Today was a relatively short day of only 34 nm in eight hours. We tried to give the engine a vacation by sailing as much as possible but the winds were mostly light so we just kept the RPMs low while motoring. John played around with the oil pressure sensor and he's convinced that it's bad, but we still need to address the issue of fuel leaking into the oil.
Oh, and we don't feel so guilty now about dragging Sarana away from their Darien trip. After we left this morning they called and told us their desperately dying batteries were giving the alternator fits and they couldn't run anything like navigation lights. They needed to wait until after sunrise to follow us. Their new batteries are waiting for them in Panama City so they're just as anxious as we are to get their problem solved. John keeps joking that between us we might have one good cruising boat.
The nice thing about traveling slowly on calm seas is the number of cool things you're able to see, like: 3-4 big carp-like fish hanging out under a floating log; a flying fish that kept flying until it was out of sight; big sea birds roosting on big logs and little birds on little logs; the flash of blue and gold as a dorado swam underwater past the boat; a brilliant emerald green dragonfly taking a breather on the lifelines; a sea tern hitching a ride on our solar panel for an hour (yes, nature girl got to clean the poop up afterwards); dolphins riding our bow wake; a whale's back before it disappears from sight; and finally, absolutely amazingly, a dorado flashing blue and silver in mid-air while in hot pursuit of a flying fish out in front of it. That is definitely one of the most memorable sights we've seen in over four years of cruising.
Linda and John
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