Panama to Ecuador - Day 4

9AM Position Report

What a difference a day makes.
After some pleasant sailing yesterday afternoon, we started to have a little of everything.
Lots of shipping traffic as we were apparently crossing a major route from South America to Panama.
We encountered a series of squalls and winds in the 20 knot range throughout the night and still with us this morning. The combination of the slightly favorable current and the strong south wind have combined to give us some spectacularly rough seas. Big waves at short intervals which is making forward progress very difficult.
We are currently tacking towards the Ecuadorian coast, mostly because we cannot keep any direct south heading any more against these winds and waves. The shore is still over 50 miles away but does have a couple of possible anchorages where we could take refuge if we feel we can't handle the conditions any more.
At the current rate, we may not be able to make our anticipated Thursday arrival at Bahia.
Now we have to start thinking about some sail changes - nothing we have tried has worked very well except to motor-sail with the double-reefed mainsail, but this is using up a lot of diesel.

{GMST}02|28|N|080|11|W|To Ecuador - Day 4|To Ecuador - Day 4{GEND}