Tuesday, 25 March 2014 – After a month long stay in Barra de Navidad, and with a great trip inland, we are leaving later today for La Cruz. Six or seven boats have already left to sail north with some of them planning on using the various anchorages along the way. Everyone is taking advantage of a decent weather window to round Cape Corrientes.

The morning was spent organizing the boat for departure and settling our Marina account. We dropped our lines and headed out of the Marina at 6:45 p.m. and got under way. After crossing the bay and somewhere off the entrance to Tenacatita, we started our formal three-hour watch cycle. I started first at 9:00 p.m.

We had already seen a quantity of ‘Red-Tide’ and had passed several large patches of small clear blobs about a half-inch in diameter. Though they are often referred to as “jellyfish eggs” these weird little creatures are called ‘Salps’ and are present because of phytoplankton blooms, which are their food source. As this was our first encounter with these issues, I was concerned about them possibly clogging the engine intake filter. After checking, they did not seem to be an issue as I saw none trapped in the filter.