Puesta del Sol, Nicaragua to Bahia Santa Elena, Costa
Rica
2 to 3- Febrero-2016
In a race
with a Papagayo Wind
I previously
mentioned the Tehuantepec winds we were crossing in southern Mexico. These
winds, the Tehuantepec, the Papagayo and the Panama Gulf winds are all gap
winds. They blow through areas of Mexico and Central America where the land is
less mountainous. With a high pressure region on the Caribbean side and a low
pressure on the Pacific side, these winds start funnelling across, accelerating
as they reach the Pacific coast. We were fortunate with the Tehuantepec, we
were late in the season and the isthmus is relatively narrow with no place you
want to stop. Just a forty-eight hour non-stop crossing with good forecasting.
Contrarily,
the Papagayos cover a much wider coastal area and affect many of the places one
wants to see. The northern extremity is Golfo Fonseca, shared by El Salvador,
Honduras and Nicaragua. We were fortunate that it was calm when we sailed past
and we were able to make several stops in Honduras. Puesta del Sol, Nicaragua
is in a very small pocket of less wind activity and it was from there we were
departing for our transit of the central Papagayo area.
This was the
first time that I have felt the need to set-up a table with our possible
departure times tracked against where we would be relative to the weather
prediction models available. I have been using the zyGrib.com because of the
localized detail they give and passageweather.com as a second check. Both are
based on NOAA gfs models and review the same sources of data. Our data gave us
about a four hour departure window that if we did not go too fast and catch
weather before it dissipated or go too slow and get caught by new systems
forming we should have a good sail. With a 9:00 am departure we anticipated a
24 hour sail with light winds for the start building to 20 knots for the final
eight to ten hours.
South of the
Port of Sandino, as it was getting dark we ran into several waves of twenty-five
to thirty-five fishing boats with nets out. Fortunately many of them were well
lit and we were able to avoid those but some had no lights and would suddenly
wave flashlights at us. Because we could not see any net floats we would just
slow down and try to determine where they had their net. A little shouting, a
little maneuvering, a bit of high anxiety and by about 03:00 am we had made it through
the fleet of approximately 100 boats and had no nets towing behind.
The good
feeling soon evaporated when Genesis III radioed their engine was dying. We had
had a long period of wild seas on the nose so fuel filters were the probable
culprit. Fortunately by 4:00 am, with new filters installed, we were again on
our way.
By early
morning we were off San Juan del Sur, southern Nicaragua, with winds gusting to
the mid to high thirties, seventy plus kilometers per hour, we could not have
entered the Bay if we had wanted. Our
slower pace had let the next weather system catch us. We crossed two more large
bays trying to follow the coastline as much as possible to reduce the fetch of
the waves and finally turned into the protection of Bahia Santa Elena.
Bahia Santa
Elena
Bahia Santa
Elena is a well-protected bay on the north coast of one of Costa Rica’s larger
National Parks, Santa Rosa. The park is noteworthy as one of the last large
tropical dry forests in all of Central America. Although it may sound like an
oxymoron, the area is semiarid with no rain for about six months of the year
with many trees losing their leaves and the underbrush being parched brown.
Cactus are evident but it is very different than Mexico’s Baja. The other six
months are defined by heavy, torrential rainfall and lightning storms. The
vegetation revitalizes and it becomes jungle like. It is home to five species
of wild cats, jaguars and pumas being the largest, coyotes, three species of
monkeys, endless other land animals, nesting turtles and innumerable bird
species.
We could hear the monkeys but did not see them here. |
Cruisers
avoid the rainy season because the lightning can destroy all electronics but
this does put us in the heaviest months of the Papagayo winds. Legally, we
cannot stop anywhere in Costa Rica until you have cleared into the country,
Port Captain, Immigration and Customs. All of which are south of Bahia Santa
Elena separated by a Peninsula and Point also called Santa Elena. The Point is
a place of trepidation because the Papagayo winds can be double the speed of
the preceding coastline. Those thirty-five knot winds we were getting could be
gusting to seventy knots, one hundred and forty kilometers per hour at the
point.
Although the
hills surrounding the bay keep the waves from building, the wind still funnels
through the valleys and over the ridges down into the bay. For the first two
days the gusts remained in the mid-thirties but we were able to get to shore
and find some trails to hike. We also managed some snorkeling with some good
tropical fish and a small octopus is a sheltered part of the bay. There are no
services or people living in the park and we only saw three vehicles on our
hikes. We could hear squirrel monkeys but did not see them. On the third day,
the winds picked up and the gusts were regularly forty plus knots, hitting us
every five to ten minutes, day and night for ten more days. Twice, the three
quarter inch snubber line for the anchor snapped after severe gusts dipped our
cap rail and sent us racing perpendicular to the wind until the anchor line
stopped us much like the cracking of a whip. Fortunately we had material to
make new snubber lines and had the spares prepared before the others broke so
putting the line on and adding scope was quickly done with no damage to the
windlass.
Even the our pelican wanted to hide from the gusts! |
A brief note
to cruisers interested in storm anchoring. The interesting aspect to these
winds was that they would die to less than five knots between gusts so the boat
would travel on the slackened rode towards the anchor. When the next gust hit,
and they often came from a different direction by up to ninety degrees, the bow
would respond by shearing away from the wind. Kanilela has a high freeboard and
a modified full keel so she would start sailing on a tether until she reached
the end. I was using twenty-five to thirty foot single snubbers, the first two had
heavy rubber shock absorbers at the chain hook end. The lines both parted at
the double bow roller when the boat was ninety degrees to the rode even though
both had been protected by fabric fire hose jacketing the snubber at the bow
roller. The lines were not new and although, when I used a double bridle
snubber in the past and was not happy with the action of the boat, I do think a
double bridle may have helped to bring the bow into the wind faster. I did have
a stern anchor out the first day but the varying wind direction often left us
laying over perpendicular to the wind so that would not have been an
improvement. I would probably try varying the rode length to see if there was
an ideal length to minimize the swing. We were in twenty-five feet of water
with one hundred thirty-five feet of rode in the beginning. By the end I had
let out about two hundred feet and I suspect the swing was worsened. As a final
note, I had put the forty-four pound Rocna down and was prepared to change to
the sixty-five pound CQR if we dragged. The anchor held like magic but I think
we will pick-up a fifty-five pound Rocna in Panama and keep the forty-four as
the spare. Anyone need a sixty-five pound CQR? The unique part of all of this
was having so much wind with very little seas.
A view of a good section of road. This was after about 8.5 km from the trail head, 1 km to the
park gate where the guard told me 8 km more to a store, 10 km to wifi! Who said travelling
was easy?
|
Finally, on
the ninth day we had enough of a reprieve in the morning I had Paul from
Genesis III run me and my folding bike to the closest point of land and I rode
trails then the dirt road to the closest village for wifi, beer, etc. We had read that it was six to seven miles
away. After almost ten kilometers I reached the park gate only to be told the
closest store was eight more kilometers and the bar with wifi was ten
kilometers. As I was cresting one of the hills riding into the wind, I was
brought to a near standstill by the gusting Papagayo. It was a 4x4 road with
parts partially washed out by the previous rainy season but I saw a coyote, white
faced capuchin monkeys and lots of green parrots. Sitting in the restaurant/bar
watching a big screen TV, sending emails to those who worry when we fall off
the grid, eating lunch and drinking cold beer, it felt like I had performed a
dimension shift from the howling winds of Bahia Santa Elena. I felt pretty
guilty that Mags was not there but knew she would never have wanted to ride
that road. The locals were amazed the folding bike had made it that far.
Lots of white caps still but time to go! |
On the
afternoon of the twelfth day the winds dropped considerably and the following
morning we left for Punto Santa Elena and Playa del Coco to finally check in to
the country. Rounding out of Bahia Santa Elena we had strong winds and
following seas pushing us to the point where we had to turn back almost 180
degrees to cross the Golf of Papagayo to Playa del Cocos. We managed a mix of
sailing and motor sailing as winds became noserlies and we wanted to make a
daylight anchorage.
Playa del
Coco
Playa del
Coco has no marina but is a tourist mecca with a large tour boat panga fleet on
mooring balls close to the shore. Because there is no space close, transient
cruisers must anchor well out from the beach that has a reputation for
humiliating people attempting dinghy landings. The Port Captain and Immigration
are both located in Cocos so you must make an appearance. We were fortunate
that the swell was down and our arrival provided no entertainment for the
tourists in the beach bars.
After seeing
the Port Captain and then up the street to Immigration, we boarded a local bus,
45 min ride for $1.80, to the turnoff for the airport near Liberia to complete
our entry with the customs people. All went well and there was no charge but it
took most of the day and lots of walking. The following day we returned to the
Port Captain to get a domestic zarpe that permitted us to go to Marina
Papagayo, about four miles to the north and to anchor at intermediate points until
we get to Puntarenas in the Golf of Nicoya.
Cocos is a
tourist town, generally an older group than the Guatemalan back packers and the
travelling surfers are out in the cheaper beach camps close to the breaks. It
was convenient for provisioning and getting sim cards for Costa Rica with lots
of restaurants to choose from.
Marina Papagayo
Although we
prefer to anchor, a forecast return of the Papagayo winds and the desire to
have fresh water to wash the salt off the boat sent us to the north end of
Bahia Culebra to check into the somewhat exclusive Marina Papagayo. The docks
and amenities, washrooms, showers, restaurant and bar, coin laundry are
extremely well done. The moorage is $2 per foot per day which was comparable to
a lot of California and the facilities were much better. One month and one year
rates were much cheaper. The marine store was surprisingly well stocked so I
was able to replace all of my nylon dock lines and snubbers with new material.
The staff, from Dan the General Manager to every person we met, were friendly
and helpful.
Papagayo Marina, Hokale'a in left foreground |
The
restaurant/bar had excellent daily half price specials and $2 beers so the six
cruising sailboat crews attended every happy hour. It was there we met Kate and
Mike from Magna Jean, Jake and Jackie
from Hokule’a, Steve and Sandra from Yonder and Nancy and Sven from Senta II along with our cruising
companions, Paul and Mary from Genesis
III. It was particularly good to meet Kate, as she is one of the
controllers for the Pan Pacific Net we have been listening to since El
Salvador.
A mother Capuchin with a tiny, tiny baby on her back |
We saw both
howler monkeys and white faced Capuchin monkeys close to the marina entrance
and the howlers could be heard regularly. Five days went quickly cleaning and
repairing the boat until another weather window opened for us to say hasta
luego to the northbound boats and for us to head south.
A big black howler monkey not too impressed with my interest |
Brasilito
It was only
a short twenty mile sail from the marina past Playa Cocos down to Brasilito, a
small village we were hoping to visit and try the restaurants. The bay faces
west and is open to some swells. The holding was good and Genesis III and
Kanilela were the only boats at anchor. Unfortunately the swell was up the
afternoon we anchored and our weather window did not let us stay for another
day to get another chance to go to shore.
On to Samara.....