Panama Inbound Day 1

Hi everyone,
At noon today we were at 14 31N 072 12W steering 300M, sailing under 2 reefs and 2 furls at 5.5 knots.  The wind was 18G23 from the ENE.  Our noon to noon distance over the ground was 141nm.  Distance to go was 524nm.  Past the half-way point so now inbound!

Riding the swells & the weed

Conditions have remained good.  Wind has remained steady at 18-20G25 and between ESE and ENE.  We're now in good W current of about 1 knot, hence the good day's run over the ground.  Scattered small cumulus by night and broken small cumulus by day.  We had a few spots of very light rain from the clouds last night.

We had an additional crew member overnight.  A smallish (~25cm long) bird took a ride with us, perched on the dodger.  Made quite a mess but he was quite an attractive fellow (perhaps a small shearwater) and clearly exhausted.  He departed at dawn, at which point we deployed a bucket and sponge to remove most of the mess.  Hope he enjoyed his free ride.

We also had a few flying fish appear on deck.  Nic managed to eject one before it perished.  We saw quite a few yesterday but very few have landed-on (crashed-into) the boat.  The weed continues to be a nuisance but it's patchy.

We know of two other boats enroute to Panama.  One, sv Rosita, we met in the Canaries.  They're a 45 footer and departed Guadeloupe on the same day as us, so should be far ahead by now.  The other, OCC sv White Malkin, is shadowing the Mini Globe round-the-world race which starts from Antigua tomorrow.  White Malkin's owner/skipper and I have a mutual friend at Fremantle Sailing Club.  He's almost within VHF range today and we're hoping to talk with him.

Also just arrived in Panama is Australian sv Let's Go who we first met in Richards Bay, South Africa in 2015.  Our paths haven't crossed since St Helena in the South Atlantic in 2016 so it'll be good to see them again.

Trust all's well where you are.