David's Take on the Panama-Ecuador Run

Hi everyone- We made it to Ecuador safely after 6+ days of bashing into the wind and current. It was a long hard trip, so much different than sailing down wind with the swells behind you, letting the boat surf down the waves smoothly instead of blasting into each one and then falling down the backside only to plow into the next one at the bottom of the swell. But Sidewinder was amazing: she holds a course all by herself (if the sails are trimmed properly) and put up with all we handed her. The only thing that broke during the whole time was the adjustment for the wind generator loosened up and it started vibrating big time, so I locked the blades down and that was the end of that problem!! It doesn't give us that much juice if the winds are under 15 knts., and since most of the wind we saw was between 10 and 20 we didn't really miss it.

The trip wore us both down with the watch schedule, and I am so proud of Suzi for being able to produce the meals she did, considering the conditions. Just trying to make coffee in the morning was like doing so while riding a cutting horse in a corral during branding. But we are here, and Sidewinder gets lifted out of the water today so we can check her bottom and do what has to be done. We know she has some blisters but aren't sure how many and how bad. It may mean some major work but we have the time if needed since we don't leave for the states until Nov. 17th.

Speaking of which, both of us are looking forward to seeing family and friends again; it's the only bummer about this cruising life, not being able to drop what we're doing and drive over to someone's house to say HI. Hell, most of the time we can't even give them a call or even an email without a little hassle. But that will change soon, and we plan on taking advantage of having two months to make those visits and calls, so don't be surprised if you find us knocking on your front door with backpacks in hand. But don't worry too much about it, after a year living on a boat we don't need much, believe me!!! That's all for now and I'll try to do this again soon.  Love to all of you --- David (& Suzi)