One day down
23 May 2021 | 06 57.199'N:80 15.932'W, At sea to Nuku Hiva
NC
23rd May
06 57.199 N
80 15.932 W
Weather; muggy, overcast and humid, wind 0-5 knots, waves 2 metre swell with short interval Ð yuk!
I spoke far too soon yesterday about good sailing, which it was at the time, of course as soon as I said it everything changed and not for the better. We had known that the winds around the Gulf of Panama were supposed to be light and variable so it shouldn't have come as any surprise when they died away to nothing. It got to snore o'clock yesterday afternoon and I sent Gerry below to see if he could sneak an hour of sleep in, I think it was about 40 mins later that the wind took a holiday and skipped town, I waited for a short while and when our speed dropped to 2 knots I finally gave in and yelled out to Gerry that I was going to make some wind Ð it was important to let him know as he was sleeping in the quarter berth and as soon as the engine started up he would have been up and questioning everything. Of course the engine starting up signalled the end of his snore o �"clock and he came back out on deck to help me furl away the jib and the staysail which were flapping poin
tlessly at this stage. We centred the main to stop it flopping from one side to the other and motored for pretty much the remainder of the evening. There was no sun set as the sky was just one mass of cloud cover. We forced ourselves to have some dinner even though neither of us were particularly hungry and then it was time to start the night watches. Gerry wanted me to go first but I wasn't in the least bit sleepy so I just sat in the cockpit and watched the water. With no wind and up until this point totally flat seas there should have been nothing to see. I eventually went down below at 9pm to see if I could grab a couple of hours sleep whilst the going was good, taking myself to the forward stateroom where I wouldn't be disturbed by the engine noise and heat. I tossed and turned a bit but must have managed to sleep as when I got back up it was just on midnight and I was being disturbed but the boat bouncing up and down and I could hear Gerry doing something with the
sails. The wind had apparently reappeared and he was deploying the jib once again and letting the boom out so that the main could do its thing. Unfortunately we had also found the swell which was now at about 2 metres and had a very short interval which was causing us to rocket up in the air and then plummet down in the trough pretty badly Ð very uncomfortable at this point. The engine went off and we sailed pretending that we were on a Disney ride for a while until the speed crept up over 9 knots and we furled the jib away as Gerry hates not being in control of the boat movement. Although it was still a bumpy ride it was time for Gerry to get some sleep and he opted to try sleeping in the cockpit which was partially successful. Then the rain started so we had to close up the curtains which made the cockpit hot Ð there really is no pleasing some people! At least we stayed dry. I haven't mentioned that the sky was alight with lightening dead ahead of us for the majority of th
e night, whilst it was dispersed by the cloud cover and we couldn't see any bolts it still worries me to be out on the water with an enormous metal stick pointing skywards just asking for the lightening to hit here Ð luckily it didn't. The rest of the night passed with us trying to grab some sleep when we could with the motor and George doing all the hard work, all we had to do was watch out for the ships that were coming or going to the Canal, of which there was plenty.
Morning broke with the same dull and overcast sky as last night and no wind what so ever. We have had the engine running all morning and apart from a short period where we found a current there has been nothing to push us along. in desperation to get out of the Gulf of Panama during daylight today Gerry put the drifter up for a while, it didn't do a lot of good but we kept moving forward until the puff of wind changed direction so the drifter is back in its sock for the time being. For those that don't know the drifter is a very lightweight nylon sail on the lines of a spinnaker but about half the size and is only flown out to one side of the boat and not across the entire bow like a spinnaker is. I did take a couple of photos of it up , not particularly good ones but I'm sure there will be another chance further down the track. Of course I can't post any photos to the blog via the satellite and I can't edit what I post as I normally do so you will have to forgive the mistake
s for now. of course I can't read your comments either until we get somewhere that has internet so please be kind!
It's now been 24 hours since we left Panama, whoop whoop, one day down who knows how many to go! We managed to do 131 NM in the 24 hours which we were more than happy with, putting our average speed at just over 5 knots and we ran the engine for 17 hours both motoring and motor sailing included. I've updated our long and Lat so you can see where we are on the map hopefully. Will be back tomorrow with a 24hour update.