Day 11: Bahia de Caraquez

Winds throughout the early hours were very light and changeable. Going was slow with a lot of tacking and a bit of back tracking.

Started the motor at 06:00 to get round the point at Cabo Passado. Only about 20 nautical miles to go in our 10.5 day passage from Panama City to Puerto Amistad at Bahia de Caraquez (Ecuador).

Once round the point, we continued to sail the rest of the way, arriving at 13:30 (ahead of schedule) at the "Waiting Room" where we set anchor until it was time to cross the bar. Jordan had a brief nap while I tidied up. The Waiting Room is, as the name suggests, where you wait to cross the bar.

Sea Turtle with Pilot panga (fishing panga at back) courtesy of Eduardo

To cross the bar at Bahia de Caraquez, which must be done at high tide, it is required that you be escorted in. At the pre-arranged time, our pilot Ariosto jumped from the panga onto Sea Turtle.

Good-natured Ariosto approaching in a panga

Ariosto pointed out the directions to go with a lot of zig-zagging and brought us safely to our mooring (S00°36'388" W080°25'278"). After tying up, the panga then brought us to Puerto Amistad Marina where we were met by Tripp, the owner and agent. He took care of all of our paperwork for checking into Ecuador. He also said that he would pre-arrange the required agent for us when we head to Galapagos next March. Galapagos is part of Ecuador and requires 60 days notice before you can go there by sailboat. It can get very complicated dealing with all the paperwork but Tripp said he could make it much easier.

It was so nice to set foot on shore and relax over a nice meal as we received many tips and information from Tripp.

Throughout our passage, via Ham radio, we have had daily contact with SV Passion (friends from Panama City) and eventually SV Encore in Ecuador. Passion has been recording our current position in case of emergency and also checking our blog for our midnight position reports. Then on August 13th, through the PanPacific Net, we were able to get information on waypoints, tide levels, and contact personnel from SV Encore for when we crossed the bar at Bahia de Caraquez. And Aaron, Jordan's son, has been sending us weather information too. Sure glad we spent the time to get our Ham license and radio equipment.

Sea Turtle's positions around midnight each night made our route look fairly straightforward (see "Our Position" link at right of blog page). But in actuality, it was full of reverse-direction tacks and zig-zagging tacks making our total nautical miles covered (868 NM) higher than the distance made good (around 565 NM). Distance made good basically means the distance travelled over ground or straight line(s).