March 10, 2015 - Transit Chamela to Tres Marietas

We spent the day in Punta Perula, Bahia Chamela in mostly calm winds.  We had planned to leave 5pm and do an overnight and enter the Tres Marietes at approximately 8am and were on schedule with an on-time departure.  Well, soon after leaving the bay we started the hobby horse motion and an uncomfortable sea.  Some waves simply lift you smoothly up and over and others present a bit more of a jolt you could say.  The bow, although seeming to take a dive at times, never actually brought water aboard or even created visible spray.  After evaluating our current boats motions I quickly had the kids and I take a Bonine tablet before anyone had any chance of feeling ill.  Cindy and Steve seemed to love the roller coaster ride while Kevin teetered at the edge of sickness.  Cindy went to the flybridge way up high for fresh air and I got out the iPods to try to bring music into the equation.  I have read that reading, video games, or whatever do not mix with when you do not feel well with the seas.  Look at the horizon they say.  We had already dropped our salon table down to make a bed for the overnight passage, so Kevin and I sat facing aft (backward) to watch the seas as they traveled behind our boat.  Kevin has long disagreed with audio books but thanks to sv Kenta Anae we had the Horton Hears a Who book on audio.  I really think that helped Kevin listen and relax and he survived with that and music until falling asleep for the night.  He may now have a different opinion with audio books!

As the night progressed the seas calmed down a bit.  Steve had possibly two hours to sleep after things calmed down before we reached Cabo Corrientes, and the wind picked up to 20-25 knots.  It got rough again and was not exactly pleasant.  As dawn approached the Tres Marietas islands were in sight, the wind and seas calmed down, and we were excited to have passed the "CABO CORRIENTES" ........  It is well known to be a tough passage.  It was a long night without much sleep, but sleep is overrated :).

The most excitement we had on this voyage was a Brown Boobie bird that flew around and came in for a landing to catch a ride with us for a while and take a rest.  This has not been unusual but this one had some issues whether it be our speed or the hobby horse motion, we got a good laugh at him.  As he landed he missed the railing and crashed into it.  This sent him to the deck of our boat where he flailed around a bit and then figured out a novel way to deal with our pitching boat.

Brown Boobie using his wing to hang onto the railing.  He hung on like this
for about 15 minutes.

Still hanging on!

The boat dropped off a wave and the Boobie lost his
balance.  He ended up standing on the bow sprit for perhaps
 2 hours before finally flying away.