Route to Panama 15 February 2024

Joyce and I had the 11.00am to 2.00am slot and for most of the time we were watching a tanker called Cool Endeavour who was approaching us from behind. The CPA ranged from about 1.3nm to 325m which was far too close. As we were now some distance from the Venezuelan coast I thought we would turn our transmit AIS on so they would see us and assume they would change course to avoid us. Despite being 20nm away they did not and the CPA did not change. When they were 10nm away I called them on the radio and they said they would keep out of our way. I am not sure they had seen us and they appeared out of the gloom and passed by 1.3nm away. It looked very close and we could see their lights and navigation lights clearly.

After our watch I went to bed and got up at 6.00am to check the weather and with my calculations we should be able to make our waypoint over 400nm away if we gybed soon. At first light we gybed and all was good but during the day we were being pushed further south as the wind was backing a bit and we were therefore being pushed toward the Colombian coast and the advice is to stay offshore enough to avoid the rough conditions. The problem for us was that we were about to get 2+days of force 7 gusting 8 conditions and we were still working out our best route. We did not want to hug the coast as the winds there would be stronger. We carried on as far as we could by which time the seas were building and hitting our stern quarter. We therefore decided to gybe again and with some adjustment we were able to get the waves behind us but we were about 20+ degrees off our course. Mark and I had been co-ordinating and there was a northern route which took us out of the strongest winds and hopefully wave height too. The downside is that you are travelling a greater distance.  I thought we will stay on our course overnight and assess the situation again in the morning and once I had reviewed the weather again. The issue was that we can easily cope with the wind but it is the waves that causes discomfort with give considerable roll and which makes life difficult on board for example sleeping, cooking, showering etc.

We were not the only one not enjoying the conditions as a rather scraggy bird flew round us and who was obviously tired and landed at first on the dinghy and then on the solar panel on the port side where he has been for the afternoon. See the picture. We named him Wobble.

I spent quite a bit of time trying to work out the navigation but we will reassess am. The difficulty was that was were coming from two different directions which caused a confused sea and the wind was 22-24 kts with regular gusts up to 28/29 and 32 maximum. It was going to be a little uncomfortable overnight. Due to this we heated up a chicken stew that Joyce had made in Grenada which was warm and favourable. It got dark at 6.45-7.00pm which means it gets dark in. Panama an hour earlier.    

Our 24hours to noon was 187 nm - a record during my ownership in a 24 hour period.

Crew Profile to Panama

David Mark – has been a friend for some years and has his own Hallberg Rassy 36 called Camina. He is a Yachtmaster Offshore and we sailed the Atlantic together in 2019 (as well as Mark Malitskie and my cousin Ben). He has also sailed with me to Scotland and last summer came to the Canaries on Stormbird. He has sailed far and wide and was interested in the Caribbean and Panama trips and luckily he could fit this in with his family arrangements. He has bibles of stories and keeps many entertained for hours with his “Tilley” wardrobe.

Keith Watson is retired and has his own boat and has sailed quite a lot more recently in the Mediterranean.  He enjoys sailing and thought Panama would be an interesting trip. He also completed the Madeira to Canaries trip last summer on Stormbird. Keith’s family came out to Grenada to have a holiday before he joined the boat and they enjoyed the Caribbean. He is a watch leader and familiar with Stormbird.

Jonas Cognell is Swedish and he read my circumnavigation article with the Cruising Association and wanted to join up as it were and he had time to do a long trip. He loves sailing and learnt to sail at about 13 and did a big long trip when he was 24 (some years ago now!) for over 7 months.  He has his own boat in Sweden and is an engineer by background and has joined Stormbird until New Zealand. He came for training weekend last year and has been in France for a few months learning French. 

Joyce Moon has sailed on many boats over many years and she was introduced to me by the Cruising Association. Joyce (and Carolyn) joined a boat and sailed through the Panama canal and through French Polynesia. However this was done rather quickly and they wanted to see more hence coming on Stormbird to do some of this trip again. She is hardly ever at home and seems to travel regularly- good for her.  

Carolyn Brown learned to sail at 11 on the Norfolk Broads and has clocked up at least 20,000 sea miles. She completed a trip with Joyce from Panama to Tahiti. Since moving to Brixham in 2015 she has been a regular volunteer crew on two Brixham Heritage Sailing Trawlers ‘Vigilance’ and ‘Pilgrim’ sailing the Devonshire and Cornish coast and across the Channel to Paimpol with paying passengers and she is working towards my Commercial Endorsement.

The blog will continue as we head off to Panama and beyond.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com  I can only upload one picture a day and visit our website www.stormbirdgoesglobal.co.uk