Monday, April 25, 2011

Unplanned stop - NICARAGUA

As we continued towards Costa Rica, our visiting sparrow flew off around 05:00 after a 10-hour rest on our lifeline. We motored for another 7 hours under the hot sun. Incidentally, this day Sea Turtle passed under the sun which will now be to the north of us for the next few years.

With the frustratingly slow progress, we decided to make an unscheduled stop to clean the bottom so we turned left into Puesta del Sol, the first port of entry for Nicaragua. It was another bar crossing but, hey, we are pros now and it was straight forward. Just before coming in, Jordan stopped the boat and turned on the GPS to see if there was movement "over ground" and sure enough, there was a 1 knot counter-current that we had been fighting. But that was only part of the problem.

Around 13:00, we docked at the nice but mostly vacant Marina Puesta del Sol Resort (N12°37.506' W87°20.521'), which is Spanish for "setting of the sun". We then had an easy marina check-in with English-speaking Dorian, and then went to the quiet infinity swimming pool where there were only 2 other people and relaxed in our water chairs!

Cool pool - cool dude

This marina is more expensive than Bahia del Sol's and is smaller. But they have different amenities and are very tropical with friendly staff. There were only 3 other boats registered here!

We spent the evening with SV Destiny to give them waypoints and share our favourite stops in Mexico for their quick trip up the northern coast when they leave tomorrow.

Now that we have checked into Nicaragua, we will stop next at Nicaragua's San Juan del Sur, a clearance port that is 105 miles south and only 22 miles from the Costa Rican border.

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