A sea day with something to do in the afternoon is a nice way to relax after a long and dynamic day in the Panama Canal. I had been keeping my fingers crossed for Golfo Dulce as with the start of the rainy season it can rain here very hard. So hard that visibility can be reduced to less than a quarter of a mile. That does not help with scenic cruising of course as I have to stay half a mile from shore when doing so. The area is not very well charted for close- to-shore sail by’s. We know where the deep water is, but we do not know how deep the shallow area’s are and thus we keep a good distance. There are many rivers ending in Golfo Dulce and they all deposit sediment along the shores and that means that banks are forming everywhere, especially where the tidal movement does not churn the deposits away again. This is happening to the great delight of the fishermen as the forming backs seem to be ideal for clams and oysters. I can never get very excited about sand banks especially if I do not know where they are, and that means that I keep a good distance. We saw some heavy rain clouds nearby depositing a lot of water on the land but luckily it was to the west of us and we had a dry experience with good visibility.
We normally sail past the North Eastern part of Golfo Dulce. The west side is lower and less dense in forest. Plus we cannot get as close as to the Eastern Side.
Golfo Dulce is our first port of entry for Costa Rica and that means that we need to be cleared by the authorities. For that reason we first stop off at the entrance to the Banana Port Golfito and a small boat comes out carrying an official with the all important entry stamp. He normally brings his whole family along and that has the advantage that I do not have to wait for him to leave the ship again. While he is clearing the ship, his family is eating ice cream in the Lido and we do our scenic cruising. By 16.30 we return to Golfito Roads and the whole family leaves again and everybody is happy. We got our clearance without a delay and they get their ice cream.
Anybody know this “model” of Dolphin ? I could not identify it exactly by using any of the reference manuals that we have on the bridge.
Apart from seeing the dense Rain Forest all around us, we had a nice display of dolphins near the ship. It seemed that they liked our 10 knot speed as they came in a large shoal to ride the bow wave for a while. When we turned around, they disappeared and then when we were back to a straight course and regular speed they returned. As there were soo many it was easy for the Travel Guide on the bridge to call everybody out to have a look. We run a constant commentary when going through this area, first of all as there is much to see, but to appreciate what there is to see, you need some background information to see it all in perspective.
By 17.00 we were outside again and sailed north towards our next port of call Puerto Caldera. This will be an early arrival as the Tours are going off at 05.30 in the morning. I am not a happy camper as we have to tender. Normally the cargo ship alongside is sent to the anchorage for the duration of our call but this time they cannot do that as they are behind with operations due to the extensive rain fall in the past days. Going to Punta Arenas, next door does not work either, as that dock is tidal dependant (strong current running) and the slack tide does not coincide with our departure time. That would mean that if the tours would be delayed in returning, I would miss my departure window and that would endanger a timely arrival at our next port. With a 6 hour delay, I would most likely miss that port call completely. So better to be at anchor and have a normal stay, even if it includes a boat ride.
I am keeping a close eye on the weather at the moment, not just for tomorrow but for the day after when we have to cross the Golfo de Tehantepec again. Last cruise we were very lucky and this time it looks like it will start blowing after we have passed by the area. It all depends on how fast a high pressure system in the Caribbean Sea moves closer to Mexico. No doubt all will be revealed tomorrow.
April 6, 2012 at 9:49 pm
Captain, I tried to find the dolfin species, but there are so many diffent kinds. I found a blog of some one swimming in the area of Costa Rica between spinner and bottlenose dofins. Without more detaild photo’ s i think it will be difficult to determine them. Maybe an other reader will have other information.
April 6, 2012 at 10:53 pm
Could these be ” Spotted Dolfins”? Some of those are light with spots , others are quite dark but have these spots II saw on your photo after magnification.
April 7, 2012 at 6:13 pm
I think you are right, see my today’s blog. That photo shows spots.
Capt. Albert
April 6, 2012 at 11:37 pm
Afternoon Capt. Hard to tell from the pic, but I believe that’s either a pair of bottlenose or, like Almuth said, a pair of spotted dolphins. There was a study conducted in 2007 entitled: Environmental factors governing the distribution of the bottlenose (Tursiops truncatus) and the spotted dolphin (Stenella attenuata) in Golfo Dulce, South Pacific, off Costa Rica. http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-71782007000200002&lng=en&nrm=iso&ignore=.html
Some excerps from the study: The two species were not seen together; The bottlenose dolphin clearly prefers areas close to shore, whereas the spotted dolphin prefers the central, deeper area of the gulf. Feeding areas are not clearly defined for spotted dolphins and they are usually found foraging in groups of 50 or more individuals along the central area of the gulf. On the contrary, feeding grounds for the bottlenose dolphin are associated with the river mouths in the gulf and foraging activities are developed individually or in groups not exceeding five individuals.
April 7, 2012 at 10:42 am
Wij genieten van uw weblog in Rotterdam.Onze buurvrouw blijft zo redelijk “dichtbij”.