The sailing has been great thus far. We have been able to sail the whole way till we got all the way to the northern most point in Columbia at which the winds picked up more than was originally forecast. We put the Yankee jib on, taking the overlap jib down. The overlap jib has a rip, and all the stitching has UV sun damage (you can tell because when you scrape at the stitching with a fingernail, the stiches just come right out). So Steve and Joan will have to have that sail completely re-stitched at some point. The satellite phone was giving us fits, and we couldn’t download the updated weather information. But it quickly became clear that we couldn’t just head east as originally planned and sail all the way through to Antigua without stopping. So we decided to head north towards Puerto Rico where the winds are generally lighter. A bunch of stuff inside has pulled lose – light fixtures, fans, a speaker, part of the fridge. All easily repairable, but it’s a disaster area with everything falling everywhere. We don’t bother to try to fix it or clean up because everything just ends up on the floor again anyway. While Dave was on deck, suddenly he sees a blue flash go past him. That was the radar dome cover going flying. The radar reflector was a total loss as it too was blown completely off the boat in the high winds. The chart plotter is not happy. It has a capacitive touch screen. The problem is that all the salt water has gotten on it and as it dries it leaves salt on the screen – rendering the touch screen completely inoperable. Fortunately we figured out how to us the buttons to move the cursor around the screen. We are hoping once we reach a marina and can clean the thing with clean running water we might bring the touch screen back to life.
Here is the happy crew as they departed the dock in Panama. Say bye bye to land...
Here is Dave making some sandwiches. Note how far over they are leaning - you can see this by the angle of the stove.
Sleeping in the forward V-berth is impossible as you would end up flying around as we pound through the waves. So the three of us “hot bunk” between the couch in the main stateroom and the aft stateroom. The aft stateroom we have turned the bedding sideways so you can put your feet down towards whichever side of the boat is leaning down. This helps to keep you from rolling around. We have gotten to the point where we sleep even when we are pounding through the waves. We’ve heard about how after three days or so of continuous sailing you eventually just get used to it and sleep through it – but this is our first experience actually seeing this really does happen.