Day Sixteen
02 April 2015 | 2 days before Panama
Alan
5 am
We are now 270nm from Colon and we're hoping to get there sometimes Saturday. The air temp is pretty high but after 3 am it becomes very comfortable until mid morning. It's always fine in the doghouse or the cockpit in the shade and in the breeze but the cabins are stuffy.
Since the generators are not trailing in the water we let out a fishing line yesterday. And as I was in the cockpit reading, I lifted my eyes and saw 2 fin make a 90 degree turn toward the lure. It must have been a shark from the shape of the fins, But luckily there was some sargasso caught in the lures so it let it go. However later we put back the lure in the water after removing the weed and when Nathaniel pulled it out again at nightfall the whole bottom of the line was gone: something had bitten thru the wire lead. So fishing is not going very well! I'm not sure we properly matched the size of our lures to the size of the metal leader......
We turned off the fridge after finishing the last but still edible chunk of meat and we took out the first of our 6-day bags. So dinner was spaghetti carbonara, canned ham and a warm beer. Yeah!
In the last day and a half the wind has been fairly steady in direction but goes up and down in strength. So we've been taking reefs and shaking them. Like right now we have a reef, but the boat is going to fast and the AP is working too hard; the boat heels on every approaching wave, rounds up and the AP has to correct. SO I should go take a second reef and maybe roll up the jib a tad. The wind is up to about 25 kts and we're burning rubber! 8-9 kts. I'll go and slow down the ride. ...
[I had asked: What does that mean, "exploring in the sugarscoop?" It doesn't sound sweet....]
The sugar scoop is the platform at the transom where the rudders are
[My Question 2: What do you imagine you were dragging out there? Animal vegetable or mineral? ]
I have no idea: huge clump of sargassso? old fishing net?
5:30 pm
Congrats for a week finished only 4 to go? All done with grading now?
We're less than 200nm from Panama so I emailed Shelter Bay Marina to let them know that we were arriving probably saturday morning. A 1 knot current that we've had against us for a day and a half has now turned with us which is giving us more than 7kts on the ground in spite of diminishing winds. We'll see if it holds. Nothing special to report today. I don't know how to solve the charging problem but with no refrigeration we need a couple hours of engine running a day to charge which should be ok given our supply of diesel for the anticipated 40 day passage to the Marquesas.
Right now the sun is going down and inside the boat is warm but easily bearable. We're wing and wing at 6kts(7.3 on the ground) and life is easy.
Shelter Bay has wifi so maybe we can Skype if there is a decent connection.
What are your plans for this week end.
Hope to get an email from you when I send this!
Have a fun evening.
I finished Way to Paradise. Two parallel stories so of course 2 deaths. I am realizing that there are really a lot of things I don't like about the end of life - except for death it self ... maybe ... and as long as it is mine and using the killer one of my 2 years worth otherwise harmless pills. At least now I really want to see Gauguin's grave and his last hut "the house of pleasure" on Hiva Oa. Gauguin and Flora Tristan are exact opposite of each other which makes the parallel story really work well. I can't wait to talk about this with you!
I need a romance novel, although Arrested Development kinda does the trick.
Cheers!
Alan