Hitchhikers on Board

Sailing out of Chiapas after our final inspection and clearance paperwork was completed we set our course SE with the intention of sailing all the way to Nicaragua before stopping. Unfortunately, we met up with headwinds and large swells which slowed us down to a crawl at times, and drenched us with waves over the bow and rain from the scattered squalls at night.

Twice we had hitchhikers join us along the way. A juvenile blue footed boobie was the first to join us, riding along for almost the entire first day before finally flying off when several other of its kind flew past the boat. Only later was I to discover that the name boobie supposedly originated from the Spanish slang for stupid. The bird so named because of it's habit of landing on sailing ships where it was often captured and eaten by the crew. I suppose this one was lucky we were well provisioned!

Our second passenger was a ring necked dove with a light flesh wound on its belly that looked suspiciously like talon marks had made it. Perhaps this dove was the lucky survivor of a falcon's missed meal, heading far out to sea in order to evade it's pursuer. I provided a bowl of fresh water and some bread crumbs and shaved almonds for our guest and it was gladly consumed. Several hours later it departed towards land several miles away.

Two days and two nights later we evaluated the arrival time at our destination and understood there was no way to arrive within the required window of daylight and high tide, necessary for the tricky entrance. So we made the decision to divert northward and enter El Salvador at Bahia Jiquilisco where Barillas Marina is tucked neatly nine miles up the estuary, well protected from the ocean swell and winds. That's the way of sailing...if plan A does not work, make sure you have a plan B and C. So on to El Salvador we went.