Late yesterday, we loaded the dinghy on the foredeck, took off the sail covers, and hoisted the Code Zero (our light air sail). Dave is going to dive into the deep locker this morning and get out the equipment to rig up our Monitor wind vane. We are going to practice with it on this trip, we hope.

The GRIB file this morning looks pretty good. A few more knots of wind would be better, but at least it's not too much wind. It looks like most of our passage will be a close reach. Our current winds seem about 5 knots out of the east

At 5 knots it would only take us 4.5 days, but we don't expect to average 5 knots. We will encounter some adverse current... we have to cross the Humboldt Current to get to coastal South America. We will be crossing the equator... going thru the dreaded 'doldrums'... an area of squally weather, and light and variable winds. We don't have enough fuel aboard to motor the whole way. So we may spend some time drifting along at 2-3 knots.

But we don't want to arrive on the weekend anyway, and 4.5 days would put us there late on Friday afternoon. And there is a 'bar' to cross on arrival. The most favorable time for us to cross will be next Monday morning, so we'll probably just target arrival for Monday morning, and try to sail as much as possible.

Our destination is Bahia de Caraquez in Ecuador, at approximately 00º35.8S 80º26.8W. You can read a little about the place here: http://puertoamistadecuador.com

Labels: Cocos Island, Costa Rica, On Passage

We left Bahia Iglesia about mid-day yesterday. The wind had calmed and turned east, so we hoped that Wafer would be protected and not too swelly.

We still had to recover our 2 dive tanks that we had left with Jody our divemaster--he said he could fill them for us.

And we needed to run the watermaker, which requires the engine to run. So we set up for making water and pulled anchor and motored the 6 miles around to Wafer. It was wonderfully better than we last left it. Still some swell, but very gentle. And a nice breeze blowing up the valley, keeping our stern into the swell.

"Our" mooring was occupied, so they told us to anchor, but it must be in sand. It took several passes around the bay, and me jumping in with mask and fins, to find the sandy spot. Most of the bay is very rocky. I also found a wreck on the bottom (maybe 2). Dave wants to take a quick snorkel this morning to investigate. (and thanks Roger for sending the map).

Though the rangers had told us there was wifi/internet here, we'd not bothered to check it out before when conditions were so miserable. But I was pleasantly surprised to get a whiff of a signal from the boat. I did get connected, but tenuously. Dave and I finally loaded the laptop in the dinghy and dinghied to just outside the surf line. Dave holding the antenna while I read the signal (head under a t-shirt to block out the sun). It was pretty comical, but we did manage to get all our internet
mail...I am now up to date on the small boat facility plans at MYC, and what my 'favorite sellers' on EBay have to offer this week.

But the important part was that we got some weather downloads. It looks like mild weather from here to Ecuador. All the red feathers on the GRIB files are gone, and there aren't many blue feathers (no wind).

By the way, someone in Golfito showed me a new weather site that's pretty cool... http://www.passageweather.com

We got our tanks back, thanked Isaac and Jody for their hospitality, and said goodbye to the nice folks at Cocos Island.

We enjoyed a nice dinner last night (without having to clutch our plates to keep them from flying off the table), and watched the moon rise over Wafer Bay.

Labels: Cocos Island, Costa Rica

We enjoyed a nice, relatively tranquil day yesterday in Bahia Iglesia. There is still a relatively large swell that is wrapping its way all the way around the island into our little bay, but as long as the wind is blowing steadily out of the north, it keeps our stern into the swell, and the motion isn't too bad.

We saw northerly winds of up to 23 knots yesterday, but by sunset they seem to have slacked off some, and were somewhat light through the night. With light winds, we do go sideways sometimes to the swell, but it is still better than conditions in the other two bays.

We took the day to do maintenance tasks aboard. But in the afternoon, we decided to try to land the dinghy ashore and hike to the waterfall we can see up the valley a little ways. With the swell, the surf on the rocky shore is pretty impressive. I suggested swimming in, but Dave watched for awhile with the binoculars and said we could land the dinghy between sets of waves. We did manage to get landed with the dinghy only half swamped, but then with only 2 of us, had trouble hauling the dinghy
up the steep rocky shore to safety. We did finally manage to drag it over the hump into the little pool of water created by the stream coming down the valley. We tied the painter to a high tree and left the dinghy floating. We knew it was a falling tide, so it would be OK when we got back.

We scared some wild pigs on the beach as we pulled the dinghy up. They are one of the few non-native species the Park is trying to deal with. The early exploring ships would purposely land pairs of pigs as they discovered new islands... to be a ready source of meat when they came back to the island. There are formerly British pigs all across the Pacific Islands.

It only took us about a half hour scrambling up the stream to get to the waterfall. Wow, what a beautiful place. The waterfall comes out of a cliff about 500 feet above us. In its fall into the pool below, the force is amazing, and creates a big misty wind in the little valley. We had trouble getting pictures without the camera lens getting fogged up. We posed for pictures and Dave took a swim in the pool (I am not fond of swimming in cold dark water). It is dry season here. Though the island
boasts 261 inches of rainfall a year, we have hardly seen a drop in the week we've been here. I can't imagine what this waterfall would be like in the middle of rainy season!

On our return to the beach an hour and a half later, we found the dinghy still floating in the little stream, but the stream was much higher up from the ocean...there was no surface channel going out of the stream into the ocean. The fresh water just disappears into the rocks. So we had to 'dig' a channel by throwing the big rocks out of the way, to make somewhat of a lower path to drag the dinghy up and over the hump and back down to the beach. Fortunately, we only had our 5hp motor, and we took
the gas tank and anchor out while we dragged. It took us about a half an hour, but we finally managed to get close to the water again.

It was an exciting launch into the surf and paddling canoe-style out through the first couple of breakers. We were again half-swamped, meeting the first couple of breakers, half breaking, head on. But we finally managed to get to calmer waters and get the motor started. It was worth it for the hike to the gorgeous waterfall, but would have been a lot easier with another pair of hands to help out.

The dive boat, Akeonos Agressor, that was anchored behind us the night before, had left at dawn. When we saw them come back into the bay again at sunset yesterday, we called to talk to them. They said they had been all the way around the island, and conditions were still very bad at the other two bays. So Dave and I congratulated ourselves on having stayed put.

Communications with the park are difficult from here, however. There is no VHF contact, the island is too high between here and there. We know that the two ranger stations communicate with each other using SSB 8325, so we tried that a few times, but got no response. We even tried using our Iridium phone, calling the numbers for the ranger station that was in the pamphlet they gave us. We got the 'Please try again later' message on the phone, that could mean anything from 'you don't know how to
dial an international call, stupid' to 'wrong number', 'busy', or whatever.

We did finally hear another conversation on the SSB, one side quite clearly, one of their patrol boats, we think. And though we couldn't hear the ranger station well at all, and we were speaking in Spanish, we think we got the message passed that we are in Iglesias Bay, we don't plan to try to go around Sunday to Wafer for the hike we had scheduled, and was there a way for us to get our 2 dive tanks back. (We hoped to have one of the patrol boats deliver them).

Dave, ever the optimist, thought after we shut the radio down, that it was settled that they would deliver the tanks. I wasn't quite sure.

So we sent an email to Isaac, the head Ranger's email address, to confirm. We did get a response back acknowledging our presense in Iglesia, telling us conditions were still bad in Wafer and Chatham, and not quite committing to sending our tanks back.

So we will wait here today, and if we don't see the patrol boat today, we will probably have to motor around to retrieve them tomorrow before we can leave. It is complicated because we do not have enough fuel to motor all the way to Ecuador, and it looks like we will have light and variable winds and a strong adverse current. (The Humboldt Current in this area is similar in strength to the Gulf Stream, in places, and we don't have a clear idea where it runs).

The conditions are forecast to moderate in the area starting today, and in a few days it will again be tranquil and very diveable. But we can't afford to wait, either time-wise or moneywise (remember, it costs $75/day to stay here).

We feel we accomplished our objectives here, we got to do some dives, we saw the hammerheads. We did 2 hikes in really lush conditions. It is time to move on.

Labels: Cocos Island, Costa Rica

Anchored in Iglesias Bay, Cocos Position: 05-30.61N 087-03.91W

About as soon as we crawled out of bed, it seemed that things moderated from the previous night's rocking and rolling. But really it hadn't. We had just got a little wind and lined up into the swell instead of sideways to it. We looked at the forecast for the next few days, and it looked like little would change.

So we decided we go take a look back at Chatham Bay, where we had anchored originally. Our dives for the day were supposed to be at Manuelita Island, the little island we'd snorkeled from the dinghy the first day. So we radio'd in to Wafer Bay and talked to Jody about going on around to Chatham in the big boat. He said OK, that they'd pick us up from our boat in Chatham.

Dave thought that Chatham Bay might be better. Even though the winds were out of the NE (totally exposed to the NE in Chatham), the swell was the thing that was killing us, and that seemed to be out of the NNW.

Well, needless to say, Chatham was no better... quite a different place than 3 days ago when we arrived. But we hooked to the mooring... it was rocking and rolling, but safe enough for the boat. And we went with Jody and Eduardo and did the dive at Manuelita.

It gets really dangerous getting in and out of the dinghy in conditions like that, with the boat and the dinghy bucking up and down 6 feet. We had left most of the dive gear in the dinghy, and just had to climb in with our wetsuits and BC's. But it was still hairy.

Today Jody and Eduardo had the bigger skiff, so we decided to take everything in their boat. (with the conditions the way they were, it would have been terrible for Eduardo to try to maneuver with 2 dinghies tied to together).

It was wild out by Manuelita, huge waves crashing into the wall and ricocheting back. We got fully geared up and rolled in over the side, while Eduardo maneuvered the skiff away from us. It wasn't bad down below... except visibilty was less than it should be. We started out at 90' and gradually traversed the island and rose to about 45'.

At the N end of Manuelita, we were finally rewarded with a sighting of about 10 hammerhead sharks, lazily swimming in circles (waiting for lunch!!). They ranged in size from about 7-10 feet... and they sure look menacing with their eyes in the side of their heads. Scared the heck out of me!!

We saw lots of other cool things... a turtle, and marbled rays, and fish who weren't afraid of us at all. Jody saw a yellow-bellied sea snake, but couldn't point it out to us before it disappeared.

After the dive, our plan was to move around to Iglesias Bay, on the South side of the island. Jody said he'd check when he got back, to see what the reported conditions were. A half hour later, we got a call that said that Iglesias was the same as Wafer and Chatham, and we should come back around to Wafer Bay.

Well, Dave and I both felt that Iglesias HAD to be better, being on the south side. We had heard the Okeanos Agressor (another liveaboard dive boat) call and request to stay there another day. So we told them we were going to go around the island and take a look at Iglesias for ourselves.

It was a nice motorsail... but boy were those waves big 'outside'. We hugged the island as much as possible. Though it was a little scary being in so close. We do have a chart (bought at the flea market in Golfito for $2), and I scanned it in to the computer, and though it's positioning was off on the GPS, we'd been able to more or less correctly geo-reference it with Sea Clear.

We could tell once we got around the back side of the island that things WERE much better. We could see the Okeanos with the binocs and they seemed to be anchored calmly. It turned out to be a little harder to find an anchorage than we thought. We didn't have any waypoints for this spot, and its DEEP here. We finally snuck really close in and dropped in 25 feet. But after snorkeling the anchor, we were in some coral, so while I stayed in the water to 'spot' the anchor, Dave re-anchored. We finally got a good spot in sand in about 30', with almost enough swinging room.

A few days, we would have called the conditions here 'lousy'. It is rolly and a little risky anchorage, but after 3 nights elsewhere in much worse conditions, it was positively lovely here.

And the scenery is fantastic. There is a rocky beach ashore (with waves crashing on it), some palm trees, and up the valley is a big waterfall. I'm sure Dave will want to swim in and try to hike to the waterfall on our own today.

We do plan to go back around to Wafer Bay early tomorrow morning, to go on a hike with the park volunteers, up to Cerro Iglesia. Hopefully conditions will have moderated some by then. (the forecast in the Gulfs of Tehantepec, Papagayo, and Panama all show easing conditions in the next 12-24 hours).

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Labels: Cocos Island, Costa Rica

We ended up making 2 dives yesterday with Jody, a Park diver, and Eduardo, the dinghy tender. (We are not sure what happened to the other guy...)

Jody and Eduardo
Because of the conditions, we stayed very close to Wafer Bay. We did one dive at Isla Pajaro and another dive at the little island just outside Wafer Bay. Both dives, the water was clear, fairly warm, and there were scads of sharks and lots of other marine life.

We went to a place that is supposed to be a 'cleaning station' for hammerheads, but there were no hammerheads there. Just lots and lots of White Tipped Sharks.



Dave got some good pictures of some of the other marine life we saw there. None of the marine life seemed afraid of us at all.







Today we are supposed to dive at Manuelita, the place where we saw a hammerhead when we were snorkeling.

Between the two dives yesterday, we got a pretty heavy downpour. We saw the brown water from the river come surging out toward the clear water, slowly spreading brown across the surface. But the fresh water seems to float on the surface of the salt water, and it didn't hurt the visibility on our second dive too much.

We took 2 dinghies to each of the dives, ours and one of the park's... Jody would get in the water and dive with us, and Eduardo would maneuver around in circles with the 2 dinghies until we surfaced. The land drops off straight from 500' above us to 100' deep not far from shore, so there is no practical place to keep a dinghy anchored.

Labels: Cocos Island, Costa Rica, Diving

Late yesterday afternoon, after we were cleaning up from our dives, the swell coming in to the anchorage started getting bigger... much bigger. And the wind became 'light and variable'. Meaning that we were turning every which way. And there is a current factor in this bay that we haven't been able to figure out, which was mostly pulling us sideways to the swell.

So we spent the night very uncomfortably, with a 6-8' swell rolling us back and forth.

The wind here certainly shouldn't be producing this large a swell. We think it is from the Papagayo winds up north.

It seems a little better this morning, but we're still trying to decide what to do. Our anchoring options are pretty limited. 2 of the 3 bays are open to this swell, and the 3rd is on the other side of the island, out of reach of the park divers. And we're not sure THAT place wouldn't be pretty swelly too.

Labels: Cocos Island, Costa Rica

Well, we haven't actually scuba-dived with the sharks yet, but on our first snorkle, we saw at least 5 3-5-foot white-tipped sharks, a large hammerhead, and numerous small (about 3 feet long) sharks laying on the bottom. They were scattered all over among the coral heads.

The Argos, off Isla Manuelita, Launching their Sub
We did finally get our official park briefing and checkin. Isaac, the head ranger, and Walter, the Chatham Bay head ranger, stopped by yesterday moring to do the formalities. We paid them $415 for the priviledge of staying in the park 5 days and diving for 2 days. This breaks down to:

5 days for the boat at $25/day (more for a bigger boat)
5 days for 2 people at $25 per person per day
2 days of diving for 2 people at $10 per person per day

The diving fee doesn't cover the cost of anything except an impact fee, and the 'hassle factor' of arranging for a park-certified volunteer to escort us on the dive. We still have to provide all our own dive equipment, air, and a dinghy capable of safely reaching whatever our dive destination is.

Isaac also told us that if we were visiting on an INTERNAL zarpe (transit permission) from Costa and back to Costa Rica, we would have been required to have park permission to stop here. But on an INTERNATIONAL zarpe, between Costa Rica and another country, we didn't need prior permission. We told Isaac we had looked for, and asked about, permission information, and couldn't find anything on the internet. He showed me the info in the brochure, on how to contact the park administration to arrange
for a visit. I have put the contact information for obtaining permission at the bottom of this post.

We are not supposed to dive without a park escort. From what others have said, though, once we 'pass muster' we MAY be permitted to dive without an escort. They want to make sure that (a) you are a qualified diver and won't get yourself killed diving in their park (b) That you know how to control your bouyancy and won't be dragging yourself all over the coral (c) That you understand and respect the park rules (take only photographs, leave only bubbles, and don't harrass the wildlife). They
also strongly suggest that you dive with a tender on the surface (ie someone in the boat). There isn't really a practical way to anchor in any of the dive areas... they are all drift dives. So there is always a 'surface tender'. Dave and I think we can drag the dinghy along... we do it all the time while snorkeling. But we'll see if they'll let us dive on our own after we get checked out.

Tito is the current park diver. From what we know of him, he is a volunteer, and is dive-master certified. I think he is pretty new to the park. This past week he has been diving with the group from the Undersea Hunter, and getting his nitrox certification.

So we are set up for 2 days of diving with Tito (today and tomorrow). After that we will see what we are permitted to do.

We hauled all of our dive gear out of the dark storage (we haven't been diving since Honduras!!), and checked to make sure it works. 3 of our 6 tanks were empty. We had tried to get them filled in Panama City, but had run into a snag with the annual inspection and ran out of time. We took them over to the Undersea Hunter, one of the liveaboard dive boats, and asked if they would fill them (making sure it was a time when all the divers were away). A really nice guy named Raphael did the fills
in about 5 minutes, and refused any payment. How nice! We knew from research before we left Golfito, that there would be at least one liveaboard in the area the whole time we were going to be here.

Yesterday afternoon, just as we were about to lay out a stern anchor to keep us into the swell, the wind picked up and switched 90 degrees, setting us firmly sideways to the swell (too firmly to trust a stern anchor on short scope). So we abandoned that idea and instead moved around to Wafer Bay. This is protected from the east (where the wind is coming from in the next 2 days), and is a LITTLE better protected from the swell. We were able to have dinner last night without clutching our plates,
and slept together in the after cabin.

Cocos Island Marine Conservation Area
Apartado 11384, San Jose, Costa Rica
Fax: (506) 2258-7350 Ph: (506) 2258-7295
Email: islacocos@sinac.go.cr
Web: www.acmic/sinac.go.cr

Isaac says you can obtain all the permissions you need by fax, phone or email. You do NOT have to go to San Jose in person.

There is phone service and internet on the island. They list the phone number of the admin office as (506) 2223-6077.

Labels: Cocos Island, Costa Rica, Diving

We were on the mooring in Chatham Bay by about 8am. The island is lush and green and we see waterfalls coming out of the steep sides of the island. Nearby, we see the Undersea Hunter, one of the liveaboard dive boats.


Soon after we arrived, one of the Park boats came by and said they wanted to schedule a time with us to do the park briefing. They suggested in the afternoon, like 2pm, to give us time to recover from the trip. But Dave was raring to go, and said we'd be ready in an hour.

The Chatham Bay Ranger Stations
So we piddled around cleaning things up on board and stowing sails, etc. They did not come back at 10.

A Booby Hangs Out on the Bow Pulpit
Finally at noon we called in on the VHF. When we asked if they spoke English, they said 'momentito' and a minute later a very young-sounding girl named Maria came on the radio. She is a park volunteer who speaks English.She didn't seem to have a definite time, but she was trying to be helpful. Apparently the main ranger station is around in Wafer Bay, and that's where the briefing is scheduled out of. She said we could come ashore and hike over to Wafer Bay, if we wanted to.

That seemed like a better option than sitting around the boat waiting for who-knows-when to get our official park briefing. So we got our hiking stuff together and went in in the dinghy. Maria and her boyfriend Daniel, who is also a volunteer at the Park, met us on the beach and helped us carry the dinghy up to the high water mark (we forgot to put on our expensive, heavy dinghy wheels).

Then Maria guided us up and over the mountain on the trail to Wafer Bay. It was a pretty strenuous hike for coming off a 3-day passage!! But the views of the bay from the top of the mountain were pretty spectacular.


The ranger station at Chatham Bay is very small and run-down looking. There is a group of volunteers here that are working on the beginnings of a plan to relocate the Chatham Bay station to a location higher up on the hill.

Chatham Bay Volunteers
But the Wafer Bay station is very well appointed, including a hydro-electric plant fed by a waterfall and dam. Maria told us they even had internet and wifi there.



One of the primary missions of the park is to keep it a fishing-free preserve. In this mission they seem to be succeeding. They patrol around the island out to 12 miles, and confiscate any fishing equipment and escort the fishermen out of the park. They showed us a warehouse of fishing line they have confiscated--huge rolls of 500-lb test shark line. They have taken some of it and have built an impressive-looking suspension bridge over the stream where the hydro plant is, completely out of confiscated fishing lines and floats.



The suspension bridge led over a stream to a Hydro Electric machinery building. We talked Maria into showing us inside.


When we finally met up with Isaac, the Ranger who was supposed to arrange the briefing, he said it would be much more convenient to do the briefing in the morning. Apparently the English-speaking ranger who was supposed to brief us, was off on a hike (we had passed her going the other way with a group of divers off the Sea Hunter dive boat, which is on another mooring near us in Chatham Bay). So now our briefing is scheduled for 8:30 this morning.

When we asked Isaac about diving, he said he wasn't sure he could arrange it!! The park rules require a park escort for any diving, and they only have one guy here now, (Tito), and it seemed like there might be some scheduling problem with Tito. So we will see what we can work out. I guess one of the most important rule is to have a surface escort, and with just Dave and I here, I'm not sure they'll let us dive without it. It would be a real bummer to come all this way to one of the best dive locations in the world, and not get to dive. So I'm sure we'll work something out.

Even just diving off our boat here in Chatham Bay would be interesting. The visibility is about 50' and on a quick snorkel to check the mooring, we saw lots of life--even a couple of small sharks.

The other problem we may have is the weather. From the best I can discern, winter cold fronts from the Caribbean spill over into the Pacific this time of year, creating some local wind events known as Papagayo winds. There is a big Papagayo forecast that may reach this far out, and change our wind direction to one that would make Chatham Bay untenable. So we need to get an updated weather forecast and make a plan for what to do when it comes. There are 2 other bays at the island we could anchor at, if needed, depending on which way the wind blows.

A third problem we are having is that Chatham Bay, at least right now, is open to a 4-5 foot ocean swell. It was bad enough when we were pointed into the swell yesterday, but last night about dusk, the wind switched around some and left us sitting most of the night sideways to the swell. We have been rolling like a b-tch all night--to the point where Dave opted to sleep in the salon. Even now, we are still sitting sideways and rolling nearly gunnel to gunnel.

All we need to do to fix this problem is set a stern anchor of some kind. But we're waiting to ask the Rangers what we're permitted to do (either hand set an anchor in sand, or take a long stern line back to the next mooring behind us.

Labels: Cocos Island, Costa Rica

Our 1am position: 05-40N 86-49W

The last 24 hours have been both beautiful and frustrating.

Beautiful because the weather is fine and we're going through an area of abundant sea life. We've seen big sailfish skipping along on the surface, sea turtles, several kinds of porpoises, red footed boobies (birds) and big frigate birds. We caught a nice fat yellowfin tuna... had a few hunks raw as a snack with lunch, and then some nice 'seared tuna' for dinner.

Here Comes Supper!
The water is a blue blue blue color. The stars were awesome last night. And there's phosphorescence in the water, so our wake glows.

But it has also been incredibly frustrating, because there's been virtually no wind. We did try to put the Code Zero sail out at the change of watch in the middle of the night, but the wind died again just as we finally got it rigged, so we rolled it back in and motored all night.


Every day the forecast has been saying 'tomorrow there will be wind'. Finally about noon today, I convinced Dave that the wind had come up enough to try again. We ended had a nice (slow) sail all afternoon, except a few times when the wind died off and Janet, our autopilot got confused. We're both doing other things and letting Janet steer, and next thing we know it, the sail is collapsing and we're in a hard turn the wrong way. You can't tack this big sail (it would have to thread thru the other headsails, etc). So we just let it backwind and come on around. It takes about 10 minutes to do a 'loop-de-loo', a full 360 degree turn, and get it settled down back on course again. We did that 3 times this afternoon.


By dinnertime, the wind had died and veered, so that we were only going about 1.6 knots and headed about 45 degrees off our proper course. And Janet was having a really hard time holding course. We held off until we finished a nice a quiet dinner in the cockpit and a nice sunset. But after dinner, we took the sail down and turned the engine back on again. We didn't want to get too far off course, because the wind is SUPPOSED to come up tomorrow.

Of course, as soon as it was my turn to sleep, the wind came up again and it got a little rough. I couldn't figure out why I was having so much trouble sleeping, until I got up and realized how lumpy it was. At the change of watch, we rolled out the staysail and turned the engine off again. The staysail is a small sail--just the right size to keep us jogging along at about 2-3 knots, with a gentle motion. Our ETA at the island is now close to dawn.

We could see the island vaguely in the distance just before sunset (at about 25 miles) At 0100 we were 15 miles out. I can just see a hint of the island on radar, but don't see any lights.

The moon set about midnight, so it is now pitch dark. But the stars are just amazing. Billions and billions... Just seeing the stars so clearly is worth this whole trip. You just can't see them like this, with no light pollution, in the civilized world any more.

As soon as the sun came up, we could see Cocos ahead of us, green and lush.

Labels: Cocos Island, Costa Rica, Fishing, On Passage

We are finally getting ready to leave Costa Rica! The fuel and water tanks are topped, the provisioning is done, we have paid our bill at Land n Sea, and we've checked out of the country.

Our plan is to leave Golfito today and stage at Puerto Jiminez (across the Golfo Dulce from Golfito).

Then we'll leave there early tomorrow morning on the outgoing tide, and head for Cocos Island. That leg is about 300 miles, so we expect to be there late Monday. We expect light winds and will motor if necessary to get there in a reasonable time. It looks like it may be blowing like stink north and south of us, but there's this light and variable zone right on the direct path from Golfito to Cocos!

Cocos Island (Isla del Cocos in Costa Rica) is a world famous dive destination. It is a closely-guarded national park, and we think it will cost us something like $100 per day to stay there and dive. Yes, that's a lot of money, but the only other way to get there is by live-aboard dive boat, at $5000 for a 10-day trip!

So we'll stay a few days at Cocos, and then head south for Ecuador. The Cocos-Ecuador leg is about 500 miles. Hopefully by going out as far as Cocos, we'll have a decent angle to be able to sail to Ecuador. But usually people say it is a choppy nasty trip with wind and current on the nose. We'll see.

We'll be sending in blog updates and position reports as we go, and you can watch it via the links on our 'Positions' page.

For you geographically challenged, here is our course in the bigger scheme of things.


Goodbye Central America! Hello South America!

Labels: Cocos Island, Costa Rica, Ecuador, On Passage

Dave is a big fan of flea markets--both to buy and sell. He tries to organize one among the cruisers every few months, to clear out old stuff we don't want.

Today is another one, here at Land n Sea. We have already bought something...2 more diesel jugs. I never thought I'd get Dave to put jugs on the deck, but the reports of $10/gal fuel in the South Pacific has encouraged him to think about it. (Not to mention 2 nice jugs at $4 apiece).

This afternoon we are hitting the road via bus, across the border to Boquete, Panama. We have a friend there with a farm, who has offered to meet us at the border and take us to his farm for the weekend. Craig and Sarah on Pogo II, another CSY. Craig also runs the Panama Sailmail station and the HP2XBA Winlink station, and he's promised to stop at the station so we can see his setup firsthand.

Labels: Costa Rica

We had a dinghy raftup the other night, in the bay here at Golfito.

Tim and Katy from Tierra Mar were the 'anchor boat' in their lancha, and everyone else tied up to them. They are the ones with the 'balloons' on a pole (actually inflatable beach balls).

Hors d'Ouvres made the rounds. Doggies walked from dinghy to dinghy (following the hors d'ouvres!). We had a good time watching the sunset.

Some of the local Gringos joined us too, so it was nice to meet them.


My opinion of Golfito has improved a little, since it quit raining so much and since a few other cruisers showed up. There are now about 11 boats anchored out, and only 2 are unoccupied. In November, we were the only boat in the bay with people on it.


We managed to arrive at the peak of the yellow tree bloom. On the hill above Land n Sea, there were 4-5 big trees with bright yellow blossoms. It was a beautiful site with the sun shining on them. (most of the blossoms have fallen now).

Labels: Costa Rica

The only problem with Golfito is that the fish are too plentiful.

The guests staying at Land n Sea's bungalow caught ANOTHER big Mahi Mahi yesterday. Everyone else they knew were tired of eating fish, so they shared it with the cruisers.

We had a nice grilled Mahi potluck last night.

Labels: Costa Rica, Fishing

Well, we had a nice trip to Pavones. The bus ride was an adventure, and it was nice visiting with Nathalie and Shawn, and their two cute kids.


The bus ride out to Pavones did indeed take 2 1/2 hours. It left promptly from the 'bus terminal' in Golfito, across from the hospital, at 10am. It goes right past Land n Sea, somewhere around 10:15am. As of January 2009, it is a tan bus 'Pavones' on the front. A typical old school bus.


The ferry trip was a blast. Dave loved the old 3-cylinder Lister engine that ran the ferry (a rusty old barge) back and forth. Dave says the engine was probably salvaged out of an old tractor. They hand-cranked it to start it.

We stopped at the crossroads in a little town called Comte to wait for another bus coming from Zancudo. But we arrived at Nathalie's house, in Cocal Amarillo, a little outside of Pavones, at about 12:20.

Though Nat and Shawn have bought a house up on a hill, for now they are renting a small place right on the beach. This house is right next to a school and a small store, and they can literally surf in their backyard.

The View from Nathalie's House

In the afternoon, they loaned us their "quad" and we went roaming around the heights around Pavones, looking for a great view, and then down into Pavones. It's a cute little surfing town with about 3 restaurant/bars, one surf shop, and 6 or 8 places to stay. Our friends from another boat stayed in place called Las Perlas, and paid $50 US per night, but it was a brand new place with A/C and a small fridge. We hear you can rent a place on a monthly basis for about $200-$300/mo.

Though it is high season in Costa Rica now, tourist-wise, it is low season on the surfing scene. High season starts in March when the good waves roll in, and again in Sep-Oct. So Pavones was pretty quiet. We only saw a couple of people surfing. But Shawn says that in high season there might be a hundred people out trying to catch one of those long rides around the point in Pavones.

Dave on the Quad

After our dusty ride on the quad, Dave went for a swim in the fresh water stream down the beach from Nathalie's house. Nat assured us there were no crocodiles there. (But the next day, on the way to town, we saw a guy who had just killed a venomous snake near one of the streams... they come down from the hills for water during dry season).


We went for dinner into town to one of the less touristy places to eat, and had a full-up Mahi Mahi dinner for $6, which is about the best price we've had for a meal in Costa Rica.

Nat and Shawn shipped a nice pickup truck back from the States this fall, with room for all us adults and the kids inside. But the kids like to ride in the back of the truck. So Nat and I rode in back with them. The only problem is, all the roads are dirt/gravel roads, and with no rain in a week, it's very dusty when another car goes by. Fortunately, that doesn't happen very often.

Kids Surfin' in the Back of the Truck




















We had wanted to take the boat back from Zancudo for the return trip, just for the experience. But the boat leaves Zancudo at 7am, so we would have had to leave their house about 6am. We opted to take the bus back, and go surfing in the morning.

Even though the surf wasn't much, both Dave and I got a shot at a good wave. And little Zoe got a ride with Mama too.

We caught the bus back to Golfito from the road in front of Nathalie's at about 1pm, and were back in Golfito at about 3:30pm.

If you're interested in some reasonably-priced real estate in southern Costa Rica, Nathalie is one of the few scrupulously honest realtors I know. So check out Point Break Realty if you ever get to Pavones.

And Shawn does surfing lessons and kitesurfing lessons on the beach behind their house.

Labels: Costa Rica

We are headed today on a small side jaunt to the surfing town of Pavones. It supposedly has the best 'left break' in Central America. My friend Nathalie lives there and has offered us a place to stay overnight, and we are just going for the heck of it.

Map to Pavones from Golfito
The trip to get there is a typical Central American trip... on a bus down a bad road, offload from the bus, on a rickety ferry (not big enough for the bus) and then on another bus. It is only about 20 miles as the crow flies, but it will be at least a 3 hour trip on the bus.

On the way back, we'll get Nathalie to drop us at Zancudo (another surfing town) and take a lancha back to Golfito.

Should be an adventure!

Labels: Costa Rica

We had a nice time partying with the cruisers hanging out at Land n Sea in Golfito.

The fireworks shooting got a little crazy around midnight. Tim has a small brass cannon that is just perfect for aiming rockets. There was a playful 'exchange of fire' between the 3 marinas. But everyone was pretty careful to aim away from the boats. Nothing caught fire and everyone seems to have come away from the evening with all their limbs intact. Tim did most of the dangerous stuff out in his lancha.

Dave went with him on one trip in the lancha to fire off some of our old flares. These were the big expensive offshore hand-held parachute flares, all with expiration dates in the 1990's. When fired correctly, every one of them worked. On the other hand, the little pencil flares...none of them worked.

Moral: don't trust your life to the cheap stuff.

This may have been the first time in several years that we actually stayed up til midnight.

It's a beautiful day in Golfito, and we are very glad to be back aboard.
Happy New Year, everyone!

Labels: Costa Rica