Panama!!!!!!

Well, we made it here and had the anchor dropped almost eight days to the exact hour we left El Salvador. That is the longest sail we have had yet, and I was in no hurry to stop! I could have done three times that with no trouble, and we will have to do that and possibly more when we cross the Pacific. I have decided that I like the long sails. It takes 72 hours to get into a routine where (barring something problematic of course) we are both sleeping at regular times and eating somewhat regular meals. After that, it gets more fun. Those first 72 hours can be difficult.

I am so, well, UP after this trip. I did a lot of helming, and am feeling pretty confident. We no longer get upset and freak out of the boat gets turned around, as happens in light winds. I also discovered helming is easier when you are going faster - the boat is more responsive. And the more I helm this boat in different conditions, the more I understand how she responds. Duh. But I have been so afraid to helm - afraid of causing some horrible accident - that I kept putting it off, not really trying to learn. I was too scared to even try. But now I look forward to doing it, and MIke has said I am ready to practice when we hit some heavy weather. He has had to helm on occasion for hours at a time because the auto pilot wouldn't hold - and now I can learn to help in those situations. Not that I am looking forward to heavy weather! In fact, that is sort of a problem. No one in their right mind purposely goes out during small craft warnings and situations like that just to practice sailing in bad weather. I suppose there are people who actually do it, and we did see some hard core race boats out practicing maneuvers when the weather on the bay was acting up, but that was it. So learning to sail in heavy weather is something you end up learning by doing, I guess. My day will come, I have no doubt.

I have forgotten twice now to tell about the most exciting thing that happened on this trip. For almost an hour one day, there was a 30 foot whale literally playing along side us. It was not a pilot whale, and we are pretty sure it was not a California Grey. Mike thinks it was a Right Whale (which of course had me talking about right and wrong whales for three days) but we will be sure when we get internet again and can look it up. But he just swam all around the boat, looking at it, looking at us, and admiring our fishing lure we were trolling. MIke tried to take pictures, then cursed himself mightily because he had the camera on the wrong setting and nothing came out. So now we have no proof of this, but it was really amazing. He was really gentle, and not at all interested in causing us any problems. He went all around and under, then surfaced and just looked at us. His mouth was sort of on top of his head, with his eyes in the middle. He had some barnacles on his back, and some remora fish as well. We are calling him "he" because he was by himself, not with a pod, and young judging by his size, so we pegged him for a young bull. I did not name him, but had he stayed longer, I would have.

Mike thinks he heard one of our geckos the other night - I hope they survive and live to kill more roaches. The roach population is down, we are starving them out by cleaning like madmen and not leaving them any food, and them getting eaten by geckos. They are no longer found in logical places, but are starting to turn up in strange places, probably in a desperate search for food. I feel sort of bad at how I delight in killing as many of them as I can - real glee on occasion - but I hate them and want them GONE. If we do not hear or see any gecko sign by the time we haul this boat out, we are going to tent it and fumigate it. Or at least bug bomb it to death. I hate these roaches more than I have ever hated anything. I am ashamed to have anyone visit the boat in case one of those awful creatures decides to join the party. I do plan to booby trap one locker by putting boric acid in there - there aren't any geckos in that area.

Today our plans include taking down the big genoa jib and mending a couple places where the canvas sail cover is coming off. These sails (except the main, which is pretty new) are probably the ones that came with the boat in 1982. We will have them professionally mended as soon as we can, and then will likely look into replacing both the genoa and the staysail. I want tanbark - a red color that looks amazing.

So that is is for today. I have no internet connection, so I can only be reached by mail via the SSB radio. Emails sent to WDF5496@sailmail.com will reach me. It's almost time for the Pan Pacific Cruiser's Net on the radio - time to wake up Mike!

"The machine does not isolate man from the great problems of nature but plunges him more deeply into them." (Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

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