We made it to San Blas
Ripple2
Sat 4 Mar 2006 18:15
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Saturday March 4, 2006 - Porvenir Island - San Blas
Islands - East Coast of Panama
9 degrees 33' North, 78 degrees 57' West We are 1032 miles and 1 time zone closer to home
(and further from White Bay).
The 1000 mile voyage across the Caribbean took 9
days and nights - the weather was rough and the ride less than comfortable. Here
is a description by Captain Darren:
We left Vieques ( a small island off Puerto Rico)
about 10.30am on Wednesday 22 Feb faced with 1000 miles of open sea heading
South West to Panama. The wind was directly behind us the entire way - you want
the wind behind you but not DIRECTLY behind you because one sail blocks the wind
from the other and it is tricky to steer directly down waves, especially big
ones. And big ones is what we had the entire voyage.
By the first night we had gone 75 miles and the
wind and seas were higher than ideal, by Saturday te wind was a steady 20-25
knots and seas 10-15 feet. This is uncomfortable sailing. It is hard to sleep,
cook or do much at all as the boat is rocking and rolling around so much. A
couple of big waves crashed right over the back into the cockpit filing it with
water, drenching the crew and splashing down inside the cabin. Waves were
splashing into the cockpit every so often anyway from the sides. You couldn't
really sit outside without getting wet. Hmmmm 700 miles to go...
By now we had double reefed both sails. The good
news is that there was no rain or any squalls and the night skies were filled
with stars and a tiny sliver of moon. Conditions stayed much the same for the
rest of the voyage, rough but sunny weather.
Saturday night the wind vane self steering had had
too much and one of it's mounts broke leaving it swinging off the back of the
boat. It was a big drama wrestling the big heavy thing off the stern and into
the cabin in the dark and 12 foot seas - good thing we had the electronic auto
pilot as a reserve...
Sunday after lunch a bolt on the electric auto
pilot snapped - now we had no self steering at all. To cut a very long story
short we had it working again by 8.30pm. We were tired, stressed and I had put a
drill bit through my left thumb. And it was still rough.
Monday passed without incident - a good thing as my
thumb was still pretty sore. Tuesday the other bolt snapped! Same procedure but
it took a little less time to fix as we knew what to do ( thank goodness for
spare nuts and bolts and screw extraction apparatus). 100 miles to go.. Wow this
sailing is fun.
Tuesday and Wednesday passed without incident. We
were going to arrive in the San Blas Islands after sunset Wednesday - not a good
idea in this reef strewn area. So we hove to ( stopped the boat by backwinding
the sails) and waited during the night still bouncing around in roughish seas.
About 7.30 am on an overcast day we wove our way around some reefs and anchored
off Porvenir Island. By 9.30am we had purchased our first 'molas' (more on those
later) and by 10am we had our first shower in 9 days - sheer bliss.
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