The “must do” list of things to finish up before we head back to the rain is almost done. On Wednesday we should be ready to get our Zarpe from the Port Captain so we can go back to Manta on Thursday to Immigration. High tide on Saturday morning is at 11:52 am, so we should be on our way out of Bahia by 11 am. Once we leave here we’ll essentially be on the road for a year, with no nice long stops like this one.
We’re glad we made the decision to come to Central America and South America for a year. The Latin American people are marvelous, the sights gorgeous and the weather beautiful. I would recommend to any cruiser headed south to take the time and enjoy this part of the world before hurrying into the Caribbean or South Pacific. And of course we’ve met some great folks on other boats along the way as well. The social scene here in Bahia has been been busy with progressive happy hour parties, girls nights, pizza parties and card games here on Yohelah, boys night poker on Hello World, celebration of German Carnival on 11/11 at 11:11 am, and lots of going away dinners out.
But now it’s time to move on. We’ll sail south into Panama to the Darien River jungle for our first stop. Then into Panama City and the Pearl Islands in Panama. After Maya’s rabies blood test is done for New Zealand we’ll travel north into Western Panama and up through Costa Rica. T2 (Teresa Lennstrom) and family are coming to Costa Rica in February and we’ll rendezvous with them in Playa del Coco where we first stopped in Costa Rica last year. Hopefully we’ll get to do some diving and sailing with them. Then it’s time for our crossing.
We’ll leave Playa del Coco and sail out 200 miles to Cocos Island, a Costa Rican national park. The diving there is supposed to be spectacular and we’ll meet up there and dive with our friends from Hello World. Then it’s back across the ITCZ (intertropical convergence zone) again to the Galapagos, which should be about a 5 day passage. We’ll stop and tour and dive in the Galapagos and provision for the Marquesas Islands. The 2900 mile passage to the Marquesas should take 20 or so days.
The French are very fussy about visitors in French Polynesia and only allow non-European boats to remain in their waters 90 days without a long stay visa, which is impossible to get from here. In those 90 days we travel through the Marquesas, Tuamotos and Society Islands. A straight line course through the area is nearly 1,000 miles which means lots of time sailing to places with names like Tahiti, Bora Bora and Moorea, which are all on the must see list. Hopefully Leslie & Fred will make it down for a trip through the Societies with us.
Then it’s on to the Cook Islands, with stops at Raratonga and Suwarrow and possibly others. After that we may go up to American Samoa and visit Pago Pago. Then it’s on to Niue where Jeffrey & Nicole will join us for a passage to Tonga. My brother John and his wife Christine are planning a visit to Tonga. We’ll stay there until the beginning of cyclone season and then we’ll find a weather window for our crossing to New Zealand. Unfortunately that’s a 7 day passage for our boat and a low pressure system travels through every 5 days so the timing is tricky.
I know we’re both ready for this upcoming year, as is the boat. And hopefully Maya is as well.
Today on Yohelah we’re finishing up chores and eagerly thinking about the year to come……
