longer than we expected. We scurried out of there on the Monday
afternoon/evening and decided to spend the night sailing under just the yankee
and mizzen sails. We had a bit of a following sea and with 18 kts of wind we
were doing a very comfortable 6 kts.
The next morning we got the main and stays'l up too and it was good sailing
for a couple of days. We even had dolphins come to play and we both went up to
the front of the boat to watch the show.
Then we had the outhaul on the main chafe through yet again! The conditions
were reasonably stable so I furled the sail and in the afternoon I decided to go
out and repair the line. I was just about to step out of the cockpit when we
noticed a squall approaching. It wasn't particularly large or threatening but
was definitely coming our way, so I decided I'd wait 'til it passed.
It was a good call. Riding invisibly ahead of the squall was strong,
turbulent wind the likes of which I've never experienced before. Suddenly the
wind gauge climbed rapidly from 18kts to 30 on the beam and I started punching
10 degree course shifts into the autopilot to bring us head to wind. That damned
wind was having none of it. As fast as I was punching in the -10s it was chasing
our aft quarter, effectively staying on our beam.
Suddenly I saw the gauge hit 40kts as we heeled over with our lee rail buried in a
wash of green sea and foam. Sandy was hanging on with a look of shear terror on
her face. There was no way either of us could let go our grip to move to release
sheets so I just kept chasing that wind around the compass.
Again I was grateful for the good bad luck that seems to dog us because I sure was glad
our big main was nicely furled behind the mast.
Eventually we got the wind forward of the beam and as we gained on it,
Wind Wanderer lifted her rail and shook off the water. I still had to keep chasing
her around but suddenly the wind eased and there was an unreal calm. We had
chased that wind through 300 degrees! The worst of it was probably less than 30
seconds but felt like 5 minutes, and it's hard to estimate how far over we
heeled. My guess is something over 50 degrees and I'm purposely under estimating
what it felt like. Sandy reckons 89! But once again Wind Wanderer came through.
We adjusted sails and I took in a bit of mizzen, more psychological comfort
than necessity.
That squall was the end of our easy sailing and for the next few days we had
big winds and big seas, often towering above the back of the boat before
disappearing under us. The next email we got through from the weather forecaster
started with "Ooooh boy, it's going to be rough...". We could have told him
that! But he did suggest we might find moderating weather nearer the Columbian
coast.
After a couple of days of good daily averages, spilled meals and coffee we
decided to head for the coast. The weather did moderate and we had good
conditions for a brief moment. Then it "moderated" to the point of becalmed. We
had 10 kts from various directions. This old barge needs 10 kts just to point in
the right direction.
We spent the best part of a day ghosting along and eventually headed off
shore at a pleasant pace with the hope of finding wind again. That night Sandy
woke me with two big storms showing up on the radar. One would miss us but the
other was touch and go, so we fired up the engine and turned 90 degrees to try
to avoid it. After creeping along the edge of it for half an hour, trying to think of all
the reassuring things I should say to try and quench her fears, I looked over and
Sandy was sound asleep!
Over the next few hours the storm was slowly overtaking us but becoming long
and narrow. I eventually decided to just punch through the narrowest bit and get
to the other side. Strong medicine, one gulp. But it was nothing. A bit of rain, a bit of wind,
but nothing to worry these hardened sailors!
Storm dodging robbed us of all the gain of the previous 12 hours and sunrise
gave us 5 kts from all over the place. We pointed to Panama and set the revs at
an economical 1000 giving us a steady 4 kts, for the next 2.5 days. We managed
to avoid the counter current that runs east at 1.5 kts and just kept trucking.
The nearer we got to Portobelo the more traffic we had coming the other way,
mainly cargo vessels that had come through the canal and were heading for
Cartagena, Columbia.
The calm seas were therapeutic and gave Sandy the time she needed to revive her spirits and confidence. I even managed to whistle up another pod of dolphins to help the cause, and did they perform! They were all over the place, leaping clear of the water in pairs and staying for ages.
On Wednesday morning we could see the mountainous Panama coastline and I
picked up the Panama Connection radio net on the ssb which gave us a warm
welcome.
It's a picturesque coast with islands off shore, and a few dangerous reefs that aren't
on the chartplotter. We decided long ago we would never come close to land by night.
We have seen poorly marked nav. hazards too many times.
In fact the 2 pillar buoys on the charts that mark the entrance to Portobelo Bay don't exist.
We motored into the bay, picked our way through the boats in the anchorage,
some half sunk, some run down and owned by single old cruisers who will never
sail again, trapped here by the price of the beer, and a few cruisers who are
genuinely here for a week or a month before heading to the or Bocas del Toro or
San Blas Islands.
We've already decided we could spend a few months here next
time around.
Until next time...