As we had done Quepos to death leaving at dawn was the obvious choice so we could have time at our destination. Leaving the confines of our bunk we discovered the wind blowing around 7 knots in the anchorage. This raised our hopes for higher yet wind speeds away from the shelter of the bay.<\/p>\n

We raised the mainsail at anchor, raised the anchor and motored off. Into reduced winds. Disappointing indeed. However, they were off our starboard quarter so with the motion of the boat the apparent wind put us on a close reach which was enough to raise the head sail and at least get a little extra speed motor sailing.<\/p>\n

This was much the story all the way up to Bahia Herradura. We did have an interval where the winds picked up to around 10 knots but they came at us on our nose and made the seas short and choppy. We headed off to port hoping the wind would continue to increase and we could later tack and sail into our destination. However, the winds were again to die and the seas calm down so we ended up with the motor on all the way.<\/p>\n

The weather in general was wonderful though. The air was clear enough to see the Nicoya peninsular from far out. This is bittersweet as this means our stomping ground for our final days in Costa Rica (and hence the Americas) is all in sight. A slight sadness to be nearing the end of one phase but the excitement of leaving for the South Pacific in under three weeks is beginning to build and in between we have still much to do including Ben and Jess’s visit.<\/p>\n

We anchored around 1pm and decided to wait a couple of hours before it cooled enough to make going ashore a sensible idea. Our dinghy landing was ok except John again managed to get soaked and very displeased in the process. We could have dinghied to the nearby marina but they, apparently, charge $50 a day for the privilege of docking the dinghy. That certainly exceeds John’s laundry costs so the beach landings it is.<\/p>\n

We walked about a mile to a nearby mall which caters for all the expats living in the area. It is reputed to have the best selection of food in all of Costa Rica. I was a little disappointed with what we found and found the place a little expensive. On the plus side it was air conditioned which counts for a lot.<\/p>\n

Having bought some groceries we took a taxi back to the shore, dinghied back to the boat and settled into an evening of curry and the movie Grand Torino.<\/p>\n

This morning was a little disturbed by the generator failing to start. The impeller had shredded leaving me the task of switching it out and fishing out all the broken blades from where they’d ended up.<\/p>\n

Finally, I’ve uploaded a few pics taken during our second trip to Manuel Antonio Park. They’re attached to our previous blog entry.<\/p>\n

Today we’re off to Jaco, perhaps to surf. It’s a bus ride away which should be fun.<\/p>\n