Day 111, Year 1: Day Six of Our Passage to the San Blas
Date: Sunday, February 5, 2006
Air Temperature: 82 degrees F
Water Temperature: 80 degrees F
Latitude: N 11 degrees 06 minutes
Longitude: W 78 degrees 30 minutes
Location: Passage from Curacao to Panama, Day 6
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Miles to go-90. We have had a wonderful 24 hours of sailing since yesterday afternoon. During the evening we made our turn south. The winds died down a little so we took the reefs out of the main sail for the first time in weeks. We had a short period when we had to run the motor, but then the winds picked back up and we have sailed with the full main and head sail flying since the middle of the night. The seas have calmed considerably and provided us with smooth sailing all day today. We have actually had to reef the head sail in order to try and slow ourselves down as we don’t want to get to the San Blas until mid morning tomorrow. It is important to have good light when entering the pass into the islands.

Mark worked on installing the new membranes in the water maker. We tried it and it all seemed to work well so we ran it for about an hour to begin topping up our tanks.

I’ve spent the day trying to figure out which of the islands we will visit. There are hundreds of uninhabited islands as well as many islands with traditional Kuna Indian villages. We want to visit a couple of islands with small villages as well as some of the uninhabited islands. Many say that the San Blas offer just what most cruisers are seeking–white sand beaches, swaying coconut palms, and that beautiful, warm turquoise water. I know that is what this cruiser is seeking, so I am very excited about our arrival in the San Blas.