We fueled up and left Golfito on Sunday morning. After motoring for a couple of hours, the breeze filled out of the SW, and we had a fantastic 6 hours of beam reaching in the 12-18 knot wind. We even had good current, to keep our average speed over the ground at a tasty (by 'Bravo' standards!!) 7.5-8.5 knots. But as evening came on, the squalls began. Wow, what a nasty night. Up until about 2 a.m. we were continually trying to evade the rascals, often without success. With winds up to about 40 knots, intense lightning, ear splitting thunder cracks, and rain so hard we couldn't see the sails, the 'Bravo' crew were busy campers indeed!!
Eventually we passed through this area of squalls, and motor sailed in a 5-7 knot breeze for the remainder of the night. No harm, no foul, at least not to us. The 6 flying fish that we found on deck in the morning may have told a different story before heading to the happy lagoon in the sky!!! One hit our windscreen so hard that it sounded like a pebble hitting the car windshield on the freeway! Those critters can FLY!!
Fishing report: Big event yesterday was the 'catch of the day'. After trolling our favorite 'magic' lure all day without a bite, all of a sudden the reel was screaming!!! Looking aft while grabbing the rod, we saw an amazing sight as a 6' sailfish was tail walking and leaping high in the air. Like a scene from "Old Man and the Sea", Papa Hemingway would have been thrilled. I know we were. Adam fought the beautiful fish for nearly 30 minutes before bringing it alongside the boat. What a spectacular creature!!! Happily, unlike the big fish in Papa's famous missive, a quick slip of the knife cut the line, and off swam the sailfish to make more little sailfishes. The hook of the magic lure will rust out quickly, and he/she will just have a good fish story to tell his buddies about his ill fated lunch.
We continue to work our way south, mixing motoring with sailing when the winds die. Although we're motoring slower than normal to conserve fuel, we still managed 140 miles on our first 24 hour noon/noon day. Day 2 is slightly less, at about 135 miles. So far, anyway, the sailing has been better than predicted for this 600 mile passage.
Getting into the passage rhythm, we'll pass Columbia-owned Malpelo Island this afternoon, and should arrive in Ecuador on Friday or Saturday.
This post is via radio link, so no photos, sorry.
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