1) Wildest Dreams – Welcome to the Panama Posse

Hola from sunny Zihuatanejo! We just signed on to the posse and hope to get to know many of you as we travel. Our home, Wildest Dreams is a Choey Lee 47 Sea Master Long Range Cruiser (trawler). We’ve cruised from Mazatlan to Alaska and back.
We will take our time cruising Central America before crossing through the canal. We love to socialize, explore, travel and play. We hope to make friends with like minded cruisers for cost sharing and security.
We leave Zihau Feb 15, weather permitting. We plan to stop for the El Salvador rally in April. We do not want to go through the canal this year.  We want to leisurely explore south of El Salvador in the late fall/winter. Then possibly Equador before going through the canal. We would love to catch up to a group heading to Acapulco and Huatulco.

2) Annapurna – Chiapas

Road trip! Coffee plantation in El Salvador.
Proprietor Daniel speaks excellent English and he us a true artist with a capacino and a great baristo.

3) Panama Posse – Bahia del Sol – El Salvador
 
Five boats departed Bahia this morning, Respite, Sea Glass, Easy, Sine Timore, and Danika.
– Source Bill & Jean  Salvador Rally

4) Avant   – Chiapas
Another lovely potluck at marina Chiapas for panama posse members and fellow travelers.

5) Volante III Tehuantpec crossing
Shearwater and Volante III did the Tehuantpec crossing and are safely in Puerto Chiapas.
The Tehuantpec crosssing was a boater’s dream crossing. We had no wind and flat seas at Salina Cruz.
The following day, we had about 15 knots of wind for a wonderful sail during the afternoon.
Fred Again is behind us and should be here soon.


6) Liquid & Carinthia – San Juan del Sur – Nicaragua
Anchored in a windy Papagayo prone area with gusts into the upper 30’s Local Currency 31 Cordoba = 1 USD
We plan to barhop in this town as it is full of restaurants surf bars etc etc –
“when surfers and backpacker run out of money in Costa Rica – they come to SJDS…”

7) EASY – PANAMA  info

… my friends sent me this message. I’m passing it on… Mike  Panama bound, Shawnigan asked me to let you know Bahia Honda @ 7 45.880n, 81 32.406w also known as Bahia Chinche
is lovely and welcomes cruisers.  Anchor in Domingo in front of Domingo’s house.
He and his family love to trade goods for fruit or you can just buy from him and his son Kennedy.




8) S/V Anila – El Salvador

Hello,

S/V Anila is currently in El Salvador at Bahia Del Sol. Arrived Feb 2 along with a few others.  Had an easy bar crossing.  Love the hospitality of Bill and Jean!  They are very helpful and everyone enjoyed the pupusas. 

We flew back to the states for a week but when we return on Feb 12, we will be heading for Costa Rica.  We’re looking for tips and suggestions for land-based tours.

While it’s good to see friends and family back in Seattle area, we miss the warmth! ~Satin and Dave



9) JULIA MAX – Costa Rica

This a.m. we were breezing along at hull speed trying to figure out how to slow the boat down more so missed the Posse morning net. We finally got it dialed into these 20-28 knot winds at 60 degrees just as you described: reefed mizzen and triple reefed jib. Pretty exciting and scary at times. We hove to to take down the main which helped a lot. The seas have been relatively calm close into shore. After 3 hours of really white knuckle sailing, things are calming down for the present and we’re shaking out reefs.
Our snorkeling spot at Catalina Islands looked way too rough on the seaward side and there were fishing boats all over the anchorage area. So we headed into Portrero. Nothing much there. We got in the water to cool off and enjoyed watching the tourists going sailing in the heavy afternoon winds on big catamarans. Looked like they were having fun. A sloop went out with guests and hardly heeled over at all but went very slowly, triple reefed main and handkerchief jib. Interesting. Winds were up this morning at 7:30 as we we rounded the headland out of the bay. So we’ve been having one of those lovely sailing days like the ones you had across the Tehuanapec. We’ve never had the boat up at hull speed before but that WAS a little scary. We now have 1.5 kts current against us. We’re trying to make Carrello by mid-afternoon where we’ll stay a couple of days before heading all the way around to Ballena Bay. That is another birding spot. We will try to get on a birding tour as a day trip if we feel the boat would be safe there. Hope Mike on Easy is doing OK. With the big winds, we’re wondering how he’s doing.

–Sue and George


A heads-up to everyone coming down the Costa Rica coast line. Punta Guiones at 09 54.3N/085 42.5W, we were less than 3 miles off-shore when we noticed an extensive calm area between white-horses on either side. We had noticed a comment on our Navionics chartplotter showing ‘breakers’ reported back in 1929 (09 52.55N/085 40.995W). As we approached the calm area between the mainland shallows and the chop on the east side of the calm area, we were leery, and watched our depth sounder which was reporting 200+ feet. The depth went from 200+ to 19 feet in about ten seconds. I turned away from the calm area sharply! There was no current on this side. But looking over an expanse of at least 1-2 miles of calm seas between white-horses, we reversed our course heading north to do an end around north of the calm seas. We headed out to safe waters (09 51.49N/085 41.82W) that were 3+ miles off Punta Guiones, as one of the Cruising Guides suggested. Out on the west side of the calm waters, the current was running northerly between 1.5-2.0 knots. So the current was causing some of the chop. But I believe there is a massive underwater structure off the point that hasn’t been charted. Beware. Also in close to shore there is an uncharted sandbar that is very visible just off the Point. So remember 3.3 miles off shore around Punta Guiones. As we get used to running close to shore, sometimes our guard is down.

–George and Sue sv Julia Max




10) Welcome to the Posse SV DANIKA

Jason & Jenn

11) Shearwater
Hola Panama Posse,
We left Huatulco at 9am on Sunday and arrived in Chiapas this morning at 7:30.
We had a good crossing pretty much no wind on Sunday but 10 to 18kts for 4 hours out of the South East.



13) TAPPAN ZEE

Hi folks. Tappan Zee is in Acapulco for a few days before heading to Huatulco. We are enjoying Acapulco. As has been noted before, Vicente is a wonderfully upbeat, helpful resource in this city. He and his son seem to be around all the time in the marina area of Aca. We are not staying on a buoy because we don’t have a bowsprit to hold it away from our hull, but we have hired Vicente for his support. We have a question for the the group. I have researched and read all the posts here and in Southbound yahoo group about liability insurance and I still have questions. Tappan Zee carries Mexican liability insurance and self-insures for the rest. We looked into extending our liability insurance into Central America and were quoted a price of $1,000 plus a haulout and survey. We do not have a house or car so an umbrella policy is not possible. The quote is from IMIS, Jackline Insurance. For a second quote, I called Novamar in Puerto Vallarta and spoke with the head insurance agent and he told me that they do not offer Central America liability ins., only Mexican. So, the question is, do any of you have experience staying at marinas South of Mexico without showing or having liability insurance? Do the marinas ask for it? Thanks in advance for your responses. Annie and Tom ( sailcoast34@gmail.com )


14) MV Crossroads – Costa Rica

We are busy touring inland in the Monteverde Cloud Forest.
Onward to Arenaul Volcano and La Fortuna tomorrow.
The boat’s in Quepos. Hope you catch up with us! We miss the Posse!

Cheers,

Stan & Diane
M/V CrossRoads




15) “boat”keeping items
– please send in your fleet updates
– OUR MISSION  and therefor YOUR MISSION  is to make it easier for everyone in the Panama Posse
– share relevant info and keep a good log on obstacles – contacts – anchorages – tours -rates etc.


The following vessels still need to send in their pictures –

UTOPIA
COLMENA
WINDS OF THE WORLD
TOTEM
SALT
SEA CASA
CHANTEY
DAD’S DREAM
TRUE BLUE
SAMAYA
SEPTEMBER SONG
REBELLIOUS
ISLEÑA
SANS FRONTIERES
MORA


16) SSB Panama Posse net daily at (:15 local time / 15:15 UTC – 8294 / 7 USB SSB


Keep ’em coming

Panama Posse