I wake up to a very hungry crew.\u00a0 I slip on my pants to begin making breakfast.\u00a0 Stop for a second there \u2013 I said slip on.<\/i>\u00a0 I did not unbutton my pants to put them on, I just pulled them up and they slide right on! \u00a0I immediately think of that \u00a0Internet ad \u201cLose belly weight with one weird, old trick!\u201d\u00a0 And I suddenly realize what that one weird, old trick is: take a 3-month sailing voyage.\u00a0 Voila!<\/p>\n
I make breakfast (pancakes) in rolly conditions.\u00a0 The winds are light but we are perpendicular to a swell which makes us roll side to side.\u00a0 We take showers.\u00a0 We do more of the same as the day before.\u00a0 It looks like, weather permitting, we will be in Panama in a day and a half.<\/p>\n
Weather permitting\u2026<\/p>\n
All day the weather is overcast with intermittent showers.\u00a0 We close the portholes when it rains, open them up again moments afterwards to let a breeze through in the stifling heat.\u00a0 Close, open. Close, open.<\/p>\n
As we round \u201cPunta Mala\u201d (Bad Point) to come up into the Bay of Panama, we begin to encounter a very stiff counter-current.\u00a0 2 knots.\u00a0 That puts a huge dent in our progress. It\u2019s the difference between arriving the next day or adding another 24 hours on to the trip. \u00a0We have wind but it\u2019s at an unfavorable angle so we can\u2019t make progress to our waypoint.\u00a0 So close and yet so far!\u00a0 We decide to take one hour watches and both sleep in the cockpit.<\/p>\n
We are heeling again \u2013 so not my favorite thing to do.<\/p>\n
While on watch I look around. It\u2019s completely overcast but there is a full moon, which casts a dim light over all the clouds making them appear light gray.\u00a0 The sea is a darker shade of gray.\u00a0 I am surrounded on all sides by shades of gray, and not the kind from that best-selling book.\u00a0 I feel like I am in a really depressing snow globe.\u00a0 Merry Christmas, Panama!<\/p>\n
While on watch I begin to think about all the foods I miss.\u00a0 Fresh spinach.\u00a0 Good parmesean cheese. A really good bagel with whipped cream cheese topped with tomato, cucumber and avocado.\u00a0 Sharp cheddar.\u00a0 Lettuce.\u00a0 Strawberries.\u00a0\u00a0 My stomach rumbles.\u00a0 Or was that thunder?\u00a0 I turn my attention back to being on watch.<\/p>\n
The whole \u201cone hour on, one hour off\u201d thing quickly becomes difficult due to the rain coming into the cockpit.\u00a0 The wind keeps shifting, we still have a counter current and now the wind waves are picking up, making for an uncomfortable ride.\u00a0 Gap Wind Hell..<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I wake up to a very hungry crew.\u00a0 I slip on my pants to begin making breakfast.\u00a0 Stop for a second there \u2013 I said slip on.\u00a0 I did not unbutton my pants to put them on, I just pulled them up and they slide right on! \u00a0I immediately think of that \u00a0Internet ad \u201cLose […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sailing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=625"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":658,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625\/revisions\/658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/easethemain.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}