I wasn't going to write until we got to Escuda de Veraguas, but it has been such a fantastic day, I just had to. Earlier I wrote about how my brother's planned electric solar cat would have been good for this trip as we did so little sailing. Today is why I will always have a SAILboat. Escuda is ~130 nm from Turtle Bay, about 26 hrs @ 5kts, BUT there is a 1-2 kts adverse current most of the way. At 4 kts, the trip becomes 30+ hrs. As a result, I wanted and early start so we were up anchor and underway by 7:10. Wind was ~10 kts, NE. Our initial course was NW and that made it a close reach as the apparent wind moved further N with our speed. Still, we were able to go 4-5 kts. When we turned to the real course of W, however, our speed quickly jumped to 6 kts on a broad reach. Seas were moderate - probably ~6' but with a long interval that made them easy. Once clear of the headland near Portobelo, the course changed to SW. We tried dropping main and gennie and flying the spinnaker. It looked great on a bright sunny day, but the apparent wind was nearly 100* and I just couldn't keep spinny happy. As the wind shifted even more W, we bagged the spinnaker (literally, it goes in a sock) and went back to main and gennie. We have now sailed that way for more than 8 hours, never under 5 kts (which means at least 6 kts through the water). It has been a glorious day! At this rate, we will reach Escuda around 9:00 AM - perfect, though I suspect the wind will die some overnight. More then.