Category: Cruiser Connections

Our only real activity yesterday morning was to go out for brunch and to go food shopping. Back on the boat I did a little more online shopping for stuff that our son Ben can bring when he comes aboard in a couple of weeks.

In the afternoon I popped over to Callisto to discuss celestial navigation with Mike. He’s learned and forgotten all about it but I wanted to get a feel for what I needed to do if I’m ever to use my sextant. The conversation turned out to be helpful in a way.

Around 4:30 John hailed us as he was now back in Quepos with Ella. I picked them up in the dinghy and brought them back to the boat. We had been invited over to Callisto for sundowners. Unsurprisingly John and Ella elected to stay aboard Dignity to unwind after their long bus ride from San Jose. We eventually returned to the boat around 10:30pm.

Feeling worse for wear we were up and off around 5:30am this morning to get back into the park nice and early. Once we’d collected our tickets we headed to the beach near the boat to leave the dinghy and go hiking in the park. John misjudged his exit and ended up plunging into the sea up to his neck. Fortunately there are showers around the park which he use to replace the salt water in his clothes with fresh. We hiked practically every trail in the park hoping to see monkeys. I managed a brief glimpse of a howler but that was about it. We did see plenty of lizards, crabs and a sloth. I even saw a snake in the trees which pleased Helen no end.

We left the park and ate bruch at a cafe in the tourist area before heading back to the beach and the boat. Still no sign of monkeys. We’ll go ashore later today when the crowds leave as this seems to be the time the monkeys are attracted to the shore.

Getting up Saturday morning was not a hurried affair. We were due to meet Jason at 9am so we went about our own things for a while. Around 8:30am we went ashore. The tide was right out so the rocky bank we had previously chained the dinghy too offered no opportunities for a repeat. I was left guarding the dinghy while Helen shopped for bread, fruit and veg.

Jason came by in his car while Helen was away. He went off to park the car and returned at the same time as Helen. We were soon back aboard Dignity. I did one last email check before heading off during which I received an email tsunami alert as a result of the 8.8 mag earthquake down in Chile. The alert contained a list of seaports in Central and South America with, ironically, Quepos being top of the list. It predicted a 24cm wave first arriving at 8:16am in the morning. Looking back we had felt some sloshiness in the ever present swell around that time but had thought nothing of it. That all being said, the lat/long given for Quepos in the email was somewhere slightly inshore of the coast of Gabon, Africa so I wonder how accurate it all was.

Soon we were off round the corner to Manuel Antonio Park where we anchored. We first went snorkeling, the first time for Jason. After a late lunch and a rest we went dinghied ashore. We were met by a park keeper who refused us ashore without a ticket. I had thought, perhaps, we could buy one on the beach but no luck there. We had to dinghy out again through the surf getting drenched. We headed over to the public beach and Jason and I went off and bought tickets to enter, even though we had only about an hour left.

Another drenching as we left the beach and we were back off to the park where we again landed. The park keeper again met us, looked at our tickets and demanded to see our zarpe – clearance papers. We now had less than an hour left so we complained that there would be no time to go back to the boat and get it. He let us off but made it quite apparent we had to be off by four.

We spent the time walking some of the park trails. We saw a lot of white faced monkeys, many of which were down by the beaches. They seemed to be waiting for the public to leave so they could pick on the scraps left behind. Some were lounging quite contentedly on branches with their limbs hanging down. It seemed as if they were posing. On our walk we saw a number of other animals which all seemed quite tame and tolerated our coming reasonably near.

We finished our walk without arriving too late. The park keeper was nowhere to be seen but we didn’t know if he would return to menace us so we made our third trip through the surf of the day back to Dignity.

We spent the evening nervously watching a terrific show of lightening all around us. Knowing what had happened to Callisto we were hoping to be spared.

Today we’ll have breakfast together either here or in Quepos, not sure where. Jason is going to help us cart our dive tanks around town so we can get them filled. At the same time we can get our gerry cans filled with gas/petrol and do a little shopping. This afternoon John should be returning with Ella. We’ll return to the park tomorrow and use Tuesday for a fuller exploration.

Still in our bumpy anchorage the weather has turned a little grey. Two evenings ago we did an evening wash and took the rare opportunity to run the air cons on the boat, principally to drive the moisture out but we enjoyed the coolness all the same. As we had all the doors and windows shut we missed our usual splashing cue to raise the dinghy and for perhaps the first time left it hanging off the back of the boat. Overnight there was a lot of rain so we ended up with our own little paddling pool off the back of the boat.

In the morning I popped over to Callisto to see if they were interested in sundowners that evening, which they were. Mike had found problems with his water maker control board, another result of their near lightening strike. To get his watermaker going he needed a few simple electrical connectors which I had spare and gave him.

Helen and I then went ashore for lunch, paperwork and shopping. We took the camera and took a few pics around town which you can see below. Lunch ended up being a shared pizza. We then walked a mile or so to the port captains office to get our onward national zarpe (clearance papers). Turned out they wanted some more copies of our passport pictures which we had to get back in town. We returned to town, took five copies of each passport for luck, then went shopping for a few groceries. We took the groceries back to Dignity and I headed back to make my second visit to the port captains office.

Mike, Anne and Joanne from Callisto joined us for sundowners and it ended up being a fairly late evening for all of us. All very pleasant.

This morning we’re expecting to meet up with Helen’s ex-colleague Jason who will stay with us for a day. We’ll probably head over to Manuel Antonio Park to anchor there and take a walk around in the morning. This is pretty close to Callisto’s near lightening strike. We’re hoping lightening doesn’t strike the same place twice.

The motor up to Quepos was uneventful. We caught a fish along the way but that’s hardly news these days. We are, however, looking forward to Ben’s visit in two weeks as a couple of the items he is bringing are books to help us identify the fish we’re catching and which ones are good to eat.

Hoping to find an anchorage sheltered from the swells we were soon disappointed. There was one other boat here. We were soon greeted by the owner, Mike, who was on his way to pick up his wife and guest from the shore. Turned out he had been close to a lightening strike a few days earlier and was now immobilized due to his engine electronics being fried. When he returned with Anne, his wife, and Joanne, their friend, we invited them aboard to learn more about the area. Before we left for town we agreed to meet later in the day for tea and to have a look at his GPS which was also causing problems.

In town John booked his following day bus to San Jose so he could pick up Ella, his girlfriend. We ate lunch and bought a few bits and pieces in a supermarket before leaving John ashore so he could explore.

Helen and I went back to the boat through the increasing chop. Later I picked up John before Helen and I went over to Callisto for afternoon tea. I was able to help Mike out diagnosing which specific piece of equipment had developed a fault as a result of the lightening strike.

Today John has left on the bus. Helen is cleaning the boat and I am wrestling with the internet. I’ve given up trying to do anything productive from the boat and am now sitting in a cafe in Quepos to get things done. I’ve managed to upload pics since Golfito. Enjoy.