Our 2009-11 rally has been meandering happily across the Caribbean as yachts made their own way towards the Panama Canal. It has not all been plain sailing. Some rough weather caused a bit of havoc as they swept from the ABC islands towards the San Blas archipelago. Wind steering equipment suffered damage in the rough, steep seas and strong squalls. As I write, we are awaiting the arrival of Scott Free, who has fitted a new autohelm in San Blas, and Island Kea, who broke her mast in Antigua; She is about to instigate a mad dash direct to Cristobal Port at Colon.

Miss Tippy has been the last one to arrive at Porvenir to date. She was delayed when Brian suffered a nasty bash on the head whilst on the foredeck. Sheila and the kids took him back to Puerto Rica to have his cut dressed and his head checked over. He had to take some rest, but is now so well that they assisted to get Serengeti – a boat just about to join the rally which has suffered steering failure – into the anchorage at Porvenir.

Boot and I paid a brief visit to Porvenir – what an experience! The little plane lands on a tiny dishevelled airstrip, and the check in is done by the hotel staff on the grass, as you can see in the photo. We introduced ourselves to the Customs and Immigration officers who occupy a little building by the landing stage, next to the thatched airport lounge – where they serve coffee and fried plantain cakes. Then on the hotel dining terrace we met some of the newcomers to the rally and some of the originals too. Our little party soon swamped the little hotel, who quickly realised that pay-day had arrived. What lovely people the local Kuna Indians are – I can thoroughly recommend a stay at the Porvenir Hotel, despite its lack of hot water, electricity points, Internet, plush furniture and vegetables. The peace of the island, which consists of a runway, from end to end, with a few buildings either side, and you can walk its perimeter in about 15 minutes, is lovely – but there are even more idyllic islands nearby.

The crews quickly set off again from Porvenir to explore the rest of the island chain. We all meet up at Portobelo next Saturday (6th February) to be briefed on the coming canal transit, to welcome the new boats and to have a jolly good reunion party. Transits should start very soon afterwards. You can watch them live on the Panama Canal web cams at either Miraflores Locks or Gatun Locks . The Gatun locks are likely to be climbed in the dark evening time (we are 5 hours behind Greenwich Mean Time here), and the Miraflores ones at around 3 pm local the next day. The actual dates of transit are not yet confirmed; we will publish them here as soon as we can. Expect yachts to go through in groups of 6, with a big ship at the same time.