Panama Canal Transit

We are scheduled to transit the canal this Saturday and Sunday March 13th and 14th.

You can watch on the live web cam at:
http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html.

We will be going through the Gatun Locks on Saturday afternoon and the rest of them on Sunday.

Nice Fish

Spanish Mackerel caught off Providencia Island, Colombia. 37" long caught on silver spoon with strip bait on hook trolling at 5.5 knots on the edge of the reef drop off.
Some sort of snapper. Speared with a pole spear.

Arrived Colon Panama

March 5, 2010 7:45 AM EST
Anchored outside of Shelter Bay Marina: 09°22.3814 N 079°56.7496 W
Miles sailed year to date: 1493nm
Miles sailed so far on LightSpeed 3257nm

We arrived safely in Colon, Panama yesterday evening covering the 262nm distance in 32 hours for an average speed of 8.1 knots. Top speed through the water was recorded at 17.1 knots and the best speed the GPS recorded at 18.9 knots. Winds were from 22 to 32 knots for the duration and our focus was on slowing the boat down. Seas built to at least 10'-12' and trying to manage speed became a challenge as gravity kicked in as we surfed down the bigger waves. We ended up settling for just the Jib and this had us going a little slower on average, but with the main up we would surf too fast and too often for comfort.

Heading into the Marina today to get started on the Panama Canal Transit Paperwork. Wind is blowing 25 knots and I'm not excited about manouvering the boat in the confines of the Marina in these conditions.

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Underway to Panama

March 3, 2010 4:30 PM EST
Position: 12°48'N 081°15'W
Underway for Shelter Bay Marina, Colon, Panama.
Miles sailed year to date: 1276nm

About 220nm to Colon, Panama the Caribbean entrance to the Panama Canal.

Our time at Low Caye sure was nice. Eighty two degree water with amazing visibility, pristine coral gardens and lots of fish to stalk with the pole spear. Unfortunately, two little problems came up. One we would need to check in with customs, immigration and port captain sooner than later and this would be $120USD plus at least two days of chasing paper. And two, the weather forecast predicted another 'Norther' on the way with strong winds that would hamper our dinghy and snorkeling expeditions. So we set off for Panama to put the strong frontal winds associated with the 'Norther' to good use and dodge the bureaucracy.

Motoring down to the primary anchorage off Providencia we trolled some lines. Oh and was the fishing good. Ok back up right before we left I speared my biggest ever fish with my pole spear and what a fight I had holding my breath battling that big boy under water. Turns out to be a very nice 15 pound snapper. Ok, back to the trolling. We've been reading our new 'fishing book' a very well used wedding gift and had just added a strip bait to our normal fishing lures. Then BAM, ok not really BAM, but more like BUZZ, CLICK CLICK CLICK sped up about 50 times as the line raced off the reel. Since we were motoring it was the perfect time to hook into a fish as we could quickly and easily stop the boat and fight the fish. So I grab the pole and the line is pretty slack. Darn. I think I lost the fish already. Then the pole dips heavily and the fish takes off and the reel goes BUZZ, CLICK CLICK CLICK again speed this up about 50 times to get an idea of what a big Penn Senator reel sounds like with a big fish on. Then the fish jumps and dives and then swims toward the boat as I madly reel to try to keep tension on the line. Then another dive and line screams off the reel again. What fun. Kathy has the fishing belt around my waist and gloves and gaff in hand. Wow we wonder what's on the line. The battle ensues and finally we get the fish gaffedd. I stab the poor fish in the brain to end the suffering and then we slide a 200lb piece of fishing line down his spinal column (just like the Japanese fishermen do when they catch sushi grade tuna). Boy does this set off some nerves a the fish simultaneously gnashes it's sizeable teeth and thrashes it's tail. Sort of dangerous work for the old fingers to be this close to those teeth. That done we slice the fish in four strategic locations to bleed him out then tie a line on him and tow him behind the boat to both cool off and bleed out more. The fishing book advises to skip this step is sharks are already present. Standing on the back swim step I contemplate this advice as I imagine 'Jaws' surging out of the water sampling the fish as an appetizers on it's way to devouring me as the main course. Back to reality, the fish is a beautiful thirty seven inch Spanish Mackerel one of the tastier fish in the sea. So we enjoyed some deep fried snapper for lunch and seared Mackerel for dinner.

Then we trolled for a hour or so heading down to the main Providenecia anchorage and hooked up with a 37 inch Spanish Mackerel. Beautiful fish.

We were supposed to leave last night around mid-night, but that plan lost it's luster pretty quick once we were in bed so we ended up having a lazy morning and finally getting the anchor up at 10:30AM today. By noon the 'Norther' was upon us with frontal winds near 30 knots and some rain and stronger winds in squalls. The good news is this is what we wanted for nearly due south passage to Panama. Basically, when you are going nearly down wind more wind is better as it's not the wind that is the dominant factor it's the waves. With the waves nearly from dead astern all is good. Except, I'm not really sure how fast I should allow the boat to go. It is named 'LightSpeed', but even so I don't want to surpass a safe limit. Until I learn more we'll try to keep the max speeds around 12 knots if the auto pilot is going to be driving. I must say I'm not too pleased with the 12 year old autopilot. I think it drives like a 12 year old boy... a little reckless and blissfully ignorant to it's actions and requisite consequences. When this boat catches a surfing wave speeds can easily and regularly hit 14 knots in a few seconds (double reefed main and partially furled jib with 16-20 apparent). Basically, the autopilot corrects a little late and then not enough. An approaching (bigger than normal) quartering wave will lift the stern and give it a push to leeward which changes the apparent wind applying more force to the main (weather helm) which induces a slight turn to weather. Then the boat catches the wave and takes off from 9-10 knots racing to 16.7 knots (today's record) and starts catching the wave ahead. Pretty fun, but now we are off course by maybe 20 degrees to weather and the Autopilot finally catches up and steers hard to leeward just as the boat slows as the surf runs out and then over steers by 20 degrees luffing the Jib which then resets with a CRASH BANG SHUDDER. Not ideal in the least. So, I want a new autopilot course computer that has more brains than this old one. Now days the course computer is very 'smart' and will learn the wave patterns and with a rate gyro understand the rate of turn thereby steering much much better.

Anyway the result is that I've taken the mainsail down as having the jib luff and reset in this much wind with a CRASH BANG SHUDDER is NOT good. With the main down the Autopilot is doing a lot better holding course and the boat speed is more modest with a 50% reduction in sail area. We are still catching surfs, but now only to the mid 12 knot range which is much more comfortable.

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Panama Canal Crew?

Anyone interested in joining us for our Panama Canal Transit. We need four line handlers for the two day one night voyage from Colon to Panama City. Let us know if you might be interested. The voyage will be sometime this month.

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Low Caye, Providencia Island, Colombia

March 1, 2010 6:35PM EST
Anchored at: 13°31.3815 N 081°20.3708 W
Sailed year to date: 1219nm

After too much wind we ended up with not enough wind and decided to stop at Low Caye, Providencia Island, Colombia in lieu of motoring. Low Caye is at the north end of the reef and about 6 miles north of the island of Providencia. Striking blue water laps gently at the hull as we sit anchored over a white sand surrounded by a horseshoe shaped barrier reef. Huge ocean swells crash and roar as they break on the reef outside and create perfect white noise for a well deserved nap. But, who has time for a nap with emerald coral heads dotting the inside of the lagoon and perfectly clear eighty two degree water teaming with tasty fish for lunch? We arrive around 10:30 and by 11 we were off exploring the underwater world. Three tasty reef fish a large queen conch and a huge lobster later we are ready to break for lunch and it's already 1:30. After lunch Kathy succumbs to a well deserved nap, even though she is a confirmed 'fake napper' and rarely actually falls asleep. Today she was out solid. Still a little amped up from the passage to slumber this afternoon I found distraction with a new book 'The Glass Castle' by Jeannette Walls and kept the sleep at bay.

Perhaps we'll stay a few days and continue to enjoy this bit of paradise. We're not in that big of a rush to get to Panama.

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(no subject)

February 28, 2010 5:40PM CST
Position: 14°48'N 082°03'W
Couse 150T SOG 7
Wind N @ 20kts
Skies mostly clear
Seas 6-8 feet
Nautical miles sailed year to date: 1120nm
.. in last 24 hours about 180nm make good over ground.

The sun just set and is still casting a striking array of pinks, oranges and purples on the streaking mares tail clouds above. Just on the heel of the suns departure for the day a full moon is rising with a bright orange glow and at this moment a spooky Halloween type cloud belting it's middle. The moon phase is so ideal for night sailing that you might think we'd planned this... no this time it was just luck. We love the full moon at night as you can see your sails and the surrounding seas with ease making for a much more enjoyable night time experience that gives a greater feeling of control and security.

If you read yesterdays post I can report that we missed the timing of the approaching cold front by at least 6 hours and this translating to a rough night. Winds were steady at 25knots plus with squalls to 33 knots plus. Breaking beam seas 8-12 feet were slamming the side of the boat at times with an alarming crash and jolt that could bring you out of the deepest sleep. (not under deck slamming, but breaking seas hitting the windward side of the hulls). Unfortunately, we had to maintain a course with seas on the beam until 2PM this afternoon when we were finally able to turn down wind a bit and get the seas behind us from a more quartering direction. Nothing romantic or endearing about this trip so far except we've been making decent time toward Panama.

Lots of water across the decks last night and today. So much in fact that we've discovered three hatches that before now have never leaked. So much water on the windows that I almost wished for a windshield wiper to see out. Very happy with the pilot house... just sat inside in my shorts and no shirt and held on at times as we got a solid thrashing from the beam seas. Beam seas are the worst on a cat and we even had a few thing tip over, gasp!

Kathy is a real trooper (or sailor I guess I should say) she just having served up a great steak topped with melted cheese and pine nuts with a side of rice. It's tough working in the galley so a big thanks for the tasty dinner!

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Wedding wrap up

A very special thanks to everyone who joined us for our Valentines wedding in Belize. Thanks for being there for us! It was really a treat to spend time with all of our guests and to share this special event. The wedding week activities, wedding and reception turned out perfect.

Revved up after two weeks going non-stop we kept the momentum going and accomplished several days worth of pre-departure tasks (Check out of Belize, Fuel and provision boat, etc) in less than a day.

For our honeymoon we sailed out to Turneffe Reef to spend a few night recharging. Nature sent out the welcome wagon and we had the joy of being escorted both into and out of the lagoon by dolphins. At South Turneffe Reef we enjoyed some great snorkeling, spear fishing, and even scored a few meals worth of lobsters. Pretty much the perfect honeymoon.

Still charged up and anxious to make progress toward the Panama canal and a crossing into the Pacific Ocean as soon as possible we set out for the Bay Islands of Honduras.

Heading East from Belize toward Guanaja the eastern most of the Honduran Bay Islands is never easy, but the weather cooperated for the 24 hour sail.

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Guanja, Honduras towards Panama Canal (Day 1)

February 27, 2010 6:40PM CST
Position: 16°04.8 N 084°32.8 W
Course 100° Speed 7.8 knots (partilly furled jib, no main).
Weather: Squally with Westerly winds 22-26 knots
Miles sailed so far today: 80nm
Nautical Miles sailed year to date: 947nm

After a few days waiting for favorable weather to proceed toward Panama (200nm of easting still required before we can turn south) we got lucky break and set sail. Sailing East in the Caribbean is always difficult as the prevailing winds nearly always have a easterly component. Recently, cold fronts with strong North component winds have been sweeping the area every 3-4 days. As these 'Northers' approach the wind often clocks (wind shifts clockwise) from the prevailing NE to E to SE to S to SW to W to NW to 'Norther' and blows hard for about 24 hours. The last 'Norther' we hid out from while in Guanaja peaked in 30's with some boats reporting gusts to the high 40 knot range.

Getting back to the voyage at hand. We departed this AM (February 27 7:30AM)about 30 hours (we think) in front of the next 'Norther' as the winds shifted to the South. The plan being we ride the clocking winds (S, SW, W, NW) winds as we sail quickly east and hopefully make it to the point we can turn South BEFORE the 'Norther' unleashes it's full fury. The good news is that 'Northers' come in varying strengths and this one should be of the milder variety. Special note to our mothers: Relax we wouldn't leave port if we weren't going to be 100% safe.

Thus far the winds are delivering as promised, but the seas are pretty confused (i.e. coming from various directions) due to the rapidly changing wind directions. Confused seas directly translate into both of us feeling seas sick until we get our seas legs in 12-24 hours. Thus, we've alternated lying on the couch all morning and afternoon. This afternoon the wind really began to pipe up from the SW at a steady 22-26 knots True and the seas are getting more organized. Lazy sailing on Jib alone we're making good speed of about 8 knots.

As a side note sailing downwind in an Atlantic 42 catamaran certainly is comfortable. Inside the pilot house you have little sensation of the wind strength with the wind from behind. Just a moment ago we had a squall with the true wind speed hitting a steady 31 knots and the boat speed jumped up to 10.5 knots with surfs to 12.5 knots(on Jib alone). With 30 knots you can hear the wind in the rigging, but inside the pilot house it's all serene with the exception of the water rushing by the hulls and the wind beginning to sing in the rigging. Here I sit in my shorts, no shirt, no shoes and certainly no foul weather gear. Pretty sweet to sail down wind in the Atlantic cats.

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Guanja, Honduras towards Panama Canal (Day 1)

February 27, 2010 6:40PM CST
Position: 16°04.8 N 084°32.8 W
Course 100° Speed 7.8 knots (partilly furled jib, no main).
Weather: Squally with Westerly winds 22-26 knots
Miles sailed so far today: 80nm
Nautical Miles sailed year to date: 947nm

After a few days waiting for favorable weather to proceed toward Panama (200nm of easting still required before we can turn south) we got lucky break and set sail. Sailing East in the Caribbean is always difficult as the prevailing winds nearly always have a easterly component. Recently, cold fronts with strong North component winds have been sweeping the area every 3-4 days. As these 'Northers' approach the wind often clocks (wind shifts clockwise) from the prevailing NE to E to SE to S to SW to W to NW to 'Norther' and blows hard for about 24 hours. The last 'Norther' we hid out from while in Guanaja peaked in 30's with some boats reporting gusts to the high 40 knot range.

Getting back to the voyage at hand. We departed this AM (February 27 7:30AM)about 30 hours (we think) in front of the next 'Norther' as the winds shifted to the South. The plan being we ride the clocking winds (S, SW, W, NW) winds as we sail quickly east and hopefully make it to the point we can turn South BEFORE the 'Norther' unleashes it's full fury. The good news is that 'Northers' come in varying strengths and this one should be of the milder variety. Special note to our mothers: Relax we wouldn't leave port if we weren't going to be 100% safe.

Thus far the winds are delivering as promised, but the seas are pretty confused (i.e. coming from various directions) due to the rapidly changing wind directions. Confused seas directly translate into both of us feeling seas sick until we get our seas legs in 12-24 hours. Thus, we've alternated lying on the couch all morning and afternoon. This afternoon the wind really began to pipe up from the SW at a steady 22-26 knots True and the seas are getting more organized. Lazy sailing on Jib alone we're making good speed of about 8 knots.

As a side note sailing downwind in an Atlantic 42 catamaran certainly is comfortable. Inside the pilot house you have little sensation of the wind strength with the wind from behind. Just a moment ago we had a squall with the true wind speed hitting a steady 31 knots and the boat speed jumped up to 10.5 knots with surfs to 12.5 knots(on Jib alone). With 30 knots you can hear the wind in the rigging, but inside the pilot house it's all serene with the exception of the water rushing by the hulls and the wind beginning to sing in the rigging. Here I sit in my shorts, no shirt, no shoes and certainly no foul weather gear. Pretty sweet to sail down wind in the Atlantic cats.

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Wedding wrap up

A very special thanks to everyone who joined us for our Valentines wedding in Belize. Thanks for being there for us! It was really a treat to spend time with all of our guests and to share this special event. The wedding week activities, wedding and reception turned out perfect.

Revved up after two weeks going non-stop we kept the momentum going and accomplished several days worth of pre-departure tasks (Check out of Belize, Fuel and provision boat, etc) in less than a day.

For our honeymoon we sailed out to Turneffe Reef to spend a few night recharging. Nature sent out the welcome wagon and we had the joy of being escorted both into and out of the lagoon by dolphins. At South Turneffe Reef we enjoyed some great snorkeling, spear fishing, and even scored a few meals worth of lobsters. Pretty much the perfect honeymoon.

Still charged up and anxious to make progress toward the Panama canal and a crossing into the Pacific Ocean as soon as possible we set out for the Bay Islands of Honduras.

Heading East from Belize toward Guanaja the eastern most of the Honduran Bay Islands is never easy, but the weather cooperated for the 24 hour sail.

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Married!

Warranty repairs update

Warranty repairs update.

Specrtra Water Makers - Is replacing the Clark Pump we just exchanged with no questions asked. They are even sending it to us in Florida for pick up at no expense. Thanks Spectra for standing behind your very solid products.

Icom America - Is taking care of the "clipping" issue on the Icom M-802. This is an old issue, but the radio we just purchased NEW in Colombia... we found out later had been sitting on the shelf since 2003 and the well known issue is covered under warranty. Thanks Icom! we've now owned four of your SSB radios two 710's and two 802's.

ACR Electronics - Not sure what to say at this point. They say the AIS unit has been tested twice and checks out. I've tested it with three different VHF cables and two different antennas. cables. Under my test the unit was only picking up nothing or on good just some ships at 3 miles or less. In the beginning it was picking up ships at up to 55nm out. They say it's good. I am starting to feel very uneasy about taking the unit back. I would like them to replace it and take my observations seriously and really test the unit to find the flaws. My tests ran for several weeks they have only had the unit for less than 24 hours. Stay tuned as I will update on how they follow up on this. At this point I;m asking for a new unit OR to pay for a upgrade. Stay tuned for a update. Keeping my fingers crossed they value our many thousands of dollars spent on their gear.

Dave in Florida for a few days

I'm up in Florida helping the new owner of Pacifica get the boat rigged (set up after many months of storage in the boat yard). Today we got the sails on, launched the boat and took a couple of tries at docking. The boat looks great and everything is working great.

On Thursday I fly back to Belize and wedding guest begin to arrive the next day. The several next weeks promise to be busy and very fun. Only 13 days until the love of my life Kathy and I tie ultimate bowline.

Belize CIty and Caye Caulker

Fishing boats at Belize City. Imagine being one of six crew to live aboard one of these vessels for weeks at a time. These boats are typically about 25' long and the majority of the interior is a fish hold! When it's time to set sail visualize 6 fiberglass canoes stacked on deck. And to top it off they still manage to raise sail and navigate these boats to the fishing grounds near the outer atolls 40 plus miles offshore.
Kathy working out arrangement details with a Belize city florist.
Typical, view from the windward (East) side of Caye Caulker
Local artisans showcase island themed works
Typical dock on the windward side. In local lingo this is called a 'bridge'.

Agave Restaurant. Location of our wedding reception dinner.

Warranty Repairs

January 28, 2010

Location: Caye Caulker, Belize

Today was a Warranty Repair paperwork day. It was interesting to interact with three different companies and experience their customer service

Several problems require Warranty repair.

Icom M802 marine SSB radio (early production has know defect)
Company: Icom America.
Service: Response was almost instantaneous (less than 20 minutes via email).
Message: Send it in we will fix it no problem. We will do it quickly.
Rating: 5 stars.

Spectra Catalina 300 water maker (Clark Pump)
Company: Spectra
Service: Great once dialog was established which took 3 days for a response. Then very happy with solid answers and timely follow up.
Message: We will get you a replacement and be sure to ship it to you quickly.
Rating: 4-1/2 stars.

ACR Nauticast B AIS transponder
Company: ACR Electronics
Service: Less than 24 hours response time, and solid tech trouble shooting advice.
Message: We don't believe you. Bring it in and we will test it to prove our point? Wish they valued my business more and would replace broken device as I spent many thousands on their products.
Rating: 3-1/2 stars.

More follow up as things develop.

Flee Market

We did a little spring cleaning yesterday and this afternoon took in a suitcase full of stuff to sell for pennies on the dollar or give away. We set up shop along the main waterfront street and enjoyed brisk trade over the lunch hour. We also sold a old air conditioner to another cruiser today which really helped lighten the load. I'm super happy to have that 5o + pound A/C unit off the boat and now we are floating an inch higher on our starboard side.

The key to a fast catamaran is keeping her light or at least not overloaded with gear you don't really really need.

Lazy Lizard Bar at the Split (North end of South Island at Caye Caulker)
Lazy Lizard waterfront bar also a good spot to go snorkeling.

Caye Caulker walk

Lazy Lizard Bar water seating.
Caye Caulker anchorage
Lobster traps.
Economy dock building methods make me smile.
Agave Restaurant

Wedding preparations

January, 26, 2010

Location: Caye Caulker, Belize.

We pretty much have the wedding details finalized after making a few adjustments.

Sunset wedding is planned for the dock at Iguana Reef Inn around 5:20PM as the sun sets at 5:52PM local on Valentines Day. Ceremony will be short and sweet and we just met with the very nice man whom will be conducting the ceremony. Coincidentally his name is Valentino.

The reception is planned for Agave which is a pretty major change from our original idea of using Bamboo. We decided we would feel more comfortable with Agave as it has better weather protection should it be a windy or rainy evening.

Spent the last few breakfasts meeting with the owner of Agave to work out details and evening meetings with the chef of Agave to sample the food. We decided on a time tested fresh garlic and butter 10oz lobster tail with an accompaniment of subtle coconut rice and steamed vegetables. For the non-seafood eaters we have a tequila lime chicken breast served with grilled potatoes and steam vegetables. To start things off a colorful Caribbean style green salad with a BBQ mango dressing. We individually tasted six different dressing and are sure you'll love this one. Nothing too fancy, but the lobster lovers are in for a treat.

This AM we walked the perimeter of the island looking for flower gardens that might offer cuttings to adorn our dinner tables. Next we will make the rounds and ask permission to harvest some of these tropical wonders. After a solid and fast walk we enjoyed a well earned breakfast that even included cinnamon rolls.

I gained a new flip flop induced blister on my big toe today to go next to the one I earned yesterday. It seems we've been up and down this island at least 10 times with all the walking to accomplish our wedding planning. I even changed to a different pair of flips today, but 5 or 6 miles in the sand is tough on the toes. Tomorrow I'll need to break out another pair to shift the rub spots to a slightly different spot. Ahh the trials of island life.

Sunset at Caye Caulker.

Arrived Caye Caulker

January 23, 2010

Location Caye Caulker, Belize
Position: 17* 44' N 88* 01'W
Nautical miles sailed YTD: 594


Beautiful two hour sail from San Pedro to Caye Caulker in 12-13 knots apparent with boat speeds between 8 and 9 knots and zero waves. Sailing behind the barrier reef in light trade winds sure is fun.

Battling with the local phone company for three hours this morning was not so fun. Yesterday I bought a cell phone that I was sold to believe was the perfect solution to connect my computer for Internet access while here in Belize. The phone was not cheap at $185 BZD with monthly Internet only service costing $130 BZD (total of $172.50USD). The problem was that the sales rep sold me load of bullship and when I returned the next morning he was sultry and unwilling to replace, upgrade or make a refund. Shocking to have a sales person lie to your face endlessly and exhibit zero customer service skills. In the end I got my money back, but not without great amounts of cajoling, many many calls to customer service and long hours sitting in 'Smart' cell phone shop. I guess that's all part of the fast paced big city life of San Pedro (only kidding, San Pedro is tiny)

Happy to be back in Caye Caulker... little seems to have changes. And in comparison Caye Caulker Village is super small and so much more laid back than San Pedro.

Fishing off Honduras

Mahi Mahi that Kathy caught and landed 100% on her own. Congrats for a job well done!
Kathy shows off the 15 pounds of shrimp we bartered for with shrimp fishermen at the Vivorillos. These are tails only.
Hog Fish. One of our favorites.
Big Eye tuna? Perhaps, someone can zero in on the exact species and drop us an email.
A Boobie that circled the boat so many times I got out my Canon Digital SLR for this pic as the bird prepared to land on deck.

Belze phone number

January 22, 2010
Location: San Pedro, Belize

Belize Cell is: (501) 631-8788 Edit: January 26 to correct number.

Arrived safely in San Pedro, Belize and successfully checked in with Customs and Immigration. Caught up with some friends from Panama whom just opened a dive shop here in San Pedro.

For those of you coming to the wedding who want to get dive certified please drop us an email to David at DKsail.com as we can set up some group rates.

Tomorrow we sail down to Caye Caulker to get the wedding details sorted out.

A big thank you to everyone who is flying down to Belize we are excited to see you.

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(no subject)

January 22, 2010 4AM
Position: 17°27' N 087°15' W
YTD: 570 nautical miles

Underway from Guanja, Honduras (Bay Islands) to San Pedro, Belize with about 7 hours to go putting us in around 10:30AM.

We are just rounding the North end Lighthouse reef home to the world famous Blue Hole.

With 150 nautical miles from Guanaja to San Pedro we departed Guanaja in the afternoon under clear blue skies and 15 knots of ESE wind. By departing in the mid afternoon we assured of a daylight arrival at the tricky San Pedro reef pass. We usually do our best to plan for a noon arrival thus giving us the maximum amount of daylight for either a early or late arrival. It sure is nice to sail down wind for a change and we have make excellent time for the first 14 hours. Now four in the morning winds have died down considerably and remaining 1.5 meter swells have the sails slamming at intervals as the apparent wind is not strong enough to keep things set. Likely the drop in wind velocity is a direct result of our proxmity of land and the cold air sweeping down off the mountains at night toward the sea.

I just capitulated to the light winds and dropped sail as I suspect the cost of the wear and tear of the sails slamming is exceeding the cost to run the engines.

Beautiful stars out tonight. And earlier in the evening a brilliant waxing crescent moon set allowing the bright glory of the stars to provide excellent viewing in the ultra clear cool evening air. At one point I had Ursula Major rising on the starboard side, Cassiopeia on the starboard bow and Orion directly overhead with the remainder of the sky blocked out by sails. Around 2AM the Southern cross and attendant pointer stars slowly began to show themselves to the South. Wishing for a star chart to learn more constellations on such a beautiful night as this.

Yesterday afternoon we arrived in Guanaja and found twelve boats anchored in El Bight. Of these several friends including s/v Kitywake (Jack and Nichole), s/v Galavant (Anne and Doug), s/v Avion (Roy) and s/v Zephyrs (Dan and Lorraine). We hosted a happy hour on s/v LightSpeed and enjoyed some of the wonderful shrimp procured the day before in the Vivorillos as we caught up on the last six months of adventures. Later we went enjoyed a nice dinner ashore at the German Restaurant with wonderfully authentic food and great company. Kathy even managed to win three games of pool against the local guys. We were sad to rush off this afternoon, but duty calls to get the final wedding preparations completed.

Next stop San Pedro to check in with Customs and Immigration. We hope they are understanding about the many cases of wine and champagne we have aboard for the wedding. We will declare everything then hope for the best. Our last visit to Belize back in March 2009 I noticed about ten cases of beer in the Customs office. Apparently, a big sport fishing boat didn't declare the beer and it was confiscated. So we plan to play by the rules and hopefully not be subjected to undue hardship.

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Kathy Lands a nice Mahi Mahi

January 20, 2010 11AM
Position: 16°16' N 085°40' W
YTD: 445 nautical miles

About 17 nautical miles to Guanaja, Honduras. Sailing at 7-8 knots with main only in 15 knots true. Surfs to mid teens on bigger waves!

After a watch of 2:00AM to 6:30AM I was sleeping hard when Kathy woke me with news of a fish on the line. Very tired I poked my head out the hatch and saw the pole bent over and the boat moving pretty fast. The good news it the fish wasn't too big as no more line was going off the reel. We keep the drag on our Penn Senator 114H reel set very tight at maybe 12 pounds of pull. It takes time to slow the boat down to go into fish fighting mode so we have everything set up for big fish, although we prefer to catch smaller ones and use small lures to discourage the really big fish from biting in the first place.

So, having observed that the fish was not big (i.e. line was no longer coming off the reel) I asked Kathy if she could go solo on landing this one as I was beat. Suited up with her safety harness she reeled in a 3' Mahi Mahi without even taking down the main sail as we continued at 6 knots. Once the fish was close to the boat, having been planned on top of the water most of the way in, Kathy lifted him out of the water by the fishing line and swung this bright green three foot beauty onto the trampoline. Great job!!

Picture to follow.

Had the fish been a big one and continued to pull out line we would have had to stop the boat. For example with the boat going 6 knots that is 6 nautical miles per hour or one nautical mile per ten minutes or 600 feet per minute. So from the time the fish hit the lure to the time we take down sail, put on a safety harness three minutes might elapse. If it's a big fish then we might have 1800 feet of line off the reel or nearly a third of a mile between us and the fish.

With no more room in the fridge we are done fishing for a while.

Congratulations to Kathy on landing the nice Mahi Mahi on her own.

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Sailing electronics

January 20, 2010 3AM
Position: 16°12' N 084°37' W
YTD: 384 nautical miles

Underway sailing from Cayos Vivorillos toward Guanaja, Honduras

A comfortable sail for a change. Winds are a little light at 12 knots from the ENE and seas are minimal around 1.25 meters. Our course is 285° and we are running (Wind at 5 o'clock) with boat speed of 6-7 knots under mainsail only.

Just spotted a ship ahead, adjusted course a bit, verified the Closest Point of Approach (CPA) on the AIS and now maintaining a visual from inside the pilot house where I just updated my log book with an entry on the sighting. By the time this is done it's time to adjust course again with a turn of the wheel on the auto pilot inches from my computer keyboard. I love the convenience and safety of the pilot house.

Electronics I'm running while underway.

Autopilot: Older Simrad AP300 system with hydraulic drive, fluxgate and three Robertson AP300X control heads (one at out side helm, one at inside helm and one at nav station). Autopilot is integrated with GPS and wind instruments.

Wind, Depth, Speed and Heading: Older KVH Quadro system with three displays at outside helm, three at inside helm and one at Navigation station. Of the seven displays five are two line multi displays that can repeat any data on the network the sixth is an analog apparent wind indicator and the seventh analog wind speed. I like the system a lot, but KVH is no longer supporting the units. When we bought the boat the anemometer bearings were frozen and I was able to nurse them back to life in lieu of spending $250 for a new after market bearing! I even have new in the box spare speed and depth transducers, but I think we are going to move away from the system incrementally over the next year. Just ordered a total replacement system from Tacktick, but will be initially only implementing the mast head wind transducer and wind display. Other elements will need to wait until our next haulout maintenance cycle.

GPS: Nothstar 952X GPS chart plotter. We don't have chart chips for the device so it basically a fancy GPS, but suits our needs for a GPS signal out to our PC running MaxSea.

Navigation Laptop: Averatec 1050 with a 10" screen new in early 2007. It's about at the end of the road as it a tough life for a PC in the salty marine environment. A solid little machine that has miserly power needs and runs MaxSea 10 reliably. My normal practice is to sell laptops when the get to be about 1 year old as after that reliability drops as does resale. I waited to long on this one and now the CD/DVD drive is dead.

AIS transponder: ACR with integral GPS. I really like the idea of the AIS transponder, unfortunately this one is not working so well right now. Contacts are only 3-4 nm out in lieu of the 15-20 they should be

VHF radio: I-COM M422. Has very powerful speaker and works great overall. We run this radio 24 hours a day everyday on channel 16. Yes, all night every night. I wish every one would do the same.

Mast head Tri-color: Orca Green LED one of the first and one of the best (1/2 amp per hour and very very bright).

We have plenty more to discuss, but this is what I run underway. Radar is getting replaced so I don't list it here.

At the moment I'm composing this email on my newer HP Mini Netbook computer with a 10" screen. It has a six cell battery than can go for 7-8 hours and is overall very efficient.

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(no subject)

January 18, 2009

Anchored at: 15°50.6312 N 083°18.1887 W over sand in 4.5 meters with excellent holding.

Location: Grand Cayos Vivorillos

Today we sailed from the Cayos Cajones to the Vivorillos. Lots of snorkeling this morning at the Cajones from 9:30AM to 12:30PM looking for more Hog fish. No luck. Spectacular snorkeling with an incredible number of fish, but no lobster or conch. These important commercial fisheries are hitting even these remote reefs hard.

The anchor was up by 12:45 and we sailed the 20 nm to the Vivorillos in hopes of finding some shrimp boats anchored here for the day. Go over in your dinghy and strike up a conversation with these guys and before you know it they will be handing you a bag of shrimp. Since we were looking for a big bag of shrimp we took over some freshly baked cookies, a half bottle of rum. Our haul today was at least 15 pounds of tails. WOW. Life is good. It's also a good thing we have a second refrigerator that we can turn on for special occasions such as this. I cooked up about 4 pounds of these monsters and put the remainder in the 2nd frige that is cranked down cold and will hopefully freeze the shrimp solid.

What a feast we had tonight. When it was all over we counted 37 shrimp tails and we are stuffed. The heck with cholesterol these shrimp are awesome.

Snorkeling around this afternoon here in the Vivorillos we also picked up a lobster and three conch. The conch got a get out of jail card and were returned to the sea once we scored the shrimp.

Our current plan is to set sail tomorrow Jan 19 and sail direct to Belize. We need to wait until at least 5 PM or we risk arriving too soon as it would still be dark. The 294 nautical miles remaining should go very quickly with the forecast winds ranging from 15 knots to 25 knots.

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Cayos Cajones (Hobbies) off lying islands and reefs of Honduras

January 17, 2009

Anchored at: 16°02.4939 N 083°06.3599 W in 6.5 meters over sand with excellent holding.

Approaching the Cayos Cajones from the South we used approach Waypoint 15°58.0000 N 083°06.0000 W and steered a course of 355° T direct to the anchorage at: 16°02.4939 N 083°06.3599 W This route keeps a breaking reef a safe distance to starboard (shown on C-Map charts) and then passes a low sand island to Port (not shown on chart) and a small island (Boobie Island not shown on chart) with a structure and palm trees to Starboard. Just North of Boobie island, aptly named for the many Boobies whom make it home, one could also find a nice anchorage over a sand bottom. The approach to our anchorage has a minimum depth of 6.5 meters found at the anchorage, making the approach quiet easy in good light.

We jumped in the water for a quick snorkel before lunch, hoping to catch something for lunch. A small pass between a inner reef and the outer reef yielded some fine spear fishing. Within three dives I had lunch procured in the form of a 16 inch hog fish... I had many to choose from. Visibility was terrible as a result of the strong high winds this last week (Norther) and perhaps this made the spear fishing easier as the fish couldn't see me diving down. From the top looking down you couldn't see the bottom 30'ish feet below and it was a little spooky to just swim straight down, but then bam you would see a small coral head surround by all sorts of pretty big fish. Almost too easy.

Shortly after our arrival several Cayuca (small canoes) started heading our way. The first was a pair of fishermen named David and Martine whom had a cayuca with a sizeable pile of lobsters, conch, crab and fish. Very friendly guys whom had been out on the cayos for over a month and were going to stay for another month. They invited us to lunch tomorrow and already we are thing it sure would be nice to stay another day as the wind is getting really light and the water should clear up overnight for excellent snorkeling tomorrow.

If you want MaxSea tracks for this area send me an email to David at DKsail dot com

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(no subject)

January 17, 2010 9AM

Position 15°55' N 082°57' W

Miles sailed year to date: 270 nautical miles
Total miles sailed on LightSpeed: 2030

Last year (2009) we sailed 4050 nautical miles or about 4617 statute miles. About half of those miles were sailed on Pacifica and the other half aboard LightSpeed. 2009 began in the middle of the Straight of Florida and took us to Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and Colombia. In the last 24 hours we've sailed about 180 nautical miles at an average speed of 7.6 knots. Not too bad considering we had a double reef in the main much of way and the max true wind speed was 15 knots, but mostly around 8-9 knot true. This boat really moves in light air.

Plan for the day:
Since the wind really shut down over night and this morning and the forecast calls for light winds the next 24 hours we have decided to stop at the Cayos Cajones (also know as the Hobbies). We have a few way points for an anchorage here and based on our current speed should arrive around noon with very settled conditions. Perfect for exploring a new anchorage in these shallow reef strewn waters where 'eye ball navigation' is the only option. We hear the reefs are spectacular so looking forward to a snorkel and some spear fishing this afternoon.

Fishing news:
Speaking of fish we caught a Big Eye Tuna with yellow sides. Not exactly sure on the precise species.. it might just be a Big Eye? About 10lbs which is perfect for our nearly full refrigerator. Enjoyed some lightly seared tuna for dinner with wasabi last night.

Just getting around to send this email via the SSB radio (now 10:30AM) and we have just sighted two palm fringed islands and some breakng reefs that are the Cayos Cajones. The chart only shows some reefs and has few soundings so we are surprised to see Cayos (islands) with palms. It's days like this that you really feel like an adventurer/explorer finding new islands!

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