Had a nice day fooling around here at Gitana. Steve from Sassafras came by this morning and invited us over for coffee and English muffins which Kathy had baked. They are an interesting couple from Nanimo, B.C. He 43 and she a bit younger, both commercial fishing people. They did sportfishing charters in Mexico for a number of years, then in the South Pacific...they've got lots of pictures of Tonga, Fiji, the Solomons, etc. Sassafras is a small steel sloop which they built themselves on an island near Nanimo. They brought it down the coast unfinished, loaded with stacks of cedar which Steve is using to finsh the interior. He plans to be here quite a while while finishing both the inside and the cockpit. They are on a very low budget but seem to be having fun.
We had a potluck at the club in the evening. In addition to the boats already here a New Zealand boat named Pheonix came in with Peter, Nancy, and two of their guests, Smitty and Judith. They have had their dinghy stolen so we gave them a ride into shore. Peter and Nancy sailed north across the Pacific and spent two years in Alaska and Canada before coming south. Interestingly enough, they say that while Alaska is by far the most spectacular place they've cruised, the most interesting to them has been the islands of Hong Kong (I never realized that there were more than the one big island of Hong Kong). Smitty is vacationing from his vacation place in Puerto Escondido in Baja California. A jovial guy of about our age, he ran into Pheonix when on his own boat, Vagabond Lover, in Agua Verde and they invited him to look them up when he got to Costa Rica. Nice evening, nice people!
Lois wasn't feeling to good today. We were sitting over at the club talking to Linda when she complained of feeling nauseous so we came back to the boat and she spent the rest of the afternoon in bed. She complained of being hot, and was running a low fever. Hope it doesn't last long...she's hardly ever sick.
08:00 Anchored in the estuary in front of Puntarenas Yacht Services. Lois went back to bed while I headed for the engine room to change Gimmy's oil. I don't like working in the hot engine room, but I think it's better if the oil is changed when it's hot so change it I did. It went pretty well this time, no spills and the new filter went on without too much of a struggle. Once I got that done I ran the Metz up to the fuel dock where they also sell all kinds of lubricants. Pheonix and Leda were there fueling so I parked the Metz between them, went in and bought 10 gallons of Chevron 400 engine oil, 5 gallons of hydraulic oil, and one gallon of gear oil for the windless. I think I'll take it apart again this next week and see how things are holding up now that we've been driving it with the hydraulic motor.
I got all my oil on board and stowed, then took all the trash and waste oil and went in to Anna's. Eggert is off in the States again but she is there, as pretty as ever. I walked up town, got some fittings for my watermaker valve and some fresh fruit and peppers which Lois had ordered, then had lunch in a little Tico cafe with a young man named Gary who lives here and told me he makes his living as a magician...neat young man. By the time I got back to the boat Lois was up and feeling much better so after a bit we went back in so she could say hello to Anna and pick up a few books from the trading shelf. We were sitting in the patio talking to the yachties when a man about our age approached with some question about the Caribbean. He introduced himself as John Orlando, the skipper of a 110 foot fishing boat called the Smokey Point which he just bought in Louisiana and is taking to Alaska. He lives in Mukulteo and runs several fishing vessels in Alaska along the Aleutian chain. He came in here with some engine problems and is getting taken royally by the local repair people. He said the agent, Ramon, charged him $2000 just to handle his Costa Rican check-in! He left his crew to handle the boat while he got off to take a break. We talked for a while and then invited him out to the boat to look at some charts and he ended up staying for dinner. John is a really nice guy! He's got one artifical leg to replace the one he lost in Korea but gets around pretty well. He says he likes to get away from his crew which he calls his "animals" whenever he can...says they are great when there is tough work to be done, but they aren't much for company and can't cook worth a damn. He's looking forward to having a few weeks with his wife at home before heading north to Alaska.
10:40 Anchor up and on our way. There wasn't much of a tide today, only about six feet, so at some places in the channel we had less than two feet under our keel...kind of spooky!
12:30 Anchored at Tortugas. A sailboat called Margarite was here, plus a couple of tour boats and another big sailing ketch which is careened on the beach. I suspect that the careening wasn't intentional...it's so high on the beach that it'll be several days before there will be a tide high enough to get it off. We cranked up Gennie (She threatened not to start but finally gave in.) and got on with the water making. During the afternoon the tour boats left and two more sailboats came in, Pheonix and True Love. The weather was great, the sea calm, so we decided to spend the night.
Lois' still wasn't feeling very good - her voice was about gone today - and I had a bit of a sore throat so, other than for our little trip to see our grounded friend, we pretty much stayed on the boat. Toward evening Pheonix invited us over for a drink and, because we were feeling a bit better, we went over for a while. It's a beautiful boat, a cutter rigged Force 50, the only one I've ever seen as nicely arranged. Peter designed the interior himself with their plans in mind and had the work done in Taiwan. He said they put all the money they had into the boat and have no income so knew that in order to cruise with her they would have to charter, someting they did for a year or so in Hong Kong, then for two years in Alaska. It's the kind of a boat that their customers can feel very good about. Peter says that the only advertising they've done is to run a small ad in a magazine which I think is called Adventure Cruises.
It was another pretty day at the Tortugas. The water was particularly clear and, after breakfast I ran through the shallow channel between islands where I found big schools of good sized fish as well as lots of the little fellers. I even took the gun for a little while, but had my usual luck on spearing anything...I took a point blank shot at a huge triggerfish and watched him swim away as the spear bounced off his tough hide. Oh well, we've got a freezer full of Mahi-Mahi anyway. I also took a look at the ground tackle of our friend on the beach. It's no wonder he's there; his anchor and chain are too light for the boat and he obviously doesn't know the proper techniques for anchoring. He's run out a long rope rode from the stern of the boat on which he has one small Danforth tied with no chain at all. It has drug through the shallow layer of sand on top of the coral. From it another long line leads to a light chain and plow anchor in deeper water but it isn't set either. Even if the anchors should hold they aren't placed in a way that will keep the boat from swinging farther up the beach when the tide finally floats her. From the way the people have been acting I'd guess that they may be new owners of the boat, possibly on their first voyage out of the harbor but, since they speak no English and ahven't indicated any desire for help, I don't feel like I ought to offer advice. There are a number of Costa Rican fishing boats around which I'm sure could help if asked, but they too have looked, shaken their heads, and walked away.
Lois did a wash while I was fooling around on the reefs so we ran Gennie to replace the water then I changed her oil. I also found that we are down about an inch on the hydraulic oil even when we haven't run the motor. I got ahold of Mel on the radio...Marco monitors 12.410.5...and asked him about it. He agrees that, since there is no visible leak, it must be in either the heat exchanger or the pump itself. I hope it's the heat exchanger...Nan's got a new one coming but I'm not sure how we'd get a new seal put in the pump down here.
About eleven o'clock we hauled up and ran over to Gitana. We anchored there and went in to the club for lunch. Linda and Danny were gone but the little Tico girl made hamburgers for us. We also got to see the monkeys which were in the mango trees behind the house. I went back for the camera and got some pictures, but it was their siesta time and I couldn't get them to do any growling for me. They make most of the noise just before sunrise and in the evening. Had a swim and a shower then went back to the boat to nurse our colds. Both Lois and I are pretty croky...hope we're feeling better by Sunday when Bob and Kris arrive.
Other than for that we spent the day cleaning up the boat and moving to our "company coming" configuration. All the junk in the forward stateromm had to be stashed elsewhere, most of it in our stateroom. We got that done, then Lois vacuumed the boat while I fussed some more in the engine room. We did go in for a sandwich and swim in the pool in the afternoon. Both of us are still feeling the effects of our colds...nothing serious, just feeling sort of lowly.
Fitting the coupling into the accessory drive was a lot more difficult than pulling it out...it took me a half hour of grunting and groaning, and I was also feeling the effects of my cold so by the time I got the pump put back on the engine I was pooped! It took me a couple of hours of rest before I could move again. By then the wind, which had started gusting from the north before dawn, was really starting to howl. Here in our cove we are pretty well protected from that direction, but we could see white caps and rollers off both ends of the island. We washed down the decks and Lois washed the windows but soon there were clouds of dust drifting over the island. And the wind was hot! The temperature stayed close to 95 all day long. We made one short trip into the bar but it was so windy and dusty there that we came back out to the boat and spent the rest of the day resting up for our big day tomorrow. We still haven't decided for sure just how we'll get to Puntarenas...if this wind keeps up we may have to take the Sea Raven just to be sure of getting there in time. Danny's little boat may not be able to connect with the ferry.
Well, Danny never did show up - there must have been some misunderstanding - so at about 10:30 we started hauling anchor. I think maybe Homer, our little guardian angel, was looking after us because from then on things just went tickity-boo. There were pretty good seas being kicked up by the wind on the way to Puntarenas but they were right on our nose and, other than for getting splashed a bit, it was an easy ride. As we came into the anchorage we saw that Philmar was there and Phil was kind enough to come though the splashing waves in his little dinghy to give us a ride to shore. We hung the hook hard in the good holding bottom, put on our swim suits, put our clothes in a plastic bag, and splashed to Yacht Services with him. There, in another stoke of luck, we found another acquaintance, Steve from Riatea, just on his way to the airport with a borrowed rental car. He offered us a ride and off we went, passing a long line of holiday visitors waiting in a windy, hot line at the bus station. By three o'clock we were at the airport.
After buying Steve, his lady Martina, and his new crewman Tom, who is going with him to Hawaii, a drink at the airport bar, we said farewell and took a taxi to the Hotel Alajuela. It turned out to be a very nice place, a small hotel in the center of town, but very clean with everything newly painted and sparkling. We checked in with a pleasant young lady named Rosio, paid for our two rooms, and went to dinner at a restaurant she recommended called El Cererro where indeed the food was very good. I'd figured that it wouldn't take us more than fifteen minutes to find a cab and get to the airport but, when we tried, it suddenly became apparent that Carnival was putting a load on public transportation. We found ourselves competing for a taxi with a dozen spanish speaking people. After loosing that battle a couple of times, we asked an elderly man where the bus depot was. He and his friends, who had also lost to more aggressive taxi grabbers, decided that was a good idea and led off in that direction. (Turned out they were visitors from Panama, very happy that the U.S. had ridded them of a dictator.) At the bus station we found another two block long line of people waiting to catch the bus to the airport. It was now 6:30 and Lois was about to panic, fearing that we would again leave Bob wondering what had happened to the folks from Sea Raven, when Homer smiled on us again...taxi with his little cartop light extinguished came by. He stopped as another man waved at him, and I too ran out. The other guy jumped in the front seat and I hollared at Lois to come. In five minutes we were at the airport, just in time to see Bob and Kris hauling their baggage up out of the customs area. We got another cab, went back to the hotel, checked them in, then went back to El Cererro for a drink and visit before turning in. Quite a successful day!
El Lunes, 26 Febrero 1990
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Another day with things going pretty well. We were up early, Bob and I out at 6:30 to have a cup of coffee at a small Soda on the square which was open at this hour. It was run by an English speaking Tico named Soloman who arranged to have a van pick us up at the hotel at 9:00. When the ladies got up we went back for breakfast, then walked around the town for a while, quiet this morning after a weekend of revelry. We went to the open market and loaded up with fresh fruit and produce, getting back to the hotel just as the van arrived. On the way back to Puntarenas we saw two wrecks and one fight between two groups of Ticos, the first we've ever seen. The people were all well dressed and sober, mixed groups of men women and children, but very unhappy with each other, shouting and finally throwing rocks. For a moment we were fearful of one coming through the van window, but the blocked traffic moved on and we left the site still in the pitch of battle. Strange!
At Yacht Services we again found Phil and Mary Anne and, after having a cold beer with them, Phil again did us the favor of running me out to the boat where I dropped the Metz in the water and brought it to shore. The wind was up again so it took two splashy trips to move all the baggage and groceries out to the Sea Raven, but by noon we were on board with nothing damaged. We made one more trip ashore to have lunch at El Pela, the fish place, and buy a few more groceries and some beer and wine at the booze store, then hauled anchor and headed for Isla Gitana. The ride over was windy but the wind was behind us so we had an easy run. We went in and had some of Linda's spagetti for dinner, meeting several new yachties who had arrived in the last couple of days, Richard and "Charley" on Artful Dodger and Russ and ??? on Mischief. Nice day!
With that find, we decided that we'd better plan on going back to Puntarenas where we can have some new hoses made up tomorrow, so up with the anchor, and off we went. The winds were down today, light and variable I guess the weatherman would call them, so we had a nice ride over, arriving just in time for the high tide and martini hour. In the morning we'll pull the faulty hose and get a replacement made at the Casa de Mangara.
The rest of the day went pretty well. We had a great Tico lunch at the University cafeteria which cost us a whole 125 colones apiece. Eggert had the dock blocked off being repaired but we got the stuff onto the Metz by clambering over the rocks. We got the new hoses installed and the reservoir refilled with oil which Bob had carefully filtered through one of Lois' old Panty Hose. This time was very careful to tie the hoses away from all sharp corners. All seems to be working well. About two o'clock we were ready to haul up and get back to our crusing schedule. Bob wanted to do some fishing so on the way to Tortugas we hung out the lines and he picked up a nice Sierra which the ladies broiled for dinner while Bob and I got the boat ready for a long run tomorrow. The winds and sea was down so we had a comfortable night at anchor.
09:00 Breakfast over, Bob and Kris were on the upper deck, Kris sunning and reading while Bob rigged his fishing pole. He doesn't like our method of fishing, preferring to hold a pole and fight with the fish rather than drag it to death. The first hookup is on one of the drag lines though, a small Dorado. Bob handed his pole to Kris and went down to pull it in and, what do you know? She hooks one! Well, that started it. We lost the one on the drag line but Kristie managed to get the other one in where I could grab it. For the next several hours we hauled fish aboard, no more Dorado but another fish that we'd never caught before turned out to be almost as tasty. It is a pretty silver fish with pale blue and yellow stripes on its sides and a small round mouth. The only thing close in our fish book is something called a Silverside, but these were bigger than it describes for them, about 24 inches long. And lots of Bonito which we finally started throwing back. Every time Bob would get a fish on we'd have to stop, so we lost about an hour to fishing which we never did make up. No matter, Drake is a big open and easy to get into in the dark.
16:00 Water tank finally full. The hydraulics have been steady as a rock all day. I think we may have been feeling the effect of our bad hose for a long time.
18:00 Almost dark now. The ladies have prepared a super fish dinner again; and the mystery fish tastes as good as the Dorado, nice white flakey meat.
19:30 Into Drake in the dark. Raider shows two other boats in the anchorage, probably fishing boats but there's no moon and we park well away from them. It's been a nice easy run...now we have ten days to work our way back up the coast before Bob and Kris have to leave.
In the afternoon we ran over to Cecilia's place where she welcomed us with her usual sunny smile. Lois took in a bag of candy and of course Cecilia reciprocated with a bag of grape-fruit. We asked her to tell Javier that Lois, Kris, and Bob would like to go riding tomorrow. I'll skip this trip...I kicked a stool with my bare toe a couple of days ago and still can't put on a pair of shoes. We went back again to the river on the rising tide, this time taking one of Cecilia's boys, Gene, along. He is about eleven I'd guess, and really likes to play in the river, swimming like he was born to it. We stopped again at Wilderness Camp but found no one there but the help...this may be a day off for them. Kristie had taken some bread for her parrot friends but the only thanks she got was a bitten finger.
The ladies came up with skipjack spagetti for dinner...not a bad way to use the plentiful fish.
I spent the day doing the things which have been piling up on the boat. I got the new low oil pressure alarm switch installed, the sump drained, all the sea screens and cocks checked, and the last of the goodies Nan sent stowed. I also managed to get through the bank statements and make them all balance. Bob, Kris, and I went up the river again in the late afternoon...Lois said her bottom was too sore to even sit in the ding. To Wilderness Camp for dinner, a really good one of shrimp, deep fried yucca, chopped green beans, and fried rice with other goodies in it, all topped off with chocolate cake. They really aren't set up for drop-in customers so we were eating what the other twenty guests were served. After considerable discussion, Herb and Marlina decided to charge us 450 colones each, including the ten glasses of white wine we'd gone through...best five dollar dinner we've had for a while!
08:30 This time we made it! We anchored a little farther out because of the cloud cover but even in fifty feet of water we could see the entire anchor chain as soon as we got our heads in the water. A big ray swam lazily up to greet us as we checked our anchor. Bob and I left the ladies on the boat while we went out for an initial survey trip. It wasn't long before we were back for the speargun and the new underwater camera which Nan had sent me. It was just like last time, clouds of fish wherever we looked! I snapped away while Bob went hunting for meat. I discovered why the yellow butterfly fish with black stripes appear like a sunburst flare when they are startled...they feed on the rocks in large groups, all seeming to want to graze in the same spot at once. When you come close they scatter in all directions, making a spectacular display of yellow against the dark rock wall. After a while Bob shot a small damsel with the sling and the flash on my camera stopped working, so we went back to the boat for a cerveza and breathing spell. In checking the flash unit I found that it evidently has a falty case because, even though they claim it's good to 30 feet and I never took it below ten, there was water inside and the batteries were hot from being shorted. Oh well, maybe Nan can get a new one and I'll ship this one back with Bob and Kris.
About noon the ladies fixed up a lunch and with snorkling gear and a bottle of wine in hand we headed for the beach. We found a nice shady spot under the palm trees (By now the sun was out bright and hot) and spread out the feast while we watched the tourists from the resorts arrive in their respective launches. It was a pretty busy day today, with maybe thirty or forty people coming and going while we were there. For some strange reason they seemed to huddle around the ranger station and never even approached our spot a hundred yards down the beach. We finished our lunch then went snorkling on the rock reef just in front ot the beach. In addition to the hundreds of fish, we spotted an eel, or possibly a lamprey, which looked like a diamond back rattler and I for the first time found a big lobster out of his hole, just loafing on top of a rock not six feet down. He was about a two pounder, I had nothing but my bare hands, and I wasn't about to try to grab his body (they've got some wicked spines, so I made a grab for a feeler. It only took him a couple of flips to shake me loose and go scooting away to hide deep under a rock where I couldn't even see his feelers sticking out.
QUESTION: How does a lobster see where he is going when he's swimming backward at such a speed?
By about 2:30 we were all feeling like we'd had enough water and sun...Bob, particularly, was turning a lobster red...so we went over to the ranger station, took a fresh water shower, signed the guest book and paid our 100 colony fee for use of the park. The young man who told us we should buy tickets seemed almost embarrassed by having to ask for the 27.5 cent/person fee. By three we were on our way back to Drake. The weather was great but there's almost always a roll at Ca|os, and Drake is more comfortable. Lois and Kris fixed the last of the Sierra for dinner in a caper sauce which was great. We sure haven't had much problem eating well!
By that time we were well ready to cool off so we loaded all our dirty clothes and a couple of buckets in the Metz and headed up the river. We went up as far as we could go then the four of us scrubbed and rinsed all the laundry in about fifteen minutes. After that we just laid in the cool water and soaked until the tide went out so far we had to turn back. The sea water doesn't actually mix with the fresh upstream where we were, but it acts as a dam and you can feel the surge far beyond the place where the water gets brackish.
We'd planned on going in to Wilderness Camp again for dinner but while we were off snorkling Herb came by the boat and told Lois that they had a full house and would have trouble feeding the four of us tonight; so we decided, over Lois objections, to go out to Ca|os for the night. That way we can have one more good dive in the morning before heading for Quepos. Out there Lois fixed her superchicken for dinner and, surprizingly, we had a very comfortable night with not much more roll than that in Drake Bay once the afternoon wind chop died down.
09:30 On our way. For the first hour or so we saw nothing at all, no birds, no fish, no nothing. The dolfins came first, jumping and playing in the wake, then turtles, lots of turtles. I spotted one big guy way out in front of us so shut down the engine and coasted up to him. As we drifted past, taking pictures, he never moved but just lay in the water with his big head down and his eyes closed, his shell high and dry, taking a siesta. Bob had three lines out the whole way but got only one small bonito.
15:00 Manuel Antonio. I decided to make a sightseeing pass along the beach before going on over to Quepos for the night. that turned out not to be a great decision. The chart shows that there is a minimum of 3 fathoms of water behind a group of rocks in the center of the bay but, after we'd passed all the rocks shown on the chart and were supposedly in deep water again, the bottom suddenly came up and whopped us! The depth sounder never showed less than ten feet of water, but we sure bumped something. the boat shook, we slid over, and were immediately back in deep water again but I could see great gashes in the hull. Sick, sick, sick!
16:00 Anchored behind Quepos Point. I went over the side to see what damage we'd done and was amazed...there was only a small scratch and a little chunk of glass crunched near the shoe. Sea Raven is a tough old girl!
We had company in the anchorage this time, a big super yacht named Huntress and registered from Dover, Delaware. Two dings, one with a 35 horse motor, two jet skis roaring around, a big satellite communications radome on top...everything needed for a company yacht. One of the guys on a jet ski stopped by and said they were from Newport Beach, California and were on their way through the canal. One of the few cruising yachts we've seen outside of the big ports.
Since we hadn't had much luck fishing, we dug out the barbeque and had pork chops and steak for dinner...nice for a change. We do eat pretty well!
Our ride was smooth and easy, puntuated now and then by a visit from some dolfins, or a fish on the line. Bob did a little better today, catching four skipjack (He kept two) and on nice little dorado. A Sailfish entertained us by jumping several times near the boat, closer than I'd ever seen one jump before. As we were crossing the Gulf of Nicoya we also saw a couple of huge splashes out in front of us, too far away to tell what made them, but it almost had to be a breaching whale or possibly a big Manta Ray.
On the way across the gulf I called Nan on High Seas to wish her a Happy Birthday and found that Don and Shirl are coming down, planning on flying into San Jose' on the 10th. Wow, we sure are getting the visitors in a bunch. No problem, I asked Nan to call and warn them that we wouldn't be into San Jose' until the 11th but we'll meet them then as we take Bob and Kris into town.
14:00 Bahia Ballena. We dropped our anchor behind the reef at the east end of the bay, close to the river entrance and village. The beach in front of the anchorage, which had been deserted whenever we'd been here before, was now occupied by a group of kayakers, their boats lined up on the sand and their tents pitched under the palms. One of their Tico guides came by later in a big fiberglass panga and told us that they'd been here two days and would be leaving in the morning. We were in the process of taking down the Metz and putting up the awning when another panga came by with a group of divers. They sold us their mornings catch of lobsters plus a big conche which they said was good for ceviche.
Once we'd gotten settled we all piled in the Metz and headed up the river. Anchoring the Metz in the river, we waded up the bank to the big city of Pochote. It was just as we remembered it: one store, two bars, a hotel/restaurant, and a few houses, all on one dirt street. We stopped in at the first bar, bought a cold beer and a case of warm, and sat at a small table eating peanuts and green mango which the bartender/proprieter gave us. He, Momo, also gave us a dozen limons, when Lois told him that the store didn't have any. Nice guy! When we finished our beer we explored the rest of the town, walking the whole two blocks to where the road heads off into the hills. By the time we got back the tide had gone out to where we almost had to paddle our way down the river...don't think we could get to town at low tide.
Dinner, always good, was something special. The man was right when he said that the conche made good ceviche. We started off with that, then had broiled lobster and Mahi Mahi for the main course with salad on the side. Wow!
Since the telephone wasn't working in town I called Don and Shirl on High Seas and found that they were coming in on Mexicana, Flight 111 at 11:00 A.M. on Saturday. That wouldn't work! We wanted to meet them in San Jose and wouldn't be bringing Bob and Kris in until Sunday. Caught by surprize, I asked them to plan on a hotel room for Saturday night. With that supposedly out of the way Bob and I went snorkling. Out on the reefs we found clear water but not many fish. No problema, a couple of fishermen stopped by and gave us three conches plus a nice pargo. The even broke and cleaned the conches for us. I was expecting to pay, but when I asked how much the just grinned and said "Nada." We gave them each a beer and a small Hawaiian Sling that Bob had brought down for trading. They had a bunch of Parrotfish in their boat, more than I'd ever seen in one place before. Must be pretty good divers!
About one o'clock we decided to run into Pochote again for lunch and it turned out to be a good decision. A very nice lady at the hotel, a concrete building with maybe eight rooms, fixed us Bistek, rice, and beans on her wood stove and served them with salad and beer for the princely sum of $2.10 each. At the store our second telephoning disappointment came when I finally got though to the Hotel Alajuela to find that they had no rooms for us on Saturday or Sunday. Mucho problema! Oh well, we'll work something out.
Back at the boat we found that the wind was blowing a pretty good breeze out of the west, kicking up a chop in our anchorage. A west wind is no problem at Tortuga, just an hour away, so I talked the crew into moving. The ride up was great...we had the wind behind us and, as we anchored at Tortuga it was still and hot. Looked like a great day to go snorkling tomorrow. We'd gotten settled, poured our evening cocktail, and were sitting enjoying the sunset when a riffle appeared on the water to the east and soon a welcome breeze cooled the hot boat. The problem was that the breeze never stopped but kept getting stronger and stronger. By the time it got good and dark the waves were three feet and growing. Two other boats which had been anchored farther out came in and tried to anchor near us. One made it, a little close for comfort bu not too bad, the other just gave up and headed out to sea. Who knows where? All night the wind blew between 15 and 30 knots, not giving us much sleep. We sure wished we'd stayed in Ballena.
El Viernes, 9 Marzo 1990
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05:30 Out on the deck collapsing the awning which had been flapping wildly all night and getting ready to haul anchor in five to six foot seas. They were short and Bob got a taste of what it's like to stand tall, then be dropped as the bow he was standing on crested a wave. We got her up though, and fortunately were able to run almost directly for the lee of the Islas Negritos about four miles away. Once there, it was a piece of cake to clear the passage and run down the back side of Cedros to Jesusita where we found gusty winds but quiet seas.
We anchored, rested a while, heard on the net that Sisu had made it to save anchorage at Puerto Pi|os in Southern Panama, then I called Shirl again telling her to stick to her original plan: take a taxi from San Jose' to Puntarenas and come to Puntarenas Yacht Services. We'll wait for them there and all six spent the night on the boat; then Bob and Kris can take another taxi or bus in to the airport on Sunday and take their chances on finding a room. Logistics, logistics!
Had a nice day at Jesusita. Went over and explored a small condo development on Cedros, went in for a visit with Doc Casper whose first question was, "Do any of you play chess?", and then just lazied around the boat while the gusty winds blew. Hope we have another break or so in the winds while the rest of the crew are visiting!
We were messing around on the boat and somehow ate up the whole morning without accomplishing much. Lois and I were working on correspondence and copying video tapes, getting them ready for Bob and Kris to take back. Bob and Kris did take the Metz over to the development at Cedros where they swam and took a shower. About 11:30 we cranked up Gimmy, washed down the decks, hauled anchor, and headed for Puntarenas. The wind, which had been gusting pretty hard earlier, had almost died, giving us an easy run across.
We'd dropped our anchor and were drinking a cerveza before going in to have lunch when Lois spotted Shirley waving from the dock; so we all piled in the Metz and ran to shore. Don and Shirl had left L.A. at 1:00 AM this morning so were pretty pooped but they joined us while we went up to the university for a Tico lunch, then I took them to the boat where they could change their clothes and rest while the rest went off to see if they could get a hotel reservation for Bob & Kris in San Jose' tomorrow night. The travel agency said, "No chance!", but Anna found them a room near the bus station for 400 colones. That should be interesting!
Back at the boat Don and Shirl had rested a bit and we all sat on the deck and watched the sun go down before going to the Restaurant Aloa for dinner. Lois and Kris blew up the air mattresses and Don and Shirl slept on the upper deck for the night. The weather has been so warm and dry that they said it was great.
Back at Yacht Services 12:30 came and went with no taxi. By 1:00 Bob was getting pretty antsie, so he and I set off to find one, which we did about four blocks away. We got back to Yacht Services only to find that the other taxi had finally arrived and Kristie had gone off in it to try to find us. Good thing they weren't on a tight schedule! In a few minutes she was back though, and we bit goodby, sorry to see them go. They're a fun pair to have on the boat.
Don and I braved the now 95 degree heat to make a quick run to the Coke place for some ice and Coke, then we headed back to the boat. As we pushed the Metz through the sewer-like waters of the Puntarenas estuary we decided that, even though we still need some fresh fruits and vegetables (The market is closed tight on Sunday), we couldn't stand another night there; so, we hauled anchor and ran for Gitana, getting in there about 3:00 o'clock. We put down the hook, put on our swim suits, and went ashore for a swim in the pool, a fresh water shower, and a hamburger for dinner. All-in-all not a bad day.
While I was taking my sauna in the engine room, Don and Shirl were out exploring with the Metz. They went around the island a couple of times dragging a fish line but didn't get a hookup. They saw a lot of pretty shoreline though. When they got back I took the Metz in, called Nan and ordered the pressure switch, and took a swim and shower to wash off all the sweat. It was then time to head for Puntarenas.
The provisioning run there went tickity-boo, except for a few minutes delay while we took down our awning which a forty knot gust and a loose tie managed to finally damage. We hit the beach about 2:30, Don, Shirl, and Lois went to the open market for the fruits and vegetables while I had the coffee, bread, eggs, and new plastic pipe for the awning detail...carrying an eighteen foot long piece of 1/2 inch PVC plus a few dozen eggs down a crowded street is a pretty good trick. We were back on the boat hauling anchor before 4:00. By 5:00 we were dropping the hook in the north bay at Cedros. Had a nice quiet night in spite of gusty winds out of the east.
13:15 Up anchor and on our way. It was a nice easy ride. It's surprizing how fast the seas can lay down sometimes...other times they seem to go on bouncing forever after the wind is gone. On the way over we heard a call from Captain Musick. When I answered Cara said they were on their way in and would meet us at Tortuga.
14:30 Anchored. There were several of the tour boats anchored off the park beach so I decided to park across the way between the north island and the little islet, a place we hadn't stayed before. The water was clear and as soon as we'd gotten the hook down we all went in for a swim. Captain Musick showed up about and hour later and, after a couple of tries, found a spot near us to anchor where it was a little rolly but not uncomfortable, then everybody went down for a nap.
We invited Tony and Cara to join us for dinner and had a fun reunion, hearing of each others adventures since we'd last been together in La Paz in 1988. Cara had said that they were bringing us a present but we couldn't imagine what it could be. It was six loaves of Barbara's bread from the Jungle Club in Golfito...Cara had heard me say on the radio how much we missed her good bread. We'd finished a good chicken dinner and were about to pour a cup of coffee when what I feared was going to be a repeat of the other night's performance started...the wind came up, the seas started to build, and we were soon rolling around. Tony and Cara said a hasty goodby and I towed them back to their boat with the Metz through bouncing seas and gusting winds. Although we bounced and rolled a bit, tonight the wind was more out of the north and the waves never built the way they did the other day, so we didn't have an uncomfortable night. It would be nice if things were quiet enough for us to do some snorkling tomorrow.
About the time we got back the wind started to pick up again and, rather than have another rolling session so soon, we decided to pick up and go. We hauled anchor about 11:30 and by 12:30 had dropped the hook in our favorite spot in Ballena. There we lunched, napped, and fooled around out of the sun for the rest of the afternoon, giving the sunburns a break. Tomorrow we'll go visiting.
Our next stop was the beach next to our anchorage. It was shaded this morning, just right for sunburned backs, and we walked its length poking at hermit crabs and turning over rocks. On the way back Don and I dropped the ladies at the boat and ran out to the next reef to investigate a small sailboat which had anchored there last night. We had watched it coming in, and in fact had tried to call on the radio but got no answer. It went into a rock filled baylet much less protected than that which we are in and we thought it must be a local who knew what he was doing. That supposition turned out wrong; it was the Santana, a small British cruising sailboat. The skipper, Simon, told us that he didn't know the bay, couldn't see anything but rocks in our direction, and decided to get his hook down before dark. He was happy to hear that there was a quieter anchorage close by because he had some work to do on the boat.
Our good deed done for the day, we decided to haul up and go across the bay to Tambor. It's only about a fifteen minute run in a direct line but it took us a half hour by way of the scenic route along the beach. At Tambor we anchored next to a "Cigarette" boat (This one actually advertized the name and Don and I speculated on its origin), went to shore and anchored the Metz off the concrete pier, and headed for the cantina at the head of the pier. Since last year they have made a great improvement in the cantina which is now called La Bahia. It's nicely painted and clean, has a new roof and very nice bamboo bar, tables, and chairs, as well as pool and ping pong tables. There's even a sign pointing to "Shouver for Yachts ->". We sat at a table overlooking the pier and watched the pelicans diving for their lunch while we ate ours.
As at Pochote, we found that gasoline was not available here at the pier. In answer to my question, the waiter pointed to the center of Tambor, about a mile away down either a hot dusty road or through the surf. The temperature was pushing 95 again and the road was out so, after taking the crew back to the boat, I decided to go the surf alone. It's a long flat sloping sand beach in front of Tambor and we had a low surf and an incoming tide, so I floated the Metz as far as I could, put out the anchor, and left it to walk up to the store. No gas at the store but the proprietor pointed around the corner, saying,"Cinquenta metros". Sure 'nough, a half block up the dirt street I found a shed with a couple of 55 gallon drums, a green glass gallon jug, and a funnel sitting on a table. I hollared, "Bueno tardes!" and "Ola!" but no one answered. I'd given up, figuring I'd hit the siesta hour, and was headed back to the Metz when a young man spoke to me in English. I told him I'd batted out on getting gasoline and he suggested that I try the little restaurant just beyond the gas shed; he said the lady who dispensed the gasoline spent a lot of time there. What do you know, it was good advice! I found a very pretty young lady in the pretty little cafe who admitted to being the gas lady. She came back with me to the shed, filled my jug from the drum, and charged me 750 colones. Don can now troll as long as he wants.
We'd planned to go back to the east anchorage for the night but when we got there the wind was kicking up whitecaps inside the reef. That's not too bad, but I was afraid that when the wind stopped it would be pretty rolly so back over to the west side we went again, this time anchoring in the cove a half mile south of the pier away from the fish boats. Don went trolling while the rest of us napped. He seems happy to be fishing even if he catches no fish.
We spent a couple of hours poking along the trail and the tide pools and by the time we got back to the boat the wind was starting to rise so we hauled the hook and headed in the general dirction of Puntarenas. We weren't in any hurry because high tide wasn't until about 18:00 so we cruised across the gulf with Don tending the drag lines as well as holding a fishing pole. He finally managed to get one small skipjack aboard but that was the end of it even though we fished for several hours and Don spent another trolling off Cedros when we stopped there to await the tide. I can't remember when we've had worse luck in fishing. Oh well, Don seems to enjoy the fishing whether he catches anything or not.
We came into the estuary about four o'clock on the rising tide, anchored in front of Yacht Services, then met Tony and Cara for dinner at the Hotel Portobelo. Lois and I had the lomito brochettes, one of the best restaurant meals we've had in a long time!