On our upwind journey to the Marquesas for cyclone season we hunkered down in Tikehau, waiting for squally weather to pass. It gave us time to reflect and see these moments for what they are, not interruptions, but life, real and raw.

Sailing flat water lagoons, diving with sharks, admiring beautiful coral, wandering pink sand beaches, eating from the land and sea; our time sailing the Tuamotus has been amazing and these islands are quite possibly our favorite cruising destination yet. But it seems we’ve tempted fate and lingered in paradise a bit too long…

The reality of sailing across the Pacific is that some days are amazing with fish jumping all around and beautiful sailing. Other days there are squalls on the horizon, lines chafing and parts breaking.

We are continuing our 4,000 nm voyage across the Pacific Ocean, going from pollywogs to shellbacks as we cross the equator, hoping for wind, catching fish, marveling at dolphins, learning we may need to hand steer more often than we’d like and now our rudders are even giving us problems.

We are finally setting sail on a 4,000 nm passage across the Pacific to French Polynesia. This dream has been years in the making and it’s finally coming true!

Anchored outside of La Playita marina in Panama City we’re putting in long days to get Wanderlust ready to cross the Pacific Ocean. A project that should have taken a few hours turned into days because of one small mistake.

Today we are transiting the Panama Canal and motoring our own vessel from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean in less than 12 hours!!

Today we’re starting the first page of a new chapter, of a grand adventure we’ve dreamed of for years, sailing across the Pacific Ocean to French Polynesia.

Seeing men with guns and hearing shots fired from what you thought was a safe anchorage is never what you want but that’s what we experienced in Rio Chagres.

Today we’re sailing 90nm east to Rio Chagres, a tropical river meandering through pristine jungle. The weather is not in our favor and the entrance to Rio Chagres is shallow and flanked by reef on both sides. We’ve been warned not to enter unless the conditions are ideal and with daylight.

This week we’re continuing our journey in San Blas, sailing 50 nautical miles east to Mamitupu, reputed to be one of the most traditional Kuna villages. Most cruisers do not visit this area, just 50 miles from the Colombian border at the foothills of the Darien Forest. Turns out our biggest challenge didn’t have anything to do with nature.

We should be sailing right now but instead we are in Great Inagua, the southernmost island in the Bahamas, attempting to fix the headboard on our main sail so we can continue our passage to Panama, where we need to arrive by June 1st, before the start of hurricane season, as mandated by our insurance.