New Years Resolution: Sail to South Africa

Dan's last night of 2025 in Panama

Here we are in 2026! We are just about 24 days from departing Panama City enroute to the Galapagos. We both made it back to Panama carrying a combined assortment of luggage weighing in at over 200 pounds (90+ kg). Everything from our favorite tea, some very small and special bits and bobs, to a 20" radar dome -- we packed it all in. While I was still in Washington, Dan single-handed Okisollo bringing her from Buenaventura Marina to Vista Mar marina. He spent two nights at Farallon Island and bravely did a New Years dip in the ocean. I chickened out of the one in Blaine, Washington -- it just didn't seem humanly possible to get in 45 degree water. At least not for this human.

a not so polar plunge on new years day

Now that I'm back in Panama, I've been busy hauling Dan up and down the mast (so thankful we have electric winches!) Dan masterly installed a new radar dome and a new hailer/fog horn (the old one overheated frequently...this was never a problem in Seattle but seemed chronic in the tropics). We also were able to remove 20 pounds of old unused wires out of the mast -- all from obsolete equipment. We installed a new AIS enabled VHF radio, which provides redundancy in our AIS system (a transponder that communicates our location to other ships), and has a fancy, easy to use interface.

We can't leave home without bacon bits and dried apricots from costco

We figured out where to stow a bunch of random items that seemed critical to our future adventures (like 4 costco sized 'Tub of Towels') and we've loaded/unloaded our food storage cabinets multiple times to snake wires through to the navigation table from the mast. At this point things are back in their orderly place. We've been so busy the last few days we relied heavily upon the pizza shop at the head of the dock...pizza has been the breakfast of choice, lunch of choice and even one day the dinner. It is such a versatile food.

Making good use of an Ikea bag while up the mast -- it was our Radar 'delivery' device

We also finally made a trip into the town of Coronado where there is a ships chandlery, a drug store, a hardware store and several large grocery stores. We didn't buy much because we won't have much refrigeration until after our haul out. I was excited to find a mini-whole foods like store where we can get all the fancy stuff that will be impossible find until we are in Australia. We also found out we would not be allowed to stay in the work yard while the boat is out of the water so we had to find somewhere to stay for a few days in the sleepy/surf/beach town of San Carlos.

So this haul out was different than any we'd done previously. At high tide, we were escorted with several line handlers to the haul out area which consisted of a long ramp with piling on either side. Dan's job was to hold the boat in the same place despite the 1' waves and the 10 knots of wind--easy right? The line handlers carefully positioned us such that a huge trailer could be positioned underneath us. Then several divers checked that the trailers supports were in the right place all while the tide went out and the wind and waves continued to push us around.

Finalizing that all is secure before driving up the ramp

This process took two hours. It was a bit nerve wracking in my opinion because the 4 people on our boat, the two people in the water, the two people on the marina barge and the 1 line handler on the ramp were all frantically yelling commands into their VHF in Spanish. Our spanish isn't that great, and google translate was only picking up things like, 'no! not there! pull harder! what are you doing? that's not right', etc. I got really nervous when the main guy (the only one who spoke english), jumped off the boat, ran ashore and got his swimsuit on so he could make sure that the younger guy who was swimming around the boat had it right. We had been warned of organized chaos and it proved true. After things settled down, we were given a ride to the dock and we watched the boat go up the ramp while we watched apprehensively from the shore. It seemed like the boat was going to slide off the back as it was going up the hill...but somehow it did not!

Okisollo goes up hill for the first time in her life!

We are hauling out now, to ensure that we can clear into Galapagos next month. They require either a certified diver certificate or proof of a haulout in Panama. Its part of their environmental protection program. So this is what we are doing! Thankfully the bottom looks pretty good this time around.

The WorldARC Rally that we will be joining in a few weeks kicks off today from St. Lucia (we join the group after they clear the panama canal). So get ready, and download the YB Races app (from your phone app store). Just search for the race titled "World ARC 2026-2027. There you will able to see where we are in relation to the rest of the 35 boats in the fleet. It's hard to believe that by this time next year we'll be in South Africa, having travelled many miles that I can't quite fathom. We'll just take them one day at a time. Onward to 2026!

Download the YB Races App for tracking the fleet