“WoW” is the remark most often logged on ships when ‘Waiting on Weather’. Of course, in their case it usually means that the weather is pretty bad. In our case, its the complete opposite. We’re currently languishing on the Pacific side of the canal waiting for a forecast with the promise of wind!

Slowly, more and more boats are coming through the canal from Shelter Bay - boats we know and many we don’t. However, few are departing for Galapagos and beyond. Light, non-existent or southerly winds are plaguing the forecasts and none of us are keen to motor for extended periods. In fact it doesn’t look like we’d see wind until we get down as far as 10 South - almost 300 miles south of Galapagos. Any gathering of yachts turns to the talk of wind and the lack of it at present.

This in turn presents us with a dilemma. We want to go to Easter Island, but the weather window for their is rapidly closing. By mid-april, we’d probably not want to be that far south as its heading to the southern winter with much stronger and more variable weather. So the longer we sit out here in Panama, the less chance we have of making Easter Island comfortably. Right now, the long range forecasts for that area are pretty nice - steady E or SE winds. That can soon change.

We’ll continue with the provisioning, and technical preparation. We have an eye on a potential leave date of next Saturday and we want to do some sight-seeing before. Keeping busy onboard and ashore isn’t difficult - but some nice trade winds would be appreciated!