In the past week we have made good progress towards Panama. Thanks to the two refuelling stops in Mexico and Costa Rica respectively where we got more than 1600 L in total we can now even make good speed along our route if the winds are not great. Both stops have been short as to not lose any time. Dock, immigration, refuelling and off we go again. This was handled very efficiently in both countries so that we could continue our journey after a few hours in both places.

On the way we get to see a few different things. Dolphins make a regular appearance with a big school visiting every couple of days. They usually stay for a moment and seem to enjoy playing in our bow wave. Every so often they jump out of the water, sometimes landing all the way on their back. But even though they come by often, we still get excited when some spots the first signs. We go up to the guard wire and follow closely their joyful play.

On the other hand we have seen sea turtles, whales and yesterday even Manta Rays, also jumping out of the water. Some sightings are rather far away but some are right next to our boat. This allows us to observe our visitors up close. Although we are actually the visitors in their homes.

In addition we have seen a lot of squalls with lightning. On the evening after we left Costa Rica the night sky was lit by lightning strikes for hours. Some were clear and others where hidden behind the clouds so we could only see the diffuse light. But all of them were far enough away so that we could enjoy the show without having to worry too much.

In between we had some excitement nobody had asked for. We saw some small buoys on our starboard side. To be fair they were only old canisters. Just before passing them we also saw some on the other side. Seconds later came the call to put the prop to neutral. Between those buoys was a line with fishing hooks attached to it. And we had driven right into it. We got the line on deck and decided to cut it. We then brought the ends back either side of the boat and tied them back together. It was close but we could stop in due time and continue our journey with no damage. Only the line has one more knot where we cut an opening for ourselves. But I think that is an acceptable loss.

Now it should only take us two more days to get to Panama. This gives us at least two days to prepare us and the boat for the next race. On 2nd June we will transit the canal and head straight for the start area. Two days aren’t a long time but at least we can get some of the cleaning and maintenance tasks out of the way as we motor along. And then it is only about a fortnight before we get into our next stopover in Washington DC.