Hoping to be able to make us of some wind in the day we set off at 6am, before sunrise. The wind was under 5 knots and behind us so there was little point raising the sails. The upside of there being no wind was that the seas were pretty flat with waves measuring a few inches rather than feet. Coupled with exceptionally clear water we were treated to the sight of a couple of lone dolphins who, for a while, swam ahead of the boat seeming to swim in air.
We did put out two trolling lines, both with the same favourite lure (green/yellow squiddie with red stripe) but with one modified to have some shiny foil attached. We landed yet another mahi mahi, this one 11.5 pounds, on the modified lure. We found space in the freezer for two more filets. This mahi mahi managed to tangle itself up with the other line which took a lot of undoing.
The wind remained under 5 knots up until about 30 mins before we arrived in Islas Secas. By that time it was not worth the bother of raising the sails so we motored all the way in to an utterly delightful spot just north of Isla Pargo.
The waters looked clear and the temperature was showing an almost too warm 95F. We were all soon in though swimming round the small island to our NW. While not crystal clear the waters here are by far the best we’ve seen so far here in the Pacific. The number and variety of fish is amazing. We’re seeing fish we’ve never seen before. Again, the basic types we’re seeing are similar to the Caribbean but the species are clearly different. One of our favorite fish are the trunk fish. Here we are seeing bright yellow varieties for example that we’ve never seen before. Great to witness the marvelous and inspiring results of evolution.
We lost touch with each other while swimming. John and Helen swam to a beach nearby, and explored there. I couldn’t find them and got a bit worried about the possibility they could be in trouble even though I knew it was likely they’d gone off somewhere. I eventually found their fins/flippers on some rocks by the beach so I knew they were ok. They’d found a path mentioned by one of the guides but didn’t go all the way along it saving that for another day. On the beach was a tiki hut of some sort. Later, it looked like a couple were receiving a private vacation night on the beach set up by an assistant. Perhaps this was set up as an out of the way personal night on a beach far away from everything else. Well – they had to put up with us in the area.
We’ve definitely found a place we can rest up for a few days. As far as we know this is not a park where fees can be levied on us like the last spot. The island to our north, Cavada, is private and we’re not supposed to go ashore there. But there’s plenty of other places for us to explore and chill out.
In a few days we’ll head north to Boca Chica where we’re pretty sure we can pick up an internet connection and catch up things. From there we can access the town of David for more fresh provisions. We also have the option of heading inland to Boquete where we can hike up to the top of a 10,000 foot volcano from which we’re supposed to be able to see both the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean.
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