… and nice sunrise. Sailing is pretty comfortable. We are sailing with main and genoa at a light wind of 10 – 11 KN, AWA of 120 deg with around 4 KN. Autopilot in windvane mode.

Wind forecast of ECMWF and SPIRE propose to pass the Galapagos on the eastern side. At least that’s what both models predict since days.

I’m just sitting at the helm station and enjoying the nice breeze and the and the peaceful atmosphere.

Will now have my breakfast. The others are sleeping.

At 1500 we left the fuel station and headed out into the Pacific.

Since we continued with our preparation work this morning, we were pretty busy.

Since I got yesterday the ZARPE document in Panama City, we went at 0800 to immigration in San Carlos, a 10 min along the beach. The office, a lady, was friendly and proceed as very well in terms of time she needed. At the end, we had the needed stamp in passport and no any other paper was needed.

Back in the marina we saw that SY Katinka left the marina already. Ralf called a while later on our channel 69 and told me that they were not allowed to wait at the fuel station for us. Th is they were a few hours ahead of us.

We hope that we get a bit more wind thus speed to catch up. I will send them an Iridium mail to tell them our and ask them for their position. If needed we also can call them via the Iridium satellite phone.

Just before sunset, a group of whales came to MaRe and moved on. We could not recognize the type of whales but bib estimated their size with around 10m. A very interesting change to see these peaceful animals.

Now at 2230, Tjasa has done almost here watch. A windshift alarm forced her to wake me up. The wind turned a bit more to E.

The wind is a bit down but we still move on pretty well.

230320 . Farewells are sailors’ faith. Today or was Carlos, a taxi driver, who was introduced to me by a fellow sailor on Shelter Bay Marina in August last year. He not only drove me, my OBM, and friends around, but also knows where in Panama what can be obtained. To him I bid farewell today, also in the name of my OBM.

Now I’m in the bus from Panama to Coronado. It’s a bus I used before. The same lady driver and the same assistant. Assistants organize getting on and off of the bus and collect the fare. He recognized from my previous travel.

In Coronado I have to get off to see a doctor and collect my backpack from s small repair. I simply love this backpack which I bought 2 years before the end of the last century in Hawaii.

When I’m finally be back at MaRe we will mount the sailbag. Pierre and his colleague from WikusMarine will be around to give us a hand.

Wikus himself came yesterday, on Sunday, to do some remaining work. I’m simply grateful for this attitude; I’ll miss him.

Since yesterday the crew is completed; Tjasa arrived last night after a long trip from Slovenia.

Provisioning is done. All is on board. The last things we bought yesterday are on board. We will stow them later today.

I’m currently, together with Gaby & Ralf on my way to Panama City to make outbounce clearance.

The wind forecast for next 10 days is good. Thus we have a good chance to reach the equator by then. You will see here how we progress.

As I’m forced to hear in the bus again the stupid music videos, I’m happy that this will reach it’s end with the return bus today. I’m tired to be forced to hear this music with the content of jealousy and love, where women are displayed as accessories or disposable items for men, ready for male consumption every moment.

I’ll enjoy the peace of the wide ocean again.

Tomorrow we plan to cut off the lines for possibly the longest non-stop sail of our looong voyage from Europe to Japan and back.

Got again a lot of preparation work done yesterday.

But 2 things were steps back.
First the charge controllers for 2 groups of solar panels did not arrive in Slovenia in time for being hand carried by the 3rd crew member who is currently on the way to Panama. Reason for the delay were the strikes at German airports.
Second we got finally the rods for the sailbag. They were too short. Thus another extension at the other end.

I found an MPPT solar charger which can handle both groups of solar panels. Will get it bought and delivered by Carlos a trusted taxi driver who became also a friend.

The rods will be extended and expect that I get them back on Monday. Tuesday morning is still fine.

It seems that Murphy’s law is a bit

Wind looks good for the first leg just beyond the Galapagos Islands, which we will not visit like all other boats we know here in the marina. They became simply a sailors’ rip-off with regulations, which are only made to make money under the topic of nature preservation but there is no nature preservation.

Towards the late afternoon we stopped working. We bought 4 egg container for 72 eggs. I decided for such containers because to keep the cardboard boxes off of MaRe. Cardboard always can contain eggs of bugs or even small bugs we can’t see.

Thereafter we just had a pizza because we were bloody hungry.

Among others, we filled yesterday the 4 jerrycans with diesel and stored it in the center storage room at the bow.
This gives us 80 l of additional fuel or am increase of 20 % of the normal fuel tank.

Completed yesterday the oil & filter change at both engines and the diesel engine of the the genset.

Wind develops currently good for a departure of 21 – 22 Mar.

Today I tried to get a simple built-in amp meter for max 10 A DC current. I could have been an analog or digital meter.

It took at least 2 h until we found a shop which had a 15 A amp meter.

While we drove from shop to shop I got again the impression that Panama is made and kept alive for a small group of rich people. The majority remains poor in education and financially.

6 years of compulsory school shows the low level of general knowledge people have. In many shops selling electrical/electronic components people didn’t know what an amp meter is.

In the shop which i called the “final attempt” I got a 15 A amp meter. From the point of view of design it must have been produced lasted in the 70s. It looked new and good, so I hope it works.

Another thought went through my mind when I was in the shops and all staff was sitting behind a counter and behind a PC. Only a selection of products were displayed behind glass. The main part was somewhere behind walls. This gives me the impression that people don’t trust each other and/or robberies must happen often.

Unfortunately my Spanish is not good enough to talk with a local person about my impressions.

I only remember a Panamanian who mentioned that Panama is ruled by a handful of rich families.

This is a pity because I like people in Panama a lot. I appreciate the friendly greetings even if people don’t know me. These greetings make my time in Panama very comfortable same I will miss these friendly greetings.

Yesterday we mounted the genoa and greased the tell-tales that they don’t stick so easily in the stiched seams of the sail.

Then filled 60 l of diesel from jerrycans into MaRe’s diesel tank to renew the diesel in the jerrycans. I also added one additional jerrycan. This will give us 80 l diesel in jerrycans. A good safety margin.

Oil and filter of the genset diesel engine is already changed. Engines follow.

Weather forecast is daily checked. It seems that with a departure date of 21 – 22 Mar we will get a good weather window for the first part to the equator.

Dennis, the crew member who is already on board, is getting familiar with MaRe pretty well.

Dennis the first crew member is already on board, Tjasa the second member arrives in Panama on the 19.Mar.

Provisioning is done for the biggest part. Now we are working on adjustments. It’s quite a challenging tasks to buy food for 3 people and such a long time. We store food not only for the long sail to Gambier Islands but also for the time until Papete in Tahiti. Before it seems to be difficult to do provisioning except for local vegetables and fruits.

Vegetables and fruits will be brought on board just prior to departure.