A Passage of All Sorts of Challenders
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Sun 7 Nov 2010 21:52
The morning started at 3.30 am when I work to a rolling of the boat, in this
usually calm anchorage, went outside and sure enough it was blow 20 + knots
into the bay, white caps every where and some good sized wind waves, it was
blowing directly down the Nicoya Gulf. You guessed it it was a Papgoyo wind
which in these parts is not as strong as St Elena etc, which was by the
forecast blowing very strong, here you will only get 25 to 30 knots, but
with the shallow gulf water you get a nasty chop been set up especially
with the big tide currents you get in this gulf. I went around the decks and
made sure everything was put away, and went back to bed thinking" just so
typical it happens the day we plan to leave!!".
Morning came and the wind was still blowing and wind waves significant, I
downloaded the weather and it showed the Papagoyo winds (which are like
Santa Ana winds that are gap winds which are blown from the Caribbean side
with a high over there and push through the narrow gaps in the mountains out
onto this side.We have past the hot spots but we will still be effected as
we go down.) . We delayed our departure and winds started to die as
predicted in the middle of the day, we pulled anchor at 9 am and headed out
as you would expect the forces then decided to increase the winds back up to
25 knots, which I was grateful did not happen when I was pulling the anchor
up as the load would have been more significant. Out in the gulf we have 4
foot short chop which we worked through until we could turn and head down
the gulf in the direction we wanted. While the waves made it uncomfortable
it was okay Tracy reading, boys watching movies, my challenge was the logs/
trees just every where and they are big. There are big tide current lines in
this gulf and then bunch up the washed down trees into rows which you have
negotiate, I had to hand steer for the first 2 hours due to log dodging and
this also effected my ability sail. As we turned this and and that in 25
knots with 4 foot waves, and logs everywhere, and you had to see them in the
chop and white water, not fun. By the middle of gulf I was able to roll out
the Genie and we moved along at a nice 7 to 8 knots, and the logs where more
spread out. But you still have these big tide current lines, where one
minute you are doing 7 and then next 5 knots, and the color of the water
went from a dark to light green, with that came standing waves caused by
the current and wind, from a distance it looks like a sand shoal, but when
you close you have breaking waves but caused by the current.
Then the wind does a 180 degree shift and we have it on our nose and we are
5 miles out from Bahia Herradura. So our pleasant 25 + mile day sail turned
out to be anything but, all you can do is put it down to experience. We have anchored behind an island the swell is now SW at 2 to 3 feet 12 seconds
we have got out of the wind and we will be able to sleep here for night
before we do a 39 mile run tomorrow. But you could not have done the passage
today in the dark and we will stick to day sails for the rest of the trip as
the logs will be an issue.
There is a marina here charging 3 foot which would put us in at $150 US
dollars to use a slip per night, Tracy and I have an issue with that, as we
could stay in the hotel for the same, so why, it is rigged for sprotfishing
and golf. So we have anchored away from the beach to avoid attention and
possible people coming on board, and to get some seclusion under this huge
cliffs with waterfalls cascading into the sea along side of us, and birds
circling above.
I hope tomorrow is more relaxing.