A lot of sailors believe that as soon as you think about reefing the main you should do it, no matter what the conditions. Yesterday I thought it and said it at the same time, and was glad we had adopted that policy. We were rounding the Nicoya Peninsula to get into the Gulf of Papagayo where the winds have reportedly been blowing 20-40 knots day and night for the last month. We were still in the lee of the peninsula and weren’t feeling any of the Papagayo breeze yet, but the masthead indicator showed the wind was starting to move forward and freshen a bit (still only 7 knots). Suddenly it was like the light switch came on and we got hit with 20 knots and huge waves right on the nose. Luckily we were already putting in the reef, and on this boat with lots of practice behind us that drill now only takes us a couple of minutes.
Our trip up from Golfito was quick but long, covering 280 miles in 7 days with no overnight passages. We anchored the first two nights in Drake Bay where we stayed onboard and rested up after our Golfito stop. The next day we went to Manuel Antonio National Park where we anchored another two days but did get off the boat. It’s a national park with lovely hiking trails and beautiful beaches. We had to pay a small fee to anchor the boat there and hike the trails, but it was really nice and we had a marvelous day. We were hiking up around this big peninsula on a rather steep trail with few other hikers when we rounded a bend and found a group (troop/pack/herd/gaggle?) of monkeys. They were just playing in the trees alongside the trail and we enjoyed watching them for a long time.
The next day we were up again at 5:00 am to scoot up the coast and had a lovely sail across the Gulf of Nicoya into Ballena Bay. Then it was another 5am start to begin the trip around the Nicoya Peninsula. We made it as far as Bahia Carillo sailing with a nice breeze behind us, and we tucked into a tiny spot between the sportfishing boats on buoys and the rocks, just out of the ocean swell. It was a noisy but very pleasant night. Yesterday was our last 5am start and we were hoping to get as far as Bahia Potrero, about 15 miles from our destination of Playa del Coco. Luckily the current sets north here and was running strong yesterday and we had 2 knots pushing us along all day.
Those 20 knot winds only lasted about 20 minutes and as we entered the Gulf of Papagayo the wind indicator showed only 1.2 knots. Apparently the 20-25 knot constant breeze is out on the middle and on the north side of this bay, and where we are at Coco on the south side feels significantly less of that wind. So here we are for a couple of weeks. Teresa Lennstrom and family have a condo here in Coco for a week starting this morning and we’re looking forward to catching up with T2. Then on the 27th Leslie & Fred come down for a week and we’ll go cruise the area and see some of the anchorages around Northern Costa Rica.
Teresa
