Despite posting one of our slowest moving averages yet (only 2.9 kts!), we sailed most of the way to lovely San Juanico. The bay is mostly unpopulated, except for a few luxury homes. San Juanico is a favorite among cruisers, and even has a “Cruiser’s Shrine”, which is a fancy name for a tree that you can hang things on/leave things under. Sequoia decorated a shell for us.
Another attraction on shore are cliffs featuring quartz crystals and fossilized shells.
Of course. the highlight for us was getting to spend more time with the crew of Theophilus. Captain Ron set up a swing on board for the kids, which kept them happy for hours. Plus, he brought along his Hawaiian sling on our daily snorkeling excursions, supplying us with some yummy meals!
This was the first time we all wore our “super hero” outfits at the same time. They’re actually custom made lycra suits, for protection from sunburn and jellyfish stings. Capn Incredible looks especially fetching (and German) in his high-contrast blue and yellow suit. While snorkeling we saw all of the usual suspects, plus a number of lobster, and coolest of all, a banded guitarfish.
Although we didn’t get to see it, Captain Ron was on the beach when the crew of another boat asked him for help killing a big squid that had washed up on shore, but was still alive. They gave him just a small portion, but the thing was so big, we got at least a kilo of meat! I cooked it up three different ways: batter fried, Greek style with tomatoes, and everyone’s favorite, Thai style with garlic and hot sauce.
The moon was pretty near full while we were in San Juanico, and the nights were calm and warm. One evening, as Toro and I were dinghying back to our boat, Capn Romance decided to take us on a little detour. He motored us out into the middle of the bay, cut the engine, and just let us drift. The moonlight glinted off the waves, and, knowing we had about a week left in our cruise, we sat back to soak it all in.
Todd began to reminisce about the trip, and the lessons he had learned along the way. I tried to focus on his soul-searching soliloquy, but my mind was racing. “Maybe this is it,” I thought to myself nervously. “Maybe he’s finally going to propose!” I tried to non-chalantly fluff up my hair, and tensed my pecs to boost my cleavage. After about 5 minutes, I almost passed out from the isometric exercise. Todd must have thought I was just nodding off out of boredom, because he soon restarted the engine and we zipped back to the boat. Sure, it was disappointing, but I reminded myself that if the guy has to spend two months salary on the ring, it’s better not to get engaged to an unemployed cruiser!
After about 5 days in San Juanico, we got a perfect weather window for the due north sail to San Carlos. We raced along under our trusty spinnaker, consistently posting 6+ kts speeds throughout the day. We were thrilled to see several huge pods of common dolphins simultaneously; the sea was filled with thousands and thousands of them, everywhere we looked! After we saw them, Koiya remarked, “Now we just have to see a turtle and a whale.” Within 15 minutes of her utterance, we sailed past a couple of turtles, and saw a whale breaching in the distance. The sail was both perfect and bittersweet, as we all knew it would be our last for the season.
See all of our San Juanico photos, and video of the dolphins (that unfortunately doesn’t do them justice), here:
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I shall miss your journeys! I’ve really enjoyed arm chair cruising along with you.
Me too.