Miles: 140NM
Fish: 1

The final preparations took the morning, it would have been quicker but we were a little groggy from a lovely goodbye dinner onboard Break Away the night before.

With the dingy on the foredeck, the food stowed, the extra sails ready in the fore peak and Tina moved into the saloon we were ready to up anchor and leave. Unfortunately we noticed in the night that the anchor chain was firmly wrapped around and under a rock on the sea floor so we first had to drive around in circles to lift it up.

The first afternoon sailing was lovely, with nice winds of 10-15knots and flat seas we buzzed along. Just after lunch we had a couple of short but sweet visits from dolphins. Not sure of the variety but they were big and graceful. A welcome start to our adventure.

Heading due south from Las Perlas would keep us safely away from the shipping which was forming an orderly queue in and out of the Panama Canal anchorage. To head due south and downwind we decided to put up the pole and run wing on wing; one sail on each side. But when we tried to use the pole out popped a few ball bearings. Long time readers will remember that we had a similar problem in our Atlantic crossing and sure enough the same plastic end cap for the car had broken. Tomorrow it will be glued and working again.

So we ran downwind on main sail alone. Just as Jon mentioned it was his turn to cook and raised the question of what to eat the fishing reel started to spin and after short struggle it became clear we were having tuna for dinner with mash and carrots. So far so good with the fishing. Shortly after the dinner plates were cleared and washed the wind started to pickup and we switched our mainsail for a very small bit of head sail. With 25knots of wind and a following sea we were doing over 6knots without anything flying at all. But I prefer to have some sail up so a small square of head sail it was.

Night time watches start at 6pm which is sunset in these parts and the first watch was Jon’s. Nothing much to report with the seas slowly building its starting to feel more like an ocean crossing. Teo stayed up with his papa to keep him company until his watch ended at nine and they headed off to get some sleep. Next up was Mia until midnight, followed by Tina until 3am and then back to Jon from 3 til 6am and the return of the sun. And round and round we go… three hour watches at night and four hour watches during the day.

With the sun the wind lessened but it takes longer for the seas to sit back down. Eventually around mid morning the sea and the wind are pleasant and we bob along in Itchy Foot slowly making our way south and west. All onboard slowly settle into a routine or watches, reading, cooking and sleeping.