We use to cruise full time until family illness brought us home for 3 years. When we left California in November 07 we started to 'commute cruise' ( 4 months on the boat, come home for a few months and return to the boat and take it somewhere else. Was working well and has given us a lot of satisfaction. We returned to the boat here in Bocas and were about to head back to the San Blas and on to Cartagena for Christmas. Seemed like a good plan except that Cartagena has now become the hotspot in the Western Caribbean. The marinas are full and as of yesterdays net there were at least 100 boats in the anchorage or almost twice as many as ever in the past.

With all that in mind we decided to stay here in Bocas for the holidays and head out in January arriving in Cartagena in late January after many have left. There's a lot to do here and it should be fun to spend a couple of months in one area getting to know it. At the same time it bothers me. Either us or the boat will have been in Bocas for close to 7 months and I'm beginning to feel like those cruisers that get stuck in one place and never leave. I really don't want to be one of them,,, but,,, staying in one place for a while is really part of cruising.

I have to make sure we leave after the holidays.