Search Results for: maraki
We’d left the dinghy on the beach and hiked up to a isolated coastal rancho (family farm) to resupply our fresh vegetables. It was 25 miles north of Loreto, far from even any village. Cruisers on the VHF net said the rancho made excellent goat cheese. A young farmer and his son working there responded with a big smile and “buen dia” as we approached. “No queso. Pero tengo huevos y verduras,” he responded, and then led us past the chicken pens and to his garden. He washed his hands and picked some green onions, tomatoes, the only ripe beet, red and green lettuce, and radishes and washed them for us. For the vegetables and eggs, we paid him 100 pesos (about $4). We packed our bags and we…
Sailing the Caribbean coast of Panama from Bocas del Toro to Colon was routine for John and Lucy Knape. They’d already circumnavigated the planet once on their ketch, Maraki, and spent most of the past four years gunkholing in the Caribbean. Bocas-to-Colon was a matter of raising anchor and steering the 125-mile course. But their next leg — Colon to Balboa — was much more involved: Transiting the Panama Canal and its bureaucratic demands, if not that complicated, can be time consuming. I was lucky enough to join them for the transit and help out as a line handler. The Knapes began the process in early February from Bocas by contacting and engaging a bonded canal agent named Rogelio de Hoyos, referred to them by a fellow cruiser. Agents can…
Factors that can keep cruisers in port include mariners’ health and weather. As I took air, bus and fast ferry from New York City to Isla Mujeres off Cancun, Mexico, I was unaware that nearly a week would go by before these factors would allow us to set off on our passage to Cienfuegos, Cuba, a destination some 300 miles to the east. On a blustery but warm Thursday afternoon, Lucy and John Knape (my sister and brother-in-law) met me as I stepped from the speedy Ultramar catamaran on Isla Mujeres, a small Mexican island. The Knapes’ boat, a 44-foot DuFour ketch named Maraki, its unique red hull clearly visible even in the spray, was a wet 10-minute ride away in the inflatable. I was ready to sail, but Lucy…
