Hi George,

Diesel Duck is motor sailing along the northern coast of Columbia toward Colon, Panama. Currently, we have 19 kt wind coming over our starboard quarter. The main is up and the new furling jib is furled out to about 80%. The duck is doing between 6.9 kt and 7.5 kt over the ground. The engine runs with 2400 RPM and is producing 40 hp. All fuel tanks were filled completely of 3 ton diesel in Venezuela. The water tanks are full as well. The freezer (9 cubic foot) is bursting full and the fridge has no more room to fit anything. All food lockers are filled with goodies, including some cans of shit weather soups. Nine cases of Polar beer are stored safely away and so are numerous bottles of rum and wines. With all these provisions, the duck is burning just a hair over 4 liter diesel an hour.
We will be cruising the San Blas islands for a while before locking through the Panama canal. The movie with the Shards (Distant Shores) turned out wonderfully and was shown on the Canadian Learning Channel on Feb. 22, 23 and 24. Very good pictures with the duck under sails plus interior shots. It will be an excellent DVD. We have a pre-copy from the Shards, but promised to keep it private for now. When the DVD is out, we will buy a pile and so should you. Serious customers will buy the DVD. It shows a wonderful boat.
Anyway, we have an exciting time.

Best Regards,
Marlene and Benno