Living The Dream

After losing our anchor, we looked at our options and decided to a make a run for San Juan del Sur, a large port in the southern part of Nicaragua. We just might make it before dark, but if we didn't it was well marked and lit with red and green markers and channel markers with a heading. Tom was still not feeling well, and we were exhausted by the wind and seas.

The sun never seemed to have set so fast before, soon it was getting very dark. We just don't go into unfamiliar harbors at night, but we did. We had a great computer program Jack gave us in Barillas, it turns your computer into a chart plotter. We had a great chart of SJDS, and knew exactly what our position was at all times. Without it, we would never have attempted going in.

The cruising guide warned of empty mooring balls and unlit boats. Tom got out our big spot light and identified plenty of both. He was on the bow, my eyes as I was flying blind. He'd pulled out our secondary anchor on the way to the harbor, found the dead center of the bay and dropped the anchor. We put out lots of chain and set the anchor alarm on the GPS. We were starving fo I made a quick easy meal of angel hair pasta and marinara sauce. We took showers and were in bed by 8 pm.

We awoke at 11:30 pm, something wasn't right. The wind seemed to be increasing - if that was possible?? Tom checked our position and confirmed that we'd dragged anchor. We were up in no time, I had the engine started and was ready at the helm - scared to death and not knowing how we'd get out without hitting something. Tom was calm, cool and collected and just told me to follow his directions. He pulled up the anchor and guided us past the immediate obstacles. From there it was just a matter of doing the reverse of what we'd done to get in.

Restful sleep would not be ours that night. We were only about 20 miles from our destination in Costa Rica, and we didn't want to enter that one at night. Tom explained that we'd just go 2-3 knots, bare poled with no sails. We'd work our way around the next bay and enter the bay in the morning. We saw other boats at sea too, it was probably safer there than at anchor. First light was just beginning and we slowly approached our destination: Bahia Santa Elena - a pristine park and completely protected anchorage. By 6:30 am we were finally anchored safely and went to bed.