Day 6 Bahamas to Panama

The last few days have been a straight up sled ride with Sila reeling off the miles. In one 24 hour period, we covered over 180 miles, a record for us on Sila. A few more crew and a bit more sail and I suspect we could have done the mythical 200 nautical miles in a day.

However, with just Molly and me to stand watch; sleep and low key watch standing is more important than absolute speed. It is still fun to go fast. As we approach Panama, the winds look to lighten substantially, so hopefully we will get in close enough to make our landfall tomorrow afternoon rather than Monday morning.

The Caribbean Sea in late May is hot. Hot like 34 degrees celsius at 5 pm hot. We have been baking in the sun for several days. The windy and nominally rough conditions have also meant that the boat needs to be sealed up tight, so it is hot and stuffy below, making for tough conditions to sleep.

Jack has spent much of the time sprawled out on the aft deck, head on a cushion, staring to the aft horizon. For this passage, Porter's spot has been the windward port rail with his arms wrapped around the backstay. He has stood for hours swaying to the motion of the boat. Both of them have become adept at the long horizon stare, picking out distant ships, and spending hours inside their own heads. The conditions have been just hot and rough enough that none of us have done much of anything besides stare at the horizon and listen to music, podcasts, and the carefully rationed Harry Potter books. In some ways, it seems silly to ration them because Molly read all 7 books out loud to the boys; they have each read the books (Porter twice), we have all listened to the Jim Dale audiobooks at least a couple of times (Molly used to listen to them while training for the Leadville 100), and we have seen the movies multiple times. But ration we do anyway.

The schedule of the last few weeks has been dictated by a rather arbitrary date and line. For our insurance, we need to be south of 12 degrees N latitude by June 1st. Today is the 31st of May and we have 6 nm to go... so we will make it no problem. Next we have a few weeks on the Caribbean side of Panama and then we will go through the Canal. We are all looking forward to a visit from Amanda Good . Amanda is part of the family as she was the boys' long time Monday date night babysitter from Leadville. Then in late June we will sail bound for the Galapagos, another 900nm passage.

- Christopher