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.

Out here things can become dangerous in the blink of an eye. One moment you’re cruising along and the next your world is flipped upside down. Literally.

In this episode we’re sharing how our performance catamaran sails itself, without autopilot, and of course the latest hurdle we have to jump. Watch now to see how it’s done!

Diving in remote, cold, shark infested waters with extreme currents. Why would we do such a thing?

There’s no denying visiting the Galapagos is the experience of a lifetime. Sailors crossing the Pacific from Panama to Marquesas are faced with the decision to stop at the Galapagos on the way, bypass it or fly there as a separate trip apart from cruising. This week we’re chatting with our friend Dale to give you the perspective of someone who sailed to the Galapagos with his wife Katrina, compared with our experience of flying there.

Is it still possible to find wildlife in its purest form without humankind’s interference? We wanted to find out. So we headed to the Galapagos, the inspiration for Darwin’s On the Origin of Species. Upon arrival we learned 70% of the indigenous plant species have been killed, and many animals endangered. We began to wonder if the Galapagos would be the pristine wilderness of our imagination or if we were too late.

Often times when we’re attempting repairs on our boat we feel like detectives working to solve a mystery. In this episode we’re trying to figure out why we lost all our instruments starting with depth and tackle some maintenance that should have been straightforward but leaves us scratching our heads.

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’ve been cruising for 16 months now and it makes us proud to know that we generate our own power and make our own water, and as long as we provision enough food we can take our home so many places and experience the beauty of our amazing planet on our own terms. Today we’re sharing how we live off-grid on our sailing catamaran, how some people we meet in remote places like Kuna Yala live their lives, and the one thing we all struggle with.

The reality of off-grid living, especially as digital nomads, is we need internet and we need to eat, lol. So we had to head back to Linton Bay marina to use the internet and upload some videos. Once back in the San Blas, we anchor in the postcard perfect Holandes Cays for some spearfishing, snorkeling amongst the beautiful reefs + marine life, and enjoy some of Fabio’s delicious cooking.

This week we spend our time doing what we set out to do when we embarked upon this lifestyle; sailed, connected with a local who took us diving for lobster and octopus, and cooked a delicious meal onboard with the bounty. This is truly #boatlife at its finest! But of course it doesn't come without challenges.

This week we are truly settling into boat life in the Central Holandes Cays of the San Blas Islands/Guna Yala. Upon first glance mere spits of land dot the water’s face but in reality there is an entire world waiting to be explored just below the surface. And so we spend our days exploring the protected lagoon and its reefs searching for conch, lobster, octopus, and fish and admiring its beauty.

After finalizing the work on our main sail we FINALLY head out to the San Blas Islands aka Guna Yala. The archipelago of 365 islands on Panama's northeast coast, are remote, undeveloped, pristine specimens of what tropical paradise dreams are made of. But because of its remoteness and extensive reef formations, navigation is quite tricky. Watch now to see how we handle the challenge.

This week the boat work continues at Linton Bay Marina in Panama. We have a few projects to wrap up, most importantly the work on our rudders and their cases. As usual we encounter a couple hurdles. Join us as we put our boat back together and try to get her floating again!

Join us this week in Linton Bay, Panama as Wanderlust is hauled out of the water for some much needed TLC. If you’re curious what kind of maintenance a 2 yo performance sailing catamaran needs, this one is for you! This period has also given us time to reflect a bit and we shared a bit of our introspection in this episode.

Sailing is our means of transportation and the boat our platform from which to explore. We are now travelers, not tourists. Witnesses to different cultures, ways of living, eating, working and playing. Attempting to understand what makes the world tick and tock but also trying to gain a deeper comprehension of ourselves and identify what will satisfy that hunger for further exploration.

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.

We have been working on getting boat insurance for the past month and we finally secured a policy that fit our budget! Within two hours we fired the engines and were on our way to PANAMA!!! We were so excited to officially kick off our voyage sailing around the world!