We left Barillas Marina on Wednesday morning 9 February with S/V Maja following the pilot boat. We had one of our best sailing days when we left. Our initial plan was to anchor off the bay in Golf of Fonseca, but with the good winds we decided to continue on towards Corinto in Nicaragua. We arrived at 4 am the next morning and drop anchor in the bay next to the harbour waiting for daylight.
Mid-morning we made our way into Corinto harbour and anchor off the Diesel Gas Power Plant. After Dinis contacted the Port Captain for us to clear into the country, he put the dinghy into the water so that he could go ashore with all the paper work. Dinis was ashore for about 3 hours running over town getting everything sorted out. Corinto town is very small and very poor, but the people is very friendly and helpful, except for one official that wanted a bribe from Dinis. Fortunately he did not give in as this will not help.
We spend a few days anchored up the estuary between mangroves. We were the only boat in the anchorage. We did some exploring, had a drink at one of the local restaurants. We were looking into leaving the boat and made an inland trip to Managua, but did not feel comfortable leaving the boat there.
We checked the weather to make our way to San Juan Del Sur, which will be a overnight trip. On Monday mid-morning 14 February we left Corinto for San Juan Del Sur. We had great winds, but it was on the nose. We decided to head into the sea going in a south western direction for about 2 hours and then tack back so that we can go in a more eastern direction. We were doing well for the rest of the day and night, was about 8 nm offshore the coastline. On Tuesday morning Dinis had his QSO's with the net and with Steve from Guatemala. He was feeling a bit queasy from talking on the radio and laid down for a rest.
It is Murphy's law, as soon as he laid down, the wind started to pipe up. We put 3 reefs in the main and furled the genoa to just a small sail. The seas had build as well and pushed us more offshore. The sea swells were close together and steep. We were on a close hull beating into weather with a 30 degree angle, at times 35 degrees. This was very uncomfortable. The winds was blowing about 27 knots gusting 30 to 32 knots. Although it was uncomfortable and were we tired, the boat was balance and we continued, hoping that the wind will slow down a bit closer to San Juan Del Sur. Our hopes were crushed as the winds did not calm down and we had to make a decision as to tack so that we can get closer to land and head for El Astillero (25 nm north of San Juan Del Sur) or continue on and arrive in the dark under strong wind conditions in San Juan Del Sur. We decided that under these conditions it is better to arrive during day time, so we tack and head backwards 12 nm towards El Astillero.
We drop anchor at 16:30 local time on Tuesday 15 February. Both of us very tired. We did not eat much during the day and made some food and jump in bed. This was our worst sailing conditions since our trip started. We got the front end of the famous Papagayo winds. We were anchored until Saturday February 19 waiting for the winds to calm down a bit. We did see 36 knots at anchor. With the winds blowing in a NE direction at least it keeps the boat into the swell and we were quite comfortable at anchor.
On Thursday 17 February Dinis spoke to one of the fishing pangas and they took us to shore. With the big surf we did not want to attempt the ride with the dinghy. We had a pleasant day at the fishing village exploring. Dinis bought some fish from the local fishermen as well. Later in the afternoon the fishing panga took us back. This was a good outing breaking the waiting spell.
Every single evening we had red skies, the saying 'Red sky at night is a sailor's delight' came to mind but we only had near gale conditions during the days.
No comments:
Post a Comment