Costa Rica's North

Jennie and I left Drake's Bay to head north. We were picking up my mom, somewhere, along the way on March 18th. The first leg was from Drake's Bay to Quepos. Originally I was going to a closer anchorage, but the entrance was not very good, so we carried on north. We entered Quepos in the dark, the only light was the phosphorescence (bio-luminescence) trailing behind us for 60 ft and rippling to the side. We also had a few dolphins visit in the dark, the glittered like ghosts covered in star dust. We used the chart plotter on the laptop and radar and edged our way in to set the hook. We did a good job until the winds changed direction the next morning and we found ourselves withing half a boat length of our neighbours, we moved. In Quepos we sat at anchor, the motor's cooling system is acting up (which I will try to fix in Mexico), but in the mean time I band-aided up the issues. The anchorage was awful. It was very rolly, worse than at sea, and at night items would be launched from the shelves. During the day boats buzzed by us, and we were too far from shore to get to a landing spot without our motor. We stayed a day, then headed up to Los Suenos (Bahia Hendarura or something like that). It wasn't to bad there, but the landing was tricky with the swell. So far the whole way up to this point from Punta Mala has been motor sailing, and was taking it's toll on the motor. The Panama Canal definitely takes it's toll on old sailboat motors, we're looking at a rebuild in the near future.

We then sailed the next day to Bahia Balina where we going to meet my mom, we were a week early. It didn't seem like a great place, and there was a perfect weather window to head north to Playa del Coco, around the Nicolya peninsula, so we took it and met mom up north.

We had a decent sail with only about 6 hrs of motoring out of 24 and not 30 knot Papagayo head winds to motor into. This was excellent. Then we picked mom up in town and wandered a bit. Without the dinghy motor and with the beach landings (which were far better here than anywhere else) it was a challenge. Then a night on the hook with all the noises and stories of how unsafe central America is, mom decided we should go to the marina.

So here we are in Marina Papagayo, and it is very nice, with great amenities (though far from town), almost completely empty, and Mom feels safe. Jennie and I get to do hings like install the solar controller mom brought down, and clean the top side, yes Cypraea finally got a bath. The only downside about this marina is the surge that hits the walls and tosses the boats around pretty bad, our lines are thoroughly stretched and we are already down one fender.

So the plan is next week mom leaves and Jennie and I head up to Mexico 5 days at sea, which will be nice after a week of organising the boat and rest.