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Waiting for our pilot… We are currently sitting on a mooring near the Gatun locks. We transited the first three locks of the Panama Canal yesterday afternoon. All went very smoothly. We were rafted alongside a boat named Swan Song, whose crew we knew from our time in Shelter Bay. They had arrived at about the same time that we did after a rough passage along the coast of Venezuela, and are heading to the Whitsunday Islands in Australia. We will raft alongside them again this afternoon as we step down a couple of more locks to the Pacific Ocean. Our lock transit is scheduled for this afternoon, with an ending time of 1556, but our pilot was supposed to arrive at 0730 this morning, so I am already anticipating that we will be going through the locks later than planned. When we are in the Miraflores locks there is a webcam where we can be seen live. I don’t have the web address, but I am sure that a quick Google search would find it. I will try to update again when I know what time we are going through for sure. At least this is a nice place to have to wait. We are on a beautiful lake surrounded by tropical rainforest. The sun is out and the birds and ship traffic provide something interesting to watch.

Starlight arrived at Shelter Bay Marina at 10:30 AM local time. Because it is Sunday we won’t be able to complete entry formalities until tomorrow, so we will just remain on the boat until then. That will give us a chance to clean things up a bit…

Underway update from S/V Starlight– We are now about one hundred miles from our intended landfall at Shelter Bay Marina on the Caribbean side of the Panama Canal. We should be in sometime tomorrow morning. The trip across from the Bahamas has been as expected–mostly a beam reach across 20-25 knot trade winds. I thought the boat would be a little faster, but the autopilot struggled with the seas if boat speed was over 7 knots. This boat has very little directional stability, so the seas really slew it around a lot. The seas are smoother today, so the autopilot is having an easier time now. Looking forward to port and clean laundry.

Underway update from S/V Starlight– We are currently in the Windward Passage between Cuba and Hispaniola, sailing south at about 6 knots, with the wind thankfully from astern. We checked out of Matthew Town yesterday and got underway at about 2300 last night, after the wind shifted from SE to E. It was a good sailing breeze of a solid 25 knots when we left, so we made excellent time on a beam reach under only a triple-reefed main and a third of the genoa. Our closest point of approach to the Cuban coast kept us conservatively out of their territorial waters. We expect to arrive in Panama on Friday or Saturday. The trade winds are strong right now, so we should have a fast passage. The sun is shining and the breeze is fair. We have small seas thanks to the protection of Hispaniola. Life right now is as comfortable as it gets while at sea on a small boat. Nobody even got seasick last night. Maybe everyone is getting used to this sailing thing…

We are in Matthewtown on Grand Inagua waiting for Lydia to turn 12. Her birthday request was to not be out at sea for her birthday. Depending on the weather, we could leave for Panama as early as Sunday.

Since it was on the way, we stopped for this afternoon at Rum Cay for lunch and a swim. It was one of my favorite swim spots so far, not for beautiful coral or anything like that, but because there were at least 4 stingrays that stayed around the boat, a few other smaller fish, a barracuda that hung around at a good distance for watching us swim, a shark, and plenty of sand dollars for the kids. I enjoyed seeing some life in the water, as most of the coral that we have seen so far on the trip has been dead and covered with algae. We’ll be getting underway again in just a short while…

Our new sail track came through with no problems thanks to Doe Boi, who shepherded our part through customs with no hiccups. We installed it on Saturday, filled up with water today, and are now underway again. The weather is perfect for sailing right now. We are enjoying winds of about 12 knots, with some higher gusts. Even though the wind is from right ahead it is still very pleasant out here. We might entertain the idea of another stop along the way somewhere if conditions are right for it. I haven’t had really had time for things like snorkeling yet on this trip, so I would like to fix that situation. I am also sure that the family would probably like a break along the way. We will see how far we get. I’ve heard the snorkeling on Rum Cay is excellent….

We are anchored near Lee Stocking Harbor to check on the availability of a new Strong Track for the mast. Hopefully we can have one sent here, but it may have to be sent ahead to Panama. At least this is a nice place to divert to. What was it that I have heard said about cruising? Isn’t it just repairing the boat in different places?

The family’s first sail on Starlight was from Nassau to big Major’s Spot in the Exumas. Everyone was excited as we finished last-minute preparations and fueled up just before leaving. The boat was over-full with fresh fruit and vegetables, and we had gallons of drinking water that could find no better home than the space under the saloon table. A big bag of ripe papayas rolled around near the nav table, but we were ready to go. The sun was shining, and the wind was blowing at 10 knots—perfect conditions for the family’s first sail. Too bad the wind was coming directly from where we wanted to go, but no matter. We got off to an inauspicious start when the engine began to sputter and die soon after leaving the dock. We had had this problem a few times on the way to Nassau from Ponce Inlet. There is some contamination in the fuel tank in the form of pieces of old rubber sealant or similar that are big enough to clog the fuel line or pickup. Usually, they clog the fuel line just after the shutoff valve on the tank, so it is relatively easy to remove them. I told Idoia that we needed to sail, even though we were still in the busy part of the harbor. She wasn’t thrilled about the prospect, but the wind was good, so we put the sails up and began tacking eastward. I went to work on the engine, only to soon discover that the fuel line just after the valve was clean. That meant the blockage was inside the tank, which is more problematic. I first tried poking the blockage out with a wire, but it was not enough. I tried blowing the blockage backward, but couldn’t get enough pressure with my lungs. I needed more pressure and volume. The dinghy pump turned out to be the solution. With the right adapter to shove the end of the hose into the valve on the fuel tank, I was finally able to blow the blockage out. I was showered with success as fuel gushed happily out of the clear line and valve. A nice, smelly mess to begin the trip, but nothing some paper towels couldn’t fix… The engine was now working, but we were sailing well, so we continued to tack eastward across the banks towards Ship Cut, which would let us out into Exuma Sound. We reached the Cut at about 0030 the next morning. The wind had come up enough for us to take two reefs in the mainsail, yet still sail at 6-7 knots. There was a slight chop in the Sound—about 2 feet—just enough to make sleep in the forward cabin uncomfortable. All of the family were seasick to varying degrees, but nobody was vomiting. The kids were heavily dosed with Meclazine, and mom and dad a little less. The medicine was doing the trick and nobody seemed too unhappy with the sailing conditions. I tacked out of the cut, which was deep and wide, although some depths were as much as ten feet less than charted on our Navionics charts. I never saw less than 14 feet, but when the depth went from 25 to 15 in just a few second, it reminded me that there were some big rocks down there and I didn’t want to find one with less than 6 feet over it. A couple of long tacks out in Exuma sound brought us to the cut just north of Staniel Cay. The cut was deep and easy to navigate, but finding our way through to the anchorage behind Big Major’s Spot was a little nerve-wracking. We bumped across one 6-foot spot and found good holding in 10 feet behind the Cay. The kids went to visit the pigs on the beach, but soon tired of all the feces in the water and on the beach, so we went to find a beach with “less poop”. A short dinghy ride brought us to a deserted beach that we all could enjoy peacefully. Idoia and I went out snorkeling, and the kids and mom splashed in the shallows. The snorkeling here is not great—most of the coral is dead and algae-covered, but we still saw some fish. Out near a drop-off, there was some live coral and better fish. Back at the boat, we had dinner of rice, onion, cabbage, and carrot, and turned in for a full night’s sleep. Now, we’re just getting ready to head south and east. Next planned stop—Matthew Town.