Passage from Puerto Chiapas to Panama City – Days 6 – 7.25

Thursday, January 9 — It was another ominously grey day with light wind. The lack of wind made it very hot outside, so we again ran the AC. There was very little wind chop, but the swell had increased in the wee hours of the morning to 3 – 6 feet from our port side at relatively fast intervals, so it was a bit rolly. In the late morning/early afternoon, we went through a pass between two islands, which gave us a little reprieve from the swells.

The conditions varied throughout the afternoon and evening, but overall, conditions were pretty good. Eric saw some dolphins and Keith saw a turtle. And, we saw lots of birds.

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Passage from Puerto Chiapas to Panama City – Days 3 – 5

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.

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Passage from San Juan del Sur to Huatulco – Days 2 and 3

Day 2

It was a smooth ride until around 0430, when the wind picked up to low 20’s. After dawn, we moved closer in to shore where, where the wind was only 1 4 knots apparent and the seas were smooth. Man, talk about a drastic difference! No wonder they advise running so close to shore. It was another gorgeous, cloudless day.

Eric saw a turtle this morning. What made him notice it was he saw a bird standing on the water. Not sitting, standing. He did a double take and realized the bird was standing on a turtle that was swimming in the water. Eric tried to get a photo, but the bird sensed the camera being turned on and flew off. He took a photo of the turtle, but you can’t really see it in the photo. It looks like a smudge. Christi thinks she may have seen a turtle shortly afterwards, but isn’t sure. It was farther out.

At 1300, Christi also saw bird standing on a turtle. We had thought it was a freak occurrence the first time, but now we think it could be a common behavior. As she was watching the duo, suddenly a four foot sailfish leapt out of the water in the distance. It smashed back down into the water and a couple seconds leapt up again. It jumped at least Continue reading

ATV Tour of San Juan del Sur

This morning we were at the ATV tour company office promptly at 0900. We think they were surprised to see us on time, expecting us to be late. We waited a few minutes while they got the vehicles ready and then we headed out. Here is Eric getting ready to go.

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It was just the two of us. We love it when we get private tours! At first we followed Continue reading

Exploring San Juan del Sur

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