Sailbirding

  Jen and I at Brightnest's bow, transiting the Panama Canal. Here’s something you may not have heard: The birding and wildlife in Panama were just as fantastic as anything we encountered in Costa Rica. Panama doesn’t get as much buzz and press, but i t has all the natural diversity you would expect from its geographical location on an isthmus connecting North and South America.   But first, let me catch you up, and bring you along to Panama with us. We departed Costa Rica on Feb 13 th , bound for Panama City. (By chance, we were always departing on the 13 th !) We settled into our watch schedule of 4 hours on/off. We promised ourselves that we would have a nice dinner in Panama City since we spent Valentine’s Day on passage. At some point early on, we lost the wind vane of our anemometer. We still had wind speed data, and for the first days, the wind was between 5 and 12 knots, starting to pick up above 15 knots on the night of the 14 th . From then on, it was 15-20 knot...

  Brightnest's route from Chiapas, Mexico to Costa Rica. Dolphins escorting us into Playas del Coco, Costa Rica. After weeks on land, we were itching to be back on the water when we began our passage from Chiapas, Mexico to Costa Rica on Jan. 13 th . A month earlier, when crossing the Gulf of Tehuantepec from Huatulco to Chiapas, we planned our passage very cautiously to make sure we didn’t encounter the infamously strong winds there (called “Tehuantepeckers” or "T-peckers"), so cautious that we encountered a glassy sea with little wind, and motored more than we had liked. So, for this 5-day passage, in which we would be encountering the Papagayo winds, we attempted to plan for a little stronger breeze. We missed the mark a bit and ended up getting the crap kicked out of us by the Papagayos along the Nicaraguan coast.   Live, and learn. Amor fati . One passage is too calm, the other too rough – we’re still homing in on those Goldilocks conditions in the forecast. When w...

  Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City. New Year's Eve countdown for 2023, Mexico City. Ever tried traveling internationally by plane and bus with a boxed-up marine refrigerator compressor?   It’s a gnarly device of wires and metal tubes, some might describe it as “bomb-like”.   Or, in Spanish, “Parece bomba.”   You must painstakingly pack it to survive travel without bending the copper pipes or causing a coolant leak, and then painstakingly unpack it at every security checkpoint, in front of a curious audience, after it inevitably sets off their alarms. Then you must painstakingly repack it and repeat this process until you arrive at your presumably far-off destination, such as a marina in Chiapas, Mexico. Don’t forget to SMILE for the cameras. Our old compressor. The good news is that the new compressor arrived at my parents’ ranch in OK in time for me to pick it up on my Christmas visit.   I packed it as carefully as I could for transit to Mexico.   ...