Good Sailing Straight to San Blas

At 11 last night we made the turn from traveling east to southwest to our destination. This plan was to avoid the worst of the strong winds off Columbia. Today winds are 20 t0 25 knots, seas to 10 ft. The boat is moving along well. The crew just need to get used to holding on and getting splashed by seawater. It would help if we had everything put away.

The good news on the diesel spill problem is that we have it contained and have cleaned up most of what came out. Yesterday Rob drilled and sawed a few holes to get access to the area under the fuel tank and pumped out a few gallons. We'll save the rest of the repair and cleanup until stopped.

We are getting excited about getting to the San Blas islands. We are entering at Porvenir as customs and immigration are at the airport there. We have about 230 miles to go. You can only enter the reef between 8 and 12 am so will need to slow down to arrive Tues am. The islands belong to Panama but have always been quite separate culturally. They are encouraged to marry only other Kuna, the name of the indigenous people. Many islands are low lying so are endangered with the rising sea levels that come with warmer temperatures.

We will have some free time there to explore as well as do any BPO work. More of the traveling projects will be done on the Pacific crossings. Three of the 4 boats from Key West are already there having traveled via Jamaica. I hope it gets calm enough to have a shower and boat tidy up before we cross a finish line with photos.

We have been having a SSB net each day at noon. By default Rob has been the controller- and is doing a great job. You need a controller because everyone can hear but only one person can talk at a time. Also the frequency used depends on your location and distances apart. We heard today that several boats have been enjoying caught fish. We won't get any until we get the line in the water. But we are eating well-no complaints.

Yesterday we crossed our first time zone and are now on the same time as at home. The days go by quickly as we take turns steering and also have to get extra sleep to make up for night watches. Our fourth" crew member", the autopilot has been a godsend for overnights. There is not supposed to be much change in conditions until we arrive.

PS It is now Monday morning - conditions did change with 25-30 knot winds most of the night. We're approximately 110 milles from our destination and should have no problem arriving first thing tomorrow morning.