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January 31, 2008
N09.33 W078.57 Isla Porvenir, Islas de San Blas, Panama
Isla Porvenir, Panama
The generator mysteriously shut down this morning while charging the house batteries. We turned on the engine instead, while Mike and Marciano set to the task of figuring out what was wrong. They decided to change the fuel filter. But the spare filter wouldn’t fit. So they cleaned the old filter and put it back on. The generator worked again for a while, then shut down again. Later, we determined that Mike & Judy had taken on some bad diesel, probably in Aruba, despite using a baja filter every time. And the rough seas had stirred up the sediment in the diesel tank, causing it to clog the filter. More work on this would be required once we dropped the anchor.
Shortly after noon, we dropped the anchor off the island or Porvenir in the San Blas Islands, and officially changed the ship’s clocks and log to Eastern Standard Time.
Allegedly, the passage we had just completed was one of the fifth worst in the world, and one that is difficult even with a good weather window. And good weather windows are harder to find at this time of the year. We had truly lucked out. The Bay of Biscay on the northwest coast of France, which we sailed across in the winter of 2005, was much, much worse. The gale at Cape Hatteras in the fall of 2006 was much, much worse.
On this journey, when we finally had wind, we sailed downwind with headsails only and no mainsail. And we did a respectable 6-7 knots per hour. It was very rolly-polly, but no worse that the beam reach we sailed from Puerto Rico to Bonaire in November. We had prepared meals and snacks in Ziploc bags, which kept the galley clean and clear, which is always a source of queasiness. While it took some of the adventure out of the journey, it was worthwhile. Judy came down with a cold around the same time that she and Mike became seasick. All-in-all, a thoroughly enjoyable sail over crystal clear oceans.
Mike, Judy and Me
Posted by dave at January 31, 2008 02:41 PM