Itchy Foot and hew crew of four are on their way across the Pacific. We left the marina on Wednesday afternoon and with plenty of wind and waves on the nose we gave the new rig a nice and overpowered test. Everything seemed to perform correctly and late that afternoon we dropped anchor on Isla Otoque for the night.

On the morning of Thursday the 3rd we finished the last few boat jobs, including cleaning the hull and propeller and putting the dinghy on the foredeck. After a bite to eat for lunch we headed out towards the Pacific ocean.

The first leg down the west side of the bay of Panama to the corner was fine, there was 10-15 knots of wind in the afternoon so made good progress wing-on-wing. There seems to be a knot of current pushing south down this coast. In the evening the wind died to about 7knots but with the current we were able to maintain a speed of 4-5 knots due south. There were lightning storms in all directions but over 20 miles away, nothing to trouble us.

We rounded the corner ‘Punta Mala’ and are heading WSW, following the coast line. The wind is out of the NW (about 10knots) and we are making good progress in slight seas and close hauled. There is about 1knot of current with us and I’m glad the wind is not higher as the wind against tide would create confused seas. We are making about 6 knots speed over ground. There is plenty of shipping around be we were well inside it nearer the coast.

We caught a nice little dorado last night, just after finished making dinner, other than that not much sign of life and very few of the sea birds you see around Las Perlas.

• Date: Friday 4th May. 10am Panama Time.
• Position: 07 10.53N  080 16.54W
• COG 244
• SOG 5.5kn