Panama to Jamaica Passage Summary

Hi everyone,

We arrived in Port Antonio, Jamaica yesterday at 1430 after a six day passage from Linton Bay, Panama.  We were lucky to find a good weather window within days of fixing our engine mounts.

Eastbound in light airs

The passage was in three phases.  In the first we were eastbound, hard on the wind on port tack.  This took us to within 50nm of Cartagena when we tacked.  In the second we were northbound, hard on the wind on starboard tack.  This took us through two areas of strong westerly current.  In the third we continued northbound with eased sheets, on a close/beam reach.

The plots below show our track and graphs of overall data and speed.  The speed graph clearly shows the variation between speed over the ground and boat speed due to currents.

Here are the usual plots..

Track

Arrival Track

Graphs

Speed

Here are the vital statistics...

• Distances/Speeds
• Route Distance = 564nm (direct)
• Log Distance = 807nm
• Track Distance = 749nm
• Duration = 6 days 6 hours (150 hours)
• Average boat speed = 5.4kt
• Average ground speed = 5.0kt
• Average day's run = 129nm (through the water)
• Best day's run = 137nm (5.7 kt)
• Minimum boat speed = 4 kt
• Maximum boat speed = 7 kt
• Weather
• Minimum wind speed = 4kt
• Average wind speed = 8kt
• Maximum wind speed = 12kt (gusts to 18kt)
• Apparent wind angle range = 40 to 120
• Seas up to 1m
• Swell up to 1.5m
• Mostly sunny with a few small cumulus.
• Engine
• Total = 2 hours
• Failures
• None, but
• we discovered the heater in/outlet  'storm cap' doesn't keep out green water
• Stars
• The boat!
• WindPilot vane gear
• SailnSea SailingGen hydro generator
• Starlink for accessing GRIB files and email
• Icom IC-7300 SSB for 12 hourly position reporting net with friends
• the cook!

We were very lucky with the weather.  Below is one of the GFS wind GRIB files from later in the passage.  Note how the wind 'bends' around the Colombian capes down into the bay towards Panama.  Once clear of Colombia we had nice easterlies, but were then fighting westerly currents.  The currents turned a nice reach into more close-hauled beating to avoid being swept west.

An alternative route would be to head north past San Andreas and Providencia, then eastward across the north side of Jamaica.  Our weather didn't suit this strategy since it was very light in the west at the time. 

We did our usual '3 on 3 off' watch system.  We were surprised how rapidly we settled into the watches after two months in a marina.  Beating east into an ENE swell wasn't much fun, even in moderate conditions.  But Zen Again absolutely loved it.  She spears through any steep chop with white water back to the mast (at least).  Once in a while she slams on exit from a back-less wave but generally her pitching is smooth.

After four days living on a 20 degree heel it was certainly nice to ease sheets.  I suspect we'd have left many heavy larger boats in our wake while on the wind.  It's interesting our daily runs weren't very different from our downwind sailing.  I think that's due to our keeping the boat powered-up upwind, vice being conservative downwind.  We certainly carried far more sail than we usually do downwind.  Much of this passage was under full sail which is very unusual for us.

Eastbound Sunset

Arrival into Port Antonio was easy with a red and white banded lighthouse conspic at the entrance. Within the harbour buoys mark the channel.  Once in West Harbour the seas were flat.  The docks in the marina are fixed height with concrete walkways and substantial vertical wooden boards alongside.

Approaching Port Antonio

In channel to Port Antonio's West Harbour

Clearing in to Jamaica was straight-forward.  All the officials came to the boat after the marina advised them of our arrival.  The Quarantine officer came first and when satisfied he instructed us to lower our Q flag.  The Customs and Immigration officials visited to complete the formalities.  All friendly and free.

Donna the Marina Manager has been very helpful. By the end of the afternoon we were cleared-in, had identified local restaurants and how to fill a propane tank, and had stocked with local Red Stripe beer and Blue Mountains coffee.  The marina is quite small and has a nice relaxed atmosphere.  And it's a little cooler and less humid here than Panama.

Looking forward to exploring Jamaica!