We had an interesting sail, we stayed about 3 or 4 miles from Aloha all night. At one point about 17 miles off shore we saw a couple of lights ahead. There was nothing on Radar, and as we got closer we saw that we were on a pretty close approach and considered altering course to avoid. But I figured that I could stay on course keep an eye on them and avoid as necessary. It turned out to be a small Panga, with two very bright lights and a couple of guys fishing. That was our excitement for the night. We anchored at about 8:30 in Bahia Santa Maria. This bay has a pretty big mountain/hill between it and the ocean to the west, but to the north it is just a small spit/beach pretty low, so while it blocks the swells, it does nothing for the wind. Which at the moment is pretty light.
The Merry Lee and Lost Pearl are here and are anchored not far from us. Aloha is still coming in. They are better sailors than we are, as I talked to him periodically on the way down, and they only motored for about an hour and a half, whereas we gave up when the wind came from directly behind us, and dropped to about 10 knots apparent. He was able to maintain 5+ knots with approximately the same course as us. We ran the engine, but I kept the RPM at about 2500, vs our normal cruise RPM of 3000. This kept our speed over ground to about 6 knots. I did not want to get here before sunrise, so that we could see where we were anchoring. We left at 4 pm, and arrived at 8:30 am, so 12.5 hours. There are quite a few boats here (about 6 or 8) and I saw 3 or 4 leaving as we were pulling in. Compared to what we have seen on this coast, the only place that compared was Turtle Bay. This was a long night, we are going to go to bed and get some sleep.
We slept for a bit, then got up, and I called my uncle Gary. After getting the info from my mom that he was awake. That took an act of congress to get him on the phone. The operator at the hospital was convinced he was still in ICU, nope, not in the first one, not in the second one, back to the operator. Finally found out what room he was in, but he was busy, and the phone did not get answered. Wait a bit and try again. Found out what room he was in, but when I tried to call that number, found out I needed to know which bed he was in (private room only one bed) back to he operator, this is the room he is in, and I want to talk to the nurse. Yeah, he is not in this department, so hang on and another transfer. Two hours later…. I talked to him and he is doing pretty well. Could go home tomorrow. The blockages are inoperable. So, some more phone calls to health care providers for him and his neighbor etc. Also called AT&T to figure out why my iPad can’t find my iPhone for hotspot. Two more hours on the phone and a promise to call back tomorrow (I have heard that before) now an hour after the last phone call it is working. Who knows why? Who cares?
I don’t know if I can post pictures yet, we will see.