Crossing the Caribbean

We haven’t sunk the boat, just been in a communications wilderness, so here at last is a blog update!

On Monday 4^th June we set off on the 860 miles voyage to Panama, sad to leave the beautiful island of Puerto Rico.  Quick reality check as we now have to take anti-malaria tablets, the hardest thing is remembering them as it’s only once a week.   It was a beautiful sunny day with a good breeze and we motored out through the reefs.   Once we were safely clear and into the Mona Passage (between Puerto Rico and The Dominican Republic) we were able to set sail and head off to the south-west.  Most ships heading to and from the north-east to the Panama Canal lay a course through the Mona Passage, and we saw 4 or 5 ships daily on the voyage, but no yachts or fishing boats. 

On the 6^th, to give Harry a 25 hour birthday, we put the clocks back one hour to Panama time of GMT -5 hours in the morning.  He had his presents then helped to make a huge chocolate cake as well as choosing the menus for the day.  

Harry's first photo with his new camera!

After that the voyage turned into a horrible endurance test.  By that afternoon the main easterly swell was huge and being augmented by at least 2 other swells and a force 7 wind.  The confusing waves meant that though we were ‘corkscrewing’ every so often there was a huge thump, making the boat shudder, as the combined swells hit at once.  By evening the occasional wave came over into the cockpit and for the next 3 days it got worse, up to gale force 8, with some waves completely engulfing the boat, the tons of water causing a leak above the starboard bookcase again.  It was the sort of weather when you know that if anyone fell overboard it would be almost impossible to rescue them, so we were wearing harnesses (and clipped to the boat!) day and night in the cockpit and on rare forays for’d, and being continually soaked by waves.  The bashing to the wind-vane steering caused a bolt to fall out, and though John tied himself on at the stern we were moving around too much for him to fix it, so it was back to the electric steering.  The rolling and crashing meant that the cooker was rocking around madly and eventually the gas alarm kept going off, so as we thought the pipe may have been damaged (but too rough to have a look) we turned off the gas and used the electrics for cooking.

On the 10^th we were nearing the San Blas islands off the NE coast of Panama at last, and we decided to put the engine on to add a bit to our speed as  the wind was dying to a force 5, and we wanted to get in through the reefs that day.  We had to get in before sunset otherwise we would have to potter back and forth in the deep water all night until the sun was high enough to let us see the reefs.  3 hours later the engine compartment flooded with water – a jubilee clip on the cooling water hose had corroded.  While Harry kept watch,  John had his head in the engine compartment starting to siphon the water out and I had my head in the bilge holding the siphon tube we heard the fishing line rushing out!!  Luckily that one got away, but later we were rewarded with a big group of dolphins playing off the bow and diving through the swell waves in team formation. A couple of them had babies swimming close alongside them, mirroring their every move and a joy to see.

The reefs looked even more intimidating from the deck than they looked on the chart – horizon to horizon there were large waves breaking, and we had to weave in and around them, slowly getting more shelter from the swells as we got further inside the reefs.  Seeing the powerful waves crashing across reefs when you are on the seaward side is quite frightening when you are in a small boat, and we were all very tense and very alert.  The tiny, low-lying islands were appearing above the horizon, backed by the jungle-clad mountains, wreathed in mist, of mainland Panama. 

  It was a beautiful but slightly lonely sight with not a boat, building or canoe in sight.  We safely rounded the islands and tucked into ‘Snug Harbour’ lagoon shielded by palm trees and reefs for a much needed calm night of sleep.  As the sky darkened after sunset the only lights to be seen were the stars and the flickering lightning over the mountains.

Look where we ended up!