoa nibs in a shallow pan until they begin to look glossy and smell extra chocolatey. Combine all ingredients in a food processor, blender, or mortal and pestle. Blitz or grind until ingredients are combined into a loose mix. Heat the milk in a pan on the stove or in a heatproof container in a microwave. Stir in three tablespoons of mix for each cup of heated milk.

Notes

Hughes lists many other ingredients that indigenous Caribbean people as well as Spanish colonizers added to their hot chocolate. Starting with a base of grated cacao, they thickened it with cassava bread, maize flour, eggs, and/or milk, and flavored it with nutmeg, saffron, almond oil, sugar, pepper, cloves, vanilla, fennel seeds, anise seeds, lemon peel, cardamom, orange flower water, rum, brandy, and sherry. Adapt this hot chocolate to your taste by trying these other traditional flavorings.

 

SOURCE -> https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/who-invented-hot-chocolate

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by OCEANPOSSE

LOGISTICS

Getting parts in into a country can be expensive time consuming and challenging

Below are several freight companies customs clearing agencies for different areas who have been helpful in the past.

Most yacht parts are governed by customs rules and yacht in transit rules which vary from country to country.

 

LIST BY COUNTRY / AREA

 

MEXICO - ESTAFETA - slow but steady

COSTA RICA -

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO - PAS Cargo USA 

CARIBBEAN - TROPICAL SHIPPING  - FEDEX - DHL

PANAMA - MAILBOXES ETC

 

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by OCEANPOSSE

FLEET UPDATE 2020-05-31

• BIGGEST FISH CAUGHT AWARD and runners up
• HIGHEST WIND RECORDED AWARD 
• BIGGEST MISHAP AWARD AKA THE CAPTAIN RON AWARD  and runners up
• MOST UNWELCOME VISITOR ONBOARD AWARD and runners up
• SPEEDY GONZALEZ AWARD
• PANAMA POSSE YODA OF THE YEAR AWARD and runners up
• PICTURE OF THE YEAR AWARD and runners up
• GOOD SAMARITAN OF THE YEAR AWARD
• Marina Puesta del Sol, Nicaragua, Panama Posse Dinners
• ANNOUNCING the 19/20 PANAMA POSSE T-SHIRTS
• SIGN UP FOR NEXT SEASON 
• Add you comments and findings to Good Nautical
• A special thank you to our sponsors

Panama Posse virtual final party smashing success and below are the winners of this years fleet awards

1) 🥥 BIGGEST FISH CAUGHT AWARD

    PRIZE:  one free week dockage at Marina Pez Vela, Costa Rica  courtesy of MARINA PEZ VELA

    WINNER: SEA LARKS

Jeff & Paula

SEA LARKS

Runner Up
SIRENA

Greg

SIRENA

Runner Up
REEF DANCER

Jerry & Debra

REEF DANCER

Runner up
SUSIMI

Hazel & Paul

SUSIMI

2) 🥥 HIGHEST WIND RECORDED AWARD

PRIZE: One week of Dockage at Marina Papagayo, Courtesy of Marina Papagayo, Costa Rica

WINNER:  BLESSED LIFE

49 knots of wind recorded at Playa Cocos, Costa Rica

Bob and Margie

BLESSED LIFE

3) 🥥 BIGGEST MISHAP AWARD AKA THE CAPTAIN RON AWARD

PRIZE:  one month of free mooring in El Salvador courtesy of Bill and Jean El Salvador

WINNER:   MOONRISE

For their ordeal in reaching Marina Chahue from South of Acapulco
- oil sipping engine - how much oil can an engine burn over 200 nm ? answer - 1 liter per mile @ 4 knots

Stephen & Ana Veronica
MOONRISE

Runner Up
VOLARE - Exiting El Salvador with a splash

Jessica & Adam

VOLARE

Runner Up
GREENFLASH - kissing the dock in Costa Rica 

Bob & Joan

GREEN FLASH

Runner Up
HALF MOON - Adventures in Anchoring in Zihuatanejo

Brain & Elizabeth
HALF MOON

Runner Up
HAPPY DANCE - Dripmore Shaft

Sue & Marty

HAPPY DANCE

Honorable Mention: Personal Head Injury in El Salvador

Matt & Britt
MALOLO

4) 🥥 MOST UNWELCOME VISITOR ONBOARD AWARD

PRIZE: 1.75 Liters of Flor de Caña Rum

Winner: JO

"Jay" & Kelley

JO

THISLDU

Garrett & Audrey

THISLDU

5) 🥥 SPEEDY GONZALEZ AWARD

Prize:  One year full access to 330 Good Nautical's Global Regions

WINNER: TRANCE - sailing from Virigina to Oregon in 6 months

November 30th 2019  - Virginia

May 24th 2020 - Bodega Bay Northern California

Dan & Marlene

TRANCE

6) 🥥 PANAMA POSSE YODA OF THE YEAR AWARD

Prize: One week at Red Frog Marina courtesy of Red Frog Marina, Panama

Winner: AVANT
For his exceptional support and informational updates during the C19 Crisis and his tiredless support and satellite chartmaking for Open Cpn

Rob & Debra

AVANT

Runner Up: KNOT RIGHT
For  being a positive force and his continued participation in the Panama Posse

Walt & Jearine

RUNNER UP

Runner Up: SEAGLUB
For committing to providing top swell forcasts, relevant weather information

Chris

SEAGLUB

9) 🥥 PICTURE OF THE YEAR AWARD
https://panamaposse.com/panama-posse-2019-2020-picture-of-the-year-entries

PRIZE: one free week stay at Marina Vista Mar, Panama, Courtesy of Marina Vista Mar, Panama

WINNER: ROSA LEE
Sunset by SV Rosa Lee

Gary
       
ROSA LEE

Runner Up: HALF MOON

Moonrise by SV Half Moon

Brain & Elizabeth

HALF MOON

Runner Up: ROSA LEE

Crossing the Bar

       Gary
              
       ROSA LEE

      

       Honorable Mention: JEAN ANNE

        Whalestale

      
 
      
       Steve & Chelsea
             
        JEAN ANNE

      FYI Follow this link to listen to Steve's Awesome MIXES  -> https://soundcloud.com/djlifeguard/

    7) 🥥 GOOD SAMARITAN OF THE YEAR AWARD
     

      PRIZE: Futue round of golf for 2 Barra de Navidad, MX

      WINNER:  HO'OKIPA   

      Lucky Chucky and Lisa made a special donation of 6000 Pesos
      to the Barra Navidad Feed the locals Fundand as Wilderness Survival Experts
      went digging deep into a foot to take a metal splinter out.

   
     
      Lucky Chucky & Lisa
      
      HO'OKIPA
     

8) Marina Puesta del Sol, Nicaragua, Panama Posse Dinners
Second Wind still at Marina Puesta del Sol where it will be for the summer. Here is a photo of six of the seven (so far) Saturday night dinners hosted by Roberto Membreño, owner of the marina and resort. Juanita Garcia Uriza, the resort manager, orchestrates these dinners. You can see that our numbers have been dwindling.  They are the chronological order.

  

Vessels TALIESIN ROSE, GARGOYLE, SECOND WIND, HALF MOON, THISLDU

Taliesin Rose is currently in Barra de Navidad Mexico.
Thisludu are at their new home in Charleston, SC.

Laurin SECOND WIND

9) Panama Posse SWAG we will send one more email out as soon as the
2019-2020 Tshirts orde form with your vessle name will go live
( expect this to be in about 2 weeks )

10) sign up for next season-  
here is the list of valiant entrants, explorers and adventurers
for the next season  - to do so reply with "SIGN ME UP AGAIN"

https://panamaposse.com/2020-2021-vessels
Dietmar & Suzanne

CARINTHIA

11) Things you can do while sheltering in place ... Add you comments and findings to Good Nautical  !!!
For the next 3 months you still have free access to Good Nautical so please add your findings.
If you sign up again for next season you will of course once again get access -
alternatively you can make an annual tax deductible donation and keep getting access

Log into Good Nautical and make your relevant comments in any of the places you have been 

Please make your reports - simply ADD A NEW COMMENT in Good Nautical for each spot

12) And a final and very special thank you to our sponsors

• NOVAMAR INSURANCE  
• ULLMAN SAILS PUERTO VALLARTA 
• PREDICT WIND 
• SEVENSTAR YACHT TRANSPORT 

• Marina Puerto Vallarta, Puerto Vallarta – Mexico 
• Marina Puerto de La Navidad – Barra de Navidad – Mexico 
• Marina Ixtapa, Ixtapa – Mexico 
• La Marina Acapulco, Acapulco – Mexico 
• Marina Chiapas – Mexico 
• Marina Bahia del Sol – El Salvador 
• La Palma Moorings – Bahia del Sol, El Salvador 
• Marina Puesta del Sol – Nicaragua 
• Marina Papagayo – Costa Rica 
• Marina Pez Vela – Costa Rica 
• Banana Bay Marina – Costa Rica 
• Vista Mar Marina – Panama 
• Shelter Bay Marina – Panama 
• Red Frog Marina – Panama 
• Bocas Marina – Panama 

Official Panama Canal Agent

• Centenario & Co.S.A. Eric Galvez – Panama

Official Panama Posse Ambassadors

• Jaime Figueroa Navarro – Panama
• Bill & Jean – El Salvador Rally, El Salvador
• Ralph Hewitt – Nicaragua

Panama Posse Partners

• Vicente’s Moorings – Acapulco – Mexico
• Discover Tours Chiapas – Mexico
• Park Avenue Villas – San Juan del Sur – Nicaragua
• Coconutz – Annual Papagayo Victory Party – Playa Cocos – Costa Rica
• Abernathy – Chandlery – Panama
• Advertising Partners – Las Vegas
• Safe-Esteem.com – Delaware

THANK YOU !

 

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by OCEANPOSSE

🇨🇷 MANUEL ANTONIO PARK

Manuel Antonio National Park - Parque Nacional Manuel Antonio, is a quintesential Cosat Rican national park in the Central Pacific Conservation Area located on the Pacific coast a few miles south east of Quepos and Marina Pez Vela.

It was established in 1972 and considered the smallest of any Costa Rica national park. It is well known for its beautiful beaches and hiking trails. In 2011, Manuel Antonio was listed by Forbes as among the world's 12 most beautiful national parks.

 

The diversity of wildlife in its 6.83 km2 (3 sq mi) is unequaled with 109 species of mammals and 184 species of birds.
Dolphins can be observed there, as well as the occasional migrating whale

There are  three-toed sloth and   two-toed sloth are a major feature, as are three of Costa Rica's  monkey species —

The mantled howler monkey
Central American squirrel monkey
Panamanian white-faced Capuchin monkey.

There are black spiny-tailed iguana, green iguana, common basilisk, white-nosed coati and many snake and bat species a

Included in the 184 bird species  are toucans, woodpeckers, potoos, motmots, tanagers, turkey vulture, parakeets and hawks. .

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by OCEANPOSSE

FLEET UPDATE 2020-05-24

• Announcing End of Panama Posse 2019-2020 Season
• Highest Wind recorded
• Pictures of the Week
• Insuring with Novamar
• Nicaragua exit via Humanitarian Flight
• El Niño or La Niña - Climatology - OpenCPN - Predict Wind
• Country Updates
• Vessel Locations
• Calling on all West Coast Yacht Clubs
• Sign up for the next season
• Panama Posse Swag & T-Shirts of this adventure
• Reply to this email
• Opt-out

1) Announcing End of Panama Posse 2019-2020 Season

This is your second to last fleet update of the season !

 

The final celebration Saturday May 30, 2020 at 23:00 UTC via LINE

Everyone get's the mic and we'll tell our sea-tales
- have a few cocktails and relax and share
- we can even try turning on video if bandwidth permits it !

Among other things we announce the following awards
- please join and give us your words of wisdom

🥥 Picture of the Year
🥥 Biggest Fish caught
🥥 Highest Wind recorded
🥥 Biggest Mishap
🥥 Most un-welcomed visitor onboard
🥥 Speedy Gonzales award
🥥 Panama Posse YODA OF THE YEAR

 

2) Highest wind on record

This entry from Costa Rica shows 49 knots

Highest wind recorded. It was actually 52. Playa Del Cocos. Costa Rica

Bob and Margie

BLESSED LIFE

3) Pictures of the Week

Puerto Jimenez, Costa Rica

‘Wolfhound’, observing 'social distancing' … Anchored off Jimenez, Costa Rica
Steven, Louise & Sam

WOLFHOUND

Marina Pez Vela, Cost Rica

 

Bob and Margie

BLESSED LIFE

Barra de Navidad Lagoon, Mexico

Steve & Chelsea
JEAN ANNE

4) NOVAMAR INSURANCE

We are safe and sound in Santa Barbara after flying home from Barra one week ago.
Wanted to let you know that Novamar has stepped up and helped me with the option to leave our vessel in Barra di Navidad over the summer.
We dropped the hull value to reduce their risk and I am self insuring that portion not covered. The navigation area and the premium were a good
compromise to get Sea Larks covered for the next sailing season. I still may choose to go to California for the summer, but now have the option.
Not sure they would have allowed for this without the connection to Panama Posse and their being quite a few others in similar situations.
Morgan Wells, Broker for Novamar, was also helpful in getting this resolved in a timely manner.
Please forward to share my gratitude.

Cheers,

Jeffrey & Paula

Jeffrey & Paula

SEA LARKS

5) Nicaragua exit via Humanitarian Flight

"... it was a hell of an adventure ..."

Thisldu is through customs waiting on our flight! Flight was approved at 4pm yesterday and tickets were on sale shortly after. The embassy called us before sending out the email, but the flight is not limited to Americans and is completely full (300+ seats).
Flight scheduled for 10am.

 

Arrived at 7am behind ~75 people already waiting in line. Airport opened doors at 730. They moved the line of 300 people twice. 95% of people wearing masks. 915 they check in the first person. Computers are down and so are printers. Every ticket and luggage tag is hand written. Most payed for a seat assignment but all tickets say “open seating”. 12 now and we are through immigration waiting to board.
A total cluster *#%}@ but Ill sit on the toilet at this point.

To read Audrey's blog entry visit
https://www.thisldu.com/home/homecoming

Garrett & Audrey

THISLDU

 

6) El Niño or La Niña

U.S. forecaster sees 65% chance for no El Nino, no La Nina during summer months
https://reut.rs/2WYIsb9

 

In general, warm El Niño events are characterized by more tropical storms and hurricanes in the eastern Pacific and a decrease in the Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. ... The increased wind shear helps to prevent tropical disturbances from developing into hurricanes.

During La Niña, westerly winds high in the atmosphere weaken. This results in an expanded area of low vertical wind shear, allowing more Atlantic hurricanes to develop during La Niña events. La Niña increases the number of hurricanes that develop and allows stronger hurricanes to form.

 

In opencpn install the Climatology plugin and you too can become a hurricane pathweather analyst

 

Or better yet - for professional weather - via our Panama Posse Sponsors
predictwind.com for a full offshore solution

7) Country Updates C19 Extraordinar Line Call

As of today here is where each country stands


MEXICO  65,856  7,179 ✝
- border closings between USA and Mexico but commercial entry permitted - outbound and inbound vessels still possible - certain ports are closed or locking down 

    https://mx.usembassy.gov/u-s-citizen-services/covid-19-information/

On April 21, the Mexican government announced the start of Phase 3 of the pandemic, meaning widespread community transmission, thousands of cases of infection, and increased numbers of patients requiring hospitalization.

Schools are closed until May 30 in most municipalities.
Non-essential activities have been suspended.  Essential activities include medical services and supplies, public safety, fundamental economic functions, government social programs, and critical infrastructure.
Meetings of 100 participants or greater have been suspended.
Individuals should practice good hygiene such as frequent hand washing and social distancing.
Those not involved in essential activities should self-isolate at home.
People over age 60 or with high risk medical conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease, lung disease, compromised immune system, pregnant, or post-partum should self-isolate at home.
 
States and municipalities may implement additional closings and restrictions on public gatherings, transportation, business operations, and government operations.
 

GUATEMALA  3,054   55✝
- full lock down - no entry permitted  - Curfew extended to june 5th


Guatemala's Congress has voted to extend the current state of calamity until June 5 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A

The Guatemalan government declared a “state of calamity” on March 5 and then extended the expiration of this declaration to June 5. Declaring a “state of calamity” allows the Guatemalan government to take exceptional measures to protect national security (similar to a “state of emergency” in the United States). Under a state of calamity, the Guatemalan government can authorize specific actions, such as

EL SALVADOR   1,915  35✝
full lock down - no entry permitted 
El Salvadorian government extends COVID-19 lockdown restrictions until June 6 



HONDURAS  3,743  174✝


Honduras - full lock down - no entry permitted 

National Curfew Extended Until May 24
 
The Government of Honduras has extended the national curfew until Sunday, May 24 at 11:00 p.m. Under the latest order, circulation for shopping and essential activities is permitted on certain days based on national identity number. 
 
The National Police announced banks, supermarkets, pharmacies, hardware stores, fruit and vegetable stands, and gas stations will be open Monday through Friday until 5:00 p.m. Shopping will be allowed from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. according to the last digit of an individual’s national identity card or passport number for non-Honduran citizens.

NICARAGUA  279  17✝


Nicaragua - closed

Nicaragua likely to maintain restrictions on international passenger flights and cross-border cargo transport through 
 09 Jun 2020 23:59 GMT.

The border with Costa Rica has also been closed for cargo transport since May 18. Hundreds of cargo trucks are stranded in Penas Blancas on the Nicaraguan side of the border. 

Event: Several airlines have extended their suspension of regular service between Nicaragua and the United States. The following dates for resumption of service are current as of April 28, 2020 but could change:
* Aeromexico service suspended until June 01, 2020
* United Airlines service suspended until June 04, 2020
* Avianca Airlines service suspended until June 04, 2020
* Delta Airlines service suspended until June 13, 2020
* American Airlines service suspended until June 04, 2020
* Copa Airlines service suspended until June 01, 2020
* Spirit Airlines service suspended until July 05, 2020







COSTA RICA   930  10✝

The travel ban has been extended and  the lockdown will last until at least June 15.

Costa Rica has announced that it will close its borders (land, air, and sea) to all foreign travelers entering between March 18 and June 15 (at midnight on both dates).
Visas are automatically extended to mid August

PANAMA 10,577  299✝

On May 15, the Government of Panama extended the suspension of international commercial passenger flights for an additional 30 days until June 22. The previous exceptions for cargo, humanitarian, medical supplies, medical evacuation, and vaccines remain in place.

 May 18, exercises such as bicycling, running, and skating will now be permissible activities if done within one kilometer of your home, with a mask, and inside your two-hour window.  Sundays will remain a day of total quarantine.


 no entry permitted   14 day quarantine has been obtained by some in internal movements - curfew w 1 hour movement x day for mots with 30 minutes based on ID number and day - no alcohol sales - 
restrictions - we do not - in Panama city have been breaking curfew - in particle - the area - show every single infected person - 20 km - from this location - feel rather safe here -  stay on lock down - how - rhapsody - opening up as many curves violations -
The Embassy arranged for a commercially-operated humanitarian flight on May 8 for any U.S. citizen or other qualified traveler able to enter the United States who had expressed wishes to depart Panama.  That flight is now full.  
The Embassy is continuing its efforts to identify future flights.  However, there are no other planned flights at this time.  We encourage you to be prepared to remain in Panama for the next 30-60 days, or perhaps more. 
For now, please closely monitor Spirit’s website (www.Spirit.com) for any openings due to cancelations on the May 8 flight from Panama City, Panama (PTY) to Ft. Lauderdale, FL, USA (FLL).

8) Vessel Locations and plans from the Saturday 24th Extraordinary 12th Line call

 

 

	NAME	LOCATION	STAY IN PLACE
1	BAJA FOG	Barra de Navidad, MX
John & Monique
2	ANGELIQUE OF VANCOUVER	Vessel is in Mazatlan
	Mike & Jacquie
3	TALIESIN ROSE	Barra de Navidad, MX
	Victoria & Rowan
4	THISLDU	Puesta del Sol, Nicaragua
	Garrett & Audrey
5	LUNA	Barra de Navidad, MX
	Bob & Kris
9	CARINTHIA	Barra de Navidad, MX
Dietmar & Suzanne
10	SEAGLUB	Marina San Jose de Cabo - pretty full
Chris
12	JEAN ANNE	5 boars in tenecatita - firefly
	Steve & Chelsea
13	SINGULARITY	Vista Mar, Panama
Robert & Carol
19  ©	KNOT RIGHT	Vista Mar Marina, Panama - 2 healthstops on the way to the airport - had to stay outside - once inside - had to use sanitizer - heat check camera -	I'm flying repatriation flight - heading to virginia -  june 22 airport is closed
Walt & Jeariene
20 ©	COMPROMISE	no much new s- we are new chiapas -
Ronald & Karen
22	DUE WEST	Barra de Navidad, MX
	Kirk & Heidi
23	TOP CIDER	Chiapas, MX
Chuck & Sharon
24	RAIREVA	on dry land in arizona in mazatlan on the hard
Marek
25	HALF MOON	Nicaragua
Brain & Elizabeth
26	MADELEINE	Vessel in El Salvador
Huibert & Maaike
27	ANGELIQUE	telemar near cape canavral - anchor
Dan & Angela
28	JO	Barra de Navidad, MX
Phillip Jay & Kelley
29	DELTA SWIZZLER	Barra de Navidad, MX	insurance - agent with jackline is a resident in boca del toro,
Mark & Cindy
30	FIREFLY	Tenecatita, MX
	Brenda & Ted
34	ONE LIFE	Barra
Doug & Mary
37	WISHLIST	Barra de Navidad, MX
Chris
40	AVANT	Shelter Bay, Panama - post updated humanitarian flights - air canada - started to re-announce flights but - not this	canada is nice - meet with friends -  all is well - slowly returning back to normal
Rob & Debra
48 ©	DENOVO	Puerto Penasca - I am in Canada ?
Andre, Naomi & crew
51	GREEN FLASH	boat is in vista mar  - we are in california - hoping to get to panama in june - ultimatly to get to shelter bay
Bob & Joan
52	BONZAI	South beach miami - restrictions arebeing lifted on Monday	tracking 7 vessels that are leaving honduras on route to the keys  - anchored behind the tropical storm - -
Don
54	STAND DOWN	Vista Mar, Panama
Richard & Nancy
55	SONAMARA	bocas del toro - all is well - easing of restrictions	issue without local flights - need to take a car 12 hour drive  - copa airlines on july 3rd - local airport
	Louis & Patrice
56	NAMAHANA	Barra de Navidad, MX
	Curtis & Jill
58	KATHLEEN	Barra de Navidad, MX
Robert & Karen
59	RAVEN	Barra de Navidad, MX
	Neil, Tammy, & Jan
60	BLUE OASIS	Blue Oasis - St Petersburg Fl on the hard- waiting next cruising season
Barry & Kathy
62	SHEARWATER	Belize
	Pati & Eric
63	SECOND WIND	Puesta del Sol NIC	;eave boat there and head to us jun 8
Laurin
64	SECRET WATER	En Route to Puerto Penasco
	Annie & Chris & Crew
65	WOODWIND 1	paradise village - all is well - 2 sets of rules - beaches are closed - able to walk around with masks -
	Brian & Tracy
67	CHIMERA	Costa Rica
Dennis & Margaret
69	ALIZANN	approaching the yucatan channel - their plan is to go to deltaville virgina - put boat hard
Martin & Suzanne
70	FLOATING STONES	Currenty  in brunswick georgia - made a decision - hoping to get cruising again - midst of boat cleaning
Bryan & Cheryl
74	MAISON DE SANTE	we are barra all well indefinatly - all is well nicole and I
Keenan & Nicole
75	BELLA SIRENA	Puerto Vallarta Marina Vallarta
Bryon
80	DAD’S DREAM	Vessel for Sale in Panama
Rick & Brenda
81	AY CARAMBA !	On the Hard in the US
Juan & Michelle
82	BULA	Barra de Navidad, MX
	Kenny & Cari
85	FOLLOW YOU FOLLOW ME	San Diego
	Allan & Rina
86	CONTEXT	san diego - vessels is panama
John
88  ©	SEA LARKS	Banana Bay Marina, CR
	Jeffrey & Paula
92	BAIT ‘N SWITCH III	still in la - vessel is in Marina Papagayo - slice of good news - start to do the 2 year importation and a guy got the tip extended with a power - thank
John & Laurie
94  ©	MARIAH	En Route to Key West
Trish & John
95	WAVE DANCER	everything the same in florida in isolation - boat is well preserved in golfity
	Vladimir & Galinda
96	MALOLO	Perula , mx - underway - left chamela - headigng north - to banderas bay - 5 botas anchored
Matt & Britt
99	HO’OKIPA	Barra de Navidad, MX	next foreseabel future
	Lisa & Lucky
100	VOLARE	Tenecatita, MX
	Jessica & Adam
109	JOY	barra de navida, mx -
	Jeff & Roxanne
110	KARVI	barra de navida, mx -
	Dan & Nancy
117	PILIALOHA	we are in hawaii  - lockdown has been extended to june 30th in hawaii - lowest cases of c19 in the country - 300 all arrivals must quarntine for 14 days -	few cases vessel is in chahue
	Rick & Maria
121	ANKYRIOS	Barra de Navidad
Dennis, Brandy & Crew
124  ©	INDEPENDENCE	in jupiter florida - after leaving roatan - is opening to all people on the island - made it to a restaurant - heading back to Bay
	Larry & Jamie
125	LILY ROWAN	Marina Chahue
Jim & Zyanya
129 ©	NESHUMA	on the hard at mazatlan marina
	Carl & Cynthia
131	MAR Y SOL	Marina Vallarta, MX
Bob & Marisol
138	BLESSED LIFE	Marina Pez Vela, Costa Rica - in quepos Costa Rica - immigration has extended the visas to august 18th stay witj boat in quepos  farmers market - open things
Bob and Margie
146	ROSA-LEE	texas	vessel is in el salvador leave october
	Gary
147	GRASSHOPPER	chiappas - pool to be finished
Jeffrey & Cheri
148 ©	ELEVEN 11	Barra de Navidad, MX
	Tim, Kim &
161 ©	SPREZZATURA	buddy boating in Bocas - very nice - planning to leave on june 3rd flight to houston and heading to shelter bay
Eric
171	GenM	still in la paz - working away on the boat - in the heat - swapping vessel to cooling	stay at home to june 15th orders in la paz
Marvin and Laurie
173 ©	BISOU	bocas del toro - been out for 10 days - government is talking about easing things up - take away only - hardware stores - opening in 14 days blovks
Robin and Tad
176	REEF DANCER	barra de navidad - trying to dive - too much swell - all well
Jerry & Debra
179	Seamantha	locked down in Colombia 3 or 4 weeklt flights to ft luderdale - humantarian flights	staying in carthagena

9) Calling on all West Coast Yacht Clubs

If you are a member or have good relations with any West Coast Yacht Club please let us know we'd love to create a bigger liaison
with the Panama Posse and work on a graduation plan to get your Yacht Clubs Vessel to participate and plan for future Panama Posse Rally's.

10) Sign up for the next season 20-21 of the Panama Posse
- simply reply with "sign me up again"

Registration fees will stay at $100 for those who "re-posse" before July 31st, 2020

It all starts Dec 3rd 2020 at Barra de Navidad, MX

54 vessels are already signed up and for our kick of week schedule visit

https://panamaposse.com/2020-2021-panama-posse-kick-off-week

11) Panama Posse Swag !
Is your vessels name on the back of the 2019-2020 T Shirt ?

 

We will open our T-shirt hats and Visor Swag upon completion of this season in June
- please confirm that your vessels  name is on this list above 
T Shirts, V-Shirts, Visors, Caps etc will be priced ~ 20 $ plus S/H 

Stay tuned for our pre-order payment and full fillment process via squareup.
- basically we'll need your sizes quantities and ship to address

12) Please reply to this email with

– your updates
– contenders for picture of the week – links to your favorite SONGS
– relevant blog posts – and of course your valuable suggestions

and we’ll include it in the next FLEET UPDATE – Keep em ‘coming

The Panama Posse philosophy is to pass on nautical knowledge via the gestalt theory...

Dietmar & Suzanne
SV Carinthia

SV Carinthia

13) Opt-out from Fleet Updates simply reply with “REMOVE“

 

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by OCEANPOSSE