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11 March 2001 Departure, Los Perikanos, Panama

 

Klargøring til transit, Panamakanalen

Making ready for transit, the Panama Canal

 



I didn't sleep through the night so when the sun rose everything was ready for departure. At 7 a.m. I sailed towards the marina. I had written a letter for Nat and wanted to deliver it(/hand it over) to Nat and see her one last time before the trip.
On my way to the marina I sailed close to(/by) Bill's boat and woke him up with my compressed air horn. A little "shaken" he quickly got up and made some coffee. He is waiting for his(/a) girl friend and we'll e seeing each other on the Galapagos Islands, I hope.
No one was on board. I made the boat fast(/moored) to(/at) Beacon and put(/laid) it on her bed. I sailed over to Willy and Anni's boat to tell them so long(/see you later). After that I went to Buggi and Carol's boat and had a sip(/cup) of coffee. I'm not going to see them anymore, since they're going (up) to the East coast. Afterwards I sailed to the bridge to wait for Nat.

Here I met David. He told me that Nat was out running and soon after she returned. She had been out to see me, but my boat wasn't there. She figured(/expected) that I would come by to say goodbye so she set a new record(/personal best) getting back and was happy when she saw little Trojka moored at the bridge. We drank some tea and talked for about an hour. After that I departed. Apparently there are no winds(/is no wind) out here. Nat had listened in(/to) the net that(/in the) morning, but now I wanted to go(/depart) and so wanted David. There's no guarantee when there's any wind. Often that's not a bad thing as long as you're clear of land.

I went by engine for a couple of hours until getting a breeze then I dismounted the engine and got the wind steering to do my steering. It's incredible how little wind I need to go 3-4 knots. And my windpilot(/wind steering) wants(/would) do the steering all (the way) down to 1½ knots.
Clear of land I saw two whales arriving at the surface. They surely are (very, edit) big.

The sailing turned out to be much better than I had feared and after some hours I was back into he rhytm again. But still there was only a little(/insignificant) wind. Wen I woke up he nex day, there wasn't any wind whatsoever and I drifted around the whole day.

I had a line out and got many rises, but every time I lost them. I was going about 4 knots so I rolled in the foresail and trimmed (the sail, edit?) so the speed came(/was) down to 1½ knots and soon afterwards I got a rise, and this time it didn't fall off.
I pulled a 6-7 kilogram octopus(/cuddlefish) aboard. It's the first squid I have caught and(/so) I didn't know how I should(/ought to) kill it. But don't hit its head with a club, it makes a terrible mess with blood, ink and tentacles all over the place. Actually it didn't really die before I cut through it with a knife. I cut off all its legs and threw the rest overboard. I poured lots of oil into a pot(/casserole), cut all the legs into small pieces and cooked/roasted them (in there). I cut a couple of onions and garlic ino small bits and threw them in, a can of mushroom also along with a couple of handful fusilli and it tasted heavenly.

To Page 66

From Esbjerg, Denmark to Tahiti aboard a Junker 22