SV Yohelah – Pacific Loop

Here we are this morning back in Costa Rica, but this time in the southern part of the country in the little town of Golfito. We had an overnight passage from Western Panama that was not quite boisterous, but certainly rolled us around in 20 knots of wind with just the reefed main up. Once we rounded the corner around the peninsula into Costa Rica the wind died and we motored slowly the last 6 hours to arrive at the entrance this morning after daylight.

After we left Bahia Honda we spent 4 days at the Islas Secas in Western Panama. The plan was to spend 2 days there and then move up to Boca Chica for our birthdays, but when we got to the islands and saw the 80′ visibility in 82 degree water we knew we would just have to miss Boca Chica. We dove 3 days in a row and snorkeled the 4th day. The diving was the best we had seen in all of the west coast and definitely whetted our appetite for Isla Cocos next month.

We spent the night before we left with Buzz & Maureen of Encore, who we first met in Huatulco last spring. They had done a 9 year circumnavigation in the 70′s and 80′s, returned to San Diego and worked 20 years, and were on their encore voyage. As often is the case, it was hard to say goodbye.

But yesterday we actually got lucky and some big winds were coming in to Western Panama, so instead of flat calm and motoring we had a nice breeze behind us yesterday to get us out of Panama. Today we’ll get checked in to Costa Rica and empty the boat of trash and do some laundry. We’re only here for a few days and don’t have much on our agenda except for helping Rob’s book stash for the South Pacific passage. The cruiser spot we’re at reportedly has the best book exchange on the west coast and Rob’s got about 40 read books he’s hoping to trade in.

Next we’ll head for the Gulf of Papagayo in Northern Costa Rica. It’s been blowing 40 knots there for the last couple of days and is forecast to continue at 35 knots for the next 3 days. We need to find a window to sneak in while the wind isn’t howling so we can see T2. We would like to see a few bays near here in southern Costa Rica, but if a window opens up we’ll haul butt (relatively speaking, of course) north. I’ve been watching the forecast for Papagayo for 3 months and it’s only been below 25 knots for 2 days. We’ll see how this goes.

Teresa

Golfito is here

It was a beautiful sunny day with light breezes as we sailed from Golfito to Drakes Bay in Costa Rica. On watch, I was startled out of a perfectly good daydream by a loud snap and a zinging sound as something under tension broke violently. Even though the sound wasn’t loud enough to be the rigging, I instinctively looked up to make sure everything was where it should be. I then looked toward the lifelines as the next logical source of the noise. I noticed a pile of blue tuna line on the side deck – seconds before it had been trailing behind us, attached to twenty feet of 120 pound monofilamment followed by a 60 pound leader and a squid fishing lure.

The bungee cord between the line and boat looked like it had exploded. All the monofilament was gone, along with my lure. At least it wasn’t my favorite cedar plug lure, which was on the other side of the boat. I disgustedly looked back and saw a huge bull dorado (mahi mahi, if you prefer) jump into the air several times, crashing back into the water with huge splashes. It was around five feet long and it was gone.

Fishing on Yohelah isn’t really a sport. We use hand lines tied to the back of the boat. Each is made from eighty feet of tuna line with several hundred pound breaking strength and monofilament between the tuna line and lure. The monofilament gets the lure away from the more visible tuna line and increases the chances of a strike. A bungee on the boat end allows some give and helps set the hook during a strike. The bungee also tells us when we have a fish on the line. There is no playing the fish with this arrangement, you end up with a line in your hand and a fish on the other end. If the fish is big enough to yank you into the water then it’s sport, otherwise the fish is dinner. Unless of course it manages to break the leader or slip the hook before we haul it onboard.

So back to the fish story. Hearing the noise on deck, Teresa pops into the campanionway to see what’s going on. As I explain the huge dorado that just got away she yells that we have a fish on the other line. Sure enough the other hand line is running out at a forty five degree angle, a sure sign of a medium to large game fish. We haul it in and discover another large dorado. I’m relieved it’s not as large as the first, remember we don’t play the fish so they’re pretty energetic when alongside. The last time we had a dorado in this situation we netted it and discovered our lovely little gatita, Maya, had assisted the fish’s escape by previously chewing the net. This time I brought the gaff and hauled the fish onboard. Dinner. And lunch. And another dinner. And another. We’ll be eating Dorado for the next week.

Maya kitty didn’t know what to make of the yellow tail tuna we caught in Panama and didn’t show a lot of interest. She’s always turned her nose up at bonita’s with their dark red meat, as do we as this quickly became a ‘catch and release’ fish for us. When we caught a Spanish Mackerel she was beside herself, pestering me for pieces as I cleaned it, chewing on the tail if I was too slow. With the Dorado she could smell it, wanted it, but couldn’t bring herself to approach a bright yellow fish that big. I wish we’d had the video camera rolling as she made several aborted attempts leaving the protection of the cockpit, each time getting closer and closer before self- preservation overrode her tummy and she ran back to the cockpit. She eventually made it to the fish and helped me clean it, eating a pound or two along the way. Maya definitely prefers white fish over darker meat. Maybe now she has a reason to leave the fishing net intact.

Today on Yohelah we’re happy the bigger one got away….

We left Golfito this morning at first light heading towards the north side of the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. It’s about 70 miles from Golfito to the next anchorage north, which is a very very long day for us. The stop in Golfito netted exactly what we had wanted – 46 books from the book exchange that Rob hadn’t read yet. That makes 60+ books he has onboard for the Pacific season. We also got to see old friends and meet some new ones and went on a marvelous hike yesterday morning up the hill that’s left me realizing I’m not getting enough exercise onboard.

As we rounded the corner at the end of Golfo Dulce Rob put out two hand lines behind the boat and I came downstairs off watch. A few minutes later I heard really weird noise outside and Rob making a huge exclamation. Of course if he’s hollering something very serious is going on, so I ran upstairs and saw our starboard fishing line up on the deck and the bungee attached to it nearly shredded. I looked over at the port side fishing line and there was a huge dorado on it. Making a long story short, I’ll just say we’re really glad the first was so big he one snapped the line because the small one was really hard to get aboard.

We’ve gotten skunked two times in a row by dorado now, losing the first outside Puerto Vallarta, Mexico a couple of years ago when I thought a picture was important. It worked off the hook before I was done taking the picture. The second one we lost was last week on our way into Costa Rica when the net completely gave way. Unfortunately, Maya likes to play in the fishing net and had chewed around a portion of the lines where it attaches to the frame. The net completely separated, the fish fell though and when the line went slack she was gone.

This morning there was no messing around with the camera or even the net. Rob grabbed the gaff hook and wrestled it aboard quick. It was huge (maybe 35 pounds) and there’s a pile of meat that’ll last the three of us a long long time (yes, Maya does get some even after the net incident last time). This is the first dorado we’ve had onboard since Lee & Kathleen caught, cleaned and cooked that one for us on the Ha-Ha so many years ago, and I’m going to send this mail now and go pan fry a lovely fillet for lunch.

Teresa

A lot of sailors believe that as soon as you think about reefing the main you should do it, no matter what the conditions. Yesterday I thought it and said it at the same time, and was glad we had adopted that policy. We were rounding the Nicoya Peninsula to get into the Gulf of Papagayo where the winds have reportedly been blowing 20-40 knots day and night for the last month. We were still in the lee of the peninsula and weren’t feeling any of the Papagayo breeze yet, but the masthead indicator showed the wind was starting to move forward and freshen a bit (still only 7 knots). Suddenly it was like the light switch came on and we got hit with 20 knots and huge waves right on the nose. Luckily we were already putting in the reef, and on this boat with lots of practice behind us that drill now only takes us a couple of minutes.

Our trip up from Golfito was quick but long, covering 280 miles in 7 days with no overnight passages. We anchored the first two nights in Drake Bay where we stayed onboard and rested up after our Golfito stop. The next day we went to Manuel Antonio National Park where we anchored another two days but did get off the boat. It’s a national park with lovely hiking trails and beautiful beaches. We had to pay a small fee to anchor the boat there and hike the trails, but it was really nice and we had a marvelous day. We were hiking up around this big peninsula on a rather steep trail with few other hikers when we rounded a bend and found a group (troop/pack/herd/gaggle?) of monkeys. They were just playing in the trees alongside the trail and we enjoyed watching them for a long time.

The next day we were up again at 5:00 am to scoot up the coast and had a lovely sail across the Gulf of Nicoya into Ballena Bay. Then it was another 5am start to begin the trip around the Nicoya Peninsula. We made it as far as Bahia Carillo sailing with a nice breeze behind us, and we tucked into a tiny spot between the sportfishing boats on buoys and the rocks, just out of the ocean swell. It was a noisy but very pleasant night. Yesterday was our last 5am start and we were hoping to get as far as Bahia Potrero, about 15 miles from our destination of Playa del Coco. Luckily the current sets north here and was running strong yesterday and we had 2 knots pushing us along all day.

Those 20 knot winds only lasted about 20 minutes and as we entered the Gulf of Papagayo the wind indicator showed only 1.2 knots. Apparently the 20-25 knot constant breeze is out on the middle and on the north side of this bay, and where we are at Coco on the south side feels significantly less of that wind. So here we are for a couple of weeks. Teresa Lennstrom and family have a condo here in Coco for a week starting this morning and we’re looking forward to catching up with T2. Then on the 27th Leslie & Fred come down for a week and we’ll go cruise the area and see some of the anchorages around Northern Costa Rica.

Teresa

Manuel Antonio National Park is here