Bocas del Toro has a diverse sailing fleet from cruisers passing through to charter boats to liveaboard residents to expat residents with house & boat. They come in all shapes and sizes and each is interesting in its own way.
Our neighbor in Bocas Town lives at anchor on a Catalina 22.
Not a lot of space but certainly livable, it reminds Mark of his days cruising in Lake Huron with Tom on their Columbia 26.
Its dinghy is an interesting hybrid of a kayak and dinghy, about 2 feet wide. Too bad it doesn't seem to hold its air well, but patches and an air pump seem to do the trick.
Another boat nearby uses a proa for their dinghy, making for a lovely sight at sunset.
They sail both the big boat and small boat everywhere they go and get around everywhere unpowered/engineless with the exception of the wind.
We came across two other Manta catamarans while here. One appears to be running charters around the area, a common sight to see visiting tourists get a day out on the water.
On the other Manta we met Robert and Julie on Calypso.
They sailed here from Florida recently and ended up buying land in Panama, complete with a running chocolate farm.
Their chocolate line is found in all of the stores in town and they also host tours.
Anchored off of Isla Bastimentos, our neighbor was an interesting catamaran with a free standing bi-rig and abundant bridge-deck clearance. The sail plan appeared to be a junk rig and it would've been great to see this craft under sail.
It's nice to be back in the land of ulus with their colorful, homemade sails.
