878 nautical mil

7 days (169 hours)

125 nautical mil per day

5.2 knots average speed

Sail: Genaker and 114 hours motor sailing

Just off the coast of Panama - just 35 nautical mil - is archipelago "Las Perlas". These are the islands of the shooting of most "Survivor" programs are made. This is similar to the Nordic "Expedition Robinson."

Previously, pearl farming and pearl gathering an important industry. Now there are almost no activity on the islands, and most of them are completely uninhabited. This is a very beautiful place, and a very pleasant contrast to the filthy and criminal Panama City.

We would have been here long, but this is unfortunately only a stop on the way to Glapagos. But it is time for the celebration of the birthday.

Leaving Las Perlas, we have tough 850 nautical mil ahead. The first day is really away, with good wind that fills genakeren perfect. The second day the wind drops significantly, and we get a growing sense of why the Pacific is named. As the day progresses and the following day is even more vindløs, it is quite obvious. This is so far a calm sea. No waves and hardly a frizz on the water.

There is a Blet between eastern and western wind direction wind directions. It's called the Inter Tropical Gonvergence Zone (ITCZ). This belt is approx. the 5 ° degrees, and extends right now from the equator to 5 ° North. We are in the middle of this and the usual recommendation is to wait until the ITCZ withdraw northwards. The problem is that when we would not have any idea when we could leave Panama.

We are prepared for this, and have brought us diesel so we should be able to clear almost all the way for the machine.

"Karsten" helps us forecast. It turns out that to report weather for this area, no one cares about. Here it is simply not enough traffic to use the resources on the weather. But Karsten, lives in Panama City, helps Scandinavian sailors with the weather. He is originally Danish, and do this out of sheer hobby. Karsten has worked in shipping in Panama for over 40 years and is retired now. Fantastic with these people!

What makes this stretch of difficult weather wise is that we are right in the ITCZ - the zone between northern and southern trade wind belt = vacuum!