RoRC Report from Central America – Reunited with Calico Skies
by William Heaton & Grace Arison 13 Dec 2021 19:46 UTC
Reunited with Calico Skies © William Heaton and Grace Arison
We set sail for Isla Mujeres, Mexico in May, nearly ten full months since we last cruised abroad.
Despite added complications travelling it felt good to once again start exploring a foreign shore. We completed our passage on a holiday weekend which forced us to remain on board until Tuesday. The actual check-in process wasn't too painful; there was an added Covid questionnaire and body temperature check when we met with the health officials, but no Covid test was required! Mexico is a new country to us, and we had an absolute blast eating ALL the tacos and drinking ALL the margaritas. We based ourselves in Marina Puerto Isla Mujeres, a fantastic marina and resort. We stayed about a month waiting for a weather window to Panama. We put ourselves in a bit of a box by heading to Mexico. An easier route would have taken us through the Bahamas, but we traded easting to explore a new spot.
We were happy to see a break in the trades in June with hurricane season quickly approaching. We opted to take on crew for this passage, which felt more like a delivery than a pleasant passage, not to mention some historic piracy concerns off the coast of Nicaragua. Grace jumped on a two-hour flight to Panama City and waited seven days for Calico Skies to arrive. Panama required a pre-departure negative Covid test that we sent to the fantastic Port Officer Luis Fabian of Bocas Marina. Luis had submitted all our entrance documents and Covid tests to the proper authorities to make our arrival to Panama extremely smooth.
A day before we left Panama banned any travel from Colombia, which eliminated any possible pit stops in San Andrea or Providencia. We had a smooth 900+ mile passage. We left Calico Skies in Bocas Del Toro for the rainy season and will be returning in the middle of October. We can't wait to start exploring Panama!
This article has been provided by the courtesy of Ocean Cruising Club.