Engineer's Blog




Hola,

We motored 30 hrs. down the Nicaraguan coast the last 6 hrs into a small Papagallo (like a Santa Ana offshore wind) with 20 knot winds on the nose and steep, closely spaced 4 ft chop. Henrietta II was covered in salt spray (wet) and we were relieved to enter Bahia Santa Elena in Santa Rosa National Park just inside the northern Costa Rican border. The bay is remote, undeveloped and peaceful. We stayed for 2 days of swimming and a bit of walking. Saw parrots and a sloth. A very peaceful place.

Everywhere we have been so far we've visited at the end of the "dry" season climate wise. Even the jungle has been mostly brown. Until now. We motored 70 hrs about 30 miles off the coast of Costa Rica in flat, hot, still, windless seas (dry) to Golfito in southern Costa Rica near the border with Panama. My God--what a difference. Lush green jungle. Supposed to be one of the rainiest places on earth (wiki says 400-500 cm of annual rain). Pretty cool small town with tropical birds everywhere. Sam and I walked to the nearby "Rainforest Mountain Reserve" and the views are amazing. Hoping to explore more tomorrow morning when it is cooler (and we bring water--duh). No Toucan or monkey sightings but expect to see some tomorrow.

We are med-moored to the small dock at "Land and Sea", a funky little cruiser's club run by a very nice couple and their 5 dogs. There is a cruisers lounge in an upstairs Palapa with books, movies and an "honor fridge" full of Pilsner and Imperial beers and sodas. Visiting boats are encouraged to paint their boat name on the walls and I recognized "Ganymeade" from Cruising World magazine, "Etalancia" a Willard 30 like mine (I've communicated through e-mails over the last 2 years with owners Boris and April) and "Mandy", a Bristol Channel Cutter that my friends Richard and Virginia Cross sailed from San Diego 2 years ago. Small world.

Golfito town has a lot to see and we will enjoy exploring it until Saturday when we leave for Panama. We may anchor somewhere for a day or so on the Panamanian coast and then go to Panama City to prepare for a canal transit to the Caribbean. Wow. We have good wifi here so I look forward to hearing what friends and family are up to.

Comments

  1. Oddwell / Jim NewellMay 9, 2011 at 10:03 AM

    Hola Compadres,

    I finally went ahead and connected via my off-the-radar-but-I-like-the-features Google account. Did not realize how easy it was to become a "follower," which, of course, Sam knows I am in all capacities of the word ;-)

    I am looking forward to reading about your journey through the canal, so please give us a few extra posts. From what I understand, your "big" boat won't seem so big in a few days.

    Cheers and I hope the Atlantic will treat you all well,

    Jim

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Captain's Blog: Aruba to Bonaire

Well, hurricane season in Aruba somehow turned into a full-time position at the International School of Aruba for me and a part-time position and internship for Sam. We both accomplished our goals – letters of recommendation and experience. We made plans to head north to the DR, up through Turks & Caicos, and finally to Florida, where permits and the like are not issues. We assembled a crew consisting of three of my close Dutch friends for the first leg to the DR – the rest would be day trips that Sam and I could handle on our own. But while working at ISA, we got to know someone who accepted a position as head of school at an international school in Sint Maarten. And it just so happened that he needed a college counselor and “right-hand man” (or, in this case, woman). We were flown to Sint Maarten, toured the school, and signed contracts in a whirlwind of a week. Sint Maarten is the boating capital of the northern Caribbean. You can see St. Barts, Saba, and Anguilla on a ...
Read more

Not Quite Yet

Image
After checking out of Aruba around 8:30 am on Monday, April 9th we started our 3 1/2 day trek to St. Maarten. We were about 3 miles outside of Aruba when Jeff noticed a strange noise and we all noticed a strange smell. Sure enough, the transmission was failing and then eventually we lost gears, meaning we couldn't move forward or backwards (well we could move slightly backwards but not good enough). Jeff mentioned he has seen this before and said sometimes the transmission comes back but we had to do something, so we called the Coast Guard/Port of Aruba to let them know the situation. We were like sitting ducks, couldn't go anywhere and the seas weren't being friendly. The Coast Guard said they could get a tow to us in 2 hours which meant a very uncomfortable situation for everyone. Furniture that wasn't strapped down was now in a different place and the dogs were clinging on to me in the pilot house. The dogs did much better than I did. After about an hour, Jeff was ...
Read more

Almost Ready

Well we had a crew of 6 and now it's back to just the three of us. It's great to have Jeff back on board, we've been doing plenty of catching up. Greg is in the engine room now doing last minute checks, and we only have a few more things to do before we leave tomorrow morning. We hope to leave around daybreak and arrive in St. Maarten by Thursday. It should take about 76 hours at 7 knots. Looking forward to the new adventure and starting a new life in St. Maarten.
Read more