Well I had a great passage it was 150 miles made it in 22 hours with just the main sailing downwind, I could have gone faster but didn't want to arrive at the mouth of Rio Chagres to early to navigate the unmarked channel through the reefs on both sides but I managed and motored all the way up to within a mile or so from Gatun Dam. I motored slowly back down river with the rainforest on boths sides and many birds and monkeys along the way back towards the mouth of the river. The river mouth has and old spanish fort over looking the river mouth so I put the dinghy in and hiked up to the fort the road was pretty rough but i did see a deer on the way up. I am in Shelter Bay which is the old military base Fort Sherman I have been here 2 day and plan to leave early morning for the San Blas Islands.

Peterson 44 Specifications: •LOA: 43'10" (13,36 m.)
•LWL: LWL 38'8" (11.78 m.)
•Beam: 12'11" (3.93 m.)
•Draft 6'4" (1.98 m.)
•Ballast: 10,000 lbs. (4,536 kgs.)
•Disp: 30,000 lbs. (13,607 kgs.)
•Sail area: (100%) 1,011 sq.ft. (93.92 sq.m.)
•Ballast/Disp: .33
•Disp/Length: 232
•SA/Disp: 16.7
•Fuel: 117 gal. (443 ltr.)
•Water: 132 gal. (500 ltr.)
•Auxiliary: 62-hp Perkins 4-152 diesel
•Designer: Doug Peter

I am beginning a new blog called Backstays of the Sun it will track and record our journey aboard my sailing vessel "Mia". There are basically 3 types of sailors, there are racers, weekend warriors and cruisers. Mia is built for long range cruising so like most cruisers she is a very capable and strong vessel in open oceans. I hope to get many questions in the future about life aboard a sailboat because living on a boat and cruising the world on a boat are very different life styles. We are in Panama at the moment(when I say we I include Mia)getting ready for a trip further to the south to the San Blas Islands and Cartagena ,Colombia to have some work done prior to making the Panama Canal transit in November if all goes well