Record sail from Curaçao to Panama
After a week of diving in Curaçao, we are already on our way again. Our destination is the San Blas Islands in Panama. To avoid the thunderstorms and squalls on the Colombian coast, we decide to take a far out northern route, which is roughly 50 nm longer. However, there is supposed to be more current there to push us along – at least that's the theory. We are glad that Romana is still on board to help us with the passage, as Peter unfortunately fell ill shortly before departure.
Our fast crossing from Curaçao to Panama in figures:
Distance: 716 nm, of which under sail: 712 nm
Engine hours: 1 hour 42 minutes
Time: 4 days 17 hours 07 minutes
Average speed: 6.3 knots
Noon-to-noon run record: 178 nm
Wildlife: Peter is attacked by a flying fish on the toilet
Fishing: Buntifax catches a bigeye tuna
Curaçao - Panama day 1
Sat Apr 19 2025 21:38:00 GMT-0400 (Bolivia Time)
At 3:10 p.m., we weigh anchor in Spanish Water. In this case, it's just Romana and me (Ines). Peter has been ill since early morning and is sleeping in the bow cabin. When el Capitan isn't feeling well, las Capitanas have to take over. Romana guides us safely out of the lagoon, and then we set sail. The wind is blowing at 15 knots and we are sailing comfortably downwind towards the northwest. Our destination is the San Blas Islands in Panama. After a beautiful sunset, we eat our pre-cooked curry. Today, only the two of us will do the night shifts so that Peter can recover.
Distance to Panama: 660 nm
Food: Chicken curry with rice
Curaçao - Panama day 2
Sun Apr 20 2025 16:40:00 GMT-0400 (Bolivia Time)
Night of terror: The sailing conditions are perfect for us: 15-20 knots, 1.5-metre waves and a 1-2 knot current propel us north-west. Shortly before midnight, Ines goes to the bathroom to brush her teeth. When she opens the door again, she sees a figure standing in the companionway and jumps in fright. But it's only Peter, who has just woken up. He takes over a short half-hour shift before Romana gets up. Almost exactly halfway through Romana's shift, when her eyes are closed for a few seconds, she suddenly feels something brush against her hand. Completely frightened and panicked, it turns out to be only Ines, who needed to use the toilet and said hello. Early in the morning, Peter goes to the toilet when something hits him roughly on the head. Something is wriggling and jumping around in the dark on the floor. After the initial shock, he realises that it is a stray flying fish. Startled, he jumps out of the bathroom, the fish wriggling on the floor. Ines rescues the misguided torpedo and we are even able to return it alive to the water.
Peter is feeling much better during the day. He no longer has a fever, his sore throat is better and he no longer has the sleep pattern of a lazy house cat. This allows Ines and Romana to catch up on some sleep. We decide to take the slightly longer route, where a stronger and more consistent current is predicted.
Unchanged: Buntifax primarily hunts seaweed instead of fish! Therefore, there is no fresh fish for our Easter snack. Instead, we eat a colourful mix of egg salad, tzatziki, vegan Greek salad (we didn't have any feta) and a few Noggy chocolate eggs (thanks, Mum!).
Happy Easter, everyone! Hopefully, the Easter Bunny found his way to you too.
Daily run: 124 nm (in 21 hours) Distance to Panama: 570 nm
Food: Quesadillas with guacamole, egg salad, tzatziki, vegan Greek salad and Noggy chocolate eggs
Curaçao - Panama day 3
Mon Apr 21 2025 12:06:00 GMT-0400 (Bolivia Time)
Let's go!
As predicted, the waves increase to 2-2.5 metres in the evening. Everything is relaxed until around 10:30 p.m., when Romana is involuntarily turned into a starfish when a wave hits us hard from the side and floods the cabin through the open hatch. After a brief night of damage control, the rest of the night is relatively calm. Ines briefly radios a freighter that is sailing on a somewhat unclear course during Romana's shift, but in the end it passes just behind us. In the morning, there is an Easter egg hunt; Romana has hidden Milka eggs for us. Time is running out, but we manage to find and destroy the eggs before they melt. We hoist the Genoa and sail butterfly style (one sail on each side). It feels like we're sailing on eggs, but the daily run at noon tells a completely different story: with 178 miles in 24 hours, we've set a new record, and what a record! That's 29 miles more than the previous record of 149 nm, or about 25% more. That gives us an average speed of 7.4 knots. Thanks to the wind (15-25 knots) and current (2-3 knots)! Shortly after our daily run celebration, the can on our fishing line strikes. Buntifax has actually caught a fish this time (since February)! Peter pulls in the line with difficulty – it must be big! We see a brief flash of yellow and think it's a mahi mahi. We pull it up and see that it's an approx. 1 m long yellowfin tuna (at least that's what we think at first, but it later turns out to be a bigeye tuna). With a very good division of labour, it is quartered and in the cooler in just under an hour! The food for the next few days is entirely to Peter's liking: fish, with fish and fish (we simply sell it as the Wagyu of the sea – then he'll definitely enjoy eating it). To celebrate the three occasions (Etmal, Buntifax's catch and the halfway point of the current crossing), we drink a J.M. Terroir Volcanique from Martinique. Afterwards, we set our clocks to Panama time, which is one hour back. The difference to Austria is now 7 hours. At sunset, the time has finally come – we've reached the halfway point. Half the distance is behind us. However, the second half will take us longer, as less wind and less current are forecast.
Etmal: 178 nm (fastest noon-to-noon run ever) Distance to Panama: 394 nm
Food: Egg salad, pitas with tzatziki, cucumber and tomatoes, and chicken curry
Curaçao- Panama day 4
Tue Apr 22 2025 17:24:00 GMT-0400 (Bolivia Time)
The night was fairly calm, even though the waves were quite high at 2.5 metres. The most noteworthy thing was the beautiful sea of stars above us. It was only in the morning that we noticed the attacks from the starboard side. A total of 17 large flying fish (approx. 10 cm long) are lying on the deck. We now have an abundance of fish on board. During the day, the waves continue to subside, although there are still some that completely turn our stern around. In the afternoon, we jibe, which involves some work: rolling up the genoa, dismantling the spinnaker pole, removing the preventer (a line that prevents the mainsail from flapping to the other side) from the mainsail, jibing (sailing with the stern through the wind and taking the mainsail to the other side), attaching the preventer, setting up the spinnaker pole on the other side, and unfurling the headsail on that side again. So we are sailing butterfly again, only with the sails on the other side, and our course is southward again. Otherwise, we mostly read and sleep. The weather is still cloudy in the morning, but clears up during the day and becomes a cloudless blue sky.
Etmal: 172 nm (second fastest noon-to-noon run) Distance to Panama: 225 nm
Food: Tuna tortillas, bigeye tuna tartare with avocado cream
Curaçao - Panama day 5
Wed Apr 23 2025 18:04:00 GMT-0400 (Bolivia Time)
After sunset, in a small break in the clouds, the Milky Way could be admired again at night. After the wind changed direction slightly, we headed further south than planned.
During the day, Peter spent the whole day reading his book on his e-reader. Ines and Romana spent their day playing games – first dice poker and then ‘The Game’. In between, we dismantled our spinnaker pole, jibed and then hoisted the light wind sail (gennaker) as the wind had died down. Unfortunately, it didn't go quite as planned. After we had finally untangled all the lines, a low-friction ring was lost in the infinite depths of the ocean and, to top it all off, a pulley broke due to a sudden wave. After that, however, we made good progress, so we were able to continue our culinary tuna days.
Overnight, we stowed the gennaker again and continued sailing with the genoa. Tomorrow we will finally arrive in San Blas – hopefully the wind will take us perfectly to our anchorage after sunrise!
Etmal: 167 nm Distance to Panama: 99 nm
Food: Quesadillas, tuna steak with plantains and rice
Curaçao - Panama day 6
Thu Apr 24 2025 11:30:00 GMT-0400 (Bolivia Time)
Shortly after sunrise, we arrive in Porvenir, the capital of the San Blas Islands. We drop anchor and see dolphins swimming between our boat and the shore. Before we even have time to inflate the dinghy, local Kuna people come over – they want to sell us all sorts of things. We purchase a hand-sewn flag of the region – it reminds us of a Spanish flag with a swastika turned to the left. We later read that it is supposed to symbolise an octopus that created the world, but also is the outdated San Blas flag. We sail to the small island, where there is nothing but palm trees and sand, except for a small guesthouse, the cultural centre and an airstrip. It is incredibly kitschy. The island with the actual capital, Porvenir, is right next to it and is covered with small wooden huts. After a quick and easy clearance process, we weigh anchor and head east again to one of the countless San Blas Islands. There we make tuna sushi from our catch and enjoy the beautiful water for swimming. We are looking forward to the coming days in this island paradise!
