San Blas

Been a wet n' wild few days that's for sure. Had 25-30kts on the beam a couple of nights ago with some big greenies crashing over us, last night had it on the quarter and were surfing and tonight we have eased off for a daylight arrival, happy fecking days.
Surprisingly enough after pulling Sunflower to 1000 pieces over the refit all seems well, was a bloody good sea trial anyway. The new mast compression post base seems all good and everything that bit stiffer so that was definitely worth it, and no leaks except for the cockpit hatches that we need to replace the seal, and then new autopilot which really is awesome. Soon we will start the engine and go inside the passage, switch on the watermaker and fill the tank back up, ha still can't quite believe it, been quite some year.
We are both that crusty from all the salt spray so a good shower and some bacon and eggs and we will be good to go and do the formalities. From what I can gather Panama is going to be one of the most expensive countries we have visited with immigration , permits ect ect adding up to $500US but I think we will get our value out of these islands for sure, they really do look amazing, will let you know

Change of Plans

Well I finally cracked yesterday. Bashing to windward with Sunflower stalling with the current and waves we called it quits and altered course 20 degrees and will head for the San Blas Islands much more comfortable ride, the current on our port side so we are making a lot better speed and it's a lot more comfortable although still getting the odd wave crashing over us making a racquet. We were both excited about Colombia but it will have to wait.
Also had a life changing experience yesterday. In this shitty weather we find ourselves eating a lot of 2 minute noodles, try chopping up a bit of cabbage and boiling it with the noodles adding a touch of soy sauce and wallah, 3'minute feast:)
Between those and the 2 blocks of cheese and crackers I've eaten I'm looking foreword to a fresh fish BBQ I can tell you.
Well it's 3am now and so far haven't had a squall all night but no doubt writing this will jinx it for sure, so far so good. Although yesterday's sad run was just 104nm, today's should be a lot better. 265nm to the San Blas from here, hopefully Thursday morning arrival

Slow Progress

Been a frustrating few days that's for sure. Hard on the wind, pushing 1.5-2kts of current and then throw in a heap of never ending squalls and you get the idea?! Yesterday we had a 98nm day, day before 112, today will hopefully do a little better. The average wind has been about 15-17 kts which is ok but with all the squalls around we are sailing with 2 reefs in the main and a little bit of headsail, one of the squalls yesterday that looked like nothing, just a bit of grey misty rain not like some others that look like a mushroom bomb with that thick black defined line across, anyway it pretty well knocked us flat with over 40kts and vertical rain. Since then when we see a squall coming on the radar we drop the headsail and put the motor on for a short while and just go through it, not worth breaking anything. Normally we are down wind sailing and you are running with the squalls so you see less, but have them for longer. Now we see more but they are over quickly but there's not a lot of rest.
Anyway it's easier now as we just went through the Nicaraguan Rise Shoals and have now turned away 10 degrees and are heading straight for Cartagena Colombia which is just under 400nm away. The forecast is for the winds to pick up tomorrow but hopefully we should still be able to make our course of 145 we will see, trying not to get excited about Colombia just in case. Anyway we still have a little current against us but not that much at the moment so let's hope it stays that way.
So anyway here we are, bobbin like a cork wandering what the f*#k are we doing here:)
Will all be forgotten after that first beer ashore

Lots of current

Yesterday was a great day, each day we plot the position on the chart at noon and then can work out our 24 hour run and we make a guessing game of it and crack a beer. I guessed 141nm, Julie 148, we made good 147.6, was a great days sailing:)
With those miles we had a little bit of current against us but not much, last night though it hit us at least 1.5kts against us. Between that and a lot of rain around with squalls and wind from 5-25kts it was a real slow night. Today's run I reckon we will be lucky to make 110nm although now it is day light and we have taken out a reef and are doing a lot better, 6.5 through the water but only making 4.5-5kts good.
There's been a few ships around but not much else although a fair bit of bird action with fish around, shame it is too rough for us to tow a line at the moment, hence last night we had chicken stir fry:)
Everyone and everything is well aboard Sunflower

Cruising

From Placencia town we headed north to Tobacco Cay, a coconut covered little island with a few tourist huts that sits at the entrance to the reef about 70nm north of Guatemala where we left from. The weather was perfect and we snorkelled on the outside of the reef, lots of nice coral but hardly any decent sized fish which was a real let down.
We downloaded a really good forecast which promised NW winds for a few days which is generally unheard of here as it always seems to be E-NE. Our plan to head to Panama or maybe Colombia means First we have to head over 300 miles east to round the horn of Honduras and seeing as there has been a bit of trouble off there our plan was to be well offshore, which we are, 2 days out and been rolling and surfing down sloppy seas but making good easy miles and nearly due north and 100 miles north of the horn, definitely no dodgey fisherman in launches out here:)
The forecast is looking ok for the next few days and we will still keep trying to head east as much as possible to try to make Colombia which is 700nm east of where we left from but if it looks like we won't make that we will head for San Blas of worst case (still good) to Bocas Del Toro further west which is mainland Panama.
Hardly seen any shipping out here so it's been very quiet, letting the new autopilot do all the work and it's making it look easy. Cooked the last of our fish in a Thai curry last night which turned out to be a little spicier than I planned and besides that just trying to get into a sleep pattern with a couple of hours here and there, been so long it is taking us both a while to adjust I think.
Good to be sailing again!!

Escaped the Rio

Been a busy 10 days leading up to leaving the river. Installed the new Autopilot, finished installing the watermaker and a heap of other little jobs as well as storing up ready to leave. Also had to do a survey for our insurance which we did at our Friend Casey's place in Cayo Quemado, a magic quiet little place down the river.
Checking out wasn't as hard as we thought. After 3 months you have to extend your cruising permit which we didn't do choosing to pay the fine which we were sceptical about. The permit is $150, earlier in the year we asked customs what the fine is, $300 but you get a 75% discount so it will only be $75?! We weren't convinced but went with it and when it did come time to check out $75 was all we paid for customs, $40 for harbour master and $10 per person at immigration. I'm saying this as most people use the local Agent here and he charges a LOT more for his fees and it really wasn't hard at all although Julie does speak Spanish.
We also did a bit of a survey in the dinghy over the sand bar with our portable depth sounder, figured it's shallow right across so the waypoints don't matter a hell of a lot. We went on a spring tide at 67cm (supposedly) very nervously. We hung the dinghy with 100 litres of water from the spinnaker pole to give us a bit of a list to port and the plan was to hit it fast and that's what we did. 5 knots and there was a little bit of chop with the sea breeze and as soon as we started touching I gave it full power and we only slowed to 3.5kts pushing on through the mud, not a nice feeling as it was in the dark but we made it through, stoked!! After packing up the dinghy we motored north 25 miles following a previous track and anchored at midnight at the Bedford Cays in Belize. The next day we sorted a problem with the plumbing for the watermaker and it is now all working fine, very happy. I also managed to find time to spear 2 very nice red snapper which we've been eating the las
t few days.
We then carried on to Placencia and got wifi and a few more stores and downloaded a great grib file weather forecast that looks like we have a good window to leave Wednesday/Thursday for Panama or maybe Colombia? So we are heading north now to exit the Barrier reef and will also put us well north of Honduras where there has been a lot of trouble with piracy so our plan is to spend an extra few days at sea and keep well clear.
So now we wait a few days and hopefully catch a few more fish:)
And happy to report the Simrad Nac-3 autopilot is amazing and the watermaker seems to be making 25litres of very tasty water per hour and Julie's patience with me rushing about is just about holding out!!
Update-Julie just swam with dolphins and is super happy