Destination : Puerto De Sol Nicaragua
Location: 12.42:553N 87.51:531W
time to go: 6 hours
It's 1 am in the morning I have just taken over shift from Tracy, and the
boys are asleep. She had 3 hours of a bit worry with "Sunsentaion" criss
crossing our path and we running without RADAR (seams to be transmitting but
not getting good signal back something to work on at the next port, the
radar may need cleaning). This gives us two issues 1/ you cannot see other
boats that well unless they have lights and many pangas do not, but again
they often do not show up on radar.
2/ We cannot see squalls coming in, you can pick up the intense rain
associated on radar and do something about it, since we have a had a couple
of storms around us I have asked Sunsentaion to keep us informed and I have
lowered the main.
We running at a slow speed of 4 knots so we do not arrive before day light,
so we have the engine well back on the throttle, and the wind is only 4 to 5
knots basically on the nose. Swell and seas are a little bumpy but not bad,
and Gijima is riding it well.
The challenge with buddy boating is you have another boat around that is
good for comfort and support but it also means that you have to avoid each
other,it made Tracy a little nervous of hitting them and have set a coarse 1
mile to their starboard and contacted them about there heading and speed so
we can set up in parallel, like in most things in life communication always
helps in diffusing a situation.
We have just crossed the Gulf of Fonseca a hug bay with volcanoes etc, it is
clearly seen on the world maps, and it has 3 countries bordering it so we
are now on the Nicaraguain side. We have 5 hours to light and then I can do
a more direct coarse as we have some big reefs along this coast so we are
set 6 to 7 miles off to avoid them and we get alongside the estuary entrance
we will directly head in. They say this estuary can be entered at any time
without a pilot, but it is a river, so we will enter in day light.
This afternoon was spent reading my book while on watch and family a sleep,
except for the hourly interruption to bring in a fish, we caught 3 all went
back as they are not good eating (but for Ed I have opened this seasons
tally, see if you catch up). When the boys woke we took them to the bow, it
is a amazing to see how much Alex has gown and developed since we were last
at sea. He is walking and handling the moving deck so much better, he wants
to see everything, (he saw Sunsentaion with a sail up, and asked if we had
one not realizing we had a main sail up, so I took him aft and he looked up
and "WOW" big sail, we had to go back and see the sail 3 more times during
the next 2 hours). On the bow Alex and Sean were looking over the side and
had 3 dolphins starting playing 2 feet away from them surfing off the bow
wave, this is a great sight for anyone and thrill no matter how many times
you have seen it, and the boys talked about it for the next 4 hours.
The water has been quite dirty crossing the Gulf of Fonseca no doubt due to
rain water washing things out to see but we see logs, coconuts and even
shoes.
But as I write this the breeze is cool and refreshing but I am still in
shorts and no shirt, the outside is dark as we have cloud cover with the
only lights being that of Sunsentaion on my port side. The bow breaks
through the water and the white bow waves rolls back away but lights up with
the fluorescent life within it, just as I was standing a watching these
fluorescent trails like torpedoes come in a long side and play it is a set
of 4 dolphins joining us, this time of night is so peaceful, and a time to
just sit an absorb. We have found a good improvement on the provisioning to
be barbeque chickens we have bought 6 and frozen them but they are ideal for
passages as you can thaw one out and just nibble on it cold or heat it up,
very easy and the waste goes over the side.
Boy it is nice to be moving again, but I have something's to fix at the next
port.
Stay tuned
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