Well, here it is, 0400, Friday 19 April. I just came on shift. Since departing the San Blas Islands, Panama yesterday at 0500, we've traveled 153 nm, for an average of 6.65 kts. 1,003 nm left to go to Coral Gables/Ft Myers where we intend on clearing customs, unless we can clear in via CB Roam adjacent to the Dry Tortugas that is. San Blas to Florida, 1,156 miles should use about 500 gallons, give or take, depending on the current. We left San Blas with 1,085 gallons remaining, so a nice comfortable reserve!
The currents are really squirrelly, initially against us, and now slightly with us. We're headed pretty much straight toward the Cayman Islands. We'll make a decision 50 or 100 miles form the Caymans whether to stop or continue on to Yucatan Passage, around the West end of Cuba on the way to Florida. Overall, the current should give us a boost of between 0.25 to 1.8 kts. Wx has been pretty much as predicted, although the waves have been a little higher than the 4', 6 sec predicted, they have been for the most part off the starboard bow instead of off the starboard beam, which, although it adds a little fore and aft, reduces the lateral roll considerably. We do have both paravanes out though. The cats insisted on that.
An Evergreen container ship overtook us, traveling from the Panama Canal, headed up the East Coast, and changed course 3 times trying to hit is. Seriously, we were the stand on vessel, he was the give way, coming up on our port quarter, at 12.5kts. Originally predicted to pass behind us by 0.5nm, he changed course 4 deg to port in order to pass in front of us, than when he got abeam of us, he changed course 14 deg to starboard, and crossed our bow, close aboard at about 0.25nm. And it was that far only because I slowed down considerably to give us more room. It was daylight, our AIS is broadcasting, and we have radar reflectors. As soon as he crossed our bow, he turned back to port about 15 degrees . . . .
Had he maintained his original course, he would have passed astern of us.
Had he maintained his next course, he would have passed off our bow, with over a mile to spare, port to starboard . . . . . Boy, you'd think they'd require training and licenses to operate those things . . .
Anyway, fingers crossed, (do you have any idea how difficult it is to type with your fingers crossed?!?) Everything is running fine. Cats are ready to jump ship at the first opportunity . . .
Courage, a sailboat we left San Blas with was planning on doing the same thing we are, shooting up pretty much straight toward the Cayman Islands on a course of about 350, passing to he West of the Rancador Reef/shoals, then making the call whether to go in to the Caymans, or continue on to Florida, just as we are planning. Unfortunately, under sail, they are only able to come up into the wind to about 340 degrees . . . . That is putting them closer to Nicaragua than they'd like, so they ended up motoring a lot on a heading of 360, but they'll still pass to the West of Rancador, instead of to the East as they'd planned, and as we are doing.
We decided not to make water with the water maker. We've got about half tanks, but our largest tank (360 gallons) is in the bow and with us taking the waves off our stbd bow, I don't want any more weight up there than we have to, and adding another 1,800 lbs or so doesn't make any sense! Besides, we have enough to get us to Florida without making any anyway.
If I haven't said it recently, we absolutely LOVE our SeaWaterPro watermaker. Kudo's to Mike for selling and supporting a great product! We haven't used dock water since we left Port Orchard, WA! Two years since we put in the H2O maker now, 8,432 gallons made so far, up to Alaska, then down the West Coast, through the Panama Canal, and now crossing the Caribbean, we're down to a cost of about $0.56/gallon, including the two spare membranes we bought, and we've had all the fresh water we could possibly want. Washing machine loads, dishes, drinking water, fresh water washdown to clean the salt spray off the windows, fresh water flush of the dinghy engine, and best of all, fresh water wash offs, every time we came out of the salt water! Which was 8 - 10 times a day in the San Blas Islands! Sometimes it was because we went snorkeling, but mostly because we just went swimming to cool off!
I'll post another update when we decide whether to go into the Cayman Islands, or head on to the Yucatan Channel. Cheers
Now all of your couch surfers, get off you couch, or out of your chair, and take your boats out!
View attachment 154047
The west end of Cuba is notorious for crappy seas. Looks like you’re on he home stretch. 
