Sunrise on January 6, 2024

in the morning, the swells were about 4 feet and coming from two different directions: on the nose and on the starboard right quarter, so we were both hobby-horsing and lurching. The intervals between the swells had increased, too, adding to the discomfort. The good news was that the wind was light at about 4-knots, so wind waves were small. 

It was miserably hot again, so we ran the AC for most of the day to help minimize the discomfort.  We had a pod of dolphins come to play for a while. Christi saw a turtle.

In the late afternoon, we entered the Gulf of Papagayo, which is a wind tunnel similar to the Gulf of Tehuantepec; however the winds don’t get quite as severe in Papagayo as they do in Tehuantepec. The wind picked up to about 15-knots. Sunset:

The night sky was very dark, as the moon and stars were mostly blocked by the clouds. By 2100, we were barraged with rapid wind waves. We were getting a lot of sea spray on the windows. The creak returned with a vengeance. It was hard to move around – we had to hold on tight when we did. 

The miserable conditions started to improve at around 0300, when the swell moved from directly on the nose to the front port quarter, which made the hobby horsing less drastic. Conditions slowly and steadily improved all morning as the swell slowly shifted to our port aft quarter (back left corner). 

By noon we were nearly past the Gulf of Papagayo. The swells were about 3 – 4 feet, and the wind waves were also 3 – 4 feet, with whitecaps breaking here and there. Occasionally, we’d get smacked with a bigger wave. It was 93.5 degrees Fahrenheit outside with scattered clouds. Eric ran the AC for most of the day. 

Once we were beyond the gulf, conditions continued to slowly improve all day. By sunset, the ride was fantastic. The wind waves were coming at rapid intervals, but they were small.

After dark, the half-full moon and stars were vibrant when not hidden behind clouds. At midnight, it was 81 degrees Fahrenheit outside.

Sunrise on Wednesday, January 8

Not long after the ominous sunrise, this squall hit us. Kosmos got a wash, which was desperately needed. Even with the squall, swells were only 2 – 3 feet. We rolled up 44,444 NM on the GPS odometer. Also on the previous passage we rolled up 7,777 hours on the main engine. Some fun milestones for Kosmos.

After the squall passed, conditions continued to steadily improve. The swells were down to 1 – 2 feet, and the wind waves were probably only about a half-foot. The clouds were ominously grey and thick, and the humidity was worse than normal. We saw several more squalls around us, but we never got hit with another one. Even though it was only 87 degrees Fahrenheit, we still needed to run the AC because the air was so damp.

We passed a fishing boat in close enough proximity that we could see it had long line gear stowed on the deck. What a relief that the long lines weren’t deployed right then! 

The sunset was completely obscured by the clouds. It was a very dark night.