August 7 – October 23, 2025; 19542 nm and 2408 days after departure from La Rochelle

It was indeed a long break! Sorry, I just couldn’t get myself started. What can I say? I was a lazy person! And correcto – as the headline might suggest we’re not yet in the Pacific. Unfortunately due to family issues we have decided to postpone our canal crossing until next year. Especially me, I wanted to stay on this side of Panamá, the Atlantic side, just in case it would be helpful to fly home to support my parents. I couldn’t imagine being somewhere in the Pacific far away from any island and not being able to get home in a few days. Of course you might wonder why not cross and stay on the Pacific side to explore the coast line there? For sure a good question which we had asked ourselves as well. The point is, there is not that much to explore in easy reach. Heading north west up to Mexico would be very nice but would also be a very challenging route. Fighting against current and wind. Costa Rica, which would be just around the corner provides beautiful country explorations but only limited anchorages. The Pacific side of Panamá and Colombia seemed even less accessible for boats. On top of that we were also not in the mood for difficult or challenging sailing escapades. So we picked the Atlantic side to have a calm and relaxing season.

But now let’s rewind and see what happened in Europe. This time we spent two weeks in Paris and even had the luxury of having our own room. Yess!!! Beginning of this year the kids had moved to a bigger apartment not only with a second bedroom but also with an enormous terrace. That was like winning the lottery to find a terrace like that in Paris. Lucky kids! Lucky us! After all the work in the marina it was so nice to just do nothing. Reading and relaxing on the terrace with coffee and croissant while smoothly adapting to Europe time. The only downside was that we arrived when the kids went on holidays for a week. But that actually was our bad or better to say Panamanian visa restrictions. To avoid overdue troubles at the airport we preferred being “alone” in Paris. At least in exchange we were able to take care of all the plants and flowers. That week happened to be extremely hot so it was great that we could water them a lot to avoid suffering.

On short notice Luis came to visit us in Paris which was a nice surprise and made mom and dad of course very happy. So the first week passed by very fast and just like that the kids were back. The highlight was soon to come. Jana wanted us to look at wedding dresses with her. OMG!!! I had never seen a wedding dress shop from inside. (Yeah I know now, I was strange. But I was not into typical weddings and dresses when we got married…don’t say anything!) Now I was super curious. The trouble was – it was August. Again! The time, when more or less everything was closed in Paris. Yet Jana managed to make an appointment at “Magasin du Printemps” a famous old department store (which even was a flagship store, I read, not that it matters but anyway). An architecturally beautiful building from 1865 which provides almost everything but also a huge wedding dress section. Well, I was overwhelmed from the many wedding dresses. I have to say most of them were a (big) bit too much for me. They seemed so heavy, soo much fabric and all the frills. We certainly had to get used to those queenlike dresses! That doesn’t mean we didn’t enjoy it – it was a great and fun experience! We even felt a lil’ bit important too as Jana was allowed to put on many different dresses from rather simple to very glamorous. She transformed into a princess or a roman statue and sometimes the dresses made her look like a bride. “Quel surprise!” Even though she didn’t find “her” dress there, it enabled her to get an idea of what she really wanted or not wanted. And alongside it gave us an insight of prices. We learned that wedding dresses can easily cost as much as a small new car. Who would have thought? I haven’t! Though fair enough, she had tried on dresses from famous designers but who knows them? Well, we certainly did not. (If I remember right, one dress was even worth 18.000 Euro. Just a little tiny bit crazy – at least in my humble opinion.) But hey not to worry, it was only her first dress fitting. Her favourite ones should be tried out in September, when I would have the pleasure of accompanying her again. Yeah!

Soon it was time to move on and celebrate my mom’s 85 birthday. Her birthday wish was to get the whole family together once again. To make that possible the kids had booked a big house only an hour drive away from Essen in Baarlo / Netherlands for two nights. It was nice to have gathered the family to spent precious and fun time together. Only the weather goddess could have been a little more generous for the birthday kid . Still, we managed to sit outside for a scrumptious bbq which the birthday kid had craved for. Some of us, mainly the girls, took Nonna (my mom) for a little shopping tour in Baarlo while the men took care of my Dad. In the early evening we even managed to play pétanque. Nonna who used to be a good skittles player, really challenged us all with her outstanding skills. It was a great weekend (the feature pic was taken there) but it also showed us all how challenging it is to take care of a demented person.

Norbert went back with the kids to Aachen and Paris, from where he flew out back to Panamá. While he was looking after Altimate and the remaining duties, I was taking care of my parents. Especially my mom, she desperately needed a break from taking care of my dad. One day Luis was so kind to come from Aachen to look after my dad so my mom and I could have a play day. She had wished for a little shopping trip. Our destination was a small town called Kempen just a 45 min drive from Essen. The town surprised us with an historic old town, well-preserved medieval architecture, beautiful half-timbered houses plus nice shops and cafes. All we needed – a nice time out. Unfortunately that was the only real fun day we had. Helping my mom looking after my dad for almost three weeks made me realise what a tremendous and difficult task she was performing daily. That difficult situation made me decide not wanting to be too far away from Europe.

Back in Paris I could look forward to admiring more wedding dresses. Jana had made appointments for two more shops of which one was her absolute favourite. This time Jana’s friend Emilie was joining us! First we met for lunch somewhere in the 10th arr. close to where the first wedding dress shop was located. What a nice start for a fun girly day! Our bellies satisfied with good food we were excited to move on. Only after a five minute walk we found ourselves in a backyard of a typical French apartment building. What a difference to the huge Printemps department store. Jana had received the entry code for the door via WhatsApp so that we could let ourselves in. The shop was settled in an apartment in the second or third floor of that building. I liked that much more than the vip-like show off wedding section of the big department store. Just a simple welcoming and pleasant atmosphere, yet still with style and elegance. But most important and even better, the dresses were much more to our taste. Pleasant fabrics which draped nicely and with lovely cuts. I liked almost all the dresses and soon had found my favourite. Emilie loved just all of the dresses and couldn’t make her mind up. But of course our opinion was not that important only if Jana would need help to decide. She had a favourite too but wanted of course to see the other dresses from the second shop. After arriving at the next shop we still had time for a quick beverage before the next fitting round. (Now I am wondering… why didn’t they offer champaign at the wedding stores? I mean we were in Paris! Isn’t that normal to get served a proper flute of champaign? Maybe not or maybe we should have asked? Damn it! Now it’s too late!) This shop was a normal looking store but kind of famous. Known to be very hyped by Parisians brides. Emilie by the way, had found her wedding dress there a couple of years ago. Once we entered I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like a dress here. From Jana’s reaction I could see she would neither. Of course she still did try on a lot of dresses but it was just not her style. The dresses were beautiful but somehow …just too much, too …what ever. I can’t find the right words for that. But anyway. The good part was, end of the day she knew what she wanted and had found her wedding dress! It was my favourite from the first store!!! We do have the same taste, like mother like daughter.!!!

Only a few days later I was on my way back home. El Capitano was waiting desperately for me. Yes he was! Mainly because he was fed up with marina life and was looking forward to leave but also because he missed me deeply! Like always I had mixed feelings. Of course I was happy to be back in my dear El Capitanos strong arms but saying goodbye keeps being a sad part. Norberto had been very diligent. All the tasks were done, the engine was now running satisfying (although not quite perfectly) and he already did most of the grocery shopping. The only things left to do before we could leave the marina was cleaning the sun/rain covers, some laundry and buying veggies and fruits. Easy tasks, fast done. So that on 26th of September, only three days after I was back on Altimate we left the marina and sailed to Linton Bay. There we had our gas bottles filled up at Hans place “Casa X”. Somehow it was difficult in Panamá to get non Panamian bottles filled up. But luckily Hans does fill them all! Oh and imagine!!! For the first time we managed to eat at the French restaurant at Panamarina. They did have indeed different dishes! I went for tongue – super delicious!!! and Norbert delighted himself with ossobuco. What a treat in such a remote place!
Since we were already there we also took the opportunity to speak with Sylvie the marina manager. We just wanted to let her know that we plan to leave Altimate there next year. All settled we jumped into our dinghy and enjoyed once again the pretty meandering mangrove channel which connects the two bays. As soon as we had the bottles back from Hans we lifted the hook and headed to the San Blas. Luckily the wind was much better than expected. So surprisingly we made it in one go all the way to the pool before sunset.

Not only that we also made it back in perfect time for a potluck on BBQ island. Debbie was already waiting, happily welcoming us and introduced us to all the sailors we didn’t know. What a pleasant coming back. The next morning we said hello to Ibin, Myrta and all the other Kunas we knew. They were surprised to see us as we had said goodbye for good when we left last time. But they were also happy to see us! Lucky us! The next weeks were the laziest we had since we moved on the boat, I think. It was just perfect. Just enjoying the moment and sucking in the relaxing vibe of the San Blas. A morning snorkel here and sometimes volleybeer in the afternoon. We had nice dinners with new sailor friends as well as with Debbie. Sometimes a garbage burn was the highlight of the day. Other days Norbert helped Debbie with some electrical issues and I did some fun sewing. All in all we didn’t do anything but enjoying the peaceful life. After more than three weeks of laid back doing nothing we were thinking for the first time of moving. As all our plans had changed the kids had now decided to visit us instead of Gambier/ Pacific in the San Blas for Norbert’s big birthday. And as Norbert’s visa would run out already in 4 weeks we decided to do another visa run to Cartagena. (By the time the kids would arrive mine visa would run out and Norbert’s would already be overdue for a month.) Like that we could again enjoy Colombia, have many changes of scenery on the way, we could fill up Altimate’s belly with nice groceries and most important it would give us peace of mind regarding visa for the next months. The 23 of October we lifted the anchor and slowly headed off to Cartagena.