After having spent two weeks with my sister and family on the boat, we almost felt a bit lonely with the four of us. In such a short time, we had lived so many adventures together and all of a sudden, they were gone – it almost felt like an unreal dream.
Also, we realized that hurricane season which starts in June, was quickly approaching and that we had to make up our minds where we wanted to spend it. We’re generally not very quick decision makers and so we kept pushing that decision. We made our way back to Georgetown, passing some of the anchorages we already knew from our way up, and discussed our two hurricane-season options on the way: the USA or Panama.
Pro’s for the USA were that the winds and currents (Gulfstream!) were more favorable to get there and it felt like the right time of year to do that transit. Also, any boat-work would probably be easier in the US. Con’s for USA was that we would probably “park the boat”, that it gets cold in November and didn’t feel as exotic as sailing in the tropics. Pro’s for Panama were that we’d heard very nice things of the San Blas islands and that we could keep on cruising in warm weather. Con’s for Panama: we would be there during rainy season, there would be a lot of thunderstorms and lightning and the way to get there would be much more challenging.
After intense discussions and some arguments, we decided for Panama and quickly started our preparations such as provisioning and doing a rig-check.
