What my weather forecast showed about
the time they must have passed. These
grib files, in my opinion under read. 

It appears the rest of the rally is now in Panama, but they took a pasting along the way. Several bits of broken boats, reports of force 9 and really bad seas, "like blocks of flats" broaches knockdowns and the like. Not what I'd want to look forward too.

Hopefully the weather will have moderated by the time we get there. "There" is the coast of Columbia.

It has a repo, first time I went around there I remember Ornen doing 9 knots. 53 tons of blunt ended shirmp trawler does not do 9 knots. Or leastwise it shouldn't.

Steering was lashed on with string too I remember. Mind you I lashed it. When I tie something it usually stays tied.

I don't remember it being too bad last time. But I went back and did some research. I was surprised by the snow I could see. at the bottom it does mention "Jackie horribly sea sick, supposed to be light winds and we have 30kns" Hang on its supposed to be 35 knots now and if in reality its 20 knots more than that......

Lets hope. Nasty storms and huge waves with lots of new kit is either a good test or a bad idea not sure which. Good idea if it all works, bad if it doesn't.

I tend to use  http://www.grib.us to download my weather files its rather neat actually.