Still talking March 2014 here. Don't judge. Almost immediately upon reaching the Pacific side of the Panama Canal, we encountered flocks of cormorants, brown pelicans, terns, and gulls fishing among the anchored fleet o' freighters waiting their turn to go through the locks. We saw more sea life in that one spot than we had…
Some details: The weather was typical for Panama in March – humid daytime temps in the 80s, intermittent showers alternating with sun breaks. In contrast to our DIY south-to-north transit in 2011, this time in 2014 we decided to hire an agent for the north-to-south transit. We had our reasons; among them, that the logistics…
Criminy. No posting in FOUR YEARS? Inexcusable. As is always the case, life got in the way. Amazingly, none of the life events was very negative. To summarize 2014-2018: On March 21-22, 2014, we successfully transited the Panama Canal from north (Caribbean) to south (Pacific) — no thanks to adverse breezes & currents, and a…
Got 2 Porvenir, San Blas Isls., Panama, Tue. a.m. 3/5. Passage=9 days + 2 hrs.,1044.61 mi. Boy are we tired. Couple hrs. after we anchored, a boat pulls up & it's Rob & Sue on s/v Joyeux, last seen in Mazatlan in 2007! We're both going 2 Shelter Bay/Colon, us to transit Canal, them to…
Day 9, 3/3: Nice overnight trade-wind sailing, NE winds 12-17. Drop to NNE 10-15 during day then increase to NNE 15-22; then NNE 7-12 late at night. Seas = 4'-6', rolly beam seas. We still have fair current N –> S of 2kt. Aiming for Porvenir on Tues. a.m. 3/4. Position at 2325 UTC: 10…
Day 7, 3/1: overnight, little to no wind tho 12-15kt. was forecast. Wind filled after sunrise for 12 hrs. so we sailed as wind went from SW to S to E. Wind dropped again as it backed to NE. Strategy: motor-sail @1500 rpm due W to WSW w/ a fair current of 3 knots 'til…
Day 5, 2/27: In passage between EJ amaica & W Haiti, spectacular pre-dawn scene with bright Venus rising before thin crescent of almost-new moon above US-owned wildlife sanctuary Isla Navassa. Fox passed 8 mi. W of Navassa. SE winds10-15 became E wind 5-10 in p.m. with 6' SE swells. Are these the trade winds? Visited…
Day 4, 2/26, midnight: transiting the Windward Passage. Very heavy commercial traffic; total 20+ vessels on radar during the passage. Successfully avoided being rear-ended by cruise ship Legend of the Seas. It was passing a freighter by going inshore of traffic lane, passed the freighter but failed to see us due to so many other…
Day 1, 2/23/2014: SE winds 10-15 and SE swell at 3'-4' with 1' chop impeded our progress along our SE course. It was a beautiful day for sailing but the headwinds and head-seas made us tack back & forth a few times; we made only 75 mi. good in 24 hrs. Day 2, 2/24: Same…
Interrupting my Bahamas travelogue with a status report: Got a good weather forecast to leave where we are now (Sat., 2/22/2014): GeorgeTown, Great Exuma, Bahamas. Today's the 1st sailboat race in the 34th annual GeorgeTown regatta, and there's plenty of action as the windward mark is about 300' away from The Fox. Big fun. We…