13.10N 73.56W  On route to Porvenir - 6.00am – my dawn watch on this, the third, morning away from Bonaire.  I am not sure how many dawns I have seen in my life but I am really enjoying them now.  The stars still out, often the moon already set,  the transition from dark to light very pretty with the sky lighting up like a sun set in reverse.  This morning we have a huge golden orb shining on big but gentle following seas with the wind ‘up the chuff’ – I am not sure if this is a true nautical _expression_ but it is a good explanation!  Amazingly we have been sailing at over 8 knots all night rising to 10 knots and more when we surf off the waves and  have set a 24 hour record for ourselves – 190 nm in 24 hours!

We had a last night to remember in Bonaire, largely due to the kindness of the owners and staff of the Argentinean Steak House in the marina.  We enjoyed a delicious meal with great background music – a compilation of artists all with their own interpretation of ‘As Time Goes By’  -‘Play it again Sam’ from Casablanca. When Pablo realised how much we loved the song he sent his wife at home at midnight to burn two cd copies for Zippy and Anahi as a memento for our trip! They even bought us drinks on the house while we waited!

The first two days I was dogged by my sea sickness again and Bennett felt even worse than me having begun, and had a bit of a reaction to, his Paludrine anti malaria pills in readiness for the San Blas mozzies.  We finally got the Twistle rig up in all its splendour yesterday although it is a mean and dangerous job for Paul and Bennett to erect the poles in these swells.  It does however steady the boat and make the journey much more comfortable. In an ideal world we would have a dedicated furler and sails for the Twistle which would negate all the necessary sail changes when the wind varies.  Happy Wanderer, the hydro vane, is in full swing – tilting and bobbing about to keep our course and it is a great relief not to be hand steering.

The radio net is functioning at 1000 and 1800 again so most of the yachts are in touch with each other with positions and news. We were meant to be net controllers on Monday but missed our moment as we had just left Bonaire.  Rascal took over for us. Alarmingly we heard Hakuna Matata had hit a reef in the San Blas two days ago but we understood through the grapevine yesterday that they managed to extricate themselves with only superficial damage to the cat and nobody hurt.  Reading the pilot books on this area this is a likely occurrence as the there are over 300 islands surrounded by reefs.

I quote from Nancy Schwalbe Zydler and her husband’s excellent Panama Guide:

The Comaca de San Blas or, Kuna Yala, appears little changed from the times before the Spanish Conquista, a result of the tenacity of the Kuna people.  Under pressure from other tribes or possibly Spanish invaders, the majority of Kunas moved to the coast and later to the offshore islands.  After suffering from violent inroads by outsiders the Kunas rebelled in 1925.  In the process they killed many Panamanian policemen and children of mixed blood living in the islands.  Eventually in 1938 the government of Panama granted the Kuna leaders almost autonomous rule in the officially recognized Comarca de San Blas.  The traditional hierarchy of the tribal leaders on national and village levels has provided the cohesion that makes the 55,000 Kunas one of the strongest nations among indigenous Americans.  Their law that the land belongs to all Kunas has prevented a division of the people into ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ and helped them perceive themselves as the blessed co owners of a wonderful country.’

Yesterday was one of those days: first we dropped the spare binoculars through the main hatch and broke them; closely followed by one of the remaining tea mugs; then there was an electrical short somewhere (as yet undetected) so the generator tripped out - so around 1700 we decided to run the engine in neutral to charge the batteries (to keep the fridges cold amongst other things).  One hour later the alarm went off in the cockpit – the water pump which cools the engine had failed!  It was all too hot in the engine room and dark to tackle last night but obviously will be the priority of today as without generator or engine we will have to by pass the San Blas and sail all the way to Panama for help!