Puesta del Sol to Playa del Coco

Well, this passage was more difficult than it had to be. Sailing has always been, at least for me, an ‘I didn’t know what I didn’t know’ experience. This was no different. As much as you’ve sailed and as much as you’ve read, no matter how many cool electronic tools you have, the experience is dealing with the unforeseen that you didn’t know you didn’t know. Our busy day started with maneuvering out of the estuary into the ocean. Sand bars were everywhere hidden under peaceful water in the estuary and revealed by breakers as you enter the ocean. It was a beautiful day clear and calm.

We had waited ‘til a calm weather window because of another infamous wind vortex: the Papagayos. Like the Tuantapecs, which we’d already crossed, the Papagayos have gale force winds most of the time. The difference is Tuantepec winds are controlled by weather patterns in the Gulf of Mexico, so they have calms between the gales. Papagayos blow continually this time of year. So to pass through the area you stay close to shore, the saying goes, ”sail with one foot on the beach”, where the wind doesn’t have the “Fetch” or distance to build up big waves. Luckily the forecast was unseasonably lighter winds for our 12-hour passage through the area. The passage started out with a nice sail past the busy port of Corinto, weaving through all the ships coming or going, then past all the fishing boats with their nets to look out for.

We weren’t prepared for the shear number of pangas. It was almost a continuous flotilla of fishing boats; some to port, some to starboard, some straight ahead. All had nets or long lines. Some had lights; most didn’t. One panga ran over to us and yelled to turn to port. Ok, we missed that one. An hour later we were not so lucky. I saw the net floats just as we were on top of them. Sure enough we were snagged. We stopped and tried to get it off the boat with the boat hook to no avail. Next I tried to cut us free, but no luck. So dad got to take a swim and untangle it. Luckily it wasn’t rapped around the prop. Just as I was getting back on the boat the owner of the net motored up in his panga not too happy that I cut his net. I wanted to remind him that these gill nets were illegal, but thought better of it. I just told them I was sorry and got out of there.

This convinced me that since the Papagayo seem to be quiet we would forgo the “one foot on the beach” rule and head off shore. Bad choice, the winds were just waiting for some silly sailor to venture out too far.

We were rewarded with seas like a washing machine and the highest winds of the trip to date.

Time to reef the sails

While I was on deck in a gale my daughter stole my bunk!

It also slowed us down so instead of our daytime arrival in Playa del Coco, it was the middle of the night. After motoring around the anchorage looking for an opening between the reefs and the other boats we decided to just go outside of everyone to be safe. As we were lowering the anchor it jammed coming out of the hauser to the chainlocker. At this point Susanna was over it. She suggested we just go outside a few miles and drift, get some sleep and try again in the morning. I wanted to try and untangle it one time. That one time ended up taking an hour. The boat swings around the anchor at each anchorage so a twist develops and this was what tangled the chain.

We ended up pulling all 400 lbs of chain onto the deck and finally got it untangled. And after a couple of attempts the anchor was set. Whew!! Welcome to Costa Rica!

The next morning we set off for shore. But the dinghy outboard wouldn’t start. If you remember it fell overboard because the Captain didn’t secure it. I’d found an outboard shop in Huatulco to jury rig a new hose, but when we dropped the dinghy in the water the jury rigged hose didn’t work. Damn!

So we called for a water taxi… to no avail. In the afternoon we started flagging down random pangas. A dive boat stopped but he said he couldn’t take us in till the early the next morning. Since we’d anchored so far out rowing in to shore wasn’t an attractive option. So we said “sure”.

He showed up on schedule at 7am. When he picked us up the next day we pulled the dinghy along so we could get back home. Definitely overconfident that we would find the hose for my rare type of outboard. I also asked him where I might find the hose and he replied “the fishing supply store”. Maybe my Spanglish had confused him so I asked again pointing to his outboard and he replied the same. Seemed like a long shot. We needed to check into the country but finding the hose was our first priority. So off to find the fishing store. When we walked in, we soon realized this was no ordinary fishing lure and bait shop. They had hardware supplies, fishing supplies and best of all, outboard supplies! They had just the hose I needed!

Now we could start our day. We had breakfast at a cute coffee shop that looked like it belonged in San Francisco. Lattes and organic farm fresh entrees, good food. We learned when we got here that Playa del Coco was a gringo expat haven. Hence the fishing store and the coffee shop. We did the check-in run around: Immigration, port capitan and customs.