Just wanted to let every one know that the date has changed to Next Thursday, May 8th for the transit! So Mike and I will transit today on another boat as line handlers, and then possibly do a little cruising around on the Carib side, then Mike flies out on the 7th and I transit on the 8th! Been hanging out a lot in Colon and checked out Panama city yesterday, otherwise nothing too exciting to report other than the recent website update, and more updates are being added very soon. Hope all is well with everybody, I´m off to get a $1 beer from the marina bar :-). -Kirk

Wednesday April 9th 2008. Cristobal Harbor, Colon Panama, Panama Yacht club.

Ok, well overdue for a real update, so I suppose I start where I left off in the Exuma sound on March 16th. Didn’t take long for a little breeze to set it, and I was back under sail at 4+ knots, I suppose that’s the advantage of a small boat, some of the cruisers on 45′ steal boats that are happy doing 7.5kts in 25kts of wind tell me that below 10kts of wind they are nearly stuck to the water with no way at all. So the breeze filled in, and was eventually steady enough for me to take a few 10 minute power naps, with only a few boats within sight to keep an eye on and land a few miles off there were not too many hazards. I arrived at the entrance to Elizabeth harbor (Georgetown Exumas Bahamas) a few hours before dawn, and the front had caught up to me so the wind was 15 to 20 kts and building. This left me a little troubled since the entrance to the harbor involves a narrow cut with reefs on two sides and it is highly recommended to enter with good visibility (to avoid the reef) and in settled weather (to avoid breaking waves near the reefs). Either way the sun was not up yet so I had to tack away to kill time and at the same time the wind was picking up creating a slight swell on the reef. This same wind eventually created huge 15ft swells in the atlantic and parts of the Caribbean but that was a few days after I was through the cut and safely anchored in Georgetown. So the cut through the reef seemed like it would be manageable around 9AMish and I made my approach, watching the handheld GPS very closely since I don’t have a proper chart plotter. I have to admit I was pretty intimidated considering the guide books kept going on about how boats had been lost here and how so many people dread this little cut from the Exuma Sound into Elizabeth harbour, not to mention by now the winds were strong enough to push me along at 4kts with no jib and a second reef in the main. I started the motor incase I needed help manuvering but turned out I Didn’t need it and never even put it into gear, everything went as smooth as it possibly could. Then I entered the field of Yachts, Well over 100, quite possibly 200+. I began trying to Spot Captain Kal on Serenity since I knew she would be there and ironically, I think she spotted me first! As I was halfway through the anchorage she was waving me down from her boat like she somehow knew I would be arriving even though I didn’t radio ahead since I wanted to surprise her. I squeezed between her and a few other boats and by the time I had the anchor down she was aboard and we cracked a few beers open as seems to be the tradtion after all my passages (that is assuming that I have beers left upon arrival :-).

NASSAU to Highborn Cay, Exumas Bahamas.

BLAH… So, wanted to get up early (dawn) and sail out of Nassau after some very much needed R&R. Have been taking yoga classes and eating vegan means for several days now and feeling a little better since the marathon Salsa-Refit that seemed like it might never end.

So for the juicy part, got the boat all ready to go this morning so I could have enough time to make an actual sail of the trip. Then just as I was pulling up the anchor, MY HEART SUNK INTO MY STOMACH, at the end of the anchor chain instead of my beloved 35LB Delta anchor there was a huge iron rod tied onto my anchor chain. Instantly I knew what happened. I recently read an article about an anchorage in the Galapagos where one morning all the sailboats pulled up their anchors to leave the harbor and surprise, ALL of the stern anchors were gone and the anchor chain was instead tied to large rocks. They good ol’ switch-er-oo. SO, first thing I did was drop the chain back down so that I wouldn’t drift ashore. Then I set out a second anchor in the dinghy to hold me while I sorted out the mess. I re-hoisted my iron-rod anchor back up and when I saw how well it was tied onto the chain I just knew for sure my anchor had been stolen. So I managed to untie it while hanging over the side of the dinghy (this actually took a while) and then I went to haul in the rest of the chain as I debated weather or not to even report the theft and if I could replace the anchor on short notice. No big deal though since I had four anchors, 3 of them oversized. BUT when I finally got to the end of the chain, my anchor was still there!! I couldn’t believe it. So the new theory is that the chain must have some how tied itself to the iron post on the bottom, probably every time the tide changed it managed to get another wrap until it was a knot! Well I was very happy to have my anchor but running too late to sail to the Cay where I planned to stop on my way to Georgetown Exumas, but I had to get there or I would miss my weather window and be stuck in Nassau for several more days. So it was a long motor-sail close hauled the whole way. The good news is that I was able to make the required 5kts to arrive before dark without running the motor hard, with full sail up and the windvane steering the whole way.
I finally arrived here in Highborne Cay, well before dark around 5PM and it was a good thing as it was a very narrow cut, I would even call it tricky even though the guide book calls it ‘straight foward’. The bottom didnt look to good for holding and I wasnt going to go diving on my anchor in 15′ of water and a strong current so I just dinghied out the second anchor I had out from earlier to make sure I would stay put through the night. Whipped up a batch of rice threw in a can of cream of chicken soup, some canned chicken and dinner was served up with cheap beer. At least motoring here got the batteries charged up enough to run the Engel for cold beer… Mmmm… Beer… Well thats it for now I took a quick dip and rinsed off and I’m in my bunk ready to make an early departure for a 30 some hour sail to Georgetown Tomorrow. Hopefully no more Drama!

Sunday March 16th. 8PM, Exuma Sound Bahamas. I once described the trip across the gulf stream as “One of those days that make you wonder why you started sailing. Well today started out as the opposite. Left the anchorage at 8AM everything going very smooth. Then a wonderful sail all day with full sail up gliding along at 3.5kts, the perfect speed to make Georgetown by tomorrow morning if I pull an all-nighter. Around 4PM the winds died to almost nothing so I set the spinnaker hoping to avoid running the motor but the wind died and it was no use, no wind is no wind! So motored for the last four hours and now have the motor turned way down to avoid arriving to early (before dawn) and in hopes that the wind might pick up enough to sail some time tonight. I have a zillion alarms set so I could probably go to bed and just wake up there, GPS beeps if I go off course, depth sounder alarms if I go too shallow, Radar beeps if anyone gets within 5 miles of me, what could go wrong :-). Well Ill probably keep a watch all night anyway since I’m only a few miles offshore and I slept last night and can even sleep tomorrow during the day. There is a front heading my way so the wind could kick WAY up but Im not sure if thats going to happen late tonight or tomorrow after I’m already in port. I’ll let you know how it went tomorrow, as for now, just motoring along in a dead calm at 3kts. I’ll hit the spot so everyone knows where I am. Goodnight.

Location as of 8:00 AM Eastern 4/13/08

Got here ok after my 11 day solo passage.  Only have a minute to write and I couldn´t possibly tell all write now so I´ll write more very soon, including all of the crazy details from Storms, and calms, to a close call with a freighter, to catching sea monsters, almost loosing my finger, sleepless day and nights then days of rest and reading, approaching and Panama and anchoring engineless, customs telling me I had to go back to Bahamas for Zarpe and much more!  i pretty much got it all!!  But I´m here in Panama and OK  And I´ll update very soon by email or check my website sailingsalsa.com.

Wanted to let everyone – anyone know that I am STUCK here for almsot 6 weeks and will likely not transit until May 18th or so.  That leaves lots of time to explore Panama and cruise the islands and reefs on the coast.  So if anyone has any serious interest email me asap and I´ll log on soon, would be nice to have some company, someone to fetch me my beers at least 😉 .  Looks like RT from WAS to Panama is around $500, but I didnt look hard.

Love all! -Kirk

Location 1:00 AM Eastern 4/3/08 (arrived Panama and waiting to go through canal).

Location Panama approx 3:30 PM Easter 4/2/08

Location as of 7:30 AM Eastern 4/1/08