Home Again

Location:  San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua

We’re back on the boat, happy to be “home” and headed north and west towards Mexico and California.  We arrived back in Golfito, Costa Rica on 8-Feb after spending the holidays with family in Austin and January on the farm in Alabama. 

Ben and Maggie at the zoo



Cat, Maggie, Ben and Baby Benjamin

The "Fat Elvis" from an Austin Food
Truck called "Gordoughs".  They
make sandwiches out of doughnuts.  This
one included bacon, bananas, peanut butter.

Another Gordoughs sandwich, Canadian
bacon, cream cheese and jalapeno jelly.

 

We left Austin early January, picked up my mom, Louise, in Houston, and gambled at all the casinos between there and the farm.  We stopped at our favorite Louisiana casino, Coushatta, and spent one night and then drove to Biloxi the next day and spent three nights.  My mom and I both have birthdays in January so we were able to get free buffets at most of the casinos.  We won some and lost some until Dave had a great round of three card poker at the Palace Casino, so we ended up ahead of the game.  We arrived at the farm on Monday, 6-Jan and were greeted by Dave’s friends Al and Paul.  They had driven through the night from Beverly, MA (just north of Boston). 

Turkeys in the green field behind
the cabin at the farm.

Rocky creek waterfall on the farm

One of the last things we did on the farm last year was to move all of the furniture from the Fairhope house into the cabin.  We didn’t have enough time to organize or unpack anything, so a pile of boxes and jumbled furniture were waiting for us.  We went to work setting up the beds, organizing things so that we could walk around, and unpacking the kitchen stuff.  Mom got to clean up all the mouse debris in the trailer as that was going to be her room for the next few days.  Al and Paul brought a bunch of groceries and snacks along with homemade lasagna and pepperoni bread so we were set for food until we could make a run to the grocery store.  We got enough chores done before 3:00 p.m. so that the guys could head out to the woods for their afternoon deer hunt. 

Sunrise on the farm

The next week went by quickly.  The guys hunted in the early mornings and late afternoons and we all did cabin projects in between.  Al and Paul were able to harvest five deer and we had a lot of fun playing cards after dinner each night. 


Al, B and Paul on B's birthday.  Dave
"baked" the cake.

Mom left on 12-Jan to go and visit my Uncle Max and Aunt Darlene in Florida and Al and Paul headed back to MA on Monday, 13-Jan.  Dave and I spent the next few days doing more cabin projects, working with the tractor and preparing to put the farm on the market.  We are trying to sell so that we can buy a place in Texas, closer to the grandkids.



The tractor stuck near the creek.

Mom returned from Florida on the 22nd; we celebrated her birthday and then put her to work doing controlled burns of our planted pines along with other fun projects.






Louise burning

My brother, Kevin, flew in from California for the last week of deer hunting season.  The weather turned cold and we even had snow on the farm, a rare occasion.  Kevin hunted most mornings and afternoons, saw a lot of does and turkeys but didn’t find the big buck he was looking for.  We left the farm on 1-Feb and headed back to Texas via Biloxi and Coushatta.  We dropped Mom and Kevin at the Houston airport and then headed back to Austin for a few more days with the grandkids before heading back to the boat.

Our flights back to Costa Rica were uneventful (the best kind) and we (and the cats) made it back to the boat with no problems.  We spent the first few days re-provisioning for our trip north, checking out the boat to make sure everything was operational and getting our paperwork to clear out of the country.  Chama, the guy at Banana Bay Marina who watched over the boat while we were gone, did a great job.  Everything was in top shape and all systems fired up with no issues. 

Turtle at Banana Bay Marina.  He
has been coming at high tide
every day for the last ten years
for fresh bananas
.

We pulled out of the marina on Wednesday, 12-Feb and turned the boat north and west.  The first night we anchored in Drake’s Bay. 

Rounding the point prior to anchoring
at Manuel Antonia Park.



Iguana



Monkey

Monkey

Capuchin Monkey

The second night we anchored near Manuel Antonio Park (near Quepos).  The next day, we swam from the boat to the park beach and hiked some of the park trails; we had lunch at a restaurant just outside the park, hiked a few more park trails and then swam back out to the boat in time for happy hour.



Splash for a ray jumping.

Dave swimming back to the boat

Dolphins cruising the bow wake.

The next few days we continued north, anchoring in Bahia Ballena, Bahia Brasilito and Bahia Santa Elena before crossing the border into Nicaragua and anchoring in the harbor near San Juan del Sur.  The officials came aboard to clear us into the country and then we headed into town.  San Juan del Sur is a nice small town, clean, with some good restaurants, a nice beach and friendly people.



Brown booby catches a ride.

 

Mangrove swamp in Bahia Santa Elena. 
We took the dinghy in to do some exploring.

The dinghy motor fails us.
We have to paddle back to the boat.

We did run into some weather along the way.  There is a seasonal wind phenomenon here that they call “Papagayos” or the “gap-winds”.  During certain times of the year, typically January – April, these winds can blow 30 – 40 knots with gusts in the 50s.  They’re created by the Caribbean trade winds coming over the low, narrow land mass of Central America and into the Pacific.  The Papagayos can reach as far north as Guatemala and as far south as Panama.  Along with the winds, the seas can be rough.  As we were crossing the northern part of Costa Rica, we experienced winds in the 40 knot range with gusts in the 50s and sig waves of 4 – 6 feet (8 – 12 max height).  There is a similar wind phenomenon called “Tehuantepecers” that occurs across the Gulf of Tehuantepec in southern Mexico.  The season for these winds is the same as the Papagayos, but the winds can be much stronger and the seas much rougher.  We will be watching the weather closely before we transit that area.
 

Waves breaking over the bow.

 

Secure for sea.  The trash can on the
floor so it doesn't fall over, along
with the cat food container and
Dave's shoes, holding the dishwasher closed.
The coffee pot is on the floor in the corner.

 



Happy Hour in San Juan del Sur.

 

We’re departing San Juan del Sur in the morning, headed to a marina in northern Nicaragua call Puesta del Sol.