2026 Pacific cruise

• Friday, January 2, 2026

  Panamarina - Shelter Bay

  Finally the rain stopped in the early hours. We woke up with the sun, prepared the boat for a proper shakedown after the yard time as the waves were crashing to the reef outside hard. So, motor on, and away! After the reef pass, we were fully in the Atlantic swell again. We slowly pushed through untill we had enough room to start sailing. We hoisted the main in 1st reef and rolled out a sliver of genoa and turned to our rolly downwind sail towards Shelter Bay.

  

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• Thursday, January 8, 2026

  Shelter Bay - Lake Gatun

  The few days of preparation at the marina went by quickly. Then came the awaited message: “Hello transit day January 8”.

  

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• Friday, January 9, 2026

  Lake Gatun - Las Brisas

  The alarm rang at 6am. Expected time for advisor 07:15. So coffee and hearty breakfast were consumed and to everyones slight suprice the advisor came on board exactly when promised.

  

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• Sunday, January 25, 2026

  Video postcard: Lille Ø in Panama Canal

  Spoken Finnish with English subtitles.

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• Tuesday, January 27, 2026

  Las Brisas - Catalinia

  While waiting for various logistics to happen, we decided to go and spend a few days on the outer islands of Panama City. Taboga had been recommended, and so we hoisted the anchor and headed there.

  

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• Friday, January 30, 2026

  Catalinia - La Playita

  Looking at the weather forecast, we decided that today is the nicest day to sail back. So we hoisted the anchor and set main in first reef and dug out the staysail.

  

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• Wednesday, February 25, 2026

  La Playita - Catalinia

  Having spent almost four weeks again anchored off Panama City, it was time to go. Our original intention was mid-February, but fixing a leaking muffler and a broken watermaker took a while. But better to deal with those here than in the middle of the ocean!

  

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• Saturday, February 28, 2026

  Video postcard: Lille Ø and Pacific crossing preparations

  Spoken Finnish with English subtitles.

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• Saturday, February 28, 2026

  Gulf of Panama, 16NM S of Catalinia

  In the afternoon as the wind picked up, we hoisted the anchor. It was time to leave the joys of being close to land behind. We are as ready as we can be. What awaits us promises to be our longest passage. An idea so big that it is hard to fit it to my head. Somehow one corner of it disappears over the horizon no matter how you look at it. Now all we can do is embrace the journey and enjoy the moment.

  

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• Sunday, March 1, 2026

  Pacific Ocean, 170NM SW of Catalinia

  At night we were able to hitch a ride with a powerful current, and so we barreled south at speeds previously unknown on Lille Ø. 9-10kn meant that Panama was soon left behind.

  

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• Monday, March 2, 2026

  Pacific Ocean, 306NM SW of Catalinia

  The night brought some light winds and we made good progress aided by the current. At dawn watch change we reefed the mainsail to 2nd reef in preparation for the expected 30kn winds. They came as promised and we enjoyed the speed immensely. A dampener to the feeling came with a debree field of trash, twigs and sizeable logs. Sharp lookout was required in a desperate attempt to avoid hitting the biggest ones. Only once I missed a big one, but the impact was luckily only a soft thud.

  

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• Tuesday, March 3, 2026

  Pacific Ocean, 450NM SSW of Catalinia

  In addition to our primary offshore communications system, Starlink, it is also important to utilize the secondary systems frequently. Now that I have a full amateur radio license, we’re able to use the HF radio on board. And so we have now enrolled to the Pacific Seafarers Net (14300kHz at 3:00Z). This is a voice-based radio net that tracks boats during their ocean passages.

  

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• Wednesday, March 4, 2026

  Pacific Ocean, 515NM SSW of Catalinia

  As the night grew older, the wind started to dwindle. The mainsail came down as going down wind it was just making noise and not really helping with speed. We continued with the double headsails. Annoyingly the blue extra sheet is not long enough to run the full genoa when not poled out and Bergie not wanting to wake me up opted to run it reefed. As mid day arrived, the wind had turned even more requiring a new sail plan. The staysail came down, so did the blue rope. Genoa got stretched out and the mainsail was up in full too.

  

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