Passage to San Blas Islands near Panama Canal
Oyster Moon
Paul Foskett & Rhu Nash
Sat 4 Feb 2012 15:03
Passage to San Blas Islands near Panama Canal
Day 2 on the 4 February 2012
We left Bonaire at 09.30 (local time), on the 2 February, heading for the San Blas Islands near Colon and the Panama Canal.
>From 12.00 (local time) on the 3 Feb, to Noon on the 4 February 2012, distance travelled Noon to Noon run was 166 miles (log 12095)
24 hour sailing report
The wind speed varied from 14 knots up to 29 knots during the last 24 hours, with gusts up to 45 knots. The wave height is 2.5 to 3.5 m with the occasional wave peaking up to 5 m.
We are now running down the 1000 m contour to avoid any wave build up nearer to the shore and to keep a safe distance from main land Venezuela and Colombia.
We have had excellent sailing so far just under genoa alone.
The sea for most of the time has not been as wild as we had been told it could be along this coast, however we went through a period of 8 hours when the sea lived up to its reputation in these waters.
The wind has now dropped to 20 knots and the sea has flattened out to a wave height of 1 to 2.5 m.
We are now sailing in company with Karacool (the 53 foot CAT) who left at the same time as us. They are at present 52 miles ahead of us
Two other boats, Marite 111 (40 feet) and Camelot (53 feet) left a day later, i.e. they started on the 3rd. Marite 111 is 150 miles behind and Camelot is 140 miles behind
More news on the next noon report.
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