The day starts early. We enjoy being awake before it is too hot. The wind is calm this morning. We leave towards the canal, zigzagging between cargo ships. At a distance the skyscrapers from Panama City are visible through the clouds. When we arrive at Balboa,, we have no other choice than to cast anchor at the entrance of the channel between the islands of Culebra, Perico and Flamenco. A road to the mainland connects these three tiny islands now. It makes a bay that is fairly protected. We go ashore as soon as possible to clear customs.

We navigated 14,123 nautical miles and 13 legs sinceTromsø to reach the Pacific doors of the Panama Canal.

For this leg from Acapulco to Panama the crew was :
On top from left to right : Michelle Bishai (U.S.A), Monica Larizza (Italy), Marie Rose Lefevre (France), Pierre Charles Gueroult (France), David Lindsey (Canada), Olivier Pitras (France)
Below from left to right: Vincent Berthet (France), Laurent Ceresoli (France), Giulio Ceresoli, the baby (France), Jaqualine Roussin (Canada).

We are surprised that the traffic is calm. We are sailing slowly to the North. Winds are contrary. In the middle of the afternoon, few cargo ships appear heading South. In the West, Otoque Island, give us some information about the visibility that is poor in fact. We decide to stop at Taboga Island because we will arrive at night and due to strong tidal current, we want to land in the channel to the canal by daylight.
For the final approach, the light of Tarapa Island confirms our position comparing with the chart. Behind Taboga Island, the glow of Panama City is big. When we arrive, numerous boats are at the anchor. We find a place with the radar. It is 10h10 PM. The entrance of the canal is 10 miles away.

We still stay away from the coast because the contrary stream. A tropical low off shore the Columbian coasts keeps the breeze steady. A weak point on the Yankee sheet obliges us to climb in the rigging.
At noon, we are in the South East of “Punta Mala” who marks the entrance of the Gulf of Panama. It is time for us to head north. We are at 06°47’N, this latitude will be the southern most one of the expedition. This change in the route for Christmas is symbolic and opens the chapter of our way back to Tromsø. At the exact moment we are pointing North, the GPS indicates 14 000 nautical miles.

A light and steady breeze stays the whole day. That’s a beautiful gift because since the Gulf of Fonseca we had nothing really established.
We celebrate Christmas eve in the cockpit, cake, fruits, decoration, music, gifts for our little mascot, Giulio, it’s a real Christmas, without snow and Christmas tree.
We received a lot of messages of wishes for Chritsmas. Thank you all, Merry Christmas.

The sun rises on a grey sky loaded with heavy cumulus. Around scattered showers drop their curtain of rain in to the Pacific waters. Onboard, we’re getting impatient. The deck need to be unsalted and the crew would like to enjoy a natural shower but the rain does not come. Couple of minutes for the most. Just the time to run to get hatches closed and reopened right after. We will have to wait a bit longer for the tropical shower.
In the evening, we are entering in Panama waters. Discussions about the canal are more and more present.

The off shore option is worth, we got rid of this current. We came back in a region with light and not steady winds. We’re obliged to manoeuvre often. Day after day the temperature is very hot. Clouds loaded with humidity appears more and more. When will be our first tropical rain ?Bets are open. Now we can use the Southern Star to steer for the second part of the night.

South of the Gulf of Fonseca, in the region of lakes Managua and Nicaragua, is a plain who spreads eastward till the Caribbean sea. Off shore that plain, we find a good steady wind from North East. We can keep it the whole day. With a minimum of canvas we sail at good speed. The sea is beautiful covered with white caps.
Approaching “Cabo Velas”, our speed reduce dramatically, we encounter a contrary current that we were not waiting at this season. Then we change our route in consequence and go more off shore where the current should be weaker.

We’re sailing at an average of 60 milles off shore and we’re never alone. These waters are full of life. Birds, fishes, cetaceans, turtles, there is always something to watch. Around noon, a flag on top of a perch attracts our attention. Probably a trawl or a long line. We give it a good berth but another is in sight and another one. All of them are parallel to our route. Then we decide to keep going from buoy to buoy by curiosity. It takes us two hours (10 Nautical milles) to clear the last one. How many time these waters will stay full of fishes ?
Dolphins around are numerous for the big pleasure of the crew. The night is dark now, it’s nice to steer on a star as bearing. For the first hours of the night, stars of Orion are the one we follow.

This steady wind coming from Caribbean is fantastic. There is weeks now since we sail in calm air with nothing really established. We know it will not hold for long, it makes it even more enjoyable. At noon we can not follow the route anymore, we have to start a tacking business. The sea is flat. Heading against contrary wind in such conditions is not bad at all. At 40 nautical milles on the North, stretches the coast of Salvador now.
In the East North-East, is the Gulf of Fonseca, unique opening of Honduras on to the Pacific Ocean. From here we will head toward the South East to follow the coasts of Nicaragua.

We leave Mexican waters at sunrise. It does not make a big difference, as we are unable to see the coast because of the complete cloud cover hiding it from us. The water traffic is calm. At a distance, we only see a power boat sailing full speed off-shore. It’s probably a sport fishing boat looking for marlins. We know there are numerous here as we saw them twice this morning jumping out of the water.
In the middle of the afternoon, we take advantage of the calm and take a break to swim directly in the waters of the Pacific. This recreational and refreshing stop holds us until sunset. In the meantime, the breeze comes back. Weak at first, it becomes soon a nice wind allowing us to sail at 9 knots towards our destination, which we reach in the first dark hours of the night.

The providential breeze holds on longer than we expected; we enjoy it. From time to time, a wave jumps over the deck and we have to keep the hatches closed. The inside of the cabins become very warm and give us a hard time to sleep. When the wind calms down, we open them as quickly as we can. A dozen of dolphins give us a magnificent acrobatic show. Later, just before the sunset, we sail through an area invaded by jelly fishes.
The sun sets in a clear blue sky and the moon rises much later now. We are thus able take advantage of this gap to observe in detail the celestial vault. Before the end of the night, we will enter Guatemalan waters.

After the cape “Blanca Roca”, the coast turns to the North-East and outlines the bay of Tehuantepec. We decide to start the crossing of the bay at this point. The weather is calm, when we can start. The North of the bay is marked by a plain between mountains.
The wind coming from the Mexican Gulf blow through that plain, accelerates and arrives in Pacific waters with quite a power. Soon a chop from North announces the wind which, according with the weather forecast, should not be strong. After a while we can sail fast towards the coasts of Guatemala. This change of conditions disturbs a couple of stomachs a bit yet very briefly. The moon rises red and completes the scene of a beautiful evening at sea.

As every morning since we’re in Mexico, the sun rises on a pure blue sky. The sea is calm. We sail near the coast to take advantage of the breeze. Off-shore there is no wind. After each maneuver, we put back the tarp protecting us from the sun.
Our meals are mainly vegetables and fruits. We take the shower outside with a bucket, no restriction with the water, we have the biggest tank on earth. To finish, half a liter of fresh water is enough to get rid of the salt. Giulio enjoys a long bath on the shade under attentive eyes of his parents. For the sunset, the whole crew is waiting for the green flash which does not come today. The moon rises every night a little later. While waiting for it we enjoy star gazing.

We’re sailing again after a week in Acapulco full of interesting meetings. We were able to work on our topic “Tourism and Climate change” in a very constructive way. We met local and governmental organizations, public and private entities, we did a presentation of the expedition to students in Tourism and we’re able to spread widely our message to the general public with the press, radio and TV. We’ll write a report about our week in Acapulco to put it on line as quickly as we can. The picture of the day is the ecologist clown visiting schools as a volunteer to raise the awareness in children of the importance of environmental protection.
We’re sailing peacefully towards the East South-East along the coast. The moon, still big, lights the landscape.