Tomorrow we leave Isla Espiritu Santo and begin our voyage towards Costa Rica. I am not sure how long it will take us - to be honest, I have not even checked the mileage. We know our general route, and that will do for now. Tonight we will likely get on the chart plotter and play around wit our course, and then I will have a better idea of how far it is. OK, I just asked Mike and he said it is about 460 miles from here to the part of Costa Rica we are going to. So if we averaged four knots per hour, it will take us 115 hours, or four and three quarter days. Of course it is likely to take at least two days longer because we will not average 4 knots an hour. The winds have been very light for several weeks now, and that is not likely to change. There are some squalls and small areas of tropical disturbances that will move us faster than four knots, but those will be short lived, usually less than three to four hours. So I am guessing about six days at sea. I am looking forward to it. I have missed my night watches, seeing the sun come up and listening to Mike snore from the cabin. I always feel really, really good when I have the helm and Mike is sleeping peacefully. It has taken us a long time to get to the point where he can really relax and sleep while we are underway, and not have to constantly worry if things are going ok on deck.
We have caught a ton of fish on this stay here at Espiritu Santo and have eaten fish almost every other day, as well as pickling four jars of it for later on. Mike loves it and told his mom it tastes like wine herring snacks. He says I make it even better than that. It is great to snack on, like sardines or smoked oysters. I especially love smoked oysters, and if there is an open can of them, I will eat them all, without a care for anyone else in the room. I like them that much. Actually, my favorite seafood of all time is clams. Steamed clams in garlic butter and white wine. With hot crusty bread to sop up the left over sauce. With a cold beer.
Right now there is laundry drying, bedding airing, and Mike is cleaning the side of the hull. I finished the breakfast dishes, cleaned up the kitchen, and did some preparation for leaving tomorrow, mostly battening things down. I have never really had a problem with anything coming loose and flying around causing problems, but no matter how I try, there is always something that will end up on the floor. Nothing that matters or makes a problem, but I am looking forward to the day when I finally get it right.
Tomorrow we are heading out, but we will be stopping overnight about 16 miles from here to meet another boat. This is actually a better jumping off point to begin the Costa Rica voyage than where we are. When leaving the bay, you have to go way south and then shoot around a point, and head west before you can begin the northwest direction to Costa Rica. The point we have to go around in the infamous Punta Mala that gave us difficulties when we first came down to Panama from El Salvador. That was the first and only time that high seas and winds caused us to turn back and try again another day. This time we are coming the other way around, and we have been told that if we reach the entrance to the Bay of Panama about 35 miles off of Punta Mala on an outgoing tide, the tide and currents will give you a real boost going around the point. So that is what we are shooting for, and the other anchorage is a straight shot to that area. Plus, one of the other controllers on the Panama Pacific Net (the SSB radio net I help with) whom we have never met in person (only on the radio) invited us to come over there and meet them before we leave. So we are going to do that, and I am looking forward to it. I am really enjoying the net, especially now that people are actually starting to move around and check in with us. I was told it was a good way to get to know people and to help out the cruising community. And I was told correctly.
So anyway, that is about it for now. We are going to do some more fishing today, as soon as the tide comes in, and hopefully we can catch enough for us and to give some to our new friends tomorrow. Last night I cooked a fish whole (except for the head, the frying pan would not hold it head and all) for the first time, and it came out great. I stuffed the fish with onions, and lightly floured it with seasoned flour, then fried it. It came right off the bone, no problems. Oh - we found out that some friends from El Salvador will be in the same area of Costa Rica that we will be in at the same time, so we are looking forward to seeing them as w That happens a lot out here - you meet someone in Mexico and then three years later run into them in Panama or someplace else. You usually remember the boat name and say "Hey! You're Sunny Days! We met you in Mexico!" It is a lot of fun. When we were in Guatemala, we ran into some people we had met almost two years before in Mazatlan.
The next post I write will be written underway!
"I was equal to the gods., except for the mortal part." (Euripides)
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