We flew out of Maine on January 22nd, and almost exactly 7 months and 4600 miles later, we pulled in on Brio.
Gotta say, I like arriving by boat much better than by plane 🙂

We made 55 stops in 8 countries (including an inland adventure through Honduras), and I’ve got this handy-dandy little map to share it all with you.

If you click on a marker you’ll get the name, date & my quick description of each stop we made. You might have to zoom in to get the markers to show individually (they tend to clump up, especially on the East Coast where we made LOTS of day-hops!).

Brio’s 2014 Adventures

Of our 7 months cruising this year, we spent:

• 9 nights in a paid marina (Bocas del Toro, Panama)
• 5 nights on free docks (North Carolina & Virginia)
• 27 nights at sea (13 overnight passages)

These were our overnight passages (I know nobody really cares, but what good is a blog if you can’t brag about your passages later??):

• Chiapas, Mexico to El Salvador (2 nights — great passage)
• El Salvador to Samara, Costa Rica (4 nights — awful at the end, cracked backstay)
• Samara, CR to Golfito, CR (2 nights — uneventful)
• Golfito, CR to Isla Gomez, Panama (1 night — squally)
• Venao, Panama to Panama City (1 night — awful beating leaking contrary-current-end-my-life-now trip)
• San Blas Islands to Bocas del Toro, Panama (2 nights — good sail)
• Bocas to Corn Islands (2 nights — uneventful)
• Corn Islands to Providencia (1 night — uncomfortable beating)
• Providencia to Isla Mujeres, Mexico (4 nights — longest passage at 693 miles)
• Isla Mujeres to Key West (2 nights — fastest Brio passage ever — 369 miles!!!!)
• St Augustine, FL to Charleston, South Carolina (2 nights — big thunderstorms)
• Norfolk, VA to New York City (3 nights — uneventful)
• Cape Cod Canal to Maine (1 night — hand-steering wearing every. single. layer of clothing we own)

…

Can I say that I’m proud of us for making it here?

Probably that’s not really a thing you’re supposed to say about yourself, but gosh-darnit I’m saying it anyways.

This was a long trip. An especially challenging one at times, for the boat and for us as sailors. But you know how it goes? Within about 24 hours of arriving, the rose-tinted glasses are out, the yucky uncomfortable passages and breakages are fading away and the clear-coloured tropical waters are swimming to the top…

Brio’s sailing days are definitely not over yet 🙂

– LMK