We split the passage from Bahia Asuncion to Bahia Santa Maria in two so we would arrive in daylight. We had a beautiful day sail to Punta Abreojos where we anchored overnight before carrying on the next morning. Abreojos means “open your eyes”. An appropriate name for a place with so many unmarked hazards. No detail on our charts, so we had to rely on our guide book Charlie’s Charts to guide us in and out safely.
The next leg was overnight, and we didn’t fare so well with the wind. We only had about 8 hours of sailing out of the 29 hours of the passage. Chris and I were finally able to get into the rhythm the night passage, and arrived in Bahia Santa Maria reasonably well rested.
After 2038 miles since leaving Ladysmith we feel like we’ve finally arrived. The water temperature has increased to 25 degrees, so the first order of business after dropping the hook was to jump in for a swim. So glorious!
That afternoon, Ken went around all the boats in the anchorage to invite them to a dinghy tie up happy hour behind Naida. By now most of the people heading south had already met each other as we leap frog our way down, so we already knew everyone.
The next day with the crews of Naida and Vortice, we crossed the surf line in our dinghies to explore the mangroves at the head of the bay. Such a beautiful contrast between the desert and the lush green of the mangroves. It was an amazing place, we’ve never been in a mangrove before. I’m curious why the mangroves don’t fill in from silt, causing it to become dry land. Their roots are always in water.
The fishermen have camps in up in the mangroves, buzzing down the chanels in their pangas to fish in the open ocean. They didn’t seem to mind our intrusion too much.
Lobster for dinner tonight. The fishermen came by our boat today and traded us two lobster tails for three Cliff Bars. Then Chris felt bad and gave them three Ausie Bites as a tip.
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