A long day motoring--again!
09 December 2017 | 09 44.542N::-084 59.35W
Bill
We arrived at bahia Ballena(09 44.542N:-084 59.35W) just before 0700 this morning after a 24 hours trip. We left our last anchorage at Bahia Drake((08 42.063N:-083 40.041W) at 0630 and headed for Punta Dominical(09 13.757N:-83 50.732W) a wide spot along the coast that was supposed to have a nice reef just off shore to stop the swells from coming in. Fraid Not! We got there just about lunch and it was low tide and still the swells came into the bay. Tracy doesn't do well in swelly water as Zephyr rolls from side to side. Instead of staying, we turned around and headed for Bahia Ballena farther up the coast of Cost Rica and just short of where the dreaded Papagayos are due to arrive in the morning. It was about 78 miles farther so we had to judge our speed so that we would arrive in daylight as night time arrivals in any new bay are to be avoided if at all possible. Once farther off shore, we took Zephyr out of gear and shut down the engine and I took a nap while Tracy sat in the cockpit as lookout. About two hours later, we started up the engine and took off at a speed of about 5 knots. That would put us in about 0700 and it worked out just fine. We had to jockey around a couple of fishermems nets along the way but both had flashing lights on the ends of the nets so we could tell where they started and ended.
Along the way, we saw the Emerald Princess cruise ship come across our bow as it made it's way into the harbor in front of us. They were lit up like a Christmas tree. We still haven't really run across any other sail boats other than the few we say in Gulfito when we were there getting more diesel fuel. Having to run the engine everyday will drain the tanks and we took about 68 gallons at $4.00 per gallon into our tanks. That's some of the most expensive fuel we've taken on in a long time. The weather has been rainy, cloudy, sunny and in between. It could be sunny now and raining in 30 minutes. It's keeping the deck nice and clean. Yesterday morning, we were greeted by hoards of flying ants and mosquitos. We brought out the spray and the deck looked like a slaughter had happened and it did. Thousands of bugs lay dead on the deck. I'll post some pictures once we get internet. Using the SSB radio allows me to post words but no pictures so they will have to wait till we get actual internet and that could be a while. The plan as of now is to get up to El Salvador and stop in a a hotel, up a river that loves cruisers and spend a few days or maybe a day depending on how long it takes us to get there and the weather at that time. Right now, we have to get past an area that has Papagayos. These are coastal areas that are prone to high winds--25 knots and higher gusts and large swells that are caused by it. Bahia Ballena is right on the south east side of where they come howling through and the latest forecast is for them to be shooting through for the next 3-4 days so we're sort of stuck for a while. We've had just about no wind since we left Panama and now we are going to be pounded by far too much wind. The kids are doing well. Out early in the morning and late at night to sit on the deck and enjoy the coolness of the day and then hide out once the sun comes out. Sort of like vampires I guess. We don't lack for food as we picked up eggs and bread in Gulfito and it was all we were really short on, oh some more Pepsi for me. That's about it for now. While we are here in the wind, we may get a few things done but who knows. Bill