Some more pictures

Here is the princess, wearing her safety harness and a swimming suit, steering us up the Gulf of Nicoya. And at the right is a bird that landed near us. These are common.

At Bahia Ballena, we did a flamenco show.

Gulf of Nicoya

Feb. 24, 2007 Saturday
At left is a picture of Saeta taken at the start of the Baha-haha that we downloaded from the "Latitude 38" website.


Here we are at Bahia Ballena (Whale Bay) in the Gulf of Nicoya.These pictures show the Yacht Club and the fishing dock in front of it. The Yacht Club has the arches and yellow walls. There seem to be a lot of ex-patriates sitting around in there drinking all day. English is the standard language. But the meals are cheap and good. We had a mahi-mahi dinner and cocktails for $19.00 for both of us.
The row of tin-roofed houses are where the fishermen and their families live.


This picture is taken from the beach across the bay while we were walking to the market. We are one of the sailboats off the end of the fishing pier.

Howler monkeys are heard at sunrise and sunset. Since there are no pinnipeds down here (seals and sea lions), these monkeys make us feel right at home. They sound just like the sea lions under the Santa Cruz pier.
In the next few days we are going to move on further into the Gulf to visit some of the islands before heading down the South Coast to Golfito. The winds have finally moderated and we are looking forward to some relaxing time. We met a French couple on the neighboring boat who are coming over tonight for cocktails. They have contacts that may result in a performing opportunity for us.

On the road again....rambling thoughts

Feb. 18, 2007 - Sunday
We are moving South again after a two week delay in Playa del Coco. We were waiting for parts for our genset, a crucial piece of equipment. You see, a modern boat like this one uses lots of electricity. All the radar, GPS, and electronic navigation tools that make so much easier than it was when I started sailing, all use 12V electricity. And of course, the two refrigerators and freezer that provide frozen tuna steaks and ice cubes - those eat lots of electricity. So the genset is very important. It passed through a lot of engine cooling issues and ultimately could only be fixed by getting a new impeller for a water pump. It took forever to arrive, but at last it's here! We are 100% again.
We used to charge our batteries and get electricity by plugging into shore power at the dock. But we haven't seen a dock since Barra de Navidad, about 2 months ago. We are living on the anchor and so must make our own power. We can do that in a pinch by running the big engine, but diesels don't like being run under a light load and besides, the big engine burns a lot of fuel. So we are very happy to have the genset running and drinking about an eighth of a gallon per hour.
So having charged the batteries, we pulled up the anchor this morning and sailed down to Bahia Potrero, just a short trip. We had a great sail with the wind constantly rising until it was close to 25 knots by the time we got in. We had light winds while we were waiting around Coco and now that we're ready to move, we have too much wind. But not so bad. 25 knots is only too much wind if it has a chance to blow for a while and raise big waves. In this case, it's blowing right off shore, so by sailing close to the beach, there are no waves. So we put up small sails and make a fast passage.
In a few days, we will be down to the Gulf of Nicoya and away from the Papagayo winds that we've been living in. There are lots of islands down there to explore and the jungles are said to be greener. It's the dry season here now and it's kinda brownish. There are howler monkeys in the trees though. We hear them every morning. They sound like lions or gorillas, not like little monkeys. I don't know how they do it.
Other news....I am slim again. You remember how I was looking like a python who ate a pig? Well, the pig is gone. I have the body that I had in college, thanks to regular exercise. There is some loose skin around the middle that shows once in a while. Hopefully it will tighten up. Andi is well and we're looking forward to your emails.

Still waiting around...

Here is the dreaded Cabo Santa Elena, on it´s best behavior. It didn´t act too bad.
We need parts for the genset, so we are waiting in the Playa del Coco area for another week until they get here. Except for the wind, it is very nice. Right now we are inland, having made a road trip to Liberia. Gotta go. Don´t forget to write.

Tired of wind

Feb. 6, 2007 Bahia del Coco, Costa Rica
We have been at Bahia del Coco for a few days now and we are getting very tired of the constant wind. We were weatherbound at Bahia Santa Elena and have been the same here. It blows 20 to 30 knots every day and with that much wind, we can't do very much. It just howls. But that's the Papagayo region. It's funny, all the way down the Mexican coast, we had almost no wind and had to motor all the time. Now we have lots of sailing wind, but we can hardly take the dinghy ashore. But we have got a lot of confidence in our anchoring gear now. It has been holding us very nicely.
We would have moved on by now, but had to work on our genset. Someone once said that cruising is fixing things in inconvenient locations. Well, our genset has been like that. It started leaking coolant which meant that I had to go into the engine room and add some fresh water to the cooling system every half hour. But at least it worked. Our genset keeps our batteries charged which provides us with the comforts of home - like ice cubes. Finally, I figured out that the genset had a metal plate on top of it that had suffered from it's bolts vibrating loose. When I tightened the bolts, the leak stopped. Whew. Then, the genset started overheating. It turns out that the impeller in the sea water pump that cools the engine had come apart and that we need to get a new impeller from the genset maker. Now that is something that can't be fixed overnight. We will have to get the new parts and then the problem will be solved. Until that time, we have to charge the batteries by running the big engine (which we can do, although it uses more fuel and isn't very good for the big engine).
So, we're going to start moving down the coast toward the Gulf of Nicoya and eventually Puntarenas, where we'll be able to collect the genset parts and get it working again. We can't believe how dependant we are on regular transfusions of electricity for our batteries. The genset does it so much better and quicker.
And one of the reasons for the genset is ice cubes. I have to confess to a major addiction - Pepsi-cola. It's amazing how satisfying it is to have a tall iced glass of Pepsi on a hot day. Back in the states, cola drinks were something that came with a burger. Here, it is a very special treat, but only if there is lots of ice. A hot cola drink is an abomination. So we are living the good life with ice cubes, hot showers, and time to read all the books we want. One of these days the wind will lighten up and we will move on. Maybe tomorrow we'll move on to Bahia Potrero. Stay tuned. Film at 11.

Gulf of Papagayo

Feb. 3, 2007 - Saturday
We spent almost a week in Bahia Santa Elena with the wind howling through the anchorage. When a little weather window opened up for us to leave, we took it and never even had a chance to really see the sights of Bahia SE. There was a little stream that we could have gone up in the dinghy to see a waterfall, but, oh well...
When we got mellower weather we started out for Cabo Santa Elena, which has a bad reputation sort of like Point
Conception for being a place where the winds are extra strong and the waves are large. As we left the bay, the wind came up from behind us and we thought, "Oh no, it's already 25 knots. What will it be at the Point?" But strangely enough, as we reached the point the wind started to die and it was down to 10 knots as we went around. Since it was smooth,we headed directly for our destination, Bahia Huevos, and arrived there by 2PM. Bahia Huevos was a pretty little bay with the clearest water I've ever seen. We could see our anchor on the bottom out in from of the boat from our swim step at the back of the boat!
We spent the night at Bahia Huevos, but left the next morning because we wanted to officially check into Costa Rica and the port of entry was 6 miles away at Bahia del Coco. Since it was Friday, we needed to check in at once to avoid overtime charges on the weekend. Everything went smoothly enough at the check in. The hardest part was to find a functional copy machine. Bahia del Coco has all the pleasures of a harbor - bank, markets, internet cafe, and lots of restaurants. I even found some hardware that I had been searching for for a long time.
I think we'll stay here through the weekend at least. If we get to the internet cafe, maybe we can post some pictures. We have a lot of time available in Costa Rica since we are waiting for Andrea's daughter Elinore to join us on March 18. We got down here faster than we needed I suppose, but I'd rather go when the weather is good. We are now past the worst of it. The only other hurtle will be Punta Mala in Panama, but we are helped greatly in these difficult parts by the weather predictions available on the cruiser's nets (on the single-sideband radio). The Pan-Pacific Net has a guy named Don who was a weatherman before he retired. He comes on every morning and gives a complete weather summary for the entire region and then answers specific questions from individual boats. The Net gets you acquainted with a lot of other cruisers and after a while, they know who you are and where you are going. If you don't call in for a few days, they start to get worried about you. I kinda like that. Write if you get time.