We batten down the hatches the next morning and headed down the coast to Samara. The predicted wind forecast was for 25 knots of wind, so we decided to start out with a double reef in the main sail. From past sailing experiences we knew that the grib files usually predicts wind speed slower than it says. This area is still influenced by the papagayo winds and the last few days at Tamarindo we were getting strong NE winds that seemed to sustain throughout the day at times gusting up to 35 knots. Winds are good for sailing but not so good for anchoring or dinghy landings! As we headed south, right out of the gate, we had a pretty good blow, gusting up to 35 knots, which made us very glad that we had a double reef in the main sail. Four Points is amazing, she seems to sail well with a double reef in with that amount of wind. Even with the stronger wind we could only sail at about 4.0-5.0 knots because we had an adverse current (we figured it was about 1.5- 2.0 knots against us). Most of the guidebooks mention that this stretch of coastline does have a strong south current. Looking out at the water it almost appears that there is confused seas or heavy wind on the surface of the water, especially as we rounded Punta Guiones. By the time we made it around Punta Guiones, the wind died down so we had to motor sail. One of the first things we noticed was that the area seemed to be more tropical and definitely hotter! During this passage, we got to see a lot of the sea turtles floating by and many more manta rays. Manta rays are easy to spot because they seem to enjoy doing flips (almost like belly flops) out of the water multiple times. We were told that they do this to clean themselves of parasites?? We think that they are just having fun! I saw a group of three flip in row all at the same time, either they were having a group cleaning or maybe they were competing!
We arrived the Samara before sunset and after securing the anchor we jumped in to cool off, well sorta, the temperature of the water was also tropical, much warmer than it was in Tamarindo. From the boat, Samara appears to have a small village/town, fishing pangas and a long stretch of vacant beach. We decided that we would only stay long enough to get some rest and leave at first light.