Log book
- Port of departure: Boca Chica, Panama
- Departure date and time: Friday, March 28 at 11:45am
- Port of arrival: Isla Parida, Panama
- Arrival date and time: Friday, March 28 at 4:45pm
- Total travel time: 5 hours
- Miles traveled: 13.5 nm
- Average speed: 2.7 knots
- Engine hours: 1219.1 begin – 1222.0 end – 0.9 hours
- Fuel consumption: 31.8 begin – 31.4 end – 0.4 gallons used
- Fuel economy: 34 mpg
- Tides and currents: High tide at 2pm – we left early and were fighting a counter current for the first couple of hours.
- Navigation notes: Roca Buey can sneak up on you if you’re not careful! It’s covered at high tide.
- Weather: The forecast predicted 8-10 knots of N wind in the morning, 2-4 knots of W wind in the afternoon and 4-6 knots from the N in the evening.
Low-key, easy and slow sail. We originally planned to leave on Thursday at high tide, but at some point in the late morning the wind started swooping down from the NE like angry, invisible birds. We clocked wind speeds of up 50 knots, but there were likely a couple gusts that topped 50. It was crazy windy and we didn’t really feel like a crazy windy day of sailing. So we spent most of the day hanging out inside, remarking on how crazy the wind was and then every once in awhile popping our heads out just to gauge the actual craziness. Other cruisers out at the islands told us that they were experiencing light wind conditions leading us to believe that this wind was highly localized.
On Friday, when we saw the barometer start to drop and the wind start to pick up, we figured we needed to leave quick before things got gusty again. Hence our decision to shove off before high tide.
The wind was gusting to 25 knots until we turned the corner out of the anchorage, where it proceeded to die, then start blowing from the SW. Weather is strange. Sometimes it doesn’t make any sense.
As soon as we cleared Isla Saino, we raised the main and genoa and set out for a relatively leisurely upwind sail in a very light SW breeze. Jeff manned the tiller and sails while I worked on a little project to reorg our bathroom (i.e., the “head”). We took a shoe holder and cut it down into more manageable pockets that we’re hanging around the bathroom full of goodies. You probably don’t care much about this…but we’re pretty stoked. I’ll write more about it later.
We pulled into the anchorage on the NW side of the island and parked right out front of our friends’ lovely house on the beach. We arrived just in time for a sundowner with cranberry juice and the delicious tequila that SV Brio brought down from Mexico. So far, so good.