11:43.0N 76:00.0W

Meryon.bridges
Fri 5 Mar 2010 20:40
En Route to Panama
 
So, on our way again, duly rested and recuperated and delighted to have seen families, grandchildren, friends and so on.  I was also so pleased to be cold, to walk Weasle, Willow, Mossy and Pippin, to enjoy baths, to see the snowdrops pushing through and generally to be amongst people I love. 
 
Our return flight to Curacao on the 27th was uneventful but 10 hours in the back of a crowded 747 never seems to improve.  Ares was back in the water when we reached her, looking smart with her newly cleaned and antifouled bottom.  We celebrated Peter's birthday with dinner out at the Rodeo restaurant,a nearby Argentinian steakhouse.  In the morning we discovered that there was an exellent local supermarket which opened on Sunday mornings and so we were able to restock on perishables.  We need Peter Holden back to manage our purchasing - we seem to have bought enough chicken to see us across the Pacific!  Jim and Katie, a charming American couple, came on board for what we had intended as pre-dinner drinks and finally left us to prepare a rather late meal at 1030!  On Monday morning we were relieved to find that the new roller furler swivel had arrived thanks to the efforts of Ashley, the rigger in Antigua.  This was finally fitted on Monday afternoon, too late for us to want to leave then. 
 
They say that things always happen in threes.  Tuesday am 0700 we realised that the yard still had our spare keys - delay 1.  Having recovered them and started up we found that we had no throttle control.  It turned out that the cable had broken during the move back to the berth after anti-fouling.  Fortunately we found a replacement and after much effort, re-wiring to make space for it and so on the engine was back in business - delay 2.  And the third?  During our rewiring we had shorted out the bow thruster which was now dead.  The blown fuze is in the thruster itself which is underneath the floor of the sail locker - a mountain of gear to remove and a floor to remove all to replace a fuze.  Why would you put the bloody thing there?  All done though and we set off at 1330.
 
Our course took us past the northern side of Aruba to a waypoint some 50nm north of Punta Gallinas, chosen to keep us out of the rough water around the Colombian coast. We raced along with 30 knots of wind and the current under us.  In the early hours of Thursday the wind fell back and the pace came off although the current was still helping.  Today Friday we have good wind back again although the favourable current is no more.  MB has been struck by a flying fish but this is all the life we have seen apart from a cruise ship on Wednesday night and a freighter this morning.  Sea-me is silent.  We are now on the last leg to Panama with fewer than 300 nms to go.  With luck we may have time to pay a brief visit to the San Blas islands before meeting Tim Farquar on 12th when he joins us for the trip through the canal and on to the Galapagos.  It will be great to have a third on board as this is all quite tiring with just two of us.
 
Best wishes from us both. .