Saga47swan Sailing

𝘾𝙧𝙪𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙇𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣 𝘼𝙢𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙖 🇨🇺🇵🇦🇨🇴🇧🇷

Believe it or not, Saga has reached Latin America.

Since arriving in Cuba and now cruising the beautiful San Blas Archipelago in Panama, Duolingo has become one of our most important pieces of navigation equipment! Learning Spanish has been a slow journey, but little by little a whole new world is opening up. What once sounded like a stream of unfamiliar words is now starting to make sense, making it easier to connect with people and experience the places we visit.

Out here in the islands, English is often the minority language, so our Spanish lessons continue daily as we prepare for the next chapter: Colombia. And beyond Colombia lies Brazil, Argentina and Chile.

If all goes to plan, Saga will arrive in Brazil at the end of January before continuing south along the spectacular South American coastline. Looking further ahead, our 2027-2028 adventures will take us from tropical Brazil to Patagonia, and onward across the Pacific.

It's exciting to see the route on a chart and realise that we're no longer planning it—we're living it.

If Latin America, offshore passages, remote anchorages and true sailing adventure are on your bucket list, we'd love to hear from you.

Adventure awaits with you at the helm.

𝙃𝙞𝙩 𝙗𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘼𝙨𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙖 𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙘𝙠𝙚𝙣

Last night we experienced our first “Chocosana” storm also called C**o de Pollo.

In the region of Panama, the locals call these very particular clouds “Ass of the chicken”. They are dense storm clouds that look like an inverted funnel or cone pointing to the ground. They are usually accompanied by heavy showers, huge thunderstorms and hurricane winds that circulate in the cyclone direction, lasting between 30 minutes and a couple of hours.

We were hit by a C**o de pollo last night, the sea state picked up very quickly with gusting wind above 40 kts. - at 2 am, a yacht came flying past us towards the nearby reefs - their anchor was dragging. Lucky, the crew got the boat away from the reef and re-anchored.

Our anchor also dragged slightly and we got close to another vessel and decided to move our anchor, which was quite a task at 3 am in the morning in 40 kt of wind and heavy rain. Took us about an hour and we were safely anchored with 7 x scope with no yachts up wind.

At 4:30 am the wind died as quickly as it had started.

Luckily, no yachts went on the reef, this morning we spoke to another yacht, they had dragged and found themselves in less than 3 metres of water next to the reef - a close call, they are now anchored in 12 metres.

What’s our key learnings?
1. Always prepare the yacht for heavy weather ✅ ( stove away Bimini, sun cover, swim ladder, dinghy etc)
2. Chocosana usually blows from SE, so make sure you can swing 360, and especially to NW / N . ✅
3. Check if anyone are anchored upwind (SE ) from you - if they drag, you are likely to be in trouble. We were very lucky last night that the yacht didn’t hit or got their anchor dragging entangled in our chain.
4. Have headsets for safe communication ✅ Our worked perfectly despite the howling winds and heavy rain.
5. If hit by a Chocosana be ready to go on deck ( PFD handy ), keep look out, have spotlight and signal horn ready. ✅

𝙎𝙖𝙣 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙨 | 𝘼𝙧𝙧𝙞𝙫𝙖𝙡 𝙩𝙤 𝙋𝙤𝙧𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙧

Dropped anchor at Porvenir for our official check-in after arriving from Jamaica.

First things first: enough chain out, a little side transit, then some revs astern to make sure the anchor was properly set. Before we even had time to settle, we were already surrounded by friendly offers — courtesy flags, seafood, molas...

We asked everyone to come back later while we headed ashore for the immigration process. Sure enough, they were all waiting patiently for us when we returned to Saga47swan - Welcome to San Blas.

𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙨𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 | 𝙃𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙨 𝘾𝙖𝙮𝙨, 𝙎𝙖𝙣 𝘽𝙡𝙖𝙨

The "veggie and fruit" boat comes around every 3 days. Not much can be grown on the islands except for coconuts, so all the fresh vegetables may be coming from Panama city or elsewhere.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙒𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙒𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙤𝙬 ⛵️🌦️

As we prepared for our offshore passage from Montego Bay to San Blas Islands, the forecast for our 4-day crossing showed thunderstorms developing on the 3rd and 4th day at sea.

Better safe than sorry… so instead of rushing offshore, we decided to continue cruising along the coast of Jamaica, tacking (lots of tacking) from Montego Bay towards Port Antonio and wait for a better weather window before setting course for Panama.

Before departure, we met with immigration in Montego Bay, updated the crew list, and received approval for our Jamaican cruising permit.

One of the most important parts of every adventure aboard Saga47swan — the safety briefing.

We covered key procedures in case of:
• Fire
• Gas leak
• Person overboard
• Abandon ship — where are the EPIRBs?
• Dismasting
• Water ingress
• …and many other scenarios

Preparedness at sea is just as important as the adventure itself.

With everything checked and ready, lines were cast off and we began our journey eastward along Jamaica’s spectacular coastline, enjoying a few overnight stops before reaching Port Antonio — where we’ll once again study the weather carefully before heading offshore towards San Blas.

Adventure sailing is also about patience, respect for the sea, and knowing when to wait. 🌊

Alysson James

Ocean Signal