Why do weather men never get the forecast right?
If we listened to the Caribbean weather forecaster Chris Parker, we should be sailing along with 18 knot winds. Of course we are not.
I never complain about the wind speeds. Wind is good, as long as it is in a good direction. It is the sea state (how rough the seas are) that can ‘make or break’ a passage. Unfortunately we were plagued by squally weather through the night with wind speeds tipping over 30 knots. These squalls would come and go with their gusts leaving the seas all churned up.
The silly humans do not have any wind instruments. They say it is just another expensive item to go wrong. They say that ‘if the boat is going too fast they reef’. Or ‘if the boat is too heeled over they reef’. Simple really. Traveling with other vessels with wind instruments has helped them guess the wind speed. Their guess is 20-25 knots today. A little stronger than the prediction and 2-3m seas to match. Luckily the period (distance between each wave) is quite long so as long as they slow the boat it rides over the waves rather than pounding into them.
With little reprieve from the wind and waves for the past two days the humans have gotten into the habit of heaving to (stopping the boat) at dawn and dusk for a short bit. This gives me a little time to have a sniff about and find a nice place to ‘do my business’. It is a small compromise considering all the nice things I do for them. We play a little fetch and tug-a-war in the cockpit, but mostly I hog the sea berth while they try to take a nap.
We are 146 nautical miles north west of Porvenir in the San Blas Islands. We are just entering the deep Clark Basin of the Caribbean Sea. We hope to make it into the area by tomorrow daylight. If we get slowed by the weather we will heave to until daylight. Officials in Panama do not like to work on Sundays, so we will not be able to check into the country right away. Our plans are to anchor off the Lemon Cays, next door, and check in on Monday.
But I am sure there will be time for an update tomorrow morning to keep you informed.
We are also on the SSB radio, to the nets we listed before, updating fellow cruisers on our progress.
Now Chris Parker says the winds are meant to ease a bit more tomorrow. I guess we will see. But you know how dependable weather forecasts are.
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