Isla Tortugas to Balhia Herradura to wait for Glenn
Islas Tortugas to Bahia Herradura to wait for Glenn
At a leisurely pace we pulled up the anchor and headed for Isla Muertos, which looked like a pretty interesting anchorage (not just because its called the Island of the DEAD).
We were enjoying sailing under genoa only for awhile (leisurely) and made a decision to go out into the straight – the Gulf of Nicoya makes a fairly long straight not unlike the Georgia Straight but with a closed end – rather than zig zagging through the island passes so that we could continue to sail. Had we been cruising in our Gulf Islands we would never have undertaken this without consulting our tide tables and local weather station. BUT we did neither – we don’t have easily accessible tide tables and there are no local weather stations to tap into.
So we got out into the straight and into a lot of wind which was nice (for awhile) – but the tide against us was not – we were making about 2 knots working hard to get past the rocky promontory off Islas Negros. Putting up the main was out of the question – too much wind, but we needed something to help us point, PLUS we were still in that mode of thinking peculiar to sailors where we feel guilty if we use the motor when we have wind – and sails – that’s why we have these boats with sticks and sails, we’re supposed to love the challenge.
Anyway, with quite a lot of difficulty and finally resorting to Mr. Perkins we got to the Island of the Dead which was only about half a mile wide with 30 knot winds blowing around either side of it and water depth of about 15 feet – and those ominous skies that aren’t going to change anytime soon.
So we turned around and left, zig zagged through the islands to keep out of the wind until we found what seemed to be the only shelter which was between Islas Jesusita and Isla Cedros, it was actually pretty good considering the conditions.
That night the wind piped up to – God knows – lots, screaming wind which prevented any possibility of sleep on my part anyway. We set the anchor drag alarm on our chart plotter facing into the cabin, our depth display is also close by, and I resigned myself to a sleepless night. Those nights are very long, but they go by and it seems that as soon as the sun comes up the wind goes down and the sun makes everything alright.
When we first anchored – which incidentally was off a point of land with a gorgeous property – the type most of us could actually afford, just a lovely simple private house with a lovely beach facing west, a volley ball net in the garden, a lovely beach, lots of dogs running around and a strange little wild animal which is native to here – called a Coati, a bit like a raccoon without the bandit mask and a bit more pointy faced.
Yes, back to when we first anchored we saw 2 other boats anchored in what first appeared to be less sheltered than our spot, which of course starts to cast doubt as to our ability to make good decisions on anchoring, after all they must know better. Tony reminded me not to covet other people’s anchorages. The next morning after we had tried to get a couple of hours sleep, we saw that both of those boats were moving over to join us, not the mention the Fleur de Lis Frenchmen we had met back in Isla Tortugas.
And true to their form they dropped their anchor so close to us that we could actually speak to them without raising our voices. So of course one tries to be polite and not look into their boat – that’s hard to do, plus I have to keep myself covered up somewhat.
This day the winds kept up their torment and prevented us from going ashore safely aswell as tormented us with the knowledge that we were looking forward to another sleepless night.
We were a bit embarrassed to see a couple of local men paddling a row boat through the wind and waves, and a young fisherman brought his catch in an old canoe to do some business. $14 for a 5lb red snapper. In Canada where I have a decent freezer maybe, but not here.
We were delighted to see a man at the house fishing off the shore and when he caught a fish he fed it to the baby Coati - this was happening at a distance we needed binoculars to watch - and when the Coati finished eating one of the puppies on the beach attacked it and they tumbled around together for awhile. There were several men on the beach enjoying these animals playing together and they were aware that we were also so happy to watch them through binoculars. One of the men continued with his work, which was to clear up the palm fronds which had been blown off the trees onto the beach during the night, and as he dragged them along the beach the fronds in his right hands also dragged a puppy holding on with his teeth and the Coati on his left. THESE are the little gems that make a sleepless wind tossed night take second place in our minds.
And another sleepless night. This night we actually took watches so that I could put my earplugs in for a couple of hours and sleep. Those earplugs are worth gold. If I know that someone else is watching and I can’t hear the screaming wind I can sleep.
Next morning we decided to get out of there – we checked weatherfax and found that that a storm was in progress up in the Tehuantepec which was causing a gale to blow in the Papagallos – which is about 40 miles from here and it was going to continue for another 72 hours. We needed to get over to the other side of the Gulf to meet Glenn, Tony’s brother who is coming to spend a nice peaceful sun drenched holiday with us in Costa Rica (chance would be a fine thing). So we set out with all of the information we needed to know we were not going to have a pleasant trip.
Fortunately it was not too long – we left the anchorage at about 0615 and arrived in Bahia Herradura about 6 hours later. The winds hit over 40 knots, the seas came over our dodger a couple of times and I would not take the helm from Tony. I stayed below, navigated, fed us and tried to stop the water coming in all over the place – should have battened down a bit better.
So here we sit in Bahia Herradura, a little bit rolly, but a nice place. We are anchored next to a marina that charges U$3.50 per foot per night and $40 to bring your dinghy in to enjoy their facilities. We’re very low on water, but we can get ashore and have been shopping at local supermarket which is equal to Thriftys, we’ve bought beer and wine.
A fellow Canadian boat has pulled in next to us – not too close – its nice to see him again. This is Pursuit IV, a Canadian from Toronto who has cashed in and is sailing around the world in a gorgeous sloop with everything you could possibly want on a boat. We met Gary in Huatulco where he joined us to celebrate Christmas and New Years Eve and Tony’s 50th birthday. A nice guy, we like him.
At a leisurely pace we pulled up the anchor and headed for Isla Muertos, which looked like a pretty interesting anchorage (not just because its called the Island of the DEAD).
We were enjoying sailing under genoa only for awhile (leisurely) and made a decision to go out into the straight – the Gulf of Nicoya makes a fairly long straight not unlike the Georgia Straight but with a closed end – rather than zig zagging through the island passes so that we could continue to sail. Had we been cruising in our Gulf Islands we would never have undertaken this without consulting our tide tables and local weather station. BUT we did neither – we don’t have easily accessible tide tables and there are no local weather stations to tap into.
So we got out into the straight and into a lot of wind which was nice (for awhile) – but the tide against us was not – we were making about 2 knots working hard to get past the rocky promontory off Islas Negros. Putting up the main was out of the question – too much wind, but we needed something to help us point, PLUS we were still in that mode of thinking peculiar to sailors where we feel guilty if we use the motor when we have wind – and sails – that’s why we have these boats with sticks and sails, we’re supposed to love the challenge.
Anyway, with quite a lot of difficulty and finally resorting to Mr. Perkins we got to the Island of the Dead which was only about half a mile wide with 30 knot winds blowing around either side of it and water depth of about 15 feet – and those ominous skies that aren’t going to change anytime soon.
So we turned around and left, zig zagged through the islands to keep out of the wind until we found what seemed to be the only shelter which was between Islas Jesusita and Isla Cedros, it was actually pretty good considering the conditions.
That night the wind piped up to – God knows – lots, screaming wind which prevented any possibility of sleep on my part anyway. We set the anchor drag alarm on our chart plotter facing into the cabin, our depth display is also close by, and I resigned myself to a sleepless night. Those nights are very long, but they go by and it seems that as soon as the sun comes up the wind goes down and the sun makes everything alright.
When we first anchored – which incidentally was off a point of land with a gorgeous property – the type most of us could actually afford, just a lovely simple private house with a lovely beach facing west, a volley ball net in the garden, a lovely beach, lots of dogs running around and a strange little wild animal which is native to here – called a Coati, a bit like a raccoon without the bandit mask and a bit more pointy faced.
Yes, back to when we first anchored we saw 2 other boats anchored in what first appeared to be less sheltered than our spot, which of course starts to cast doubt as to our ability to make good decisions on anchoring, after all they must know better. Tony reminded me not to covet other people’s anchorages. The next morning after we had tried to get a couple of hours sleep, we saw that both of those boats were moving over to join us, not the mention the Fleur de Lis Frenchmen we had met back in Isla Tortugas.
And true to their form they dropped their anchor so close to us that we could actually speak to them without raising our voices. So of course one tries to be polite and not look into their boat – that’s hard to do, plus I have to keep myself covered up somewhat.
This day the winds kept up their torment and prevented us from going ashore safely aswell as tormented us with the knowledge that we were looking forward to another sleepless night.
We were a bit embarrassed to see a couple of local men paddling a row boat through the wind and waves, and a young fisherman brought his catch in an old canoe to do some business. $14 for a 5lb red snapper. In Canada where I have a decent freezer maybe, but not here.
We were delighted to see a man at the house fishing off the shore and when he caught a fish he fed it to the baby Coati - this was happening at a distance we needed binoculars to watch - and when the Coati finished eating one of the puppies on the beach attacked it and they tumbled around together for awhile. There were several men on the beach enjoying these animals playing together and they were aware that we were also so happy to watch them through binoculars. One of the men continued with his work, which was to clear up the palm fronds which had been blown off the trees onto the beach during the night, and as he dragged them along the beach the fronds in his right hands also dragged a puppy holding on with his teeth and the Coati on his left. THESE are the little gems that make a sleepless wind tossed night take second place in our minds.
And another sleepless night. This night we actually took watches so that I could put my earplugs in for a couple of hours and sleep. Those earplugs are worth gold. If I know that someone else is watching and I can’t hear the screaming wind I can sleep.
Next morning we decided to get out of there – we checked weatherfax and found that that a storm was in progress up in the Tehuantepec which was causing a gale to blow in the Papagallos – which is about 40 miles from here and it was going to continue for another 72 hours. We needed to get over to the other side of the Gulf to meet Glenn, Tony’s brother who is coming to spend a nice peaceful sun drenched holiday with us in Costa Rica (chance would be a fine thing). So we set out with all of the information we needed to know we were not going to have a pleasant trip.
Fortunately it was not too long – we left the anchorage at about 0615 and arrived in Bahia Herradura about 6 hours later. The winds hit over 40 knots, the seas came over our dodger a couple of times and I would not take the helm from Tony. I stayed below, navigated, fed us and tried to stop the water coming in all over the place – should have battened down a bit better.
So here we sit in Bahia Herradura, a little bit rolly, but a nice place. We are anchored next to a marina that charges U$3.50 per foot per night and $40 to bring your dinghy in to enjoy their facilities. We’re very low on water, but we can get ashore and have been shopping at local supermarket which is equal to Thriftys, we’ve bought beer and wine.
A fellow Canadian boat has pulled in next to us – not too close – its nice to see him again. This is Pursuit IV, a Canadian from Toronto who has cashed in and is sailing around the world in a gorgeous sloop with everything you could possibly want on a boat. We met Gary in Huatulco where he joined us to celebrate Christmas and New Years Eve and Tony’s 50th birthday. A nice guy, we like him.
Comments