Bienvenidos a Costa Rica! (eng) 7./8.5.2012
Andromeda
Michael
Tue 8 May 2012 17:52
Bienvenidos a Costa Rica
Pavones
7./8. Mai 2012
We had quite an eventful trip to get here!
First, we headed for a little island just off the point of Punta Burica, the border between Panama and Costa Rica.
We thought the reef around the island would give us enough shelter for the night. However, some of the swells are really big and we were afraid the bigger ones might break at low tide, so we continued on, heading for Isla Cano in Costa Rica, just off Bahia del Drake.
For a while the wind came up and we had to get the screacher in and genoa up. Eventually, we heard a weird bang! - the top of the genoa had come loose and the sail started to slide down slowly. We managed to roll it up okay and secure it on the fore deck. Shortly after that, the wind died completely and we started to motor. As the thought of motoring the whole night through didn't sound very appealing, we decided to turn North and headed for Pavones. Great surf spot, with the second longest left break in the world, so they say. Though we probably won't be able to enjoy it much with Michael's poor back.
Driving through the deep bay, 6nm off the coast in supposedly 750m deep water, I was alarmed to see only 7m (20 feet!) on our depth meter! We got really nervous and the depth meter kept showing 18-30 feet for the next 10 minutes. Michael thought it might be a thermo cline. However, being out there in the complete darkness (the moon hadn't come up yet) Michael decided to better check it out - and dove into the water! The current and wind was pushing Andromeda with 1.4 knots, so we had tied him on to her, just in case.
Turned out it was nothing - at least no solid ground. So we continued and arrived safely at Pavones Bay after 60NM at 22:50.
Fortunately, it's an open bay with sandy bottom, and we found good holding immediately.
The morning we awoke to a beautiful sunny day with a lovely (though blackish) beach, great for the yoga. Apparently, there is a huge swell coming in and at 8am, there were already more than 20 surfers at the break. Now way to land dinghy on the shore with these waves, so we swam in.
Met a nice girl on the beach who said there are some fruit and veggetables ashore and nice restaurants - will check them out later! But don't know, how to get the groceries aboard - swimming, most likely. And to got to the restaurant, I guess we'll have to bring some towels and clothes in a water tight bag. Good job it's so warm here!
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com