It's a wrap 2013 in a nutshell or more appropriately hermit crab shell

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Our 2013 cruising season on board SVAquadesiac began in February at Bocas Del Toro, Panama where we provisioned SVAquadesiac in a marina on an island once walked upon by Christopher Columbus! Our cruising plan was to make our way to the Rio Dulce, Guatemala by June 2013, the start of hurricane season.  The voyage to the Rio Dulce was interesting as we plotted courses to islands in the Caribbean we had never heard of.   The islands of San Andrés and Isla de Providencia both considered Hawaiian island type gems of Columbia, were our first two stops.  San Andrés promotes modern day tourism and trade while Isla de Providencia was the home away from home of Captain Morgan!  Both were pretty unexpectedly amazing islands to visit.

On March 31, 2013 we arrived at our next stop Islas de la Bahía Roatán & Cayos Cochinos.  Here we joined up with fellow cruisers we had first met in Mexico and enjoyed exceptional diving, snorkeling and exploring.  Our friends love the island so much they started a business there called http://www.zeppelindiveandsail.com and now call it home.

We welcomed several friends on board for a vacation away from it all!... be careful what you wish for… The cruising life is not all cocktails and sunsets. We were very grateful for all the spare parts they brought to fix our autopilot or “Auto” for short.  We spent a lot of time at a resort called Fantasy Island, yes, just like in the old TV show.  It is complete with a plane wreck in the lagoon.  We went to the trendy West End, old island haunts such as “Hole in the wall”, probably not in your Lonely Planet guide and Cayos Cochinos where we had lunch served to us on a tiny speck of an island called Chachauate by a Garifuna fisherman who is name Fausto.  Yes, he wrote it in the sand for me.  No reservation required. 

Towards the end of May on a full moon, we set sail for the Rio Dulce, Guatemala.  We entered the Rio Dulce following a catamaran and watching our depth sounder instead of the scenery.  We inched our way over the sand bar into the Rio with only inches of water under the keel to spare.  This was Tarzan country, jungle for as far as you can see. The town, Livingston, is only accessible by boat. We were greeted by an unusual contingent of officials all looking for a cold beverage in return for stamps in our passports and cruising documents.  Our goal was to head up river and locate the marina where we had made reservations to keep the SVAquadesiac for the coming hurricane season.  The water under our keel was now an emerald green, gone was the blue water of the Caribbean.  I kept a sharp look out for canoes, crocodiles, manatees, submerged pilings and of course Tarzan, just in case.  I had read somewhere that the Rio Dulce can swallow a gringo.  I believe this to be true.

We returned home to Napa in June.  Doug picked up some more contract work to refill the cruising kitty, I still work at doing nothing all day, wink. 

In December we celebrated the 1^st birthday of our granddaughter Summer Lynn Simms. Oh so cute!  Her folks Dillon and Megan are pretty special as well.

We started 2014 with a wedding!  Gregg and Courtney were married in beautiful, sun drenched Carpinteria, California on January 4, 2014.  So as you can see our family continues to grow and we could not be happier!