12.14N 072.19W
Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Wed 15 Jun 2011 13:44
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Our tour through a Beach Boys song is nearly over
as we now head towards Panama.
We cleared customs yesterday at around 11AM and
were sailing by midday. At first we were met with a fairy mild 15 knots of wind
but with the expectation of stronger winds closer to Columbia we went all the
way down to the 3rd reef in the mainsail. It seemed a little excessive but we
had seen very strong winds over Aruba for nearly a week and were not going to
take any chances.
Within an hour of leaving the wind rose to around
18-20 knots and we were racing along downwind at 8-9 knots. Late in the
afternoon the wind had hit 25 knots and was still climbing. This was great for
our boat speed which was now 10 knots but the seas were steadily picking up and
starting to become uncomfortable. Soon we had winds peaking at 32 knots and the
largest sea I think I have seen since leaving La Rochelle. We had small hills
rolling in behind us with several of them cresting and breaking over. We were
already at our 3rd reef in the main so we reefed down the headsail until it
was the size of a corn flakes packet, and then furled it completely. I was not
looking at the chartplotter because there was plenty of other things to watch
but I did see it break through 14 knots at one point. Thankfully the winds eased
back to 22-24 knots after dark and we had a relatively easy sail through the
night. All of this happened on Robert's first day at sea with us. Welcome to
sailing Robert!!
This morning we have rounded the coast of Columbia,
which was around 100NM from Aruba, and have found some protection close to the
coastline, and are sailing within 10NM of it. In the last hour the wind has
dropped right back to under 10 knots and it does not seem possible that only a
few hours ago we were being thrown around in pretty tough
conditions.
On our lat night in Aruba I met some guys who had
sailed in from the British Virgin Islands in a yacht. In the 4 day sail they
lost their autopilot and struck 40 knots of wind coming into Aruba. I would take
32 knots over 40 knots any day of the week.
We were all very sad to be leaving Aruba after a
fantastic week there. The island produces most of its income from tourism and
the local people know this and embrace it. Our favourite haunt was Cilo Bar
and Restaurant near the marina. A couple of times late yesterday I was
wishing we were all in having a beer there!!
We have covered 140NM since leaving Aruba. In the
full 24 hour period we should have made well over 150NM. With the wind dropping
out now we made find it slower going today.
Next stop the San Blas Islands on our way to the
Port of Cristobal in Panama.
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