01/30/2006 - Golfito, Costa Rica

We are in Golfito, Costa Rica. We arrived here one week ago today. We did an overnight sail from Bahia Drake covering 70 nautical miles. We had light winds which were perfect conditions fot putting up the drifter sail. It was a beautiful, peaceful night of sailing and tough to describe just how perfect and peaceful it is out there. So, I guess that's it. It was perfect and peaceful!

We are on a mooring here in a beautiful marina called Land and Sea. For $5 a night we have a mooring, dinghy dock, including laundry facilities, showers, garbage, all of the luxuries of boat life. This is a very special place. The owners of Land and Sea, Tim and Katie, have made this place just like home. They have an on-your-honor system for the bar. They keep a refrigerator stocked with beer, soda, tea and juice. There is a chalkboard and whenever you grab yourself a drink, you put a tickmark on the chalkboard and at the end of your visit, you pay your bill. Now, that's nice! Even nicer is the gigantic shower they have here that dispenses cold but invigorating showers at the touch of a dial. Oh, yeah, the TV room with cable, movie channels and CNN is a nice touch too. Even better are the 4 dogs, 6 cats and local turtle that are all pets here at the marina. Never a dull moment and we all know how good plenty of pet therapy is. Living on anchor for almost 2 years now, we sure do enjoy the luxuries of having a dock for a change. You learn to appreciate the little things in life after being on anchor for so long.

Golfito is nothing like the small villages that we have been visiting down the coast. It is fairly large with plenty of restaurants, hotels and shopping. This is the official last port of entry for Costa Rica so all of the boats heading south are congregrating here and preparing for the exit from the country and gathering up speed for entry into Panama.

We have been getting lots of boat projects done on the boat. Pictured below is the new netting that Jake installed while we were in Bahia Drake. Special thanks to Steve and Ingrid for toting the material all of the way to Costa Rica for us!


This picture shows the old netting underneath and the new netting on top. The old netting wore out after only two years of being exposed to the UV rays and normal wear and tear. It took Jake an entire day to remove the old netting and replace it.


This picture shows the new netting fully installed. We used pvc piping to reinforce the edges this time instead of the grommets like last time.


Jake hard at work finishing the netting.

Today, Jake is paying a visit to the machine shop to put in a request to have some bolts fabricated for our engine. He is also working on the project of installing metal bars and brackets on each hatch so that we can beef up our security system a little bit more. We hear that the ports south of here are a little bit more sketchy so we want to be able to lock things up tight.

Tomorrow we are going to make a trip to the Duty Free Zone where we can stock up on liquor, name brand groceries, electronics, etc. The cruisers are getting together in the evening for a Spaghetti Potluck. Last night we met up with our new friend, Ken, for a tastey dinner of grilled shrimp and mahi mahi. Ken is a friend of a friend of the family and lives here in Golfito and has an awesome fishing boat. Jake and Dave are hoping to maybe go fishing with him while we are here. Hope we can squeeze it all in!

Our three-month visa for Costa Rica expires in just 6 days. We will be spending the next 6 days preparing to leave (i.e. provisioning, loading up gasoline, water, working on boat projects). We will be leaving for Panama on or about February 6th. Our next visitors are due to connect with us around the 1st of March in Balboa, Panama for our transit of the Panama Canal. We are 15 months into our journey now. I never dreamt it would have taken us this long to explore the Pacific coast, but I am glad we have taken our time and not rushed it along. We are anxious to get to the Caribbean. The rough plan now is to visit the San Blas islands after the canal transit and work our way north ending up in Belize by April or May and summering over in the Rio Dulce, Guatemala.

Stay tuned for further developments. Even the best laid plans are subject to change.