Route to Panama 12 February 2024
It was a fairly rolly night and the wind’s direction meant we were a little off course but the right side away from Venezuela. We ran without our navigation lights with staysail and reefed main. I got up about 6.45 am to check the weather etc and the wind was expected to be 18-20 kts with gusts up to 25. This would continue for a few days with stronger winds expected on the 16th. I emailed Shelter Bay marina In Panama to see if they had space. for when we arrived.
Joyce and I had the 8.00am to 12.00noon shift and we took over from Keith and Jonas. Keith cooked us an omelette with mushrooms and tomatoes which was nice. It was a lovely sunny day with little cloud initially and warm. We were all getting into our shifts now with people sleeping when they could and getting breakfast when they woke. Since Joyce and I did the daily checks the day before I asked David and Carolyn to do them today. Joyce agreed to do the fruit and vegetable turning. Our shift passed quite quickly and as the sea state calmed down a bit and was below 20kts then we exchanged the staysail for the genoa.
Even though we were a little off course to our first waypoint I thought it best to continue our course which meant we were heading toward Haiti. As we were 130 degrees starboard off the wind our best course we could do on the other tack would be about 210 degrees which had us going southish toward the Venezuela Islands. It seemed best to continue beyond our first waypoint so that we kept off some 200 nm and then gybe when best to do so about the ABC Islands. We therefore continued on our course. In check the wind direction it would range between 70 and 110 degrees so mainly directly from the East. I saw that it may veer tomorrow and so if we maintained our course overnight and gybed in the morning we could take advantage of this. Let’s hope this works. Distance run in the 24 hours to 12.00noon was 163nm.
We slept, read and chatted and Carolyn prepared a butternut squash curry for supper. We had a nice salad for lunch with melon after and dragon fruit. I made a loaf of bread which on completion looks good but the proof will be when we eat it. We had a lovely 20 minutes when a large pod of dolphins joined us and they were swimming around Stormbird very fast and surfing with the swell and jumping out of the water and having great fun. It was a lovely spectacle.
We saw a tanker coming up from behind us and then Keith saw a small dinghy which looked like a wooden fishing dinghy being orange and yellow. It was disappearing regularly due to the height of the waves. How odd that it would be what we calculated to be 163nm off the nearest land. We hoped it was not a spotter for the pirates. It looked like there was someone in it but it was difficult to say, We put the radar on and could see the tanker but nothing else,. I then saw a radar contact some 10 nm ahead and made it a target. It was going at 21.5 kts, then 35 and then 40 but away from us. I realised it was a storm cloud. We needed to be vigilant not only for suspicious boats but also for rain clouds now.
Carolyn had made a Butternut and Chickpea curry with rice which was delicious and we eat this in the dark in the cockpit. We dimmed the instruments and did not put on our nav lights. We settled down to our second night and the wind was finally beginning to help and pushing us more on our course. I anticipate gybing in the morning and it felt like we were making some progress.
The blog will continue as we head off to Panama and beyond.
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