Whhhhhhhoooooossssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

deep breath and…

Woooooohhhhhhhhhhssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

and repeat.

Wow, these Papagayos’ are flippin’ HOWLING!!! We’re anchored just off the town of San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua in the heart of the ‘gap’ wind zone. While technically we are north of the Golf of Papagayo, this area lays smack dab in the middle of the Papagayo gap wind zone. The winds are known as gap winds because the blow across the gaps in the mountains running down the length of Central America. There are 3 main gaps, the Tehuantepec, the Papagayo, and the Gulf of Panama. In these small, concentrated zones, the mountains and valleys funnel winds that build on the Caribbean side of Central America over to the Pacific side. In the process they can accelerate to twice their forecasted strength. And forecasts are notoriously ambiguous. For example, the weather forecast we downloaded from the US’s NOAA center yesterday included the following:

FRESH NE WINDS IN GULF OF PAPAGAYO INCREASE TO STRONG WITHIN
NEXT 24 HOURS AND PERSIST THROUGH FORECAST PERIOD

Exactly what does “fresh” mean? Are these winds going to smell like my bed sheets don’t? In previous forecasts the wind has been described as “brisk”, the seas as “lively” and the conditions as “uncomfortable”. Its like you have to get to know the forecaster personally to understand their nuances.

Yesterday, at the start of the forecast the winds were consistently blowing 20 – 30 knots, with gusts to 35 knots. With the forecast being what it was, we decided to leave one person on Khulula at all times with we assessed the stuck-ness of our anchor; a failure in any part of the system could have Khulula blown to the Galapagos. rapidly. As I write this the winds have built to 30 – 35 knots, with gusts to 40+ knots. Whew!!!

Well, so far so good. We have our “SuperMAX” anchor out (anything with Super and Max in the name must be good, right?) and it is holding us firmly in one place. But it is still unnerving to feel Khulula shiver, shudder and heal over when the wind goes “woooooohhhhhhsssssssssss” and hits us with a 40 knots blast!

And to be honest, these conditions over the past few days have got us to thinking “Are we getting soft”? We’re not even at sea and the weather gives us pause! We’re anchored in a relatively flat harbour; imagine if we were a few hundred miles off-shore and dealing with the associate 10 – 15 ft seas! Now that would be really unpleasant! It is just that our base-line of comfort has been adjusted. Since sailing out of the Gulf of Panama in the middle of December, Khulula and her crew hasn’t seen winds greater than about 15 knots (except for a brief few days in January). So we’ve gotten used to the relaxed atmosphere and ease of mind that goes along with calm winds. These new conditions of stronger winds and variable conditions are almost welcome, as they are preparing us for negotiating our way up the coast of Central America and Mexico to California, a stretch that is much more complicated than the more straight-forward Trade-Winds of the Atlantic and Caribbean we’ve most recently dealt with. The planning is much more like our trip down to New Zealand and rounding South Africa.