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Ellen Zacko Costa Rico Yacht Club

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Playa Cocos – 10°36.00'N, 85°42.00'W
Bahia Dulce – 08°37.22'N, 83°09.28'W

Bahia Drake – 08°41.81'N, 83°40.13'W

Bahia Ballena – 09°43.10'N, 85°00.60'W

Playa Cocos
Extracted from OCC June 2008 Newsletter Stan Homer Homer’s Odyssey: WE SAILED from Nicaragua on 9th January for Costa Rica, rounding Cabo Santa Elena at daybreak on the second day and anchoring in its lee. We were the only boat within miles, anchored in clear calm water with 30kn gusts of wind going safely over our heads. Northern Costa Rica has many islands and bays and we later wished we had spent longer in this magical area. As it was, it still took us five days and several more secluded anchorages before we arrived in Playa Cocos, where we could officially clear into Costa Rica. This anchorage was far too congested for us, so after two nights we moved a few miles to Playa Panama where we could anchor securely in almost flat water with only 2 or 3 other boats. From here we could easily access the town of Cocos by bus or taxi for groceries etc. We then had over a month to get to Puntarenas with no overnight passages required, so we stayed a day or three in every new anchorage as we picked our way along the coast. Some anchorages along the outside were more rolly than others and we used a stern anchor to minimize the motion. Tap water in Costa Rica is for the most part very drinkable. We had lots of good water aboard for the month, but it was nice to be able to top up the shower bags a few times. The only thing lacking was internet cafes. An overheating engine made us wait for the afternoon breezes to sail from anchorage to anchorage, often only six miles apart. Sometimes we were the only boat anchored. We are now moored up the estuary in very shallow water at low tide in Puntarenas, enjoying the facilities at the Costa Rica Yacht Club.

Bahia Dulce to Bahia Ballena

so we moved on to Costa Rica. It was less than a hundred miles to Bahia Dulce.

The hot, steamy, jungle port of Golfito lies on a very sheltered inner bay with a couple of expensive small marinas sandwiching a cruiser-friendly yacht club which provides a safe dinghy dock, moorings if required (we anchored), showers, internet access, book exchange, a cruisers’ lounge with TV and DVD, a pleasant balcony and cold beers! All this for a couple of quid a day seemed pretty reasonable, and we really enjoyed the exotic location.

A sad fact about Costa Rica is that unbridled property speculation and the ensuing construction of hideous holiday and private homes has seriously distorted the economy and desecrated many wonderful natural habitats. The massive influx of wealth and the blatant flaunting of it amongst a poor populace has resulted in criminals from all the Americas flocking in like bees around a honey pot. From the moment of our arrival in Costa Rica constant vigilance was essential. We had been warned that petty crime was rampant and boat security was a major issue.

Our christening came earlier than expected. We contacted the Port Captain by radio to report our arrival in Golfito and were told that he could not see us immediately as he was busy, but to report to his office at 4.30pm. We duly did so, only to find he was trying to charge us for overtime as the office closed at 4pm! We refused to pay, our Spanish being sufficiently good to make quite clear our understanding of the situation. He backed down and sent us off to immigration, who had also stayed open specially to see us this late. We immediately became stars at the yacht club, as apparently we were the first cruisers who had stood up to the greasy little irk, most just paying up to avoid any trouble.

Golfito is a classic, steamy, jungle location with an atmosphere to match. Apart from the evening downpour it is very hot, sunny and humid. The surrounding dense, jungle-clad hills are alive with the sound of insects and animals. Howler monkeys dominate in the early morning, but the buzz of many insects is the overriding sound during the day. A walk in the jungle-covered hills revealed squirrel monkeys; incredible, luminescent blue morph butterflies; many brightly coloured birds; one of the tiny, poisonous, yellow-and-black tree frogs used for the venom on poison darts; and lastly a brightly coloured (and highly venomous) coral snake, thankfully dead! It was an interesting time.

We left Golfito for Drake Bay, sailing around the Osa Peninsula, the home of one of the best national parks in Costa Rica and reputedly the finest area of tropical rain forest in Central America. We anchored in the large but fairly sheltered bay, seeing much the same sights as Drake would have 400 years ago. We particularly wanted to see the scarlet macaws which breed there, and were rewarded by many close sightings during our jungle trek. They really are magnificent – brightly coloured, very noisy and surprisingly large when seen in flight. It was a beautiful sunny day, with many other birds to watch, magnificent butterflies, and underfoot lots of lizards and hundreds of tiny hermit crabs, plus great columns of leaf cutter ants with their burdens.

Drake’s Bay was the last of the truly hot, steamy, jungle environments on our passage north. Regular afternoon squalls heralded by ominous black-and-purple clouds with towering thunderheads, coupled with an average of ten earth tremors a day did not captivate us, so we enjoyed the slow 100 mile drift along the southern coast to Bahia Ballena. We anchored, nicely tucked in, near a concrete landing pier next to the small village. The region was much drier and certainly less humid than further south, but still very green with woods, forest and a more agricultural feel than we’d expected. There were three other yachts at anchor, plus a large game-fishing boat. At the head of the jetty was a line of ramshackle waterfront housing built out on stilts. We bought diesel at the local shop, paying at the counter and then wandering off to the yard about 200m away to present our container. They poured the fuel in manually from their container – no pumps or anything sophisticated here.

The remainder of the bay is a huge sandy beach with a couple of large but low-rise tourist developments, another small village with a surprisingly well-stocked little supermarket, and some rather upmarket dwellings each in its own grounds. It was a pleasant environment with lots of opportunities for walking and some nearby places to visit by bus. However we did not linger, as it was not particularly special and we wanted to reach the western end of Costa Rica by the end of February.

The ensuing passage was very frustrating, the wind heading us for much of the time. Nevertheless it was lovely weather – hot and sunny with blue skies – and with lots of wildlife. The sea was full of life – all around were dolphins, sailfish and rays leaping, also huge numbers of turtles often with birds riding atop their shells. The skies were full of gulls, terns, frigate birds, boobies and pelicans, with the occasional sea eagle or osprey thrown in. (Boobies were so named because of their stupidity; evolution has not improved upon this state of affairs. One tried to land on the back of the boat, making such a mess of it that he crashed into the water, where he remained dazed and obviously most put out.) A group of frigate birds squabbled over some prize and we marvelled at the aerobatic display – until they tried to land on our masthead, when we were not so enthralled.

Overnight we drifted down the west coast of Costa Rica and by dawn were approaching Papagayo Bay, infamous for very strong gusty winds which originate in the Caribbean and accelerate across the Central American isthmus. However it was a perfectly calm day with a good forecast, so instead of stopping as planned we headed straight across the bay to round the notorious Cape St Elena on the opposite side. This 30 mile long peninsula lies on the border with Nicaragua. It is uninhabited, but not so long ago Oliver North was said to be running his training camps here. It forms part of the largest national park in the country and is teeming with wildlife.

After rounding the headland we sailed back about half way along the far side to a wonderful, totally enclosed little bay which remains one of our favourite places in Central America. It is very arid with lots of scrubby trees and bushes up the hillsides, but the waterside is all mangroves so there is quite a lot of green. We loved the remoteness of the place.

The winds were picking up, and overnight 40–50 knot gusts had us veering around. This Papagayo wind blew for five days and once it eased down we got ready to depart. We spent some time getting our tandem anchor system back aboard, but were pleased we had deployed it as we never moved even in the strongest gusts. The entrance to the bay is narrow and the wind was howling in, so it was not a good moment for the engine cooling-water intake to become blocked. Opening up the filter and shoving a long stick down through the hole, Graham was rewarded by a fountain of water when whatever was down there was removed. Off we went again, but the intake blocked twice more before we got out of the bay. It has behaved perfectly ever since, so what caused it remains a mystery. Sailing across towards the coast of Nicaragua we bade farewell to Costa Rica, pleased to have escaped with everything with which we had arrived!

The Nicaraguan coast trends northwest and we stayed close in as the northeast winds were still blowing. They were very gusty, and for several hours a sustained 30–35 knots gave us a lively sail before everything lightened up as we got further north. We had considered checking into Nicaragua at St Juan del Sur, the country’s southernmost port, but the bay was a mass of white horses so we elected to press on. The night was peaceful as we sailed gently along the coast with little fishing activity to bother us, and by next morning we were about half way up the country and making for our destination port near its northern end.

A large swell had built up, powered by some distant storm, and since arrival after sunset looked inevitable we called up by radio to check conditions. We were hailed by a distraught woman who advised us that the entrance was horrendous, the channel markers were in the wrong place, any attempt to enter in the dark was suicidal, and the only way she was leaving was on a bus! After this encouraging news a chap on another boat confirmed that there were breaking seas across the whole tortuous entrance. He also advised that night entry was an extremely bad idea, so we decided against it! Faced with a choice of drifting around overnight waiting to see how conditions were in daylight, or giving the place a miss and heading further on, we chose the latter, then spent several tense hours in fickle winds weaving our way through a huge, partially-lit fishing fleet working the offshore banks.