On Passage to the San Blas Islands

Macushla
Mark & Sue Owen
Sat 22 Nov 2014 17:32

10:21.91N 77:02.23W

All is well on board.

After a peaceful night in a lovely, flat anchorage we departed Bahia Inca Inca at first light to ensure we crossed the mouth of the Rio Magdalena (Columbia's main river) in daylight. This has a reputation for very confused seas and hazardous debris, though aside from a few logs and very discoloured water, this stretch was thankfully unnoteworthy.

We were enjoying such good following wind that we decided against stopping overnight at Punta Hermosa and pressed on towards the San Blas Archipelago of Panama. There was no moon, but we had a clear and beautiful star-filled sky.

We had a very good night sailing wing-on-wing with a well-reefed mainsail and full yankee, surfing down the waves occasionally and enjoying the novelty of being able to sail along our rhumb line.

Having studied the current charts, we have decided to take a more northerly course to our destination waypoint at the Holandes Cays in order to avoid most of the adverse current. We expect to be slowing down over the next 24 hours as the wind is forecast to become light and variable, but in the meantime with 103 miles still to go we'll make the most of these great conditions.