Port recommendations

[PvilleBob]

I will be crewing a Polaris 43 heading from La Paz, Mx to the Panama Canal. The skipper is trying to build a tentative plan and asked me to help him figure out where to put in along the way. We'll set sail around Oct 1.

There will be 4 people on board. The boat has 200 gallons of water storage plus whatever small tanks we might strap on the deck. At 20 gallons/day usage (drinking, dishes, etc...), that gives 10 days of travel or 8 to keep a bit of a safety margin. Does a rain catching system work well enough on a boat to make it worth the space and cost?

Any recommendations of a good site with port reviews & info? What app/site can allow me to plot a route based on 40nm/day so I can find options for anchorages? I'm still pretty new to all of this but just knowing how to plot a course doesn't tell me if the anchorage or route is optimal.

He's asking how I would proceed if I was the skipper. Since this will be the first voyage since its last refit, I'm thinking about day sailing near shore only and anchoring near a port for the first 3-5 days while we work out the bugs. Then sailing 20 hours/day for the next 7 days anchoring where we can and pushing further out to sea. If all goes well, we'll continue that process the rest of the way.

What am I missing? Thanks for any constructive comments.