Monthly Archives: June 2018

Wind Gauge Showing wind on the Nose and Low Speed

Quepos to Bahia Herradura

Matt and I enjoyed a “lazy” morning and took our time pulling up the anchor.  Our destination, Bahia Herradura was less than 40 miles away so we were not in a hurry.  We pulled up the hook around 0715 and slowly made our way north. It was another uneventful trip, on a beautiful day with no wind.  It seems when we do have wind it is on our nose.  But, today, we didn’t have wind or direction.

Sugar Shack Motoring Along in Flat Seas

Sugar Shack Motoring Along in Flat Seas

Blowing on the nose – the wind is barely a breeze at 2.2 knots.  The speed is shown under the arrow.

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We swung by Playa Hermosa to see if we could find a dinghy dock or safe landing for “Sweetie” but we didn’t.  I thought it would have been great to stay here as I lived in Hermosa Beach in California for 8 years.  But it was not meant to be.  We also swung into Jaco Beach (pronounced Haco) where Monica is staying but there was nothing but hotels and resorts on a long sandy beach.

So, onward to our original destination of Bahia Herradura.  We anchored in front of the very ritzy marina called Los Suenos Marina.  This is a 200-slip marina that was the first government approved marina in Costa Rica.  The 1-mile wide bay was actually developed for the marina and resort.  It is really swanky!!!!

Bahia Herradura is a really pretty dark sand beach that runs the width of the bay and is populated with several eateries and bars.  However, there is no dinghy dock and no place to land the dinghy where she would be safe for extended periods of time.  Crime is prevalent in this area and we’ve been told to be extra vigilant.  So, we headed to the marina to see what they had to offer.

Los Suenos Marina and Bahia Herradura Beach

Los Suenos Marina and Bahia Herradura Beach

We took the dinghy in to the Marina breakwater (without calling security), motored around the docks before we found the fuel dock.  A very nice man from the marina came to meet us and informed us that we have to either call on the phone or the radio to the marina office.  I was perplexed as I just wanted to walk in to talk to them in person, but he was not having any of it.  He called the office and put me on the phone with them.

Evidently, everyone is supposed to call on the radio before entering the breakwater, we did not know to do that.  They were willing to let us leave our dinghy at their dock for a mere $100 per day (yes, that is U.S.) or we could pull the big boat into a slip at $3.95 per foot x 50% which comes out to $277 per day.  We get charged an extra 50% because we are a double wide (catamaran).  Do you remember when we stayed at Vista Mar Marina (VMM) for $25 per day?  Granted, VMM is really cheap as they are trying to attract new business, but Los Suenos is ridiculously expensive.  They are almost full to capacity with million-dollar fishing boats so they don’t need our business and it is apparent.

After I hung up the phone looking dejected, the nice man told us about a water taxi.  You can hail Zapatilla on VHF 69 and he will transport you to and from your boat for $20 a day.  That’s much cheaper, but still crazy expensive considering we are only ½ mile away from the beach.  Convenience and cost won out.  We called, they came to pick us up and we walked to shore, down the beach and to the marina.

The marina does have beautiful facilities including several restaurants, banks, salon, spa, liquor store, chandlery, market, gelato, car rental and tourist stores with clothes and trinkets.  Of course, everything is really pricey.  After we were done snooping, we walked over to the Marriott Los Suenos Beach Resort from the marina via this really pretty, live tree tunnel – the entire place was pretty swanky.

Marriott Los Suenos Live Tunnel

Marriott Los Suenos Live Tunnel

We stopped in at a soda, a local eatery for lunch and met Adriana who is the owner’s daughter.  She gave us all sorts of tips, tours, and contacts for taxi drivers.  A huge score!

Passage Details:

  • Total Miles: 9
  • Total Time: 6:43
  • Max Speed: 7.8
  • Average Speed: 5.6
Love these city signs. Quepos with me and Sugar Shack in the background, see arrow

Cinco de Mateo in Quepos

We were up early again this morning as we had another 50+ mile passage to Quepos.  We readied the boat and had the anchor up by 0615.  It was another beautiful day, flat seas, clear skies and no wind.  Matt made an attempt to look like a sail boat by raising the main.  But, frankly, it just bopped side to side as the winds were mostly under 5 knots.

It was a truly an uneventful passage as we both tried to hide from the sun and the heat.  Kind of hard to do on a boat, but we did our best.  Even though we had the fishing poles out, we did not drop a hook as we were going fairly slow and were only in 25-40 meters of water (not very deep).

Quepos (pronounced kay-pohs) used to be a sleepy little village with a high built peer for loading bananas, pineapples and sailfish.  This was once a bustling banana exporting port, but the town was crippled by the demise of the banana plantations in the mid 1950’s.  Evidently, there was a banana disease that overtook the banana plantations in Panama which severely impacted exportation in Costa Rica.

Today, there are thousands of acres of palm oil plantations just beyond the beaches which are controlled by Palma Tica, Inc. (formerly United Fruit Company).  However, palm oil has a dubious future resulting from the concerns regarding cholesterol.  So, the town of Quepos is reliant on tourism which has been booming.   Quepos has over 7,000 inhbitants, a large marina (Marina Pez Vela), hotels, and vacation villas lining the beaches.

We anchored just outside the marina entrance as it was fairly shallow (8 meters) and a wee bit more protected than where the fishing boats were anchored.  When I say a “wee bit” I mean barely at all.  It was a a little rolly during low tide, but during high tide it got darn right uncomfortable.

The marina has a large jetty that is made of large, semi-circle, concrete forms giving it an unusual look from the outside.  Dozens of small fishing vessels anchor in front of the marina but come and go in the opposite direction of where we anchored.  Behind us, there is a long sandy beach backed by green lowlands that rise to a beautiful mountainous terrain beyond.

Quepos in front of MPV Marina.

Quepos in front of MPV Marina.

We had an unobstructed view of another very pretty sunset.

Sunset in Quepos

Sunset in Quepos

Matt wanted to spend his birthday walking around the small town of Quepos.  But first we had to find a way to get to shore. There is a large banana pier that has been converted to a commercial dock so we started there first (see above collage, bottom photo). They were very nice but told us we could not leave our dinghy there. So, we headed to the marina.

First, we passed a guard gate at the channel entrance who took our boat name, called into someone on the radio and told us to go to the to the fuel dock by their marine store.  From there, we were pointed to the office.  On the way to the office another guard stopped us on the street and pointed to the office. Then a third guard let us in to the marina where the office was located.  Tight security don’t you think.

At the office, the ladies could not have been nicer. They told us that the banana pier is under construction and not available for us and that they don’t have a dinghy dock. They normally charge $25 for 30 minutes to pick up and drop off (can you believe that rate?).  But, they allowed us to pay the fee for the day as long as we moved the dinghy close to the office and promised to be out of the marina before they close at 1700.  Sweet.  We had to give them our boat and clearance paperwork, passports and boat insurance.  Keep in mind, this is just to leave our dinghy for a few hours.

We meandered through town, had a late breakfast, caught up on a little wifi, shopped at the fresh fruit and veggie market, walked through the grocery stores, and then celebrated our day with a birthday beer.  Pretty cool little town!

Love these city signs. Quepos with me and Sugar Shack in the background, see arrow

Love these city signs. Quepos with me and Sugar Shack in the background, see arrow

At the fresh fruit and veggie market, there was a man squeezing sugar cane which was pretty darn interesting as I had never seen this done before.

Squeezing the sugar cane

Squeezing the sugar cane

We found a new little eatery called Love Shack…unfortunately, we had already eaten so we did not stop in.

Not Sugar Shack but the Love Shack

Not Sugar Shack but the Love Shack

They have a huge 3-4 meter tide here which exposes pretty dramatic shallow spots.  The top image is Sugar Shack in the bay just beyond the river and small sand bar.  Then middle shot is the view to the right where another small marina lives.  Boats have to hug the shore and follow the river to avoid the sand bar.  Bottom image is the view to the left toward the MPV marina.

Low tide exposing a river between the shore and ocean

Low tide exposing a river between the shore and ocean

Manuel Antonio Park is a biological reserve and is only 10 minutes away from Quepos making this another great tourist attraction.  This is Costa Rica’s smallest park at just over 4,000 acres and was established in 1972.  This is a tropical wet forest that receives over 150 inches of rain each year.  There are over 109 species of mammals and 184 species of birds.  We hope to visit this park on another visit, so stay tuned for more to come.

PASSAGE DETAILS:

  • Total distance: 55.22 nm
  • Total travel time: 9 hours 13 minutes
  • Top speed 7.8 kn
  • Average speed 6.0 kn
Sugar Shack at sunset

Bahia Drake: Dark Sand & Strange Fishing Boat Floats

It took us an extra day to complete the paperwork in Golfito, but considering we were dealing with a holiday weekend, we were happy with the turn around.  We got up early to begin our 60+ mile sail to Bahia Drake (pronounced dray-hay).

A very easy motor.  We had flat seas, light winds on the nose and a bit of sea life.  We did see a few dolphins and birds. Matt put 3 fishing lines and 2 teasers out with the hopes of catching dinner, but only a small fish jumped on the line and we tossed him back- we think this was a Spanish Mackerel.

Small Spanish Mackerel caught and tossed back

Small Spanish Mackerel caught and tossed back

This passage is all around the Costa Rica peninsula.  The image below shows where we started (red dot on right side in Golfito Bay), our path around the tip, our boat (red triangle on left side of peninsula) and our destination at the end of the red line.

Golfito to Bahia Drake around the peninsula

Golfito to Bahia Drake around the peninsulaGg

Since it was a long day with little going on, I took the opportunity to clean our interior wood.  Wash down with 409, then vinegar, then Howard Feed N Wax Orange Oil.  Not a difficult process, just time consuming as we have a lot of wood in the house.  This is a monthly process.  You can see in the upper photo; the darker wood has white spots (mold) that needed to be cleaned and preserved.

Cleaning up our interior wood

Cleaning up our interior wood

This photo is the wood trim on our interior table, before top, after bottom.

Before and after table wood project

Before and after table wood project

Bahia Drake is a wide-open bay on the Costa Rica coastline about one day’s run from anchorages to the north and south.  There is a village on the south end of the bay, a few small hotels, and a wilderness camp can be found ashore.  Dozens of fishing boats line the shoreline making this a picture-perfect fishing town.

We anchored around 1700 and decided to take a quick dinghy ride around the bay to get a better look at the town.  Several of the boats had large barrels attached to either side.  We could not figure out what their purpose was – do you have any ideas?  It was if they were keeping the boats afloat

Bahia Drake shoreline and bay with fishing boats

Bahia Drake shoreline and bay with fishing boats

Back at the boat, we enjoyed a sundowner on the bean bags as the sun put on a glorious show.

Beautiful sunset at Bahia Drake

Beautiful sunset at Bahia Drake

PASSAGE DETAILS:

  • Total distance: 60.7 nm
  • Total travel time: 10 hours 22 minutes
  • Top speeD*8.2 kn
  • Averfe speed 5.9 kn