Now Voyager

Right now I am sailing off the coast of Costa Rica, and it is gorgeous! We have had a pod of dolphins around us for a whole day now, including last night. We have seen jumping marlins, a Giant Pacific Ray, all sorts of interesting birds and butterflies, and a host of other sea life I am happy beyond belief to report that the lightning is noticeably decreasing as we get further north. The last couple of nights it has only been behind us, and not close enough to make us nervous in the least. That is not to say we are ompletely out of danger, but we have mitigated our risk somewhat.

As much as I love Panama, it was good to finally be able to put it behind us and get moving. It is very unusual for there to be such a lack of wind in the area. That is why we are a month behind - when I looked a over our logs, I realized that it too us over a month from the time we left Panama City until we finally cleared out of western Panama. We did get to see some beautiful new anchorages, and we have vowed to return on our way back and check them out again. Panama really does have something for everyone.

We are not planning to stop in Costa Rica other than to wait out the winds, and hopefully that will not be for more than a week. Then we will head on to our destination, Puesta del Sol in northern Nicaragua. We decided to go there after talking to some friends about it. Sine it sounded really nice, we decided since we had been to Salvador we should try some place new. If we don't like it, we can continue north. But I have wanted to check out Nicaragua, and I also want to have visited every country in Central America. We may seem to be inconsistent, but that is just the way we do things, changing our minds on the fly.

Everything is fine here with us Our food supplies are holding out just fine, and we are nowhere near running out of coffee, which would be the only thing we would really hate to do without. I don't want to jinx anything, but we also seem to be losing weight nicely. So no negativity here, and we are both simply enjoying the cruise. Today the wind keeps going up and down, in a pulsing sort of way. We think we are starting to feel some of the winds we will be avoiding later. They are called papagayo winds, and are caused by strong winds in the Caribbean blowing through a gap in the land area across and over Lake Nicaragua, in southern Nicaragua. This is something everyone out here has to deal with, as they used to occur solely in the winter, but now seem to blow almost all hear round No one can tell me there is no such thing as global climate change For proof, I can tell you that all the cruising route books are practically useless now, as the weather patterns are no longer reliable at all. There have already been three hurricanes in the Pacific, and that is way too many for this early in the season.

But enough of that. As I said before, we are fine and happy. Here is a little quote on what is required of a sailor

"And last on this short list, he must heal well Scrapes, gouges, bruises, cuts, sprains, strains, and occasionally burns appear as if miraculously, often without my knowing their cause; a kind of stigmata of the sea." (Webb Childs, "Storm Passage: Alone Around Cape Horn.")

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