We set off fairly early from Rio Cacique in very light winds. The forecast had said 15-20 knots which would have made for fine sailing. It was possible the land was sheltering us and as we had no incentive to stay we headed off. We pottered along on battery power for about an hour with sails up doing very little. The winds picked up to around 8-10 knots so we shut down the motors and sailed very slowly around the southern end of Isla Del Rey. We then motored the final leg to Concholon Bay. As we entered the bay we took a good look and were unimpressed so, without dropping anchor, we turned and headed over to Isla San Jose lunching on freshly baked bread sandwiches on the way.
We anchored in an area close to a cave where we can, alegedly, dinghy in. As we passed the cave we took a look with the binoculars and decided our cave visit should be during low tide this morning. John and I went for a snorkel. The water isn’t crystal clear here but it’s much clearer than before. It is also, in places, a lot cooler. We saw plenty of fish around a rocky area. The underwater topography was fascinating with lots of ledges, overhangs and small canyons. No lobsters to be found though so we remain patient on that front.
The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing. Ta’ee showed up with another boat and they took off (with their kids, 7 & 9) to explore. They stopped by on the way back having been unable to enter. They had now come to the same conclusion as us in that low tide would be better.
We’re going to hang around this are for another day. The sun cover on our head sail needs some stitching which I can hopefully do. We’ll explore the cave at low tide and I’ll go snorkeling for lobsters again around the same time. Weather permitting we’ll leave here around 3am tomorrow morning and head over to the area around Isla de Coiba. Our actual destination will be dependant on the weather and the time of day at our arrival. We could be sailing anywhere between 150nm to 200nm so this should be roughly two days and one full night of sailing. However, if we encounter currents and/or really light winds it could easily be more.
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