End of the year

Location:  Austin, TX

One last blog for the year… Happy Holidays to everyone.  Hope you had time to spend with family and friends and time to enjoy the last of a good year.  We’re in Austin, TX, spending time with our new grandson, Benjamin Allen, born on 16-Dec and with our granddaughter, Maggie (2-1/2) and of course, their parents, Ben and Catherine.  We left Seabiscuit in Golfito, Costa Rica at Banana Bay Marina. 

After coming through the Panama Canal, we spent some time cruising the Panama Islands on the Pacific side including Las Perlas, some of the outer islands of the Coiba Park and Islas Secas.  From there, we crossed the border into Costa Rica and spent a few days cruising Golfo Dulce before pulling into Banana Bay Marina and officially clearing into the country.

Picture of our chart plotter as we are leaving Isla Montuoso.
The green dot shows the way point where we planned
to anchor.  Where the red lines u-turns is our actual anchor
location.  From the chart plotter, it looks like we
anchored on the island, but in reality we were about 100 yards
off the shore.  A good example of how a chart plotter can be
off, why they are only "aids" to navigation and why
it is important to be aware of your surroundings.



Dolphins riding the bow wake

We saw a lot of sea life cruising the islands, including dolphins surfing the bow wake almost every day, sea turtles, sea snakes and plenty of seabirds.  You never get tired of spotting different animals and watching them in their natural habitat.  We decided not to do any fishing because we knew we had to empty the refrigerator and freezer before leaving the boat, but we saw lots of sports fishers and long liners along the way.

From Isla Montuoso (where we posted the last blog), we moved to Isla Secas where we anchored in a cove near the north end of Isla Cavada.  There is a resort located on the island, where you can rent a yurt for around $600 per night.  We stayed for three days and were happy to be able to anchor for free.  We did some snorkeling and swam from the boat to shore to explore the beaches.  One of the boats we had met in Shelter Bay, “Akka”, pulled into the same cove to anchor on our second night there.  They are also moving up the Pacific coast and were planning to leave their boat in Nicaragua while they went home for the holidays.  They had anchored near Isla Coiba the previous night and ended up going to the ranger station to pay the park fees for anchoring and then had to travel back to their boat via dinghy without a lot of gas in their tank.  They were headed toward Boca Chica where they could fill both their dinghy tank and their diesel tank, so we loaned them 2 gallons of gas so that they could use their dinghy when they got there.

Lunch break near Isla Parida

From Isla Secas, we moved to Isla Parida and anchored up in a cove on the north end of the island.  We took the dinghy out along with a picnic lunch and went exploring the beaches and some of the nearby islands.  We found a secluded beach and set up our chairs for lunch.  While we were eating, we noticed a turtle feeding in the cove, so we had some entertainment watching him.

Our next move was to Punta Balsa, our last stop in Panama.  We dropped the hook and decided to do some maintenance while we were there.  The insulation in the engine room fan duct had collapsed so air wasn’t flowing freely into the engine room.  We disassembled the fan housing on the boat deck and duct taped the insulation back into place.  The fan housing is rusted and the fan bearings are squeaking so we have them on the list to be replaced at a later date.

Dave disassembling the fan housing

Looking down the fan duct.

The next day, we cruised around Punta Barica, across the border into Costa Rica and into Golfo Dulce.  We anchored up outside of the small town of Jimenez and took the dinghy in to explore and to get a few supplies.  We were greeted in town by the local police and were worried that they were going to check our IDs (we hadn’t officially checked into Costa Rica and therefore didn’t have stamps in our passports), but it turned out they were reminding people to be safe for the holidays and wishing them a happy Christmas (Feliz Navidad).  We stopped and bought some ceviche and plantain chips from a van near the town dock and headed back to the boat for happy hour.  Our plan was to go back into town for dinner but it started to rain when we got back to the boat so we stayed in and ate our happy hour snacks.

The next day we moved about 15 miles to the west end of Golfo Dulce and anchored near Rincon.  We did some bird watching from the boat and saw a toucan and two scarlet macaws in the trees near the shore.  We dinghied to shore and hiked up a nearby hill to see what was on the other side, then we hiked down the main road to the Rincon River and had lunch at a local bar.  Both Rincon and Jimenez are on the Osa Penisiula near the Corcovado National Park.  After lunch we went back out to the boat and spent a quiet night at anchor. 

Scarlet macaw in flight

Toucan in the botanical garden

The next morning, we moved about 15 miles along the north coast of Golfo Dulce and anchored near Casa Orquidea, a botanical garden maintained by an expat family.  We dinghied to shore and were greeted by Ron, one of the owners.  He gave us a brief overview and then turned us loose with a map and descriptions of the various plants.  Not only was the garden filled with plants, but we saw lots of different birds including scarlet macaws and a toucan.  At the end of our tour of the gardens, Trudy (Ron’s wife) gave us some fresh basil, ginger, turmeric and pepper corns to use in our dinner.  We went back to the boat and Dave chopped and grated the spices to use in our marinade for dinner.

Dave chopping fresh spices

Tuesday morning we heaved up anchor and headed into Golfito.  Once we were safely tied up at the marina, we walked into town to the immigration office, then took a taxi to customs and finally headed to the port authority to finish the clearing in process.  We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant and stopped at the two pet stores/veterinarians in town to see if they had soft carriers for the cats and if the vet could provide health certificates for the flight home.  With no luck at either, we went back to the marina to ask for their advice.  Cindy, another cat lover, advised us that there was a vet from the next town over that came to Golfito every Wednesday night.  He was coming to the marina the next day to see her cats so she called to see if he could see ours while he was there.  We spent the rest of the day cleaning up the boat and doing small boat chores.  Wednesday we did more boat chores and then walked to the nearest grocery/department store and bought two gym bags that could be modified into soft cat carriers.  Wednesday night the vet stopped by at about 9:30 p.m.; he examined the cats, said they looked healthy and promised to have the paperwork back to us on Saturday morning.

B sewing screen into a gym bag
for a soft sided cat carrier that
can be used to carry the cats in
the airplane cabin for the trip home.

Thursday and Friday we constructed the cat carriers, did some more boat chores and prepared for our departure.  Saturday morning, the vet came through and delivered the cats’ health certificates.  We headed to the Golfito airport that afternoon for our flight to San Jose where we spent the night. 

Waiting at the Golfito airport

Sunday morning, we went to the international airport in San Jose and boarded the flight to Houston, where we all arrived safe and sound.  Our plans are to spend the rest of December here in Austin with the grandkids and then head to the farm in Alabama for January.  We’ll be back on the boat in Costa Rica the first week in February to continue our journey up the pacific coast of Central America, into Mexico and then into California.

B, Maggie and Ben on a nature walk