Follow Our Journey
- Where are we?
The snapshot to the left is our GPS position anywhere in the world. It moves when we are underway and may appear static when our instruments are off.
- Where are we going?
April 2019 we will depart from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, transit the Panama Canal, and terminate in Golfito, Costa Rica. In Costa Rica we will load Valerie May onto a ship and bring her to Victoria, B.C. in June 2019.
- Where have we been?
Spring 2019Ft. Lauderdale to Victoria B.C. - UPDATE
- Ft. Lauderdale - April 2 Update - Refit
We cancelled our original plan to transit from Ft. Lauderdale to Golfito, CR ended when our refit took months longer than anticipated. Instead we loaded Valerie May in Ft. Lauderdale on a ship destined for Victoria, B.C..
- Ft. Lauderdale to Victoria: Original Plans
The following itinerary has been cancelled due to refit delays. Stay tuned for updates:
Ft. Lauderdale to Bahamas: Departing around March 31, we will cross the Gulf Stream for the first time. Travelling from Ft. Lauderdale to Bimini, our first leg will give us an opportunity to test our prowess estimating wind and current speed over the course of a roughly 50 mile journey directly across the Gulf Stream.
After a rest and a swim, we will travel to Nassau, Bahamas (approx. 200 nm over the course of 8 days). We expect this leg of our trip to allow for plenty of days to explore and enjoy the sun by taking at least one longer overnight leg to practice our night-sailing and cover the miles quickly.
Nassau to Turks & Caicos: Nearly 400 nautical miles seperate Nassau to the Turks and Caicos and we have planned 10 days to cover this distance so that we have plenty of time to enjoy some island time and swim in the glorious waters. A couple of longer jumps will buy us some precious beach time and give us a little offshore practice.
Turks & Caicos to Colon, Panama: We aim to arrive in Colon, Panama around April 26 in order to provide a 5-day window between our check-in at Colon and boat measurements and inspection and an entry time into the Canal around May 1.
Departing the Turks around April 16, this will be our first long offshore journey, nearly 1000 miles. Our current plan is to travel through the Windward Passage between Cuba and Haiti with a possible stop in Jamaica depending on our crew's interests, wind, and weather.
Once in Colon, we hope to use our time between check-in and our entry into the canal to explore the areas south of Colon, ideally to include the San Blas Islands.
Panama Canal: This 43-mile canal connects the Atlantic Ocean via the Caribbean Sea to the Pacific Ocean across the Isthmus of Panama.
Panama City to Golfito, Costa Rica: The canal contains 3 locks, with 3 chambers each - a process that will lift us 85' into the man-made Lake Gatun on the Atlantic side and lower us down into the Pacific Ocean 1 or 2 days later, depending on schedulng.
After a short rest, we will aim to leave Panama City and head out to sea around May 4, destination Golfito, Costa Rica. The journey is +/- 450 miles to Golfito, heading straight west from Panama City until we reach the continental shelf before we turn North and then East into Golfito.
We will not know our loading date until 4-6 weeks prior to departure. Our expected loading is between May 15 and June 15.
Because our planning starts now, and we will not know our loading date until we are in the Turks and Caicos, we are planning as if the loading date is May 15. With that in mind, our hope is to arrive in Golfito around May 8 in order to provide enough time to secure everything inside the boat, remove canvas and foresails, and do whatever else is required. If we have the good fortune to have a mid-May/early-June loading date, we will spend that time exploring the beautiful west coast cruising grounds of Costa Rica.