Almost there!
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Tue 29 Jan 2008 17:53
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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
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