En Route to Costa Rica
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Thu 21 Jan 2010 22:11
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Hello Friends
"8:04.8N 82:26.8W"
We have some news to share with you
since the last blog.
Firstly we're sad to report that Matt
decided he really needed to see his family and has returned home to the UK.
Another 3 months across to Tahiti would have been a bit too long as he's only
been home for a few days in 2009. We hope to meet next in New Zealand where Matt
has family.
The remaining three of us decided not to
wait in Panama. The anchorage at the Pacific end of the Canal was a bit dodgy -
OK in the night but then the traffic starts up at 0300 with pilot boats zooming
out to drop pilots on the ships going through the canal. That and the fact that
a lot of cement and other dust was blowing off the Amador peninsula so
everything was filthy AND the water wasn't clean enough to swim in.
So we decided to check out of Panama and
head to Costa Rica for a short adventure before the big crossing. We're going
the slow way: we spent a few days in Las Perlas and then had a great overnight
sail to Isla Santa Catalina, about half way to Costa Rica, catching 5 tuna in a
short time in the Gulf of Panama. After a couple of nights dozing there, we're
headed very slowly towards Golfito at the southern end of Costa Rica: we hope to
arrive tomorrow morning.
here's 2 of the tuna from the Gulf of Panama
- the diamond marking on the one on the right is just from the grating at the
back of the deck
 We did notice that the ships heading to and
from the Canal were dodging us in unusually good time, so we think our active
AIS is doing good work already. We reactivated our findacrew profile to find
that 4th man needed for our Pacific crossing and after many applications and
much careful discussion on board, we can report that the lucky next crew is
Simon from Stockholm. The next blog will report !
We hope the weather is improving wherever
you're reading this: we did see a small cloud here yesterday afternoon - just in
the distance.
That's all for now - all we need is a little
wind to help us on our way.
Since drafting this blog, I must add to the
report that we nearly caught a large mahi-mahi, but in his excitement the
skipper tried to haul it in with bare fingers. As the fish neared Blue Sky it
realised that it was in serious trouble and fought hard, causing Michael to
briefly let go the line allowing the fish to escape - drat! Only minor
monofilament burn and bruised pride to show for it.
But next we caught something that was
difficult to bring in. This time all gloved up, Alex and Michael landed this
brute - a Crevally Jack - apparently a sport and fighting fish ! Trouble is, the
fish books never give you any good recipes for this type of thing. So if anyone
has time to google a Crevally Jack recipe, or advice on cooking and just email
us the plain text, that would be great.
 best wishes
George, Michael and Alex
PS. just caught another tuna... 30 miles to
go to Costa Rica
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