Melissa’s Soapbox

As many of you might know, Andy and I sailed from Ft. Lauderdale, Florida to Bocas del Toro, Panama with John Kretschmer Sailing.  Compliments of Chris Roark (one of our esteemed northbound crew members), this is the GPS track of our route.

The southbound trek was a total of nine days and 18 hours at sea.  The winds were not at all as expected, which made for a longer-, slower- and bumpier-than-expected trip (John had predicted about eight days).  It was sort of like four trips in one:
Days 1-3: wet, labor-intensive sailing largely into the wind with pretty uncomfortable sea conditions and unfavorable Gulf Stream currents.
Days 4-6: little to no wind from the wrong direction — very slow, very hot, very dry.
Days 7-9: trailing winds, very fast speeds, best part of the trip.
Day 10: some rain, heaving to (stopping the boat) in very large, very uncomfortable seas in order to make for a daytime arrival.  Very hard to sleep, but not as necessary since arriving on land was so incredibly exciting.

The northbound route again lacked the much anticipated easterly winds frequently apparent in the Caribbean.  On day 3, Quetzal sailed into the harbor at Isla Providencia, Colombia for a day of sight-seeing.  After our departure, Quetzal enjoyed several days of good sailing and even blew out the headsail late one evening.  Turning the corner at the west end of Cuba, we expected to pick up the Gulf Stream infamous for 3 knots of northbound push.  Hugging the Florida Keys, the urban glow of Miami was impressive as we announced our arrival at Ft. Lauderdale at about 7:00 a.m. on May 8, 2006.

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