Location: Gulf of Panama, 3Nm East of Isla de Taboguilla
Weather: Northerly force 4 (sailing Weather)

Quote of the Day: A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step!


Well here we are at last, at sea, to everybody’s relief. This morning Sam introduced me to the Panamanian custom procedures as we faced the officials with our scruffy bits of paper and they made us run backwards and forwards between various offices and officials. All went OK and all we had left to do was some shopping and clear immigration (not quite so easy as it sounds) 45 minutes after starting out on our quest to find the immigration office at the marina, which isn’t huge, and we were in the office, then more running between offices and we were finished. A quick call to my wife Fiona, and we were off. When I was a nipper I went to see Gipsy Moth IV with my Mum, Dad and Sister, Dad’s a great sailor and his enthusiast talk about boats obviously has a lot to answer for, I stood as a small boy looking at GMIV in awe wishing I could sail her, little did I know then that today I would get the chance. Whooppee!

Jon Curtis ( Mate)

Hey guys, today we finally left the comforts of the marina and set off to sea! This morning there was lots of prep to do so myself, Simon and Pete got to work, we took the sails out of the bags and got our no 2 jib, stay and Storm sails ready for the high seas (although I think I need to work on learning the technical sailing terms- who knows what the aft lazerette on the port bow is straight off!?). We set off around 5 o clock tonight and after around 15 minutes of sailing we found out the speed-o-meter wasn’t working (on Gipsy Moth Never!) so Super Skipper Sam summoned me to clean the log which measures the type of water passing the hull. So off I went with great enthusiasm only to find that I had been well and truly stitched up by el capitano! As I unscrewed the log, water came flowing into the boat at great speed and pressure making klutz here (as I am now known) thought that she’d started the sinking of the boat ( wouldn’t be like me!) I plugged the hole straight away and turned round to find Mr Sam laughing away because he knew it was going to happen! (Cheers dude- I was drenched and the blood pressure went through the roof!). We’ve been sailing for around 2 hours now and my 2 partners in crime are both suffering from sea sickness, Ive just finished my first watch duty and learned to steer the boat. Steering is the part I hate the most and have no confidence with it but I think I did well and felt more relaxed with it. Wooo (well I didn’t go in circles anyway). Time to log off as it very rocky in the galley! Looking forward to the rest of the night and seeing how long it will be before my sea sickness kicks in!
Night guys!
Laura The Klutz xx


Well do I lie to you and tell you how beautiful she sails, or do you want the truth? She rolls like a pig, draws fly open at the precise moment you wobble passed them,(I bet Chichester didn’t have as much duck tape as us!) and all the blocks and halyards have so much friction on them you need to be Popeye to be able to heave the lines! I quote Chichester “I felt I needed both a monkey and an elephant for supplementary crew- the monkey to tackle things when gipsy moth was healed over at 35 degrees or more and an elephant to take the helm when it got out of control”.
As predicted most crew members went quiet after about 20/30 min, then the appetite was lost followed by some shark feeding (being sick). Spirits are high with Jon and myself, as for the crew………there asleep! Well most of them, we have a very strict policy onboard if it’s your shift, seasick or not you have a job to do!
We pondered out of flamenco marina @18:00 with No 2 headsail poled out and full main, within 10 minutes we had peeled to the runner this is the largest of the foresails to try and maximise the most of the wind we have, only to be joined by a pod of bottle nose dolphins.

Skipper Sam Connelly

The rest of the Ellen MacArthur Trust crew are a little green tonight but by tomorrow that will probably be me and they will all be fine.
Time to do battle with the computer now, whilst rolling from 35 degrees one way to 35 degrees the other. Now, the elephant is asleep, where was that monkey………..”Blackbeard!”

Jon