Category Archives: Boat Technical

Specifics about the boat.

Exploring San Juan del Sur

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Yesterday morning the water taxi picked us up and 0730. We picked up Mike and the three of us went out to breakfast at an American style coffee house/café/bookstore. Mike ordered French toast and it may very well be the best French toast we have ever had in our lives. It was dipped in vanilla custard instead of the usual milk and eggs and topped with apple slices sautéed in a delicious brown sugar and butter sauce. To die for good.

Then we walked around town a little more, checking out a few shops. Unfortunately, Mike hadn’t completed his paper, so we had to cut sightseeing short. It was OK though, downtown is small, and we were pretty sure we had seen most of it when we turned around and headed back to the hotel. Something that we found particularly amusing was an ox drawn cart was parallel parked in front of a small store between two cars.

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At the hotel, Mike went to work on Continue reading →

Welcome to San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

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Continued from two days ago”¦ We took a moment to take in the surroundings. While the outside of the bay looked almost desolate, the inside is quite built up. Just like on the outside, there seem to be a lot of trees that all look dead at the moment, with very little greenery. Directly in front of us was a nice beach lined with thatched roof buildings that we would bet are restaurants. The hills above are mostly built up, as well. It looked to be primarily residential. Most of the homes are unique, but we could see a couple of track housing developments. The tightly packed track homes with their identical roofs almost looked like a scar on the hillside. On the southeast side (our right) there was a commercial looking port building and boat yard. To the northwest side (our left), there were expensive looking houses and several mid-rise concrete buildings under construction. The top of the hill had something weird at the top of it. Eric pulled the binoculars out and saw that it is a half built statue, probably of Jesus.

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In the bay there were Continue reading →

Passage to San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua

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The moon rose shortly after midnight, but it was a tiny sliver that gave off virtually no light, so it was essentially pitch black all night. In the wee hours of the morning, something odd happened. Two boats passed us at the same time. One of the boats pulled out a spot light and was looking us over with it, but then turned it off and kept going. We are guessing they were trying to see if we had nets out to make sure it was safe to pass us.

By morning, the ocean was still as calm as a lake. Here is the sunrise.

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There were tons and tons of sportfishers out, and the wakes of their boats was about the only movement on the water. It was wonderful. Mike is prone to seasickness, but he was feeling great. Although, he never tried to read, not wanting to push his luck. Instead, he watched the horizon intently.

Not too long after sunrise, Mike saw a school of dolphins in the distance. Then he saw a sailfish. A little while later, he saw another pod of dolphins. This pod swam up to the boat and rode the bow wake for a few minutes. Since the water was so flat and calm, we could see them especially clearly. It was really exciting for all of us, but especially Mike.

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At 1030, the seas picked up some, but it was just small swells and the ride was still nice.
Mike saw dolphins again around lunch time, but they Continue reading →

Back to Golfito to Start the Passage to Nicaragua

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Yesterday we started the day with Gallo Pinto for breakfast followed by a nice walk around downtown Turrialba. The first photo is a typical street scene and the second is the town square, which is probably the most attractive part of town.

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After our walk, we headed out of town. It was time to get back to Kosmos in Golfito. We headed northeast towards San Jose, again guessing at where we needed to go. We drove through mostly farmland. They seem to grow a lot of Continue reading →

Passage from Panama City to Golfito, Costa Rica

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The nice, smooth ride lasted until around noon yesterday. Then we turned a corner, so the wind and waves were coming from our starboard (right) side rather than the rear. The comfort level was only modestly affected and it was still an overall pleasant ride. Throughout the afternoon, the wind speed climbed quite a bit. The wind was coming from the shore, and since we were paralleling the shoreline, there wasn’t enough fetch for the waves to pick up too much, but it did get lumpier. The dual stabilization probably helped. The day was sunny, bright and clear, which was a nice change of pace. Pretty much the whole time we have been in Panama, it has been gray, overcast and gloomy, so we were appreciating the sunshine. We enjoyed looking at Panama’s scenic mountain coastline while we motored along. As the day wore on, we saw less and less traffic.

We ran our generator almost all day, making water, doing laundry, and enjoying the AC. It is really hot out today, probably because it is so sunny. Eric checked the fan and shaft temperature several times, concerned that they had been running hot in Gatun Lake. The fan seems to be working great. The shaft temperature is actually lower than normal, and we assume it is because the water temperature is about 15 degrees cooler than it was in the Atlantic.

At about sunset, a big school of dolphins came to play with the boat. Usually they only play on the bow, but this set also played with the paravanes. They are a different species to what we are used to seeing. According to a flier we had picked up somewhere, they are called Continue reading →