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.