If you get an offer of a boat from
Panama I can recommend the bus trip from St Jose.
Cheap and you see the non-tourist bits. Unfortunately you have picked a bad time as May is the start of the
hurricane season their. The southern
route to
Hawaii is still OK but storm risk along the coast north is starting to rise and people will tend to want to be in central
Mexico before mid May. If planning an ocean leg it pays to look at something like Jimmy Cornell's ocean cruising guide to get an idea when people are likely to be doing a particular leg (if at all). You may get a
delivery trip for that one but expect a tough ride not a holiday cruise