(Written en route to Panama from Port Antonio in Jamaica.)

We have arrived in Panama. It is Saturday night at 10 pm local time, our first time zone change on the trip (1 hr forward).

The trip was:
- 5 nights
- 5 days
- 631 nautical miles
- 23 engine hrs

The winds drastically dropped late Thursday afternoon (day 3) as forecast. It was an hour before sunset and we had to make a decision on our sail configuration for the night (sail changes in the dark are not preferred but we have done them). We decided to pull out our brand new 1500 square foot spinnaker which we had never flown. The plan was to hoist the sail and practice dousing it to confirm that we could get the thing down easily if conditions changed. We hoisted it and pulled the snuffing sock to hear a woosh as the sail filled and shadowed me from the sunset. It was a bit of a gamble but it worked, It pulled us along that whole night and most of the next day between 4 and 6 knots. It was great and another 1st on this passage. This was a totally opposite tactic to our typical sail area reduction for night sailing and it paid off..

Late on day 3 the wind direction started to change and was now closer to the bow which would not allow us to sail the spinnaker. Up went the triple reefed main, the staysail, full jib and mizzen. This arrangement allows us to reduce sail area fairly easy at night in case conditions worsen. We plugged along at 2-3 knots until the engine came on around 3am.

On the afternoon of day 4 we had man overboard drill. When 'man overboard' is called everyone is assigned a job by the person who is at the helm. We did a few rounds of these drills, first throwing overboard a scrap of paper and then a floating boat cushion.

Now is Tuesday Mar 9, 1 day before Zoe's birthday, 18 hrs into our approximate 600 mile passage, this time with no real outs. That's what we call ports that we can bail to that are within a 24 hr range or so. This passage runs right through the middle of the Caribbean Sea, so theoretically, if something went wrong in the middle we would be 3 days from port.

I got distracted! Back to day 3. We are about 1/3 of the way to Panama. A ½ day was spent messing about with no winds on the north coast of Jamaica. Our chart plotter is predicting landfall at 5am Saturday, however the winds are expected to drop over the next few days. Currently winds are 15-20 knots from the east.

Its now a lot hotter. No shirt kinda sticky stuff, could be worse.

We are now steering with our retro wind vane autopilot. We tried it overnight from Cuba to Jamaica and now to Panama. This is a purely mechanical device that uses the wind to steer the boat. It's been working quite well considering I wasn't thinking of trying to resurrect it. Thanks to Roman Puclic and Gary Searle of MDA for getting the vanes made (large green .040" thick sheets of aluminum) and also Roman on the vespel control pullies. Also thanks to Mathew for pulling it together and convincing me that I should try it..This means less energy consumption by not using the electrohydraulic autopilot and it also means a second self steering system which is so important. If both systems were to fail, it would mean a person on the wheel around the clock, certain cause for quick burn out. This was my highest priority on my job list in Cuba. I also reworked the SSB antenna and put in a new topping lift, among other odd jobs.

Yesterday was also the first time we flew the jib using the spinnaker pole. The spinnaker pole, car and track system was installed over 18 months ago with help from Jason Cheng and Jason Amelio. Thanks guys! It works well. I had ordered the 4" diameter 20' long pipe from a company in Mississauga and when they asked which company its for I said; MDA, (I paid for it with my own credit card). They wrote MD Robotics on the pipe with a marker and I never got around to cleaning it. Please pass the message on to Danial Freedman that I am advertising the company on our voyage. We have passed 2 ships in the last 24 hrs. Just think of the market potential!!

Last night around 11pm, Zoe says there was a funny sound above her head on the decks, I checked and found around a 10" long flying fish that landed on our decks and was flopping. A couple of photos and back it went. Currently we are trailing 2 lines off the stern, not sure if we'll catch anything at boat speeds of 6-7 knots. Waves are about 5-6'. Yesterday morning we had some 12' seas, a little tougher to sleep in that.
We currently have our friends Lynne and Frank with us. Its been great with them sharing watches. It makes it so much easier when you're only on 3 hrs out of every 9, as opposed to being on 60% of the time since some jobs require 2 people.

Just received an email from our friends aboard Artemo who expect to arrive in Panama on Saturday as well with there 2 kids. They are a family from Toronto who we plan on sailing with to New Zealand. We met over 3 years ago in an offshore sailing class and it was just a plan back then to sail through the Pacific together. Its now only weeks away.