Arrive in Balboa, Panama and embark on Royal Clipper. Enjoy your first dinner on board. 

The vivid colors of the San Blas Islands are undoubtedly the inspiration for the fanciful birds, fish and animals in brilliant reds, oranges, blues and greens that decorate the intricately appliquéd molas created by the indigenous Kuna women. Strung along the throat of Panama's dramatically beautiful Kuna Yala coast, the remoteness of these coral atolls protects an independent people who prize their communal culture with its rich oral history and artistic heritage.

Enjoy this day offshore, relaxing and taking in the smell of the fresh ocean breeze up on deck.

Cartagena is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Located on the north coast of Colombia, Cartagena host a spectacular collection of buildings and massive fortifications dating from the early 1600's. The Fortresses were built to protect Cartagena from pirates. City highlights include Saint Philip of Barajas Fortresses and the Fort Ferdinand Fort.

Enjoy this day offshore, relaxing and taking in the smell of the fresh ocean breeze up on deck.

Bon boni means welcome in the local dialect, Papiamento, and it's universally understood by all who visit little Aruba. Just 15 miles from Venezuela, this almost independent nation still has a ceremonial Dutch Governor General. Once it depended on oil for income, but tourism is the new king. No wonder Aruba's endless beaches and spectacular diving are too tempting to pass up.

The gabled houses and warehouses of Dutch colonial Willemstad march in tight formation along the entrance to St. Anna Bay, an incongruous vision of a tropical Amsterdam where the floating market sells mangos and papayas instead of tulips. In Curacao's interior cunucu, a few Dutch landhuis or farm owners still wrest a living by ranching on the near-desert soil.

Pink flamingoes, divi-divi trees, Papiamento and the best diving in the Caribbean - You can only be in Bonaire. The blinding white salt flats of Bonaire were once marked by tall obelisks of red, white, blue and orange (the colors of the old Dutch flag) to guide mariners. Today they are marked by clouds of pink - enormous flocks (500 or more!) of fluttering flamingoes feasting on the orange brine shrimp that gives the flamingoes their unmistakable color.

Enjoy this day offshore, relaxing and taking in the smell of the fresh ocean breeze up on deck.

The aromas of nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla baking in the sun - these are the tropical flavors of Grenada. From the horseshoe-shaped Carenage at St. George's, follow the Sendall Tunnel (hand-built in 1895) to the Esplanade and old Ft. George for a spectacular view of Grenada.

Marigot Bay, one of the prettiest anchorages in the Caribbean, is surrounded by lush hills and ringed by drooping coconut palms. Your alternate stop, the little Port Town of Soufrière, was named after a nearby volcano. Prettier sights are to be seen at Diamond Falls and Mineral Baths, where you can walk through the gardens and dip in the pool under the waterfalls.

Guadeloupe looks like a butterfly from the air. Its giant wings are actually two islands, separated by the Rivière Salée, a natural saltwater channel. Basse Terre, the southern or leeward part of Guadeloupe, is lush and rugged, dominated by La Soufrière.

The dockyards, marinas, old inns, venerable pubs and convivial crowds of sun-tanned yacht crews; this is the epicenter of the Caribbean yachting world. Disembark after breakfast and continue your independent trip back home.