06/29/2010, Honduran Mainland- Laguna el Diamante to Omoa
Moved another 30 miles closer to the hurricane hole this morning. Anchored off the cute little beach resort town of Omoa, kind of an open roadstead spot but it will do for the night. Checking the weather faxes right now for a report on an expected tropical wave coming this way, last report it was not due until late Thursday but the skies have been overcast all day so it maybe coming earlier. Started working on learning French today, or I should say re-learning from high school lessons. It's my job to do this language as John has become much more fluent in Spanish than I. It's early in the day so I'm off to coax the captain off the boat and into town!
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06/29/2010, Honduras- Utila, Bay Islands to Laguna Diamente, Mainland
After a quick overnight stop at the Bay Island of Utila we motored to the Laguna el Diamente on the mainland. Utila looked like someplace we could stay for awhile notwithstanding the loud late night bar music, but we're starting to get a little anxious to get into our hurricane hole. Last weekend the first Atlantic tropical storm that passed our way, Alex, reminded us that these beautiful waters can also be very dangerous. So in a few days we'll be crossing the bar into Guatemala's Rio Dulce where we'll hunker down in a marina for the next four months. Today like yesterday was a motoring event with the wind only picking up from the proper direction for sailing twenty minutes before our turn into the night's anchorage, can you say Murphy's Law? The water outside the bay looked like chocolate milk, river run-off from the rainy season, already miss the clear blue island water!
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05/21/2010, On the way to Gunaja, Honduras
We left the Vivarillos this morning about eight am, and had the spinnaker up until about noon, when the wind died down, so on with the motors. 110 ten miles to go, hope the wind picks up so we can sail again. Hank and Betsy in their Island Packet 440 are travelling with us, and we motor at about the same speed, so we have company. No luck with fishing, however.
We should arrive sometime tomorrow around noon or so, maybe earlier if we get some wind.
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05/20/2010, Vivarillos Cays, Columbia
We anchored yesterday afternoon - the wind died down to about eight knots, and after we rounded the corner of Nicaragua, it was dead astern, so our speed dropped down to about 5 knots. Finally took the main down so that the genoa could get some air and do SOMETHING besides flap around. I guess technically we should have put a spinnaker up, but that seemed like a lot of work. A 35 foot aluminum sloop that we passed last night under sail, past us again this morning - but they were motoring. Good old japanese wind!
Anyway, this is our last stop in Colombia - we cleared out of the country in Providencia, since that is the last inhabited (except for marine bases) island going north. Vivarillos is one larger cay, about an acre, and several small sand spits on a reef about two miles long. We first tried to anchor behind the bigger cay, out of the wind, but what looked like a grass bottom was rock, so we moved up further north behind the reef and found a big patch of sand. Much better. Two other boats here, one the aluminum one we saw on the way, and then another came in this morning. Since everyone stayed up all night to sail here, everyone is slothing on the boats, napping, including us.
We will most likely leave in the morning for Guanaja, Honduras - 150 miles more or less, so another overnight.
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05/18/2010, West of Quito Sueno Bank, Columbia
We left Providencia this morning about 8:30 and have been broad reaching in about five foot choppy seas all day, about 8 or nine knots usually. Probably should take the reef out, only 16 knots true, but this is fast enough in this slop. We may stop at Vivarillos Keys tomorow night, should be there in the morning. We will see how the weather report looks. Cloudy and overcast, so not a whole lot of fun today, but we are making progress well enough
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