From Puerto Rico we left on our voyage of 850 miles to San Blas.
During the first two days at sea the weather deteriorated quickly, there were squalls with lots of rain and 25 to 30 knot winds. I was too sick to take any pictures.

On the third day the seas became simply huge. The wind speed was 40-60 knots with square waves, the size of small high rise buildings, looming vertically behind our stern, they were steep and breaking almost over us!
These horrendous conditions lasted for most of the rest of the journey.
Miss Tippy was about to be challenged once again.

After surfing at 17.3 knots and being engulfed by some breaking waves that filled up our central cockpit, we decided to lock ourselves in the cabin and trust that Miss Tippy would carry us safely along under autohelm, with only a tiny headsail to stabilise us.
We rode out the storm hanging on and enjoying the roller coaster ride inside.

As we rocked and rolled along Miss Tippy was amazing and carried us safely in the worst sea conditions we have seen in 22 years of sailing together. Outside we were frequently thrown off our feet!

The children were so safe inside they had some school lessons, read books and watched movies.
We locked them down below for 3 days. One wave would have taken one of them deep into the ferocious sea in a moment, without a hope of ever finding them.

Throughout the journey we felt as though we were inside a washing machine, however down below Miss Tippy remained dry and warm with not one drop of water entering our sanctuary.

Every time we ventured outside our eyelids were turned inside out by the wind. The storm rose to it’s height off the coast of Columbia. We later found out that Columbians have named this notoriously rough coastline the Northern Cape Horn!

I had my birthday on the voyage and woke up with seasickness which lasted the whole morning.

I was soon cheered up by my lovely family with lots of cuddles.

Lovely home made birthday cards.

Suprise presents!

The best present was that we were all well and healthy and able to continue sailing after Brian’s accident at sea and the conditions of the last few days.Time for some Rum!

That night a bird came to visit, the weather had improved and we were getting close to land.

Finally after 5 days and nights the sea became calm just 50 miles from our destination San Blas known locally as KUNA YALA

We had sailed out of the relentless Caribbean sea into into the beautiful Kuna Yala islands, just off the coast of Panama.

We are anchored off the gorgeous island of Porvenier.

Here the homes are made of bamboo and palm leaves .

The islanders are remote from the outside world and live within a strict set of rules and customs.
This is going to be an extraordinary experience!
We take a day to rest and recover from the voyage before exploring the islands.

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