October's Log
October 1, 2002
Today included another ferry ride to Puntarenas and I didn't accomplish much. I
rode to the yacht club and met Terry from Starform. I am looking to buy an
eight-horse Yamaha outboard motor. When I got to the yacht club there was only
a 4 horse Evinrude, not even two four horses. The mechanic that owns the 4
horse also has a 15 horse Yamaha, but it is older. I didn't want the 4 horses
and went to his house to see the 15 horses. It was a 1988 or 1985 and had some
concerns. It ran well but the linkage was very rough. I bused back to town and
did the interneting and lunch. Liz worked on the boat while I was in town and
we are shipshape to leave tomorrow.
October 2, 2001
We had a great motor, sort of sailing. We left Playa Naranjo with Moonshadow.
Both of our anchorages were very hairy with the sea growth since we had stayed
for over 20 days. Liz and I reversed our battens as we put them in the wrong
way over a year ago. The battens are thicker at one end and would not enter the
fitting that is connected to the mast. We opened the fitting and finally the
battens fit into the mast. When we were working on the mainsail I was surprised
of the corrosion on the gooseneck on our "new" boom. I must remind myself to
take a picture and send it to Richard from Spartec who made our mast. I will
also suggest a better way to hold the slugs into the slot on the mast. The
present arrangement allows the slugs to slip out and that has cause some
concern. See June 3rd.
We motored with the mainsail up for 4 hours cuz I wanted to
charge the batteries. Somewhere during this time our regulator told our
alternator to quit. Bummer, we could have been sailing like Moonshadow and
Starform. Starform left Puntarenas Yacht Club and sail the whole way. Both
boats gave us grief for motoring. We miss several thunderstorms and anchored
behind Punta Leona after a 25-mile trip. Liz and I had to coast with the engine
in neutral about five times due to the debris in the water. There is an immense
amount of garbage then there is the wood, brush, trees and logs. You wouldn't
want to cross the bay of Nicoya during the night. Liz fixed a great dinner and
I went to shore with Moonshadow to survey the grounds at this resort which in
the bay. There are supposed to be several great nature walks here. There are
two swimming pools, several bars, restaurants and stores within 100 yards of
shore. During the walk a raccoon walked up to a garbage can tipped it over and
began dinner. I grabbed the chair, just like the lion tamers, and push him back
and re-secured the garbage cans. The raccoon was just waiting till I left and
he would be finishing his second course.
October 3, 2002
We finished our net and Starform is coming over to use our sewing machine. Greg
and Meg on Wet Bar are 10 minutes by car south of us by car and we will catch up
this afternoon. The batteries are being charged and now I need to work on the
Honda 2 hp outboard. We finish a number of sewing projects for Slainte and
Starform. Jackie on Moonshadow came over to use our machine, but the pack they
needed to repair was to thick for even the Pfaff 130 to handle. Later in the
afternoon we went to shore to wait to meet Greg and Meg by the pool. They had
trouble getting into the resort as it is a timeshare and they won't let people
come in by car unless they are paying guests. They told the guards they were
here to meet us and to spend colones on dinner that evening. The guard told them
they could come in for an hour and 20 minutes before being charged a $20 fee per
person to stay at the resort. Once they got inside we all caught up at the pool
and then the guys went to talk to the front desk and they were welcomed to stay
and we all had a lovely dinner at the Tico restaurant next to the hotel. We had
steaks and they were very good. Greg and Meg headed back to Los Suenos about
9PM. But before they left they gave our kids back to us (our herb garden they
had tended while we went home this summer), and we headed back to the boat for a
little reading before being rocked to sleep by the light swells coming in.
October 4, 2002
Today Allan was able to make two lures for Starform before they leave to head to
Golfito. We went to shore to call the Apex dealer about our dinghies and found
they would be delivered on Saturday at 9 AM. We headed back to the boat to talk
to Greg and Meg about getting together for a drive to Jaco today, but they were
having to finish a varnish project they had some folks start for them, but
didn't finish. We are anticipating a put-put golf tournament at the resort
later this afternoon.
October 5, 2002
This morning we reluctantly got up after a bit of a rolly night. When the tide
is up the wave wash over the reef from the south. The tides are about eight
feet and the reef is just visible at the highest tides. This morning high tide
was at 3:30 and we rolled as the swell hit us on the beam. We have a big day
planned. We begin by doing the morning walk at 6:15 am and this lasted until 10
am. The guide, Joshua, was very good explaining trees, insects, mammals, birds
and other interesting information. We saw monkeys and many birds and great
looking butterflies (Picture #1). The huge spiders were interesting and
everywhere we walked the highways of ants carrying their leafs overhead. Most
of these ants are blind and are following scent.
We ended our walk back at the resort and tipped Joshua.
The APEX dinghy fellow is suppose to arrive at 10 but Moonshadow and us figure
he'll be later. We eventually called his cell phone at 10:30 and he said he got
caught behind bicycle racers. We eventual saw him and we unwrapped our
dinghies. (Picture #2) The transition from our old dinghy to the new one was a
bit sorrowful, but later we carried four adults to shore - that was never
possible in the old dinghy. We headed to shore to do some pool time and Liz and
I eat pizza at the snack bar. We slipped back to Slainte and brought Moonshadow
back in as we are heading on the night walk again with our faithful guide
Joshua.
The walk begins with a bus ride into the jungle and we
really begin the trip at a trailhead. All of us have flashlights, as it has
been dark for 2 hours. At 8pm we set off and stop to observe a tarantula 40
feet about us on a tree. We continue on with Scott, Kathleen and Bill from
Mandorla, Steve and Jackie from Moonshadow and Liz and myself. Scott is really
enthused. He has been spotting lots of stuff and the guide is amazed with his
eyes. I think Scott has an advantage since he is less than 4 feet and see
things from a different perspective. (Picture #3 and #4)
We see many more tarantulas even one eating a cricket.
(Picture #5) We come across several scorpions and one we handle with a clip
covering its stinger. No one except Scott wants to allow the scorpion to crawl
on his skin except Joshua. (Picture #6) The hike is along muddy trails that
gain and loose elevation-using logs as stair steps. We see a bunch stuff that
normally is not seen during the day. We are heading back with Joshua stops his
voice changes octaves. In front of us about 10-15 feet perched on the handrail
is Fer-de-Lance snake. (Picture #7) It is about 3 feet long and is camouflaged.
It is one of the most deadly snakes, period. I take several pictures and the
snake strikes in to the air. Joshua makes us head down the trail and he cuts a
stick and pushes it off the handrail and herds it down the hill we move along
quickly and with added adrenalin. We finish the night off with a beer and motor
back to Slainte. Way Cool.
October 6, 2002
An unforgettable day that we can't remember what we did. Oh well.
October 7, 2002
Ping-pong with Bill and Scott and rebuilt the outboard due to bad gas.
October 8, 2002
Helen of Victoria arrived in to the bay and set anchor. Liz and I motored over
to suggest they join us for our picnic. Helen of Victoria is a cutter of 38
feet built in Port Townsend, Washington by Cecil Lange. We have met Cecil and
tour his boat works and Carl and Tanya was surprised we knew about their boat.
Then we find out that they are from Hood River, Oregon, we really there from
Moser. Liz and I began our married life in The Dalles and know Moser very
well. Also our first keeled boat was moored in Hood River. Small world isn't
it? So, Helen of Victoria, Moonshadow, Mandorla, Faith and Slainte put our
heads together and had a picnic on the beach. We bought real charcoal, not
those special briquettes, but real charred wood and barbequed hot dogs,
hamburgers and chicken. We hug out under the palm tree until the rain forced
us to seek shelter by the pool. The boys played lots of ping-pong and Scott is
getting much better.
October 9, 2002
We left Punta Leone about an hour behind Moonshadow and Mandorla. We are
heading to Bahia Herradura to visit with Wet Bar and go to town. We heard on
the net that Wet Bar was heading to San Jose and they changed plans to we could
explore together. We eventually made it in by 11:30. We left Punta Leone at
8am and arrived at 9:30. After anchoring and then working on the outboard motor
we took another two hours. The four of us had a nice lunch that over looked our
boat and anther one called Michaelanne. We have been hearing Michaelanne for 12
months now on the radio. From the restaurant we watch both Michaelanne's and
our mast roll back and forth like windshield washers.
We head to the town of Jaco a surfing town for the past 20
years. The break is close to shore and when there are storms there are huge
waves. Greg and I do interneting. I download great stuff on the Washington
State Cougars and other Pac 10 teams. Ahhhh. Liz finds a veterinarian and
purchases special jell that should really kill the cockroaches. We also
purchase a dose for Mandorla. With all done but shopping we have several beers
and watch the prostitutes work the areas. We are early, as things don't get
hopping until 9pm. Prostitution is legal for anyone over 18. Depending on the
bar the full meal deal is between $50 and $100 for about 1 to 3 hours.
October 10, 2002
We left Bahia Herradura at about 7:45 in the morning. We got both dinghies
stored on board and I was surprised at how well the hard dinghy fit on the bow.
Liz steered and I did the net. We had 5 boats underway check in and 15 boats
that were moored and gave us local weather and other interesting information.
The motor and some sailing went on until we wiggled around at Manuel Antonio
National Park. Here we tuck in behind a rock finger that gives us some shelter
from the South, southeast swell. After anchoring we swam to shore and walked
the trails. Since it was about 4 pm we were careful to watch out steps, as we
know there are abundant scorpions, tarantulas and snakes that we don't care to
see. We ventured to the top of Cathedral point and looked down 300 feet that
dropped away within 10 feet to the water and rocks. We then walked a trail
along the beach and met 10 or so lizards. Some were wary but most walked a few
feet and then just watched us. We walked back along the beach with the surf
sweeping over our feet, sometimes coming behind and in front of us.
October 11, 2002
Good morning we have had our second night that rolled. We are in small bight
that is off of Manuel Antonio National park. We are leaving at first light and
will be heading to Drake about 55 miles to the east of us. Where we are
anchored is next to a cliff, off of a sand beach and just inside of a rock
outcropping. We had a lightening storm last night and some wind.
October 12, 2002
Today we left Drake at 5:15 am and had a nice motor for about 30 minutes. From
then on until 5 pm we had wind on our nose and made only about 4.5 knots for the
12 hours. It was slow and the swell from the side didn't help. There was very
little sun and the best part of the day was catching two Cero's. (Picture #8)
These are great fish with yellow spots on their belly's. Catching these fish
allows us to win our fishing contest with Mandorla and Moonshadow. Mandorla had
had a fish on but Bill raised his rod tip up to high and caught the line in the
wind generator and thus lost the fish, the lure and some line. Well the two
fish fed the seven of us very well and there two fillets set aside for Starform
that we'll give them when we go to Gulfito across the bay.
After reaching Jimenez, small town in the northwest portion
of Gulfito we set the anchor. The bottom comes up very rapidly from over 300
feet to 150 feet in about 100 feet, then it shoals to 10 in another 150 feet.
We are anchored next to Seabud, a multi colored hull and sails with a single
crew of uncertain sanity. Next we have Moonshadow and Mandorla, a unknown
trimaran and several fishing vessels. The mud flats come out over 450 feet from
the beach and we must watch our dinghies when we go ashore.
We were picked up by Mandorla and joined Moonshadow for our
Sushi for dinner and wonderful salads and homemade cookies. Ahhhh! It was
wonderful hitting the bed as it had been a very long day.
October 13, 2002
We are in the gulf of Gulfito. We went ashore and explored Jimenez. Scott
watched soccer and played at halftime with the other young kids. Bill and I did
the Internet and Liz and Kathleen did a little shopping. Both of our activities
came to a halt as 1 o'clock hit and as it is Sunday both places closed. We
found a sopa (small restaurant and had a great lunch. I talked Stephan into
having a spicy pepper and he regretted it. The peppers are called Diablo, the
devil. We carried Scott, Bill, Kathleen, Liz and myself back to the boat. That
was something that we could of done in our pickle dish. The pickle dish is what
Meg on Wet Bar is calling our old dinghy. Liz and I finish out the day with a
light dinner (I had a beet) and wine. I am hitting the bed at about 8:30 every
night.
October 14, 2002
We listen to the net and here two more assaults, one in the Caribbean when the
cruiser was shot in the leg and the second was a cruiser, Tamaray in Gulfito who
was robbed by someone that entered his aft cabin and stole razors, and other
small items. We will need to be more cognizant of the possibility of robbery.
As we prepared to leave our windlass didn't work. After about 1.5 hours and
"special" time in the anchor locker I find a corroded wire and replace the
fitting. The environment really takes a toll on all equipment. We are
presently traveling about 5 knots headed to Gulfito where we will see our
friends, Siren Song, Starform, Witch of Endor and Viva. Today is Canadian
Thanksgiving and so we must party. We are hoping to accomplish a pizza cook off
and do some work on the boat while in Gulfito. Gulfito is really a large port,
or at least it was. The banana shipping was there major export and this has
been diminishing. We came in a wide entrance and then took a nearly 90-degree
turn to our starboard and then traveled about 3/4 of a mile in front of two
marinas. These marinas have no slips and offer shore facilities. They charge
you if you land a dinghy. Banana Bay charges $7/day and Land and Sea charges $3
dollars. The vegetable truck is supposed to arrive in about 30 minutes so we
are hustling to get the anchor down and get ashore for new vegies.
October 15, 2002
Very nice anchorage and no roll here in the bay with the town of Gulfito at the
north end. I head out to the tax-free zone with Jackie and Stephan and Patty
from Good Medicine. The walk is about 3 miles and feel good, well the exercise
is good but we all loose 4 pounds of sweat. We have lunch that is the
traditional plate, beans, rice, fried banana, a little salad and the main
course. I had chicken and it was great, all for 1,400 collonies and that
included two Fresca's. We enter the trade free zone and get our tarjedas. This
is the document that allows the persons holding a trajede to shop every
six-month to a total of $500 usd but we must allow 24 hours to go by before we
buy. So we head off and do some serious shopping but no buying. ?????????????
What will we get?
October 16, 2002
Jackie, Stephan and I went back to the tax-free stores and had a great lunch. I
had a pounded chicken breast that was breaded and fried. We used our tarjedas
that are good for 6 months and can be used only one time. We restock our wine
locker and got a good flashlight. The purchasing limit is $500 usd and we
didn't come close to it, and the zone/stores resembles freeway malls. There are
some reasonable buys but mostly the stuff is USA items and priced the same.
Tomorrow we will get Liz's tarjeda and do some more serious shopping. We
finished off the day with a group meal at a Hungarian restaurant. Chuck and
Anita on 401K were the only ones that had been there before. I caught the last
taxis with them and we couldn't find it after half and hour of looking. So back
to the origin, Banana Bay and we caught another taxis that knew where we were
going. Chuck and Anita took some heavy razzing as we arrive over an hour after
the rest of the crew.
October 17, 2002
We had a laid back day and I installed our repaired modem and computer memory.
We did some small projects and sent some email and then walked about town.
Gulfito was an large banana port for the United Fruit Company. The company
pulled out in the late 80's or early nintys. It was either a result of a banana
disease or the Costa Rican government wanting double the duty per box of
bananas. Even thought the company had a large physical investment they left
town. So in their place for additional economics there is a trade-free zone and
the old standby, prostitution. Since prostitution is legal for those over 18
these is still an active trade beginning about 6 pm. Half time at the bar,
Latitude 8, takes on a new meaning during the PRO-footBALL game. Last night we
took taxis's to a Hungarian restaurant where Michael the owner prepared
goulash. It was great.
We'll be leaving next Wed-Friday of next week for Panama.
It is a sail of about 77 miles. We will be at some isolated islands, San Jose,
Parida, Gamez, Varedero and Santa Cruz etc.. This section of Panama begins with
a large peninsula called Punta Burica and travels inward making the Gulfo de
Charcoazu. There are two large river systems, that create Boca Brava and Boca
Chica. Boca is the mouth of the rivers. There is a town up Boca Chica called
Port of Pedregal. If we reach this town we should be able to do email.
We invited Viva Bob for dinner. Just before he arrived Lynn on Starform told us
about this large catameran that announce that he would fill our scuba tanks for
a beer. Bob and I buzzed right over and my aluminum tank popped and a small
crack about an inch and a half began hissing. I now need another tank We had a
great and relaxing dinner and Bob is a classic gentleman. I shouldn't of drank
the cheap scotch, oops.
October 18, 2002
Pizza part and interneting and major rain. Go on Shepard's Hope a 47-foot Alden
Dolphin built in 1975. Bueno's boat has outstanding rigging with furling mizzen
and main in the boom and the staysail and genny around the stays. It is a very
nicely rigged boat on an old hull. He thinks it is worth $300,000 but he'll be
lucky to get $150,000. Old boats are old boats and leaving it in Gulfito for
over 18 months causes more concerns. I headed off with Ruck and Lindy for lunch
and interneting. Liz, Jackie and Kathleen are having their toes painted and
massaged. The hour that it takes to get that cost $3 usd. Liz has been looking
all over town, walking past the fellows on the curb in the rain. Ah basically a
wet tee shirt, good thing Liz doesn't understand Spanish.
After interneting we walk down the road or a small river.
Our dinghy had over 10 inches of water in just two hours of rain. Whoa! We
headed out to Slainte and began the preparation of our pizza as I suggested
about a week ago that we should have a pizza cook off. The prep was super, we
included spicy tomato sauce, real pepperoni, sauerkraut and tomatoes with green
olives and we cooked it in the barbeque on top of a 3/8 inch piece of aluminum.
This is a griddle that we had made in Ballard and it really works slick. I
should of turned down the heat as the pizza bottom was black.
Land and Sea (Katy and Tim) who have a small cabin and a
dock loan us their "home." There were twelve pizzas and three salads. Beer was
300 colonies (370 colonies/dollar) and several of us had box wine. It was a
great evening.
October 19, 2002
Today is Orchid day and Lindy's birthday and the beginning of the World Series.
Yesterday we visited the Orchid garden and it was Lindy's birthday and the
beginning of the World Series. (Pictures #9 and 10) So the day was filled with
cool stuff. There were six girls, Liz, Kathleen, Lyn, Jackie, Lindy and Anita
(401-K) showing off their toes, basically a Toe Jam. (Picture 11) The flowers
were great, Lindy was surprised and the Giants beat the Angles. It was a great
day
October 20, 2002
Today is a SLOW day. I did some computing for Bill on Mandorla and Liz made
Gestapo for lunch and Lemon chicken for dinner. Giant lost but made a game out
of it.
October 21, 2002
Today is the day for bad boat projects, that includes changing the oil,
replacing the oil and fuel filters and cleaning and changing the primary fuel
filters. I get Liz to do the actual oil pumping as my elbow still is sore and
the oil has to be pumped out of the dipstick hole by hand. We finish and run
the engine for three hours and I try to fix the tachometer. Corrosion had
buggered up the connection on the sending unit.
Since this is Monday night the boys head to town and watch
football and the ladies come over to our boat and chat and try to watch movies
and a copy of the Emmys. I say try because the next day Liz tell me that the
sound is buggered up on the TV/VCR.
October 22, 2002
Today was check out day. Liz and I jump in our new dinghy and realize that the
motor is leaking gas. I try to work on it but we are out of time. Stephan on
Moonshadow zips out and grab Kathleen and Scott on Mandorla and then Liz and I.
The Six of us headed out and need to stop at five different spots to complete
the exiting of Costa Rica. The first is the customs office. This is located at
the trade free zone and the six of us entered two offices that weren't right
since none to these offices have signs on them, even in Spanish. We gave a copy
of our passport, boat document and crew list to the lady and 5 minutes later we
received the customs doc that signals us "alls clear" from customs folks with
out having our boats inspected. Stephen has saved us time and purchased Red
Cross stamps that we would have had to gone to the bank and bought them. Next
we head to the bank and pay an exit fee of twenty dollars. The fellow at the
bank looked at our length and thought it was in meters and wanted $50 dollars.
We would have had a boat over 120 feet, so we convinced him that our figures
were in feet not meters. The next stop immigration and here the gentleman took
the stamps that Stephan bought and stuck em in our passports and stamped on top
of them. We also gave copies of our boat documents, passports and crew list, he
gave us our exit stamp. Our final stop is the port captain and we give him the
same three documents, the customs doc and show him our stamped passport and we
receive in return our Zarpe. This is our paper that allows us to enter Panama.
The day is complete and we find a local sopa (small restaurant) and relax.
After lunch Jackie and Stephan head back to their boat and
we do our last provisioning. I am in charge of the beer and finally in the back
of the store's inventory I get the 5 cases I had been tasked to get. All the
guys in the store were asking where the party would be. We check out and a
three wheeled bicycle sleps our groceries to the marina. Stephan comes in and
helps us back to our boat. I work on our engine and finally we watch the World
Series and get a shower. Long day.
October 23, 2002
After the radio net we are going back to the duty free stores, fuel the boat and
pay our bills. I am also trying to find a regulator for Bill on Mandorla. He
has had some trying times with regard to electricity. Liz and I will send off
this email with the log and some pictures. Wish you a great day and a Happy
Halloween.
