I still haven’t updated my adventures throughout Colombia and a side trip to Peru however I wanted to get the message out now that I’m heading out soon to Panama via San Blas. The plan is to sail from Cartagena this weekend either Saturday or Sunday for San Blas Panama. The islands of San Blas has been one of the best places I have been yet and a logical stopover on the way back to Colon Panama to transit the Canal. I will likely repeat the same itinerary I kept coming to Colombia from Colon only in reverse. First stopping in San Blas for a few weeks up to a month, and then another week making short hops along the Panamanian coast in Isla Grande, Isla Linton, Portobello and then finally to Colon. Maybe another week or two in Colon and then hopefully through the Canal and into El Pacifico. I’m estimating my Canal transit date to be some time around mid to late February putting me on the Pacific side (Panama City) plenty early for the Pacific crossing season. I had more engine problems here in Colombia that have since been resolved. Basically I couldn’t start the motor one day and after a day of trouble shooting I called in a professional local mechanic. After taking off the cylinder head we discovered that the gasket, rings, and valves were all looking very very sad causing a major compression issues. Essentially the top half of the motor has been rebuilt and she is running great now. I still have plenty of minor things on my to do list but over all salsa is ready to ship out. On the off chance anyone has some free time and no plans for Christmas I have plenty of room for one or two folks to sail from Cartagena Colombia to Panama, you would need at least a week total to get back to Panama City to fly out but if anyone is serious about that trip they would need to call me ASAP (phone number on sailingsalsa.com should be good till I depart this weekend).

I will be doing some writing on my way to Panama if I don’t before I leave to get the blogging up to date, and hope to keep better logs and records underway from now on in hopes of providing more detailed passage reports. That’s it for now; I’m off to check the weather and provision! Hope everyone is doing well and if you don’t here from me before Christmas have a very merry Christmas, I know I will, and watch out for my Spot-Check position reports on the website! -Kirk

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