Playas del Coco, Costa Rica

December 8th, 2005

10º 33.39' N, 085º 41.78' W.

I’ve just finished re-standing all my canned food and other tipped over items in the galley lockers after my short trip to Playas del Coco from Bahia Potrero Grande, northern Costa Rica. It was a relatively simple leg of about 20 nautical miles across the Gulf of Papagayo, for which the Papagayo gales are named. Fortunately, the strong winds forecast for the day of my crossing never really materialized and a north easterly 15 to 20 knots was all that showed up. This was not a problem with my reefed mainsail and staysail, although I could have used some of my genoa at times, for extra speed. But it was unavailable, as I will explain below.

I enjoyed my stay in San Juan del Sur. There was only one other cruising boat at anchor on my arrival, “Pearl” from Alaska, which had earlier also been at Marina Puesta del Sol. But they left the following day. So I was able to move to their better anchoring spot. I used the so-called water taxi to get to shore (when I could attract its attention) rather than launching my dinghy. I call it “so-called” as it looks more like a stretched log boom jockey, enveloped by old tires and dirty fenders. And it bounced around like a cork. Boarding from my boat was onto the tiny bow deck in front of the pilot house, and that is also where I remained standing for the trip to shore.

San Juan del Sur is on a beautiful flattened horseshoe shaped bay facing west. Being surrounded by hills, it is almost bowl-like, but open to the sea. Watching the sun slip below the horizon is one enjoyable pastime during the “Happy Hour”. The sunsets are magnificent. This village is one of the few tourist venues in Nicaragua which sees any gringos. A number of foreigners who have come to San Juan del Sur over the years have decided to stay, some of whom have opened businesses (cafés, restaurants, stores, Internet cafés, etc). But the village remains small, although quite a busy real estate market is developing in the region – primarily aimed at foreign investors and retirees. It’s proving to be an attractive and inexpensive market for those who don’t want to pay the huge US-like prices for property in Costa Rica.

I eventually linked up with Eric, a cruising friend I got to know during my time in El Salvador, where he keeps his boat. Eric is a Canadian married to a local woman and now makes his home in San Juan del Sur with his delightful young family. After over two years of research, he is now on the point of publishing the first comprehensive cruising guide for the Pacific side of Central America. It will be an invaluable resource and will likely be instrumental in opening up the Pacific coasts of Guatemala, El Salvador and Nicaragua to cruising sailors and coastal travellers.

My departure from San Juan del Sur was not exactly as planned. A couple of weeks before my arrival there, they had closed the local Immigration office and moved it to the Nicaragua/Costa Rica border crossing, about 15 or 20 miles away. So I had to get taxis to the border and back in order to complete checking out of Nicaragua. At least the collectivo taxis were not expensive – about $2.30 US each way.

I sailed out of San Juan del Sur a week ago Wednesday (Nov 30th) headed for Bahia Santa Elena in northern Costa Rica, a distance of about 23 miles. It was an enjoyable sail in easterly winds of about 15 knots, plus gusts. Bahia Santa Elena is a huge and beautiful bay in the Santa Rosa National Park. It is in a dry tropical wilderness area with no buildings or other development anywhere to be seen. On my arrival, I was the only sailing boat in the bay. There was a couple of fishing pangas doing their stuff, but nothing else going on. There was plenty of bird life, with ospreys, vultures, egrets, curlews and groups of small and noisy green parrots. Howler monkeys can sometimes also be heard. The occasional small sting ray could be seen jumping out of the water, and there were often shoals of fish splashing in a frenzy.

After one full and peaceful day in Bahia Santa Elena, I pulled up the anchor and headed out of the bay into strong headwinds. As I exited, I noticed a sail a few miles to the north coming in my direction. It turned out to be “Songline”, a British registered boat I’d first got to know in El Salvador and later, in the early part of this summer, in Puesta del Sol. John & Barbara had been spending time in San Lorenzo, Honduras, in the Gulf of Fonseca, and were now headed for Bahia Santa Elena and beyond. After a brief radio chat when they were close, I turned around behind them and followed them back into the bay.

We had some enjoyable visits, including a couple of excellent meals on “Songline”. It was good to catch up on the news and hear their enthusiastic report on San Lorenzo. We also made a dinghy foray up the two creeks which flow out of the mangroves into the bay.

Barbara took some photos of “Horizons” as they were heading past me into the bay, and I’ve included a couple here (if they upload, that is). They show “Horizons” motor sailing against the wind with a single reef in the mainsail (reducing the amount of sail flown). On the headstay, forward of the mast, is the rolled up genoa (a large jib). The staysail is still tied down to its boom, also forward of the mast.

Last Sunday (4th) was to be departure day for me, as I wanted to get around Cabo Santa Elena before any significant winds developed. But “Horizons” would not co-operate. The engine turned over but would not start. I spent the next 6 hours working on the fuel line, from the tank to the fuel injector pump on the engine, trying to clear out any fuel blockage. I guess that the earlier bouncy sea conditions had shaken up any collected dirt in the bottom of the fuel tank and clogged up the filters and/or system.

After replacing both fuel filters and cleaning the sedimenter, I still could not get any fuel into the filter on the engine, no matter how long I pumped with the fuel lift pump. So I removed the fuel lift pump and connecting copper pipes from the engine, including a check valve, and cleaned them all out. The pump itself had good compression and seemed to be working properly. Once reinstalled, I had no further problem bleeding the fuel into the engine filter and the air out of the system. But still the engine would not start. Final throw was to loosen the nuts connecting the fuel pipes to the fuel injectors and crank the engine. Good news. Fuel came out of the loosened fuel pipes. Air expelled. Tightened them. Cranked engine …. cranked it some more …. and it sputtered to life. Back in business. But I smelled like a diesel-soaked rag.

Last Monday (5th), I headed out of Bahia Santa Elena and west towards Cabo Santa Elena at the tip of the peninsula, a spot noted for its robust winds. A couple of warnings from different sources to securely tie down everything on deck had given me a little apprehension about rounding the point. But as it turned out, this was one of the Cabo’s gentler days – nothing much more than about 15 knots. The anchorage was a few miles to the east of the point, on the south side of the peninsula. Not the greatest anchorage, but it had protection from the prevailing north or east winds. And it was quite windy for most of the time I was there.

One night was enough at Key Point. Bahia Potrero Grande was the next anchorage in a large bay only about 10 miles away to the east, upwind. It had been quite windy overnight at Key Point, and also for part of the morning. But the wind eased as I got ready for departure. Unlike my big genoa, my staysail is not on roller furling. So it is a lot of work, away from the helm, to raise and lower it. Included in this work is controlling the staysail boom, in addition to the sail itself. In strong winds, my little underpowered autopilot is frequently unable to keep the boat on the course I’ve set while I’m up on deck working the sails, which means that I’m often running back to the wheel mid-operation to get the boat back to the correct angle to the wind for working the sails.

Operating the roller furling gear to let out and take in the genoa means I do not have to leave the cockpit, although I usually have to leave the helm briefly while I haul on the appropriate line. For only a 10 mile hop to Bahia Potrero Grande, I decided to go with a reefed mainsail and the genoa unrolled only as far as the reef line, given that the wind had eased. Off I went. Main up. Genoa partially rolled out. Picking up speed. Just as I started to pass an island to the east, a sudden howling gust on my beam from the east heeled me over to the starboard side. I guess that I’d just emerged from the wind shadow of the island. Poor forethought on my part.

With the wind pressing on the sail, I could not roll any in. I headed up into the wind to remove the pressure on the sail. I was then able to roll some in. But the little autopilot did not keep the boat on my set course and the genoa backwinded (for non-boaters, this means that in this case the wind was now blowing into the starboard – right hand– side of the genoa instead of the original port side) – an unintentional tack.

Back on the wheel, I couldn’t get the boat to turn back into the brisk wind, so I went all the way round, with the wind, in a controlled (!) gybe, mainsail sheeted in tight, doing 360º but getting back on course and in control. Very embarrassing, even without an audience. But the gods conspired. I noticed a few miles behind me the sails of “Songline”, who had just come around the Cabo from Bahia Santa Elena. They must have been having a good chuckle.

The wind was now brisk and fairly consistent, and I was heading right into it. I then noticed a strange bouncing shadow on the mainsail – possibly of a genoa sheet (sail control rope). On closer inspection, it was the stitched-on hemming from the leech (trailing edge) of the genoa, which was now no longer stitched-on. About half of its length was detached. So I rolled in the remaining genoa to prevent further separation.

This explains why my genoa was not available to me yesterday (7th) for the crossing to Playas del Coco. The sail is now about 6 years old, and after 4 years in the tropics, the stitching on the UV protective strip on the edge of the sail has badly deteriorated, as it has on other fabrics on the exposed parts of the boat. The little tussle with the wind resulted in the much weakened stitching giving way. I will have to take the sail to a sailmaker, probably in Puntarenas, to get the entire UV protective strip re-stitched. It will also be a good opportunity to have some general maintenance done on the sail.

This morning, before the wind came up, I tried to remove the genoa from the forestay. But one third of the way down, the swivel fitting which holds and controls the sail up at the top of the mast snagged on a furling gear extrusion as I was lowering it. So I can’t get the sail down until I go up the mast to release the sail from the swivel. This has happened once before and the cure is relatively simple in settled weather conditions (i.e. no wind). A set screw has loosened and backed out from one of the extrusions (one of the series of connected tubes on the forestay holding the forward edge of the sail), preventing the swivel from sliding over it. The set screw needs to be tightened (preferably using Loctite – a kind of glue - to secure it) so that the swivel will slide over it.

“Songline” arrived here in Playas del Coco at the same time as me, so as soon as we were anchored they kindly picked me up on their way to shore so that we could check in to Costa Rica with the Port Captain, Immigration and Customs. There was one moment of unexpected excitement for the lady who was doing the paperwork in the Port Captain’s office. She pulled from a shelf a huge loose leaf binder full of documents and clumped it down on her desk in front of me. Sitting on the cover of the binder was a scorpion, tail flickering on having been disturbed. I almost had to unclamp her from the ceiling. Another staff member took care of the scorpion with a broom. When my hearing had returned to normal, she explained that she had been stung by a small scorpion when she was a child. The paperwork was then completed without further incident. We now have three months in the country before we have to apply for a further three month extension.

One pleasant surprise when shopping in the supermarket here was seeing bottles of Guinness draught, as well as several brands of strong (up to 8.5% alc.) Belgian beer. Expensive, but one deserves a treat every once in a while.

Tomorrow (9th), I will launch my dinghy and row to shore to do e-mail, shopping and, in particular, to find a new gasoline tank for my dinghy outboard engine. Just before I left Puesta del Sol, I noticed that the new tank I had bought about 9 months ago in San Salvador had a crack on one of the bottom corners and was leaking when placed in its operating position. So I’ll have to use my oars until I find a replacement.

December 9th, 2005

I didn’t get my dinghy launched today after all. Early this morning before the wind came up, with the help of Philip of “Carina”, I went up the mast to try to get the genoa down. My theory was correct, that the swivel of the roller furling gear could not get past a loose set screw which had backed out of the extrusion on the forestay. The sail was ultimately lowered after I was able to release the head of the sail from the swivel by removing the pin from the shackle. Sounds easy, except for the fact that I was in the bosun’s chair hanging on to the forestay with one arm while working the very stiff shackle pin with pliers in the other hand while dangling about 40 feet above the deck. I had tried to tighten the two offending loose set screws with an Allen wrench, but they wouldn’t go back in. I later found out why.

On one of my trips back to Vancouver, I had bought several spare set screws from a rigging company. I sized the Allen wrench I was going to use to one of these spare set screws before I went up the mast, to ensure that I had the right size. When the loose set screws would not screw back into the extrusion, I removed one completely, by hand. When I later compared this one with one of the spare set screws, it was obvious that the rigging company had sold me the wrong set screws. So the Allen wrench I had used was too small. When I next dangle from the forestay in a day or two, I’ll have the correct size of Allen wrench.