From: John Barbie [jbarbie11@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, April 19, 2004 8:39 AM To: rutharras@yahoo.com Subject: Plodding South Hello all, We´ll we are back on the cruising circuit after our fill of In and Out Burgers, traffic, cold weather and clean restrooms. Our trip to the US started off with 2 missed flights (once my fault), two canceled flights and an impromptu trip to Las Vegas that gave us our fill of debauchery for at least another 6 months. Returning to the real world was quite a reality check but we definitely missed Spot who stayed under my parents care in Costa Rica. We also felt deprived of having a goal oriented existence which basically sums up what cruising is all about -- getting from A to B without too much incident. While reuniting with friends in the States we got asked a lot of repeated questions which I will try to answer succinctly. We usually sail 2-3 days straight from port to port. During this time we sail the whole way so night shifts are divided between us. I am on shift from 6pm-midnight and then we have a brief changing of the guards and I get my supposed beauty sleep. We cook, actually I cook, on the boat. We have a little butane stove and a large pantry of everything including Trader Joe´s salami, pad Thai noodles, ram-en, beans, chili etc. We don´t have refrigeration but we keep an ice box for milk, cheese etc. When it is rough out we resort to simple meals but otherwise our favorites are bacon, tomato sandwiches, chili, and baked beans for John which I only permit when the wind is blowing. A lot of the time we have to motor which is noisy but recharges the batteries for the boat. We see freighters and fishing boats at night and only rarely other sailing boats. Night can be scary. Just the other night I was sailing alone in 20 knot winds with full sails going 6 knots over contrasting swells and waves. There was no moon and it felt like it was about to rain. At that point you count down the hours until your shift is up but you definitely don´t have any trouble staying awake. During my shift the anchor fell off our boat which was a first for us. I always get scared climbing to the bow of our boat at night to do anything let alone retrieve a banging anchor but it was surprisingly light and no damage was done. As for entertainment, we read and read a lot. We also play Yatzee, I write in my journal, and John has no problem coming up with little games like tying line into brass knuckles... As for our most recent trip...we left my family in Tamarindo on Thursday. Because we had so much gear to load up on our boat we hired a fishing boat to take us to our anchorage. It turned out to be a day with huge swells (the biggest of the month) so after several swamped attempts to leave the beach, we finally made it to our boat. Unfortunately when we pulled up next to La Gaviota, Spot got his paw crushed between the two boats and has been nicknamed Three-Paw-Limp-Alot ever since. He seems to be healing well however and is presently enjoying the air-conditioning. We arrived in Golfito (the southern peninsula of Costa Rica) last night -- of course. We have met up with our Irish friends again after a month but we are leaving tomorrow for Panama. We don´t have too much time to complete our trip to Florida via the canal and the Atlantic coast of Central America but I am pleased to have remembered finally that the month of May is wedged between April and June. We hope to meet up with several other young cruisers making the same journey. The only other new experience we had occurred in Tamarindo where our boat was anchored alone one night while we stayed on land with my parents. We awoke the next morning to my dad saying our boat had drifted some 200ft from where we anchored. Luckily we did not either wash up to the beach or hit the precariously close shoals nearby. We´d be writing a very different email if things had gone seriously wrong. That is all folks. More stories from further south. Enjoy whatever cool weather you may be having because it is scorching and humid down here. Regards, Ruth __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Photos: High-quality 4x6 digital prints for 25¢ http://photos.yahoo.com/ph/print_splash