Before we began our overnight passage to Golfito, Matt wanted to secure our wifi antennae which is located at the top of the mast.  He had noticed it was a bit wobbly the other day and didn’t want to risk losing it at sea.  Fairly easy process…hoist him up our 70’ mast, tighten a bolt, and bring him down.

Matt hoisted up our 70′ mast to resecure the wifi antennae

We planned on leaving around 1800, just as the sun was setting, but Sugar Shack had other things in mind.  Matt went to start the Starboard engine and a belt was making a racket.  He spent the better part of an hour aligning, hammering, tweaking, and fixing things before we could get going.  Not a big deal.  This passage should take us between 13-16 hours and we need to arrive in daylight.  So, an hour or two delay didn’t impact us much.

The first 3-4 miles out of Isla Gamez required the most vigilance due to the surrounding reefs and random shallow spots.  It was an art of dodging and weaving, but not too difficult.  Once safely through, we set the course for the first 40-miles of our journey.

The first 90 minutes were uneventful, but around 21:30 we saw and felt a storm coming our way.  We tried to avoid it, changed course and slowed down, but to no avail.  Each time we tried a new tactic, the wind shifted and put us smack in the middle of the storm again.  Rain is not too much of a problem, just annoying.  But the lightening is frightening.  The last thing we want is to be struck by lightening and it was all around us.  We have a 70’ stick that attracts energy and we were terrified that something awful would happen.

Lucky for us, the bolts did not strike us.  The storm delayed us by about 1-1.5 hours, took us several miles off our track and soaked us, but nothing else.  Whew!

Here is one of the shots of our radar showing us smack in the center of the storm.

During my early morning shift, 0100-0400, the moon came out to light our way.  Even with the storm clouds, the moon shown brightly illuminating the sea.

We pulled into Golfito around 0900, about 15 hours after we left.  Perfect timing as it was bright and sunny out, channel was clearly marked, and the bay was not too busy.  We anchored in front of Land and Sea, a very, very small marina and started the massive clean up from the night’s passage.

PASSAGE DETAILS:

• Total distance: 87.3 nm
• Total travel time: 15 hours 35 minutes
• Top speed 7.8 kn
• Average speed 5.6 kn