Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Going back a couple of days ago, we did go back to the park around 3pm. We landed ashore around high tide and right where we chained the dinghy to a tree there was a troup of white faced monkeys including one mother with a baby clinging to her back.

We hung around there for a while before hiking the one remaining trail in the park we had left from the morning. This was a circular trail around cathedral point which climbed up, offered some spectacular views over the sea and then back down again. There were quite a few agoutis around which are the second largest rodents on the planet. We also saw one opossum and a few more monkeys.

Back on the boat I had to fix the solenoid which allows the propane gas to flow into the boat. One of the wires had broken right where it went into the plastic of the solenoid when I’d removed the empty tank and we could not use the gas until it was fixed. I lengthened the wires while fixing this so that a repeat was less likely.

Yesterday morning we decided to go for a dive nearby. We moved Dignity and anchored so we could dive straight off the back of the boat. Helen stayed behind as she only likes to go in when it is close to perfect viewing conditions. Ella, John and I were out for about an hour. Most of the time the visibility was pretty poor but there were a few patches where we had reasonably visibility. I saw three lobsters but all were tucked away so deep into the rocks I was unable to bring them in for lunch.

Back on the boat we set off back to Quepos and lunch. In the afternoon I took Ella and John to shore along the way picking up Mike from Callisto. Mike and I took a taxi to the dive store where I dropped off our three tanks to be refilled then went to the propane shop to pick up our gas tanks. We then headed back to the dive store but as our tanks were not yet ready we went round the corner for a couple of beers. We picked up the tanks and a final taxi ride took us back to the dinghy where we loaded up and headed back to the boats. On the way I realized I forgotten to ask the dive shop if they had a spare fin strap so having dropped Mike and the tanks off I went back ashore and walked to the dive shop. I was able to obtain a new strap and on the way back picked up a spare remote control and some onions. The dinghy had worked itself onto a rock and in rectifying this I slipped and sat in the water getting quite wet and embarassed. Back on Dignity I completed changing the oil on the genset which I’d started earlier. By now, much of the afternoon was done with all the chores and all that was left to do was collect Ella and John from the shore.

Today we’re out of here. We’re sailing (or motoring if our recent luck with the weather is with us) up to Herradura/Jaco where we’ll stay a couple of days before moving on.

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.