Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

John and I, being keen to make up for the previous days missed dive, headed out in the dinghy to survey the nearby rocky outcrop to see if we could find a suitable dive spot. After some searching we found an area where the rocks came to the surface where fish congregated although it was quite murky.

The prospects for this dive were not for Helen’s liking so just the two of us headed back out with our dive gear. Our dive lasted about 30 mins which was about enough given the murkiness of the water. Back at Dignity I used my remaining air to give the props and the shafts a good scraping as they’d begun to get a little hairy.

While we were away Helen had decided she’d had enough of the rolliness of the anchorage so checking our guides we decided to head about 10nm north to an anchorage called Dominicalita. The winds were sub 5 knots so we motored our way up there.

Here we rested for a while before Helen and I took the dinghy ashore. It didn’t look too tricky but as we approached the shore a wave picked us up from behind and soon we were in the surf sideways and we were lucky not to tip over, all to the amusement of some local fishermen. We dragged the dinghy up the beach which was occupied by many vultures, presumably hanging around for the scraps of fish brought in by the fishermen.

We didn’t spend too long wondering around. We found a restaurant which could be access by dinghy, we thought, at very high tide which we weren’t sure if we wanted to visit later. Back on the beach we met a couple of American’s from Tennessee who were visiting their son who lives here. We chatted for a while before heading back to the boat.

This time the surf presented us with more difficulties. It took us two attempts to get deep enough to push us further out with the motor down. We then had to crash through two breaking waves and climb a third. This last wave was just about to break so the dinghy climbed up steeply and dropped over the top sending Helen airborne. She managed to land in the dinghy but bashed her knee painfully. This squashed any plans to return to the shore as we didn’t want to repeat that exercise, particularly in the dark.

Today we’re off to Quepos where we’ll stay for a few days. John will head off to San Jose tomorrow to meet his girlfriend, Ella, at the airport and stay in town for a few days. An old work colleague of Helen’s will meet us on Saturday and stay for a day. Then we’ll head off again but we’re not yet totally decided on which way.

We left Bahia Drake in good time arriving at Isla del Cano shortly after 9am. We took the dinghy ashore to the ranger station to pay our park fees and learn about which dive sites we could explore. Disappointingly we learned we were not allowed to dive without a local guide but we were allowed to snorkel and hike the park trail for our efforts.

We hiked the island first. There was only one trail leading from the ranger station that immediately climbed up on top of the flat topped island. The trees and foliage was quite dense and eerily quiet. We saw lizards scurrying out of the way and could hear the occasional bird but all was largely still. We came to a fork in the path and headed in the direction of the archaeological site. This turned out to be a collection of spherically carved rocks by some ancient natives to the area. We returned to the fork taking the other path which took us to a high lookout over the sea on the other side of the island. We had, on the way, tantalizingly passed near some falling water but no path descended to what could have been a refreshing dip.

Back on the beach we took to the water. The water near the beach was exceedingly murky but as we rounded some rocks it suddenly cleared revealing numerous fish in waters we could see 100ft. We stayed snorkeling for some time before eventually heading back to the beach and returning to the boat. While on the island though we had met and chatted to a local dive guide who would be willing to take us out from Drake Bay if we were to return, which is possible.

Given that we had more time remaining in the day than we had planned we decided to head off to Uvita rather than return to Drake Bay. This will reduce our distance to Quepos which we need to reach by the 24th. The area may also be conducive to some diving. Now that we have all the gear out we’re keen to follow through.

We arrived by 5pm. The nature of the place is that it gets quite swelly when the tide is high but settles down in between. There is a 2.5 mile beach which extends out to some rocks at low tide. All good for exploration.

Yesterday was one of those days where we never put the dinghy into the water. They are rare but they happen from time to time. I managed to extend the connectivity of my GPS units. I’d bought a couple of switches in Panama City which I used so that I could GPS connectivity between either of my two handheld GPSs or the chart plotter. Now I can select which one routes through to the PC and the radios. I’m saying radios as I’ve not fed the selected GPS signal into the SSB as well as the VHF so either unit can send out the GPS coordinates if we activate the emergency signal. This all means I have a lot more redundancy on the navigation side. I can keep the two mobile GPS units in the microwave so we’ll always have some level of backup. As ever with boat projects what seemed simple took hours.

Helen spent some time reordering and moving some of our supplies around. John tried his hand at fishing from the boat but had no luck.

Today our plan is to head off to Isla Canos for some diving and return here before dark.