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 Crossing from Quepos Costa Rica to Ecuador
June 29th to July 5th, 2006 We left Costa Rica with a weather report that said we were good to go. There might be a few squalls, and seas were supposed to be calming, nothing too serious. We had to pass through the ITCZ…the inter-tropical convection zone. This is an area of low pressure that forms where the Northeast Trade Winds meet the Southeast Trade Winds near the earths equator. As these winds converge, moist air is forced upward. This causes water vapor to condense, or be squeezed out, resulting in heavy rain, lightening, and thunder. Once through this band, the weather should be calm. I think you can see where this is going. Our first day/night out was fine. The rest of the trip had absolutely no redeeming qualities. We were in squall after squall, the seas were steep, confused, close together, giving no rest for the weary, and putting Tide N Knots to the test. We sailed and motored. It seemed going slow was a more comfortable ride, but it just prolonged the grueling trip. I was sea sick the entire time. We had big plans for crossing the equator (mostly naughty), but we were happy to be able to hold down a breakfast of pancakes, and mimosas. We kept in radio contact with Mallard who was crossing with us, and also Vision, and Enterprise via the morning net. The trip was deemed “awful” even by well seasoned cruisers. (So we were not just being wimps). After seven long days we saw land. “Land Ho” never seemed so good. We arrived at Salinas Equidor, checked in with the official, and headed for bed.   Tide N Knots on the Hard
July 7th 2006 We are going home to see our kids, so we decided to have the boat hauled out of the water while we were gone. This would give us the opportunity to have some boat maintenance done, do some land travel, and have a “break” from boat life for a while. The crew at the Peurto Lucia Yacht Club were excellent. They were supervised by a Canadian cruiser, who developed “roots” in Ecuador. They handled the process of taking our boat out of the water fabulously. I did not have to do a thing, except stand by and take pictures. We got the boat all buttoned up, and headed for Guayaquil where we were to catch our flight to the states. | Central America 2006 | North America 2005-2006 | South America 2006 | | Return Home | Great Links | Contact Us | Pictures | The Crew | The Boat | logs | People We've Met | |
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