This is our staging spot to cross the 6' sand bar into the Rio Dulce at Livingston, Guatemala. Not much to report from here except that we're here and had an uneventful motor here. We had NO wind and flat seas. The only thing of real interest was when were about 12 miles from the tip of Cabo Tres Punta there was a line of seaweed, trash, and foam which stretched from horizon to horizon. When we crossed it, you could feel the boat shudder and the speed dropped from 6.5 kts to 4.5 kts and stayed there. The water went from beautiful clear blue to a greenish brown. I guess this from the outflows of the rivers, but it was amazing at how clearly defined it is and how strong the current is.
We anchored south of our normal spot to avoid some swell coming around the tip. I had forgotten how quickly the bottom comes up. You're literally in 100' of water until you get near the shore and then it comes up fast. It took 2 attempts to get the anchor down well.
We had a great chat with Tom and Julie on Kiwi via the SSB last night. They're in Portobello, Panama and are getting ready to go to the San Blas islands. Once we head into the Rio radio contact gets very sketchy. We've had a regular time to talk, but due to propagation, schedules, etc, we've only talked a few times. I'm just really glad that we got to talk before heading into the river.
Tomorrow we'll depart for Livingston at around 8 AM so that we can cross the bar at 10 AM, which is about 2 hours before high tide. The tide will be at 1.4' instead of the 1.6' max, but 2" isn't going to change much, but when you've only got 6" of clearance at low tide, anything is good! Besides, we'll be coming through on a rising tide.
That's it from here. Tomorrow Guatemala!
- Geoff & Sue
Log ID: 407
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