San Blas

I received this e-mail from Suzi this afternoon. -K.
We're safe and sound in San Blas!!!! It took us two full days to do the crossing with some great wind and some crazy seas. As we left Cabo Wednesday afternoon, the winds were light and the sunset was just beginning. We were excited to get away from the craziness of Cabo and head out to sanity but were also a little tense knowing the winds were going to come up on Friday with the possibility of 20 to 30 knots in the afternoon. We were anxious to make good time and possibly get there before the shit hit the fan. We motor sailed and it felt great. David dragged a line behind hoping for his first fish, and I went below to start dinner. Suddenly David yelled, "Suzi, slow the boat down!!!! Hand me the gaff!" The beautiful golden, blue, green spotted Dorado was soon gaffed after fighting for his life. What a beautiful fish he was, and of course, I felt immediately sad. Oh well! We have been feasting on the yummy morsels since then, finishing with a wonderful evening with Richard, Virginia, Tony, and Cindy on Sidewinder last night in Mantanchen Bay.

As we continued our crossing, we shut off the engine and sailed most of the night although the wind was rather light. Early in the morning, after jibing twice trying to fill the sails, I turned on the engine and we began motorsailing once again. During my next watch, while motoring with our trusty autohelm doing the work, I was visited by ten dolphins who put on a 35 minute show as they rode the wake at the bow. I crouched down to get as close to them as possible and they just continued to vie for their rightly place closest to the rush of the bow, waiting in line for their chance to propel through the water at lightning speeds (or so it seemed) I felt very fortunate to have them stay so long and have so much fun while showing me their incredible talents! At the same time, a beautiful hitchhiker bird who had been with us for hours was on the bow pulpit wondering what all the fuss was.

We motorsailed for hours on Thursday and finally were able to turn off the engine, once again, basking in the peace and quiet of the waves and gentle wind. With hopeful anticipation of building afternoon winds, we proceeded to reef the main and settled in to have fresh Dorado for an early dinner. Rice, cabbage salad, and white wine helped us celebrate David´s catch and just as we began to eat the delicious meal in the cockpit, wind began to grow. We finished dinner, cleaned up, and off we sailed halfway to our destination. As the sun set (another gorgeous one) winds grew. I slept for a while and David watched. By the time my watch began, winds were gusting up to 12 knots. With the course we needed to steer, we were right on the edge of comfort, sometimes coming up too high but mostly Sidewinder slid well at 6 knots. The black night was well lit with stars galore but it was difficult to get a sense of where the waves were coming from. the next couple of hours were gusting up to 15 and it felt like we were in 25knots of wind in a washing machine. Waves were coming from every angle; in fact, before my watch, we got hit by a wave which came into our bunk with ease, waking me up with a splash. As I ended my watch at midnight I was really hoping the winds would die to about 12 knots even though we were flying more than 7 knots. Luckily the seas calmed down and the wind settled down and the rest of the time on our way to San Blas was wonderful. We sailed a lot and loved the idea that we were the only ones out there with no land in sight for hours and hours. Blue water is intense, as well as the feeling of being at one with the elements, or at least trying to be!

Friday afternoon we arrived in San Blas, motoring for a few hours to replenish the batteries and then sailing the last hour. The gale force winds never appeared, luckily, and we were very excited to enter the majestic bay which welcomed us to the tropics with calm waters, warm gently light wind, warm water, and sweet smelling land. Yippee! Yesterday the slavedriver captain David had us washing and primping Sidewinder from head to foot. By 1 pm we were exhausted and decided to explore the land. We took the dinghy in and met Mandy`s crew in la playa, ate some fresh coconut with hot sauce and lime juice, drank beer and walked down the road lined with little restaurants for miles. Late in the afternoon we felt the no-see-ums and walked briskly back to dinghy quickly back to the boat with our coconut husks ready to burn to steer them away. It was quite successful, and we got ready to have our friends come over for our last Dorado feast. David needed to celebrate his catch one more time. He invited a couple over from the little homemade sailboat not too far away and the 6 of us enjoyed life together one more time, eating, drinking, and enjoying. Today has been a San Blas day, and we find this a delightful town with a great central plaza and little restaurants, shops, carts, market goods galore. We'll bring the camera tomorrow and add some pictures to help everyone share in our experience. David's first thought today was that it was about time to begin enjoying what is cruising was all about. I think we now get to slow down a bit more and enjoy this everyday vacation. Yippee.

Phew! That was a lot to write and I feel like I should have written it beforehand and attached it like I did before. Just didn't have the time to do it before right now. We are sitting in an internet cafe off of the main plaza after just having lunch. Life is good. Please send my love to everyone. I miss my girlfriends the most.
Love you, Suz