Friday February 28
We arrived at Marina Chiapas, Mexico just before 11am.
Upon arrival we were boarded by customs, the Port Captain and the military at the marina for inspections. 5 men in fatigues, two automatic machine guns and a dog.
Passports stamped!
Thursday February 27
Good morning Guatemala! 157 miles to go to Marina Chiapas Mexico. Low rolling waves with 2 knots true wind speed.
Dolphins and sea turtles abundant today!
Dan caught another tuna! Anyone have a great tuna recipe?
Wednesday February 26
Ash Wednesday. Good morning El Salvador! 54 hours left to Marina Chiapas in Mexico. Not much wind this morning, calm seas, seeing less than 6 knots true wind speed, so we are motor sailing. Wind on the horizon is off shore, thats the direction the Papagayos Winds come from hopefully we’re far enough north to just catch the edge and not the brunt of the winds, if the come.
Update: the winds remained under 8 knots all day
It’s a pancake for breakfast kind of morning.
I used the other tuna filet, using the same recipe as yesterday, made “meatballs” for pasta with tomato sauce, dinner.
Tuesday February 25
We sailed through the night and are now somewhere off the coast of northern Nicaragua. We are still traveling with our buddy boat Saltair3 and a third Panama Posse boat Ankyrios is a few miles behind us.
Dan dropped two fishing lines out this morning, caught a big one that got away and took most of the 300 meters of new line with it.
He did manage to catch a 22” Tuna, it’s all filleted and chillin in the fridge.
First time flying the spinnaker in the Pacific Ocean. Cruising at 6 knots with 9.2 knots apparent wind.
Craziest sight, a seagull standing a sea turtles back as it swam by. Too far for a photo unfortunately. In the late afternoon there were at least two dozen dolphins of all sizes swimming around our bow, several jumping in the air with hang time.
I made tuna burgers from one filet, they were pretty good! 1 filet of tuna 1/2 cup bread crumbs 1 egg 1 tbs dried parsley salt and pepper I cut the fish into small pieces to make sure there were no bones, tuna have some side bones in addition to the spine. Place all ingredients in a blender, pulse till thoroughly blended. Made two patties from this mixture, sautéed in pan with a little bit of oil. Cook until internal temp is 145F.
Day is done, gone the sun, and you guessed it, the Milky Way and a sky full of stars! Tonight we are still cruising the coast of Nicaragua.
Monday February 24
The plan is to leave Potrero Grande Bay in the mid afternoon, set sail for Mexico roughly 450 nautical miles, 4-5 day passage.
Dan and I went on this deserted beach, it’s actually part of Santa Rosa National Park. Dan ran and I walked about 3 miles.
We saw a whale!
Saturday February 22
Pulled up anchor at 9am, only to drop it 20 nautical miles later at Punta Huevos, with plans of leaving here around 5am, this gives us a two hour head start on tomorrow’s weather window.
Dan and I snorkeled for about 3 hours near the beach this afternoon.
Friday February 21
On our way into town, Dan spotted this boat moored, the owner shot off on those cannons this morning.
Our exit paperwork is all completed, technically we have 12-24 hours to leave Costa Rica. We backtracked to the edge of the town where we found this fishing store a few days ago. Dan brought his reel and had the store add 300 meters of 30 lb. line. They also added a leader and oiled it free of charge. Total cost was 6600 colon which about $11.57 US, we left a nice tip.
Our buddy boat invited us for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres at 6. This is twice that this has happened where I randomly made an appetizer that coordinates with theirs. The other day it was taco pie and I brought black bean corn salsa. Today I made buffalo chicken dip the made buffalo wings!
Krista and I swapped baked goods for our passage, I made them a batch of peanut butter cookies she made us banana bread!
Thursday February 20
So the run around begins. We spent 2.5 hours at the bank, paying for our exit from Costa Rica. Then we got on a non air conditioned bus for the airport to go to customs. Another 2.5 hours round trip to airport to get our cancellation documents. It’s now after 2pm we’ll have to complete the process tomorrow as the port captain closes at 3 we won’t make it on time.
There are two other sailboats near us at anchorage. One from Texas the other Alaska, both also part of the Panama posse. We saw the Texans at the grocery store this afternoon, they are planning on possibly leaving Saturday. The Alaska boat, Bill and Lisanne, we had cocktails with in the evening they are also planning on leaving Friday. The four of us boats are all headed north.
Wednesday February 19
Dan went for a run on the beach this morning, I baked banana walnut muffins for breakfast.
Did boat projects all day, the seams to be recurring tasks. I did a lot of reading about Mexico and which ports we should stop at, it’s so much work especially because all the guide books assume you are sailing south, which means I have to read the book starting from the back, as we are traveling north. Later had dinner with Saltair3 on their boat. Krista made a delicious taco pie, we brought a black bean and corn salsa, polished off two bottles of wine.
Tuesday February 18
Went over to our buddy boat Saltair3 this morning for coffee and discuss the weather or the wind. As of today we are aiming for a window on Friday. Thursday we will run around town to check out of Costa Rica. It’s complicated, we have to go to four different places. Immigration, the bank, customs and the port captain.
The rest of the day was boat projects, the Dan and I went in town for dinner at this little Mexican restaurant.
Sailing Trance 