Almost there!

Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 29 Jan 2008 17:53
10:17.326N  78:16.860W
 
Another perfect day and night have gone by and we are about 100 miles away from Panama.  We expect to arrive early Wednesday morning.  Don would like me to point out that we will be arriving a full day ahead of schedule.  This, of course, will have been accomplished once again without the help of GCS.  Let me also point out that not only will we arrive ahead of schedule, but we will come in under budget as well.  Aside from running the engine for two hours while assisting with the search and rescue operation, we have not used the motor at all.  Although one pair of somewhat expensive prescription sunglasses went overboard, we have had no other calamities or major equipment failures.  The only minor equipment failure we have experienced is what appears to be a broken belt on the washing machine.  This was a big blow, but we've managed to work our way through the ordeal. 
 
Now that we've finished patting ourselves on the back for a job well done (and prematurely so, I might add), in all seriousness, many boats have had major problems.  As I mentioned earlier, there were at least three boats that turned back for repairs right after the start. Two of those boats have since completed their repairs and are trying to catch up with the rest of us.  Two other boats had to divert to land close by when they experienced problems along the way.  One had a complete power failure occur - no instruments, which means no GPS, no radio, nothing.  They bailed out to Aruba and are still there as far as we know.  A few other boats are dealing with equipment problems as they go along.  Andante (the boat with the older crew - average age of 70) has been motoring almost the whole way.  It's unclear what the problem is, but something is keeping them from sailing their almost brand new boat. Given that only 38 boats left St. Lucia as part of the rally, the percentage of boats experiencing problems seems inordinately high - especially since this has not been a challenging sail weather-wise.
 
BlueFlyer, the only boat in the rally from Ireland, had their VHF radio quit on them.  This means they have no way of contacting other nearby boats in case of emergency, and they have no way to announce their arrival to rally control and the marina in Panama.  Since they have been sailing within 20 miles of us almost the entire way, we have kept in contact with them via SSB radio (long range radio) and plan to announce their arrival for them when we get to Panama.  BlueFlyer has indicated that they would like to express their gratitude to us for our help by inviting us to a champagne party aboard their boat upon arrival in Panama.  We are excited about this invitation, but are a bit leery about partying with champagne at 6am in the morning.  This will be a new experience for us, but one that will probably be repeated at almost every port upon arrival after a long sail.  I think we are going to like this whole boat rally thing...
 
Anne