Panama

Our longest voyage was on our 30 foot sailboat, We Three, when we sailed from Seattle, Washington through the Panama Canal to Key West, Florida.  Dwight, myself and our Cap'n Kitty saw wondrous sights throughout that 7500 nautical mile journey; live volcanoes burping smoke puffs as we sailed out to sea from El Salvador; fish-tank clear tropical waters with tiny florescent blue fish swimming beneath our keel in Grand Cayman; joyfully energetic baby manta rays somersaulting out of the water one quiet morning in Mexico; and an enormous pod of smiling dolphins racing by our boat as we sailed into the morning off the coast of Southern California.

For me, the San Blas Islands were, by far, the prettiest sight.  Lying off the east coast of Panama, they are so gorgeously perfect that you could almost believe a Hollywood set designer had a hand in their creation. On the larger islands in this archipelago, you'll find tourists and tour boats and cruise ships but on some of the smaller islands the Kuna people stubbornly maintain their old ways.

We anchored for a few days at Chichime (chee-chee-may), between two small islands with a barrier reef protecting us from ocean swells.  While the men of the small island were off fishing during the day, the women packed their open dug-out canoes and paddled out to the private cruising boats anchored in their bay trying to sell their traditional molas or embroidery, while secretly hoping to be invited aboard for a cup of coffee.  They would smilingly hold up their wares and ask for "ten-dollah" or "fi-dollah" while the older children bailed out the water seeping through the metal patchwork in the bottom of their canoes.  Sometimes a kicking baby would be dangled up high toward our cockpit so that we could see how cute they were.....and they were adorable.  Their mothers had strong hands and tight grips on them, nevertheless a baby over water made me a little nervous. Those babies never even slipped, their mothers knew what they were doing.