As the weather faxes had predicted, we had great winds for about the first 24 hours and made great speed. Unfortunately, that changed and we spent the following 48 hours motoring. There were a few boats here and there, but uneventful for the most part. The wind picked back up the next day and things got more exciting. A little bird joined us about 300 miles off shore. We think he had been blown out there and was exhausted. He flew into our cabin and hung out with us all afternoon, even sitting on my knee while playing Scrabble. We named him Jack, after Chris' favorite character from Pirates of the Carribbean. The bird wouldn't eat or drink and although we even tried feeding him with an eyedropper, we think it was too late and he passed on.

The less humanitarian sides of us had fishing poles in the water and managed to bring in some huge fish. Dan caught a marlin and Chris hooked two, although both got away. They both also caught good sized mahi mahis that made for great eating, especially as fresh food stores were fading. We saw several pilot whales and dolphins as well.
We had been planning to stop in Bocas del Toro before going to the Canal, but the winds were favorable to go straight there, so we continued on. The wind stayed pretty good, but we also had some pretty rough seas, making for difficult sleep. We kept expecting for traffic to pick up as we got closer to Colon, but we didn't start seeing other boats until the very end. Navigation was tricky as there are a lot of shoals in the area that are often unmarked on the charts.