On to Nicaragua

We sail and motor sail…the afternoon is great as we sail closer to Papagyo territory the winds pick up and we have the best sail so far.
As we approach Bahia Brasillito where we met our Cuban American friends, I decide to sit on the bow to enjoy the late afternoon sun. I start to panic as I see us approaching a large mass of brown water ahead. I yell to Michel about a rock ahead and he quickly alters course. We look at all our charts and there are no rocks charted. The mass was too large to be a whale but the strange thing was waves were not breaking on the mass….hmmm
Not too much further I see another mass of brown with fins poking up. I yell at Michel to turn the boat around and investigate. We crossed over a group of about 100 or so rays just floating around. This was the explanation for the other large mass I observed earlier on. We drifted overtop of them which was amazing as they glided underneath the boat. We were just off of Tamerino Beach and there were thousands of rays floating around and dozens jumping all around the boat. We wondered if one was going to land in the boat. An amazing site to say the least, perhaps it was mating season.
We anchored in Brasillito a lovely bay bursting with tourism. The white sandy beach attracts many activities. You can rent, jet skis, horses, hobi cats, and ATV.s. There was a wedding on the beach just at sunset- around the same time as 20 ATV’s roared through followed by horses. I would have freaked out if it were my wedding. Everyone wants a piece of paradise.
I had a job of returning Alphrado’s sunglasses. This involved swimming ashore from the boat as the dingy was stowed and there is a bit of a surf there.
We sailed to the next anchorage enjoying all the rays jumping along side accompanied by dolphins. The next anchorage Bahia De Culebr was a nice surprise right on the edge of the Papagayo Gulf where the winds are notorious.
The bay is dotted by expensive resorts on the hill tops. It seems that majority of luxury resorts are in these parts of Costa Rica. It is noticeably dryer and the brown landscape reminds me of Okanogan hillsides.
We had a quiet anchorage, well protected and no swell. We met a family cruising from Seattle with a beautiful, intelligent 8 year old girl. She seemed to enjoy cruising despite the absence of friends her own age.

Bahia Murcielagos the bay of Bats.
Once again we get whacked at the exact same place when we traveled with Pete and Sue. For some reason Michel opted to go inside the Islands rather than go the extra couple miles out. Apparently, he wanted to look at the islands. This knife edge peninsula has amazing rock formations that jet out of the ocean. The high mountains seem to accelerate the winds to boisterous gusts that scare the crap out of you. Michel kept saying I hate this shit…I was happy to see a group of dolphins follow us through. I talked to them and thanked them for taking my attention away from the anxiety that was beginning to take hold of me during the nasty gusts of wind.
We checked the Grib file weather reports for days and I was predicted to have 8-10 k winds. The winds were on the nose and more like 10-15 k but entirely manageable. We adjusted the sails to pinch as high as we could to windward which involved a course that was about 30 degrees off of where we wanted to go. This was a sacrifice for comfort as we could opt for tacking back as we got closer to San Juan del Sur. As luck would have it the winds and seas subsided enough to motor right into the wind for the last 10 miles. We only got a few bashes and waves in the face hardly worth mentioning. We felt like it was a perfect Papagyo crossing- as this is probably as good as it gets. We sailed for the most part of the day getting up to 9 knots and fighting with the engine into the wind at 3-4 knots