Hands-on sailing and off-grid liveaboard training on Sophisticated Lady, a 51-foot Jeanneau, with Captain Rick at the helm and Maddy in the galley. Two guest cabins. Four guests at most. The Panamanian Caribbean as the classroom.
Every option puts you on a working liveaboard, not a charter boat with the owners removed. You eat with us, sail with us, and see how the systems you have watched on the channel behave when the wind picks up.
An open-water crossing to Bocas del Toro, or Bocas to San Blas by way of Portobelo. You stand watches, helm at night, reef when it is time to reef, and learn what a passage asks of a boat and a crew. All meals aboard.
Low islands, reef anchorages, and no restaurants for a hundred miles, which is why Maddy cooks every meal. Snorkel in the morning, learn the boat in the afternoon, sleep where we anchor. Four nights minimum.
Sheltered water, villages built over the sea, and restaurants a dinghy ride away. Choose all-inclusive with Maddy's galley, or half-board: breakfast aboard every day and the rest your call. Three nights minimum.
This is the part no charter offers. Rick has lived aboard this boat since 2005 and has rebuilt most of it at least once. You get the version that is not in the brochure.
This is hands-on instruction, not a certification course. You leave with sea miles, a signed logbook entry, and a clear idea of whether this life is for you before you spend money on a boat.
Maddy is a professional Italian chef. Her cooking blends Italian tradition with what the Caribbean sells that morning. How much of it you want is up to you.
The only option for San Blas and for passages. There is nowhere else to eat.
Available in Bocas del Toro and on the Portobelo coast, where restaurants exist. Works like renting a room, except the room sails.
We sail where the wind allows. The passages are open to anyone who wants the sailing life at full strength: your own private double cabin, the food we cook aboard, and a captain with more than 120,000 nautical miles under him, most of them in this sea. On passage you are crew. You will be on watch.
We leave at first light and cross the open Caribbean to the Bocas del Toro archipelago. Two days and a night at sea, with wind and swell on the beam and nothing on the horizon until the Panamanian mountains come up on the second morning. You board the evening before departure and sleep aboard in Bocas on arrival.
You will stand watches with Rick, helm through the night, and learn how a boat is managed when there is no anchorage to run to.
We leave Bocas and follow the Caribbean coast of Panama eastward through the night to Portobelo, an old Spanish colonial port with stone forts over the bay and a UNESCO World Heritage listing. A day there, then a day sail on to the first islands of Guna Yala.
A passage that takes you from the jungle of Bocas to the white-sand islands of San Blas, past a piece of Panama's history, with an overnight leg and a coastal leg in the same week.
Two very different ways to see the Panamanian Caribbean. The boat is your base: you sleep, eat and wake up wherever we anchor. We choose the anchorages by season and sea state and tell you in advance, so you can plan your trip.
In Bocas the jungle runs down to the sea. The islands are forest to the waterline, the beaches are pale sand, the reef starts a few meters out, and the bays are so sheltered the water stays flat when the wind picks up. Local life is busy but unhurried: wooden villages over the water, small restaurants, music from the docks.
Not included: international and domestic flights (Panama City to Bocas), Bastimentos Marine Park fee, alcohol beyond the glass of wine at dinner, meals and drinks ashore, optional tours, travel insurance.
Some 365 low islands and sand cays with coconut palms, turquoise water and coral everywhere. This is Guna Yala, the autonomous territory of the Guna people, who have lived here and looked after it for centuries by their own rules. You arrive as a guest: unhurried, respectful, and curious about a culture that is not yours.
Not included: international flights, transfer from Panama City to the boarding point (about $75 each way by 4x4 and launch), Guna Yala entry fee ($20–23 per person) and small island landing fees, alcohol beyond the glass of wine at dinner, travel insurance.
On every itinerary: water, coffee, tea, homemade iced tea and fresh fruit drinks are included throughout your stay.
Prices in US dollars, per person, two sharing a double cabin, high season December to April. Book the whole boat and both cabins are yours for up to four guests.
Swipe sideways for solo and whole-boat rates →
| Option | Board | Minimum | Per person | Solo, own cabin | Whole boat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stays | |||||
| San Blas stay Guna Yala anchorages |
All-inclusive | 4 nights | $395 / night | $595 / night | $1,450 / night |
| Bocas del Toro stay Sheltered archipelago |
All-inclusive | 3 nights | $325 / night | $495 / night | $1,200 / night |
| Bocas del Toro stay Sheltered archipelago |
Half-board | 3 nights | $225 / night | $345 / night | $850 / night |
| Training passages | |||||
| Open-water crossing to Bocas del Toro 2 days / 1 night at sea |
All-inclusive | 3 days / 2 nights | $995 | $1,495 | $3,600 |
| Bocas del Toro to San Blas via Portobelo About 200 nm · overnight leg plus day leg |
All-inclusive | 5 days / 4 nights | $1,795 | $2,695 | $6,500 |
| Signature week | |||||
| Liveaboard Week, San Blas 7 nights · the full sailing and systems program |
All-inclusive | 7 nights | $2,650 | $3,975 | $9,800 |
Fully refitted over the last two years and built to let you live at sea in comfort without pretending it is a hotel. Two double guest cabins; yours is private and reserved for you.
Rick's own drawings of Sophisticated Lady. Tap a number to see what each space is. Bow is to the right.
This is our only home. We are not going anywhere at the end of your week, and that changes how we sail it.
Living aboard since 2005. More than 120,000 nautical miles, most of them in the Caribbean, and one of the longest-running sailing channels on YouTube. Teaches systems the way he tests them: by living on them.
Professional Italian chef with decades of travel behind her. Runs the galley, the provisioning and the languages. The reason guests ask for recipes on the way home.
Born on San Andrés, growing up with the ocean as his playground. Fishes, swims, and will show you where the dinghy painter goes. He is the loudest reminder of why we live this way.
No. Stays suit complete beginners. Passages suit anyone fit enough to stand a watch and willing to be woken at 2 a.m. If you have never sailed, start with a stay.
Only if you want to. We film our life aboard, and guests often become part of an episode. Tell us when you book if you would rather stay off camera and we keep you out of the frame.
Yes. Ricci lives here. This is a family boat, and most guests say he is the best part of the week. If you would rather have adults only, this is not the right boat, and we would rather tell you now.
At anchor in Bocas and San Blas the boat barely moves. On passage, some people feel it for the first day. Bring the medication you know works for you and start it before we leave the dock. Maddy's ginger tea does the rest.
Yes. Both cabins, up to four guests, and the itinerary built around you. Whole-boat rates are in the table above. If you book one cabin, the second may be offered to other guests we think will fit the week.
Bocas del Toro has daily flights from Panama City. San Blas is reached from Panama City by 4x4 and launch to the boarding point, about four hours and roughly $75 each way; we arrange it. For the open-water crossing, we send the departure port and flight options with your confirmation.
Soft bag, not a suitcase. Reef-safe sunscreen, a hat that stays on, light long sleeves, deck shoes or sandals with grip, a headlamp, your own mask if you have one, and seasickness medication for passages. We send a full list.
Then the plan changes. Departures wait for a safe window and anchorages follow the sea state. We tell you as early as we know. In twenty-one years aboard, waiting a day has never been the wrong call.
Say which option you are looking at and when you would like to travel. We reply with dates, availability and the practical details: how to reach the boarding point, what to bring, and what the week will look like.
Maddalena and the crew of Sophisticated Lady. We answer within a day, Starlink and weather permitting.