9AM Position Report
Yesterday morning at 9AM found us at the "Waiting Room" in Bahia de Caraquez, after a relatively benign day of sailing. The waiting room is the place where you hang around until a local pilot comes on board to guide you through the nightmare of shifting sandbars at the entrance the the Rio Chone and the estuary where the Puerto Amistad marina is located.
Our last day at sea saw some of the best weather we have had on this passage. We were able to sail for much of the way with a west wind, on a beam reach, just cruising along at 4 or 5 knots with less than 10 knots of wind. The only problem was that we were going too fast. We had to time our arrival at the waiting room for around 9AM, in order to catch the 10:45AM high tide (the only time you can enter the river with a deep draft sailing vessel). If left to itself, the boat was determined to get us there around 3AM. We reefed our sails right down and when we had to motor we did so at barely above an idle speed, and we still ended up having to overshoot our destination by about 5 miles and double back, just to stall for time. We were kept busy though, dodging a large number of fishing vessels all night long.
The pilot showed up around 9:30AM and we were safely anchored near the marina by 11AM. As soon as we had submitted our paperwork to the marina staff so they could get us checked into the country, we hit the very nice marina restaurant for lunch. Afterward, we had to hang around the marina until almost 6PM, waiting for the "health" inspector to clear us in. As soon as we got back to the boat, we pretty much crashed and slept until late this morning. What a treat it is to be in a very safe, calm, anchorage after all that time spent in Panama City.
I will post more details as soon as we sort out some better internet access.
{GMST}00|35.8|S|080|26.8|W|Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador|Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador{GEND}
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