22 November 2022 – We were interested in getting into the landlocked Puerto Don Juan before a heavy northerly blow came on so we weighed anchor at 0600 and departed the beautiful anchorage at Isla Mejia in Puerto Refugio. The winds were strong from the NNW and the seas were running.

We tried the newly installed and rigged Monitor windvane steering (which Jimena promptly christened Zoila, as in “Soy la que maneja” or “I am the one that drives”) but I did not have the boat properly balanced with the sails so that came to naught.

I mistakenly left the full main up in the howling wind as I did not want to try reefing down wind. I did put on a preventer which meant that when the sail got back winded, although the boom did not slam across the boat, the mainsail did and broke several of the slugs which run up and down in the mast track. This is bad as I have no spares (another grave mistake). I also found we could reef downwind so there was no reason for this to have occurred. Oh well. Now we are faced with sailing with a reef in the main always until we can get it fixed.

We got into Don Juan and anchored around 1500. No one else was in the anchorage except for S/V Gypsy, an amazing difference from when we passed through here last.

We settled in for several days to wait out the blow. I felt much improved though not quite 100%. And I am mad with myself for breaking the mainsail.