Going to the Hospital

Gulf of Montijo
This is a shallow shoaly river with sandbars and islands scattered about.
We plotted a track using Noble Tec and did not deviate much from the track.
We were able to transit sandbar shallows at 10 feet of water. We did pretty well considering the charts were about 20 feet off. ( our anchorage showed us on land) We arrived just before dark and went ashore to inquire about finding a medical facility.
We arranged for a hospital transit in the morning. Santiago is a small city is only a 30 km away.
We had a horrible dinner of salty seafood at the pier and watched the fish boats come in.
We taxied into town and Genevieve received some stitches and instructions and prescriptions to ward off infection. The care was pretty good and cheap (35 bucks) We got a whole lot of provisions as the prices of food were the lowest we have come across so far, in Central America. The towns are clean, quiet and the roads are terrific. The housing was the nicest we’ve seen so far as well.
Absent are the shanty town, the corrugated rusted steel structures so common in El Salvador and Nicaragua. The town folk seem subdued, no one looks at you in the eyes. It’s as if they are dismissing you or something. No smiles, just solemn faces…
It was kind of strange.
We got everything done early and found time to help Michel climb the mast to install the anchor lights. It was a bit breezy and overcast which made it a lot cooler. As he topped the 65 foot mast he discovered for furling problem and lubed the furling.
We had a nice dinner and went to bed early because we had to leave at 5:30am to catch the tides to get out safely.
We searched around for an alarm clock which is something we have not had a chance to use…as cell phones were alarm clocks at home and El Salvador.
It turned out we did not need one as we were struck by a Panga at 5:15 am.
We were a little choked that the guy did not even stop.
The only damage was minor pink and red scrapes along our hull.
We left shortly after and had a nice sail out of the river, making a record 8.5 knots