Tag Archives: catana

Wash down pump replacement

Servicing our Girl: Sugar Shack

What do you do on a beautiful day in paradise?  Get dirty?  We had a few boat projects that needed to be completed in calm weather (no wind and no swell).  So, we set out to do some maintenance and servicing of both Sugar Shack and Sweetie (our dinghy). 

Anchored in calm waters with very little breeze made it much easier to accomplish these specific projects.  We dropped the hook at North Totegegie where we had beautiful views. 

Servicing the Boat in Paradise

Servicing the Boat in Paradise

Windlass Service

What is a windlass?  It is an electric wench that raises and lowers our anchor and anchor chain. It is a very important part of our boat as it would make anchoring nearly impossible without it.  In a pinch, we can manually raise and lower our anchor using the hand crank method.  However, we have 100 meters of 10mm stainless steel chain attached to a Spade x140 anchor that weighs in at over 65lbs.  Imagine cranking all that chain and anchor up by hand – no thank you!

Our Lewmar Ocean 3 windlass (2000 watt) was running a little slow when raising the chain.  Once it got going it was fine, but the startup was less than optimal.  Not a problem, just needed a little love.  We are at anchor with our anchor chain connected to the windlass.  Can’t rightly service the windlass without removing the anchor chain, right?  First things first, Matt ties a line to the last link of chain (just at the rode) and then secures it to the anchor roller so he could remove the pressure off the windlass.  Then he jumped in the hole (locker) and cleaned the brushes and removed the corrosion.

Servicing the Windlass

Servicing the Windlass

Not yet at 100%…it might require a more comprehensive servicing in a month or two.  For now, it is better than it was and that is good for us (maybe at 95%).  A few days later, Matt took the windlass apart and cleaned all the connections.  He found a loose wire that was the culprit and now the windlass is running perfectly!

Tail Tails

Do you know what a tail tail is?  It doesn’t have anything to do with your posterior or an animal.  A tail tail on a boat is an indicator of how your sails are trimmed while underway.  They are small, light pieces of fabric attached to the sail.  When the sail is trimmed correctly, the tail tails on the windward (inside) and leeward (outside) of the sail will stream backwards.  That’s when life is good.  If the sail needs trimming the tail tail will either fly up or down indicating the need to tighten or loosen the jib sheet (working line) to give you optimal performance.

Our tail tails were very sad and in need of servicing.  Easy enough job when there is no wind.  Matt had to drop the sail onto the deck in order reach all the tail tails.  You don’t want to do this in windy conditions as your jib will be flopping all over the place.  We bought a kit which made replacing them super easy.

Washdown Pump

Our Jabsco washdown pump is located in a locker near the mast.  This pump provides pressure to our hose to enable us to wash down the boat, the anchor chain and pretty much anything we need.  It is great because we can use it with salt water or fresh water depending on how the valve is turned.  We usually hose things off first with salt water, then do a final rinse with fresh water.  Why is that?  Because we have an abundance of salt water and a very limited amount of fresh water.  Our pump was very corroded as it is in and around salt water and salty air.  It worked, but it was limping along.  Instead of ‘servicing’ we decided to replace her.

The pump is only attached with a few screws and clamps.  Matt had it replaced in under an hour.

Wash down pump replacement

Wash down pump replacement

Servicing Sweetie – Our Dinghy

I had intended on putting the work done to service Sweetie on this blog, but it was so extensive that I ended up giving it her own blog post.  Stay tuned for “Dinghy Spa for Sweetie.”

Events from this blog post occurred during the month of January 2021.  Our blog posts run 8 weeks behind our adventures.

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
Vista Mar Marina pool

Isla Otoque and Vista Mar Marina

Instead of sailing 44 miles straight to Vista Mar Marina, we decided to stop at Isla Otoque.  This island is about 20 miles from La Playita and has two villages Otoque Occidente and Otoque Oriente.  Just a mile away from Isla Otoque is a very, very small island called Isla Bona which used to have an industrial operation in the past, but only remenants of heavy equipment are left behind.

It was a fairly quick motor over to Isla Otoque as there was no wind.  We swung into Isla Bona first as it looked really pretty in our guide book.  However, the wind and current direction made for a bad swell so we decided to head back to Isla Otoque.  There was one fishing boat, close to shore at the entrance.  It was a huge bay, so we selected a spot closer to shore and on the opposite side of the bay.  There is not much on the island other than old, broken down equipment that we could see from shore.  We hung out on the boat, had a great rice bowl dinner with chicken, rice, corn, diced toms, chipotle peppers, black beans and cilantro – YUM!

In the morning, we headed to Vista Mar Marina where we are to drop off our old batteries and meet up with “Itchy Foot.”  It is 22 miles from Isla Otoque to Vista Mar Marina, and to our great surprise, it was a perfect beam reach.  We were thrilled to unfurl our jib and hoist our main.  Just enough wind to keep us going at a steady 7 knots with an occasional 8 or 9 knots.  There is nothing like the feeling of sailing in perfect conditions.  The sun on our back, the wind on our face, and the beautiful sound of the ocean lapping around us.

We arrived too quickly for our liking as we were having fun – 3.5 hours.  We were tempted to turn around and do it again, but alas we had things to do.  The water drops to about 9 meters about 3 miles from the breakwater.  As you get closer it drops to 4 meters.  Very strange.  We decided to fuel up first, so the marina met us at the fuel dock.  Pretty painless and fairly reasonable at $3 per gallon. (about $.20 cheaper than La Playita).

Photo courtesy of Vista Mar Marina

Photo courtesy of Vista Mar Marina

Vista Mar Marina

Vista Mar Marina

After we pulled into a slip, secured the boat, and said hello to Jon and Mia, I headed to the office.  We only decided to pay for a slip because it is really inexpensive.  We thought about anchoring outside, but having access to free water, wifi, and electricity was too good to pass up.  It turned out to be $25 per night ($.50/foot).  Keep in mind that we normally pay $2-$2.50 per foot plus an additional 50% because we are a double wide.  So, this is really cheap.  They are trying to attract more boats to their marina, since they are new.  With rates likes this it is hard to say “no.”  We know of 4 other boats here: Itchy Foot, Freya (from San Blas Islands), Iris, and Kefe.

We headed to the pool to cool off and have a beer with Jon, Mia and Teo (Itchy Foot) and enjoyed a nice sunset.  The top pool is about 2′-4′ and has a nice negative edge overlooking the marina.  The bottom pool / jacuzzi is RED which looks like a pool full of blood in the photo, but in real life it is actually interestingly pretty.

Vista Mar Marina Pools

Vista Mar Marina Pools

The next morning, Mia and I went for a walk and then enjoyed a little noodling in the pool.  I used the water aerobic / noodle routine we did in Bonaire.  The book was written by a fellow cruiser, Awilda (“Willie”) Haskins called “Noodling at Sea.”

Matt took this opportunity to wash down the boat with the pressure washer and fresh water.  He also swapped out our old batteries with the new which was no easy task.  Trying to manuever 90lb blocks within the settee proved to be a challenge, but he got the job done and they are working like a charm!

IMAGE: Top photo is of the old battery bank. Middle photo is the old batteries (gray), with the honda generator and the new batteries (black).  Bottom is the new battery bank installed and working.

Swapping out the house batteries

Swapping out the house batteries

We dropped off two of our older batteries to “White Shadow” (Barry is visiting friends in London), and the marina took care of disposing the other 5 batteries.  We kept one for emergencies.  The marina also took away our old window coverings that had yellowed and ceased being “presentable” and old defunct honda generator.

We finished cleaning and putting oil on our teak sugar scoops and they look lovely, finished our fruit, helped “Itchy Foot” with their rigging, cleaned up the boat, more noodling and pool time.

Sugar Scoops cleaned up with a new coat of teak oil.

Sugar Scoops cleaned up with a new coat of teak oil.

A group of us went to dinner at the local restaurant called “Boga Bar” with Jon, Mia (Itchy Foot), Johana, Timlo (Iiris), and John, Becca.  Not my favorite place, the food was average to poor and it was pricey, but the company was first class.  Top image is the bar and bottom image is Mia and I having a tasty cocktail.

Boga Bar dinner with good friends.

Boga Bar dinner with good friends.

COMING UP NEXT:

  • 150 mile passage around Panama Point
  • Exploring dozens of small islands between Panama and Costa Rica
  • Costa Rica