Crossing the Bar
Portions of this entry are for the benefit Panama Posse members and our regular readers can just skip content with brackets and a PP….[PP:………]
The Papagayo winds are gap winds similar to the Tehuantepec winds where the Caribbean trade winds are accelerated and intensified as they pass through gaps in the mountains that form the back bone of Central America. The goal is to avoid sailing in winds that can gust into the 40 knot range. So it’s all about the weather window.
Entering Golfo de Fonseca
After an uneventful exit over the bar at Bahia Del Sol, we sailed overnight to enter the Gulf of Fonseca as the sun was coming up. As we entered this huge gulf, the rising sun revealed many pangas, with various types of fishing gear and a skyline filled with volcanos. Most pangas fished with nets having the Panga at one end and a black Flag at the other. Our image stabilizing binoculars have never been more useful as we spotted each net and adjusted course to avoid obstructions. Getting a net or a longline loaded with hooks wrapped around your propeller, is not good. For the yacht it may mean diving in the open ocean to cut the propeller free while the boat bounces above your head in the waves. For the fisherman it represents a significant financial loss. Yet these lines and nets are often poorly marked, with the floats being clear soda bottles.
Unscathed, we made our way to the small town of Amapala, in Honduras.
Amapala
[pp: We anchored in 20 feet of water at 13 deg 17.901 N 087 deg 39.099 W. The holding is mixed sand and mud. It took a couple of tries to set but by backing down gently and then letting the anchor settle it held firmly in winds to 20 knots and a tidal current that was reaching 2 knots.]
We stayed anchored at Amapala while waiting for weather to move further to Puesta del Sol in Nicaragua where we would wait to cross the windiest portion of the Papagayo region off of Lake Nicaragua. Here winds blow fiercely from the Caribbean and can gust to 40 MPH. Not fun for sailing.
Amapala is a town on the northern edge of Isla Tigre where about 12000 people live scattered around the shore of an island that sports a huge Volcano at its center. The last eruption was 10,000 years ago.
We bought a few Honduran Lempira at the Casa de Pepsi. A house at the corner of the main drag one block up from the customs dock. They are the local Pepsi distributors and also change money out of an old wooden drawer. 23.5 lempira per dollar. The bank rate was 24.5. With fresh Lempira burning a hole in our pockets we had beers and lunch at El Faro. Daisy the proprietor, teaches in the school mornings and runs her restaurant in the afternoons. She served an amazing bowl of seafood soup $10 and crispy filets of Corvina. We tested all four local beers and the majority felt that Sal Vida was the best Honduran brew at the table. In this part of the world they serve fried plaintain (not as sweet as a banana) instead of french fries.
We arranged a driver (Gustavo) to take us around the island the next day in the back of his pickup truck ($40), and on the way back to the customs office I met Roberto. Roberto is in his mid-seventies, and he sauntered up and began telling me stories about the island, Its German heritage, and its history as a shipping port. He told me he was the best English speaking guide on the island. I wasn’t sure we would have room for one more passenger so we left it at that. The next morning however one of our party had a little tourista and stayed off the tour, so we got Gustavo to pick up Roberto on the way.
This turned out to be a great move as Roberto came with his briefcase, a plastic shopping bag, containing a manila folder filled with maps and pictures about the island. Roberto has a sixth grade education, and taught himself to speak English. He is an amateur historian for his island but does not use the internet or type… At 19, he entered the merchant marines, travelling to Hamburg Germany and other ports. Blushingly (if a 75 Year old Honduran can blush) he told us about visiting the red light district in Hamburg with the rest of the crew where the girls all sat in the windows. He quit the ship because he was only being paid $25 per month. Back at Isla Tigre, he began to work at the port as a stevedore loading and unloading the ships. He met a girl from El Salvador whom he lived with in common law. During the 100 hour war with El Salvador they were separated and he has lived as a bachelor ever since. In typical government fashion, the Honduran’s negotiated a new shipping port at San Lorenzo, and Roberto described a day when the ships just stopped coming. They had no idea what had happened, and the once vibrant town filled with visiting sailors, bars and restaurants became a shadow of its former self. Islander’s now live by fishing the productive Gulf of Fonseca. We saw many fish on the fish finder as we came in.
At the end of the tour, we took Roberto to lunch, although he had his boxed up to share with his nieces and nephews at home. During lunch, he continued to regal us with stories of his life and the island. Apparently Albert Einstein stayed there. We gave him a tip of 30 dollars for his time which he seemed grateful for.
Roberto and Daisy
One last point about Amapala is the check in check out process. At immigration you get fingerprinted using equipment provided by the United States. The officials here speak no English. The port captain on the other hand is a friendly man who loves to practice his English on the visitors and flirt with the ladies. Since he has all of this going on, he is a little loose on the details. Make sure you have all of your documents, and that the exit Zarpe is correctly filled out. He printed our Zarpe three times trying to get it right but nevertheless the third copy still has a speck of white out changing an 8 to the 6 in our Coast Guard documentation number. The officials are all at the end of the big concrete pier.
[pp:Helpers will assist you in tying up to the steps which is not a “sketchy“ as it looks. Bring a long painter 20 feet plus. They will shift your boat as the tides change. Having a fender on board may also be helpful. 3-5 dollars seems to bring a smile depending on how long they have been “watching”. Paying in Lempira is best.]
The conditions between the Gulf of Fonseca and Puesta del Sol in Nicaragua are pretty benign. So we made a day’s run entering through the narrow mouth.
[PP:Enter in the middle with 15 feet of depth go to the first red mark and turn 100 to 200 feet shy in 20-30 feet. Keep the red buoys on your right and follow into the marina. I saw 6 feet briefly before the last red buoy one hour after low tide]
First mark at Puesta del Sol
We checked into the country with the help of lovely Juanita, who translated for us and helped each boat get through the three Spanish only officials.
[PP:Total fees on entry were $79 Bring exact change, ones and 5’s, no one has change and your change just seems to find a home somewhere else not on your official Recibo.]
The Navy guy boarded our boat, and asked for a $5.00 donation. I told him loudly that he could have my change from the immigration guy. He shushed me and told me no problem. His behavior left the impression that bribes are a strictly prohibited here and he wanted no trouble. After he left I felt bad knowing with certainty that he is probably seriously underpaid.
The Marina is attached to a nice hotel with a good restaurant and swimming pool. Because of the social unrest in Nicaragua, there are few tourists and the hotel is clearly in survival mode. They run the generator 10 hours a day with a gap from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. That’s when the cruisers meet at the pool to cool off. Service in the Restaurant is slow due to the minimal staff. Juanita, who runs the place even helps in the kitchen. We waited 2 hours for our meal, and were amazed when they delivered food for twelve with different dishes all at once and hot. A work around for this is to order an hour or so ahead of your show up time. We really can’t say enough to praise the helpful pleasant hotel staff.
[PP: Our exit had another $54 in fees]
The next step was to plan our crossing of the most severe region of the Papagayo, south eastern Nicauragua. We planned to cross the gulf in two steps. Puesta del Sol to an open anchorage at Matsachapa. The following day we would plan to cross the windiest portion that lies off shore of Lake Nicaragua.
One recommended strategy for this region is to look at the gust strength rather than the wind strength. Forecasts showed winds in the mid-teens which is very comfortable sailing but gusts into the thirties..not so much.
The first day we sailed with the first reef and motor sailed through variable conditions. Our little fleet of 5 boats anchored for the night at Matsachapa as planned.
[PP: The waypoint from the Sarana guide was pretty inshore and the Pacific swell coming into the bay felt like it was piling up and getting ready to break. So we anchored outside the Sarana guide waypoint at 11 deg 47.884 min N 086 deg 32.014min W in 19 feet of water just after low tide. We use our fish finder when anchoring and the bottom looked irregular but like a sand bottom. Our set was very abrupt. Like hitting a concrete block. One of our buddy boats anchored just south and east of us and they felt their chain moving over what felt like rocks. When they tried to recover the anchor it was stuck in the bottom and they wound up losing their anchor when the swivel failed. Boats that were 100 yards or more astern and west of us seemed to have no problems. One of our group felt that we were anchored on a lava flow.]
Anchored at Matsachapa
Motor sailing in high winds on a beam reach may seem like a lame strategy, but we expected winds varying from the teens to the thirties, so we organized our sail plan to handle 40 knots…third reef and adjusted our Genoa when winds were lighter for a prolonged period. Having the motor on allowed us to have good speed in lighter air while protecting the boat in stronger gusts. For the second leg our winds were constant low to mid 20’s with sustained gusting to 34. One of buddy boats had their head board car system fail while beam reaching in high winds on this leg. Their sail bag was damaged in the process.
Our first stop in Costa Rica was at Bahia Santa Elena, a beautiful and protected bay. After anchoring, I had the customary celebratory anchoring beer and listened to the strange bird sounds coming from the mangroves. As I watched in the binoculars, three birds were loudly chasing each other and as they turned in the setting sun their wings flashed bright green….wild Parrots. This bay feels remote like some anchorages in the Sea of Cortez, we could have stayed there a week, but big winds were coming, and we needed to check in to Costa Rica, so we took the opportunity of a light air day to move to Playa del Coco.
[PP:The best anchoring at Santa Elena is probably on the north west side of the bay but these spots were already taken. The head of the bay is reported as mud on our Navionics SD card, so I anchored in the east portion of the bay on a lee shore at 10 deg 54.810 min N 085 deg 47.952 W in 29 feet over sand mud shells. We had a solid full RPM set, but with the chain out we were a little close to shore still in 30 feet. Doing it again I would drop in Mid 30’s].
At Playa del Coco we dropped the hook, and jumped into the delicious clear water of the bay wahoo. We could see the anchor chain arching down towards the bottom.
The following day we began the check in cha cha. First the port captain then the immigration office down the street, then return to the port captain, then $60 cab ride to the airport for customs and an import certificate for the boat. Then back to the port captain for a National Zarpe, allowing us to move to our next official port Quepos. We have to check in with the port captain every place there is one.
In the town we enjoyed a couple of meals out, and had amazing gelato at HELADERIA ITALIANA. The Auto Mercado was also excellent with great breads. Try the dark brown loaf.
These were great…
[PP: at Playa del Coco, we anchored at 10 deg 33.718 min N 085 deg 41.651 min W. We had great holding in sand but our spot seemed to be in the blast zone as the now raging papagayos threw gusts up to 42 knots at us. Doing it again, I would anchor 500 yards further north, closer to the hills which seemed to be more protected. ]
Smoke on the water
Exhausted from the constant wind we headed to Marina Papagayo. Where early mornings are very calm. We went around the corner, motoring up Bahia Culebra “snake bay” in high winds with the water blowing off the tops of the waves making a golden mist in the early morning sunlight. The marina is beautiful but isolated. I find that I am exhausted and take naps every afternoon, with a few boat projects in the morning. I took an early morning walk with Allan Niles a visitor on Sonomara and an excellent photographer. We took pictures of a troupe of howler monkeys and birds in the area.
