Bahamas to Panama | Part 1 | Sailing with Six | S2 E48

We are a family of six who call the ocean our home. We feel incredibly blessed to be doing this life together as a young family. Embracing the ups and downs of what is a life at sea. This is our floating home, Happy Days. And you are invited to follow along as we share this incredible adventure. Have a laugh and be inspired to pursue a life less ordinary. Click the subscribe button to keep up to date as we see where this journey takes us. In the last episode we sailed back through the shallow Hog Cay Cut and spent some time in Georgetown with new friends. In this episode it's time to say goodbye and leave the beautiful Bahamas. We refuel and check out in Great Inagua then set sail towards Panama through the Windward Passage. Let's do this! Let's roll. It's exciting. There's always like butterflies for me is how I would explain it. There's comfort when you know a place and you know people. But there's adventure in going to where you don't know. This time we're going to a place we know that we like and we know what's there and stuff. It's true. Yeah, yeah. Tim's like, get me the fuckers! This is what going east in the Caribbean looks like when the trade winds are blowing. Main sail up, one engine on. And yeah, you just punch into it. Let's hope we don't have to do it too much. Today should just be just over 20 miles. Or 25 miles I should say. Sort of positioning ourselves to get around the top of Long Island and then we can take easterly tomorrow to the south. So try and make it comfortable, get there before dark. Go for a swim. That'd be nice. We'll go from there. And if there's still wind, kite. Yeah. That was a big thing to do that if we get there early enough. Yeah, for sure. And so will I. Amazing! I feel a little bit dizzy because the kids set a challenge that we had to run our age that many laps around the boat. After 39 laps around the boat I'm feeling a little bit dizzy. So I've decided to come up here with a fizzy water and watch the moon for a minute and chill out until I feel not so queasy. While the other guys make some pizza. Yep, they're starting the pizza. I'll go down and help them soon. We're in a bit of a roadstead anchorage, so it's a wee bit wobbly, but it's stunning. Look, like it's just sandy goodness. It's incredible. Look at that. So we've got pizza happening on board at the moment. Definitely helping us go south. Pip's doing, oh you look lovely. Nice. And Archie's on dishes today. We are planning to transit the canal again and head to the Pacific. Yes. Archie has had a bit of tooth pain. We weren't sure what's going on there, but we tried to find a dentist in Georgetown and we were told that it's going to be two weeks before there's a dentist visiting the island. So he's been in excruciating pain waking up at night and everything and we've just discovered he's got an infection. We got some antibiotics and I've been messaging with a dentist friend and she said, look, antibiotics and pain relief should last. Get him to a dentist when you can. So that's going to be our first stop when we get to Panama. It'll be like check into the country and then go find a dentist. But he's managing okay. The antibiotics are starting to work. The infection's slowly subsiding. But poor wee guy. He's been up and down. You're on an up at the moment. At the moment, yeah. Are you going to be able to eat pizza or do I need to blend it? I'm too hungry. Figure it out? Yeah. He ate the most pancakes. So we're going... Did you? Yeah. A bit too windy for you? Yeah. Ideal sailing conditions? Yeah. Only ideal sailing conditions for Pippi, please. How would you describe today's conditions? Very lumpy and a... Yeah. Sporty. Sporty, yes. That's right. It's, yeah, tighter than we thought it would be. So we've had a couple of reefs in since before sunup. We had thought we might have got about 90 miles in for the day. Forecast was sort of 13, 14 knots and we've had more like... 15 to 17. Yeah, 15 to 20. And we've had it at about 30 degrees, which is hot right now. So we're seeing 20 plus across the deck most of the time. So short period, a bit uncomfortable. So we're going to change our plan and we can't quite get the angle or the wind isn't allowing us to get to our initial destination. So we will go to plan B. And we should be there just after lunch. And we'll go from there. I'm from sporty conditions to lovely blue water and a wee bit of downwind sailing as we come into the anchorage. Passage planning? Yeah. We're just learning from friends that have just done the passage. Thank you, Bedouin. And trying to figure out what route we'll take. I think what we were planning would be similar to what they were planning, but we're just trying to educate ourselves around the currents because that's what they hit, which they weren't prepared for. And they also saw some pretty decent seas. So we're trying to mentally prepare ourselves for that, but believe that our forecast is lighter than what they left on. So that's where we're at. Hello. G'day, mate. Where are we off to? Well, we're going to a great number to check out the Bahamas and then to possibly Panama or Jamaica, either one. We'll see what happens with the forecast. Do you have anything else to tell me? We've been playing with Legos. I just played with some cars, watched a movie, and played with more Legos. Yeah, it's been one of those sort of days, huh? Where it's just keep yourself busy, find a comfy spot. We haven't had the best conditions, but we're almost sucking up these mediocre conditions so that we can get good conditions for the passage to Panama because it's a longer passage. There's more risk of bad conditions. We'll see how we go. These guys just got up. Hello. Good morning. We've been sailing very, very well since about 11.30 last night. We'll be there about 9.30, 10 o'clock so that we can check out of the country here, and then we'll carry on. We've got to have one last swim in the Bahamas, right? Yeah. We'll get there soon and check out Great Inagua before we leave the Bahamas. Yeah. Val's just brought us into Great Inagua. Dropped the anchor. We're going to get this main down. Teed up immigration. A lovely chap there. Just overnighted from Long Island. In true Bahamas form, we've got crystal clear water. We're going to tip some jerry jugs because we used a wee bit of diesel on the way here. I'd just like to go to sea full. Anyway, we've got to get this done. Dad's filling up the engine with the jerrys so then we can fill them up again. We've organized a bloke called Skinny. I think he's got a diesel truck. He only takes cash, and we've got a wee bit of cash left, so we'll put some more diesel on board to be sure, you know? Yep. Well, we're done. Here's the dinghy. This is as far as we got. I love the immigration officer. Alright, so 5 to 7 minute walk to the ACM to get some more cash for fuel. Yeah, that's a win. Well, let's hope it's got cash in it. Let's just say there was an extra fee we were unaware of, so our diesel cash reserves got diluted. And we didn't have the right departure cards or something we were supposed to have. And she didn't seem to worry too much about that. Anyway. It's cool. Just getting some fuel. How you top up here in Great Inagua with Skinny, the local diesel truck driver. There's happy days. Last little land job before we push off. Just walked into town. It's a public holiday, so there's not much open. There was a little lady and she had a fresh produce shop open, so we ducked in there to see what she had. Got some fairly sad looking capsicums and cabbage. She didn't have change for our $10, so she's like, what else do you want to take? So we took four limes. That was our change. But it's all part of it. We love it. What do you reckon? Yeah. It's fine. A few extra bits to get on the boat. Yeah. And then we're off. That's a wrap. Last swim. In the Bahamas and we're making a move. Sad to leave those beautiful colours. I'm sure we'll find more. Jobs that we intend to get done before we leave, but now we do while we're leaving. The cool thing about these outboards is you don't have to put earmuffs on them and flush them. There's this little bit that you can just attach a hose to and then it'll flush the outboard. So we're away flushing the outboard while underway. Because we're going to be five, six days at sea. Normally we don't ever flush it. That's because we use it every day, so the saltwater doesn't have the ability to kind of sit in there and corrode. That's our theory. From Uncle Steve, oyster farmer from North Island, New Zealand. He was like, oh, mate, when we were working the oyster barges, we never flushed the engines. We were using them every day. And I was like, huh, never thought about that. But if it's going to sit for five days, it's best to flush it, yeah. We just made, we've got 900 litres of water on board. Happy to, of fresh water. Happy to invest a wee bit. But we will go skinnier on our showers at sea because if I don't have to, or if we don't have to make water while at sea, that's just one less thing. And the lighter we get, the faster we go. Who's going to be the stinky ones? For this sort of passage, five or six days is not a problem. When we do longer ones, you've got to make water at sea. And I guess that's the mentality that we've got. Like this boat, we're still dialing in for longer passages. And we are looking at doing the Pacific crossing, which is Panama to French Polynesia in a couple of months. So we're really trying to get our mentality right and pretend that we're, that this passage is like a shakedown for that passage. So just dialing in all of our routines and at sea. And on that, there's two things. Two things. One is battery capacity. Not stoked on it. We have 800 amp hours of gels. And we've never plugged the bin because we're always on the move and we don't subscribe to marinas. I think our state of charge was out. That's like your percentage of charge when we were up north. And I think we didn't give them enough charge. And we've actually, I think it's calcified. That's not the right word. But we've ultimately taken the top off. Reduced their ability. Yeah, reduced their capacity. And so we're running a freezer on this boat, which we never used to. And anyway. So lithium is probably out there and a solar arch up here. And I think that'll take care of it. But at the moment, we'll have to run the generator or an engine every day, even when we're sailing, to keep up with our consumption. And I don't like that at all. Yeah. It takes away from sailing 100%. Yeah. Maybe down close to the equator where the days are longer, it'll work. On our old vessel, we had a prop that always spun and it created power through an alternator on the shaft. It was amazing. So at nighttime, you were neutral. Here, we don't have enough solar during the day. If the sun's out, to make up for the nighttime usage. That's our current challenge. And we learned that we need an anti-siphon brake on both of our engines. So at the moment, and you'll laugh, but I've closed both seacocks off and I've taped the exhaust. Yeah, show us. I have covered that because we were anticipating some following seas and we had an issue with our starboard engine and we couldn't quite dial in what it was. It didn't start like it normally always does. We got it started and the only thing I can come up with is a hydrolock. So that could be coming up through the intake, the raw water intake, past the impeller and that way or it could be coming through the exhaust. So we've shut the intakes, taped the exhaust. And yeah, that means that every time we run the engine, I've got to go under the seacock and tape the tape off. But when we get to Panama, anti-siphons them. They're like a hundred and something dollars each. It's something that we could install ourselves as well. Never had a problem with it until recently up the East Coast and now it's reared its head. Whenever we have a hard sail, like when we're banging, crashing and going fast, that's when it happens. But talking to the diesel mechanic, he said as they get older, they can be room-made, space-made in order to get into that. We're at about three and a bit thousand hours or probably closer to 4,000. So they're not old, but they're not new. So an anti-siphon break between exhaust elbow and engine is going on. It'll give us some peace of mind. A hundred percent. So those are the two things, battery capacity and anti-siphon for the engines. Oh, I just spotted Cuba. Off there in the distance. There it is. That's pretty cool. I didn't know if we were going to see it before it got dark, but there is the outline of Cuba as we come through the westward channel. Meanwhile, out this side would be Hispaniola, Haiti, but all I see is squalls. So I think I'll keep looking this way. Can you see it, Finn? Sure can. Yeah? How cool is that? We're sailing past Cuba. It's really high. It is quite high. Alrighty. So we sailed past the lights of Cuba earlier tonight, which was amazing. We've never set eyes on Cuba before. And we're doing well through the northwest passage. So we've got off our starboard we have Cuba and off our port we have Haiti. And we're heading to a waypoint just off the eastern point of Jamaica at the moment. We've got 12 to 14 knots true and we're doing 6.5 to 7 knots. So just easy, easy at the moment. And that's beautiful sailing. A little bit shifty. The wind seems to be sort of bending a wee bit. So you've got to keep on your game. So there's no accidental gybing. But we've just had bells up to give us a hand to reset the sails. Shona's having a good, well-deserved joy in the sail at the moment. It's time. It's been good, but it's time. Nice work, Pep. What are you up to? Downloading weather for the day. Yep. And it's at this point, just to almost date stamp where we are. Friends of ours on other boats have Elon Musk's white Starlink box. We do not. And we're in like two minds. Do we get it because it's better weather forecasting when at sea? But then we actually rarely embrace not being connected when we are at sea. So it's just a trade-off. For the moment, we're using the Iridium to download grids from a weather perspective, which is what we've always done. It's slow, like an old-school data dial-up scenario. But it's a bittersweet, I think, Starlink, from a sailing perspective. I'm resisting. Yeah. I'm resisting because I actually, genuinely don't think if we still had connectivity that we would actually be enjoying the experience. We would probably be checking our Instagram. We'd probably be trying to upload stuff. We wouldn't be fully engaged in what we're doing. In Legos. In Legos, yeah. And spending time doing things that we otherwise wouldn't. Like reading. Yeah, like reading. Picking up a book. That's unique. Bella's always encouraged me. More reading. And chess comes out. Yeah. And I was thinking this morning about Scrabble. If we were more intentional and integrated these things in our day-to-day, then it probably wouldn't be an issue. But when you've got connectivity to the rest of the world, it seems to take a back seat. What if we got it, excuse me, and put restrictions on it, only used for downloading weather? Do you reckon that'd work? Yes. You wouldn't want to download. You wouldn't be like, oh, can we watch a brand-new movie? Because all the movies on our hard drive we've seen several times. Oh, yeah, we would. Yeah, exactly. No, you wouldn't be like that. You might be, because you've got time to check them. I have to check my mail. So I would be all right. Yeah, I think Archie would cope okay. How do I turn the phone on? No, you're not that bad. I don't know how to turn the phone on. Yeah, you do. You don't know how to connect it. I think he's just learnt that. Don't just go with what feels right, my man. And therein lies the dilemma. I was just staring at this piece of wood. I need to fix it. Yes. It's like a stopper for one of these seats. That's one of those things that doesn't get addressed, because we're usually connected. It's the only reason it doesn't get fixed, because we're connected. The internet is stopping productivity. It's stopping you put a small piece of wood back on the bottom of the seat. Yeah. The weather is looking as it did before we left. That's always good. More downwind. So good, man. Hadn't ran downwind. It's been on the lighter side, but it's like 10 to 15 directly behind us, between 6 and 7, and that's kind of been fine on us. End of day two. This is the third night in a row. It's tradition, okay? It's got tradition, doesn't it? Well, on this passage certainly has, but I think there's a reason. Someone wants to make sure that she gets some wins on the rung. You're a little bit disappointed that last couple of nights dad's got it, huh? It's 4-0. Oh, no. It's such a good start. Come on. It must be your night tonight. I've made some pretty average moves. Don't take anything away from how you're playing. I'm playing. I have to think a little bit. The longer the passage goes, the more tired dad will get. Look at that, eh? Clear sky. I'm pretty sure those clouds are over Jamaica. That's the kind of general direction that Jamaica would be. Yeah. Otherwise, there's not much else happening out here. Just some beautiful downwind sailing. And a boat heading straight at our stern. Yeah. But he's not really. I can see him. What's happening down here? Finn is cooking up some dinner. Pip is whipping up a sourdough for tomorrow. Making a full meal of a car with eyes. Oh, right. A car with eyes. That's important. Yes. But as soon as dinner's ready, it'll be time to pack up the Legos and get eating. Nice work, team. Join us next time as we continue towards Bocas del Toro. We're enjoying a wonderful downwind sail, but unfortunately, at the same time, adding to our repair list. See you next time. No internet, no Iris. Got it sorted. We're going so far. It's like watching a fire, hey? It's mesmerizing.