 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Links |
Us |
Crew |
Boat |
We've Met |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home |
Links |
Us |
Crew |
Boat |
We've Met |
|
|
 |
 |
|
 Isla De Coco
April 12, 2006- April 21, 2006 Day 1 We were so glad to be leaving Acapulco. We left with a final dose of frustration while filling up with fuel and water at the fuel dock. Boat traffic was a nightmare, we had to do the final paperwork cha-cha, water pressure at the fuel dock was zilch, and it was hot enough to bake potatoes. After we got underway, we had some wind and were sailing with all sails up, making anywhere from 3-7 knots. By about 11:00 pm the winds died down to nothing. We were bobbing like a cork in water. Our goal was to make a minimum of fifty miles per 24-hour period, so we were not ready to fire up the engine yet. By 03:00 we were doing a whopping ½ knot! It was a full moon, and I kept thinking of the movie “Dead Calm” while sitting there with only the sound of the water to keep me company. It was kind of eerie.  
Day 2 It was a hot sticky night, but the wind is picking up, and we both feel relatively rested today. Ken is practicing nude sailing, and I am not far behind him. We have seen lots of jumping fish, (whale? Marlin? Sailfish?), but have caught nothing yet. Day 3 It was another hot sticky day. We both took full blown showers today. I am not feeling so good. Aunt Myrtle arrived (the red flag, the rag, menses, the bitch, period.), you get it, accompanied by a headache, backache, and various other aches. As we entered the opening of the tehuantepec, the seas grew lumpy, with swells 6-12 feet, we saw clouds in the distance and were anticipating a possibility of thundershowers. We put every thing down below, and battened the hatches. I was starting to feel a little nervous and sea sick, and there was no turning back now. It was 20:00; we were starting the official night watches with me going first. We decided to motor for a while to see if we could settle the rough waves a bit more. It didn’t help. In fact, the waves were getting bigger. The night was long, lumpy, and rough. We are both getting more tired. 
Day 4 Today started out better. We put up the sails, and the ride smoothed out. Although we were tired, we were feeling better about the tehuantepec (or at least I was). The Mexican navy in an airplane buzzed us, and made radio contact. Ken talked with them and gave them our information. We are both wondering if they are going to send a boat this way to board us. Other than that, we were both relaxing, catching up on our reading, listening to music, smoking cigars, and watching the waves go by. 
Day 5 We changed the watch schedule last night with me on watch until 23:00 and Ken taking over for night. With the non-existent traffic, we felt like we could let our guard down a little. Ken set the egg timer to go off every half-hour, and would take a peek, and then go back to sleep. It is nice to get a little uninterrupted sleep, and finally feel rested. Unfortunately we are becalmed. Not a breath of wind to speak of. We motored for four hours to get back on track, and now we are back to bobbing like a cork. We had the largest pod of dolphins swimming with us. The water is so clear, and it is really amazing to watch them. There are tons of sea turtles, and flying fish. We took a dip in the ocean, did a few boat chores and are now just waiting for some wind. 
Day 6 We spent the entire night adrift, with no wind. This is what they call the doldrums. It is kind of beautiful in a way. The ocean is glassy, with gentle rolling swells. Giant sea turtles swim right up next to the boat; we also saw a purple crab. There was a school of yellow tail tuna swimming under our boat, but they were in no way interested in our lures. We have two new friends that have taken up residence on our bowsprit. They are frigate birds that we have named Heckle and Jeckle. We will let them stay as long as they don’t leave little plop-plops all over the deck. We are having problems with our water maker, and this is making us want to change our route, and go directly to Costa Rica, rather than Isla de Cocos. It would cut off about 350 miles of our trip, and we would also have services when we get there. This is the beauty of cruising. Nothing is in stone, and you go where the wind blows you, (or the motor takes you). We still would like to go to Cocos, but we will just have to do it a little different 
Day 7 We shut off the motor last night just before dusk, had a glass of wine, enjoyed the sunset, fired up the BBQ, and drifted for the night. The watches are much easier when you are not moving. There is nothing to hit, you just have to monitor the radar for any traffic that might hit you. In the morning, there was still no wind. We were about 686 miles from Puntarenas Costa Rica (our new destination). We topped off the diesel tanks, calculated how far we could go based on how much fuel we still had, and we were off and running. We are still trying to catch a fish. We had a bite yesterday, and the fish got away with our lure. Will keep trying today. At sunset, we again shut off the motor, had a glass of wine, and a cigar for Ken, and sat back to enjoy the sunset and dinner. It is so incredibly beautiful it is hard to describe. As we were sitting there, a humpback whale circled our boat, looking at us while we were looking at him. Unfortunately I was unable to get a good picture of him. He was not very cooperative at popping up where I thought he would. After dinner, Ken went to bed, and I fired up the motor to make some tracks during the night. 
Day 8 During Kens watch, the winds picked up enough to put up the sails. I woke up this morning to big fluffy clouds, which made a gorgeous sunrise, and will hopefully cool things down a bit. At this point we are somewhere off the coast of El Salvador. We are waiting to hear from some of our southbound friends to find out where they are, and maybe cut in before we get to Costa Rica. The rest of the day was uneventful, except it was stifling hot and sticky. We stopped at sunset, which has become our pattern, for our nightly cocktail, dinner, swim/shower. Right next to our boat we thought we saw whale, but as they surfaced we were able to identify them as Rissos dolphin. This type of dolphin has a stout body and a blunt head. It is larger than other dolphins we have seen, and also slower moving. The swells were getting larger, and we motored for the rest of the night. We seem to have settled in to a five-hour watch schedule with me taking the 20:00 to 01:00, and Ken on 01:00 to 06:00. Day 9 
Day 9 were on our way again. I think we have settled on going to Nicaragua, to a little bay just south east of Gulfo de Fonseca. At our current rate we should be there by tomorrow afternoon. Today we did have a bit of excitement. As we were motoring I noticed a line of turbulent water off of our port bow. We thought it might be a school of fish, so we decided to change course to go look. As we got closer, we could see something big leaping, jumping and splashing. It was hundreds of dolphins, herding a school of fish below. They were spinner dolphins. They are known to be one of the most acrobatic of all the dolphin types. The spinner dolphin is famous for its spinning breaches. The dolphin launches itself up to nearly 10 feet clear of the water, and spins along its longitudinal axis. As we approached many of them readily followed us to bow-ride and play, spinning all the while. It was an awesome show. We also had a US Navy plane fly over us, coming up from behind. They were so low, I am sure they could read our boat name, and hailing port without the use of binoculars. 
Day 10 There was quite a bit of boat traffic during the night, so had to remain extra vigilant. I woke up feeling tired today. It was cloudy, muggy, and possible showers imminent. We closed all of the hatches just in case. As we were motoring along, we heard our friends on ‘Creola’ calling to ‘Terra Firma’. We hailed them on the radio and discovered they were at Bahia Del Sol in El Salvador. It was about 50 miles away, and required us to back track a bit. We decided to go for it, as we are both feeling a little tired and ready for some pool action if they have it. The wind was picking up. Now up to 13 knots, so up went the sails, along with our motor, so we could get in before dusk. 17:00, land ho!!! We called in and had a panga boat meet us and guide us through the treacherous sandbar and breaking waves, into the river and anchorage in front of Bahia Del Sol. We safely anchored, and were met by friends at the bar by the pool. Ahhh, another adventure safely done; time to relax and enjoy the very friendly people of El Salvador.  Bahia Del Sol El Salvador
April 21-April 25, 2006 Our experience in El Salvador was very limited. It was very hot and humid everyday, with rain and lightening in the evenings. We took a taxi to San Salvador, which was about an hour away. It is the capital of El Salvador, and a city with all the trimmings. We were told El Salvador was one of the most economically prosperous Central American countries. It could be seen based on the shopping that was available. We did some provisioning, had a nice lunch, and visited with our new friends from the sailing vessel “Vision”. All of the local people were very friendly, and eager to assist you. We had some problems with the boat. Our water maker was going to take more work than we had anticipated. Basically we were going to need a machine shop to make a new part. So, we decided to keep going until we get to Costa Rica, or Panama to get this work done. On Tuesday there were three other boats that were leaving, so we decided to go as well. We were in route from El Salvador to Nicaragua, a mere 100 miles or so. We left El Salvador at around noon after crossing the sand bar, with breaking waves all around. We filed out like a choo-choo train. One wrong move and your boat is history, or at least damaged. We all made it out safe, and were underway. Anyway, one more lesson under our belt, and gaining experience everyday. I must say, Ken keeps a cool head under pressure. We started off with a brisk wind 8-15 knots, which is enough to sail really well in. The sky was hazy, as it had been for the last several days. The pattern was to get showers, and sometimes a little lightening in the evening. The three other boats that left with us were all headed in the same general direction, so we agreed to keep radio contact during the night. The seas were a bit rough, 8-10 foot swells, off of our beam, which always makes me a little nauseous. We decided not to cook dinner, and just snack. Things were clipping along at a good pace, and we actually needed to slow down so we would not get to our destination before dawn. I took the first watch from 7 to midnight and caught the beginning of the lightening. I could see flashes behind us, and flashes ahead, but it was hard to pin point due to the darkness. I woke Ken up for his shift, and went down to catch a little sleep. I woke up about two hours (02:00) later to really loud thunder, bright flashes of lightening, and the boat pitching like crazy. Everything was rattling, and it sounded like glass breaking. I went up to check on Ken, and he was self -steering, as the autopilot does not work with these kind of conditions. The wind was gusting up to 38 knots, the seas were rough and confused, and rain was coming from every direction. I saw lightening bolts hitting the water. Water was leaking into all of the ports...(we discovered we need to re-bed all of the hatches). I went up into the cockpit, to a really loud crack of thunder. Ken told me to go back down below, which was fine by me. I was as scared as I have ever been in my life. We both had our life vests on, and I started playing all of the worse case scenarios in my head...if we should start taking on water, bilge pump, life raft, what to bring with us, what if we were hit by lightening, was Ken strapped in with the safety line, calling for mayday, etc. I clung to the settee, with the table bracing me. I could see on the radar screen a big blob of red, which was the storm cell. The radio was just static, you could distantly hear people talking. I kept looking up at Ken to make sure he was OK. He was a bit white knuckled, but holding up as well as could be expected. I was sure I was going to puke. I was trembling, and God and I had a conversation. By 04:00 the wind and seas were calming down. We still had a lot of rain and lightening. We were just outside of the entrance to Puesta Del Sol, Nicaragua. We decided to go past the entrance, because we could see the end of the storm on radar. At this point, I took over and Ken rested for an hour or so. The light of day was beginning on the horizon. The storm was easing. We turned around to head back to the entrance of Puesta Del Sol. By 08:30 we were safely tied to a slip, we had breakfast at the restaurant, and went to bed. We are alive and well. Ken is my hero. | Costa Rica | El Salvador | Nicaragua | | 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 | |
||
 |
 |