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Melissa & Dave - Adventures at Sea

Blog posts : "2014 Central America"

Quepos

Last night was awful rolly.  And when a squall kicked up (a now often occurrence) the wind blow us close to Wanuskewin.  The way anchoring works is that everyone is supposed to put out about the same amount of anchor rode (the length of chain and rope that connects you to the anchor).  In this case …

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Aaaaahhhhhh Air Conditioning

We awoke early this morning and Dave started trying to finish the air conditioner installation.  He hooked it all up, turned it on, and NADA.  Dave about tore his hair out in frustration… if he has to rip out the whole unit and return it that would be a major disaster because it wouldn’t be at all c…

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New Air Conditioner - almost installed

After duct taping up the engine exhaust hose leak, we headed for Herradura.  The anchorage was rolly yesterday, but its where we need to pick up supplies so off we go.  Turned out not to be as rolly today which is good because after we picked up the new air conditioner, Dave decided to go ahead and …

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Apsaras tries to sink herself

This morning we got up and were underway at 6am.  The Gulf of Nicoya is much like the Pacific Northwest in that it actually has currents you have to account for.  We needed to leave early so that we could catch the ebb tide and have the currents going with us.  We arrived in Herradura at 11am only t…

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Today we go to prison

Today we wanted to get some internet and some food.  We are about out of supplies.  So Dave went into the nearby ferry landing to see if he could find some.  No dice.  So we decided to move on to Isla Meurto where there is supposed to be a resort.  Only to discover that the resort was closed.  So we…

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Curu Wildlife Reserve

We got up early in the morning to go for a hike in the Curu Wildlife Reserve.  We figured if we went early that we would get to see more animals.  We saw everything from deer to anteaters.  This deer greeted us when we arrived at the beach.  We were surprised she was so tame - that is till we realiz…

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The Headband Game

We had planned to go hiking today, but we awoke to rain that didn’t stop all day.  It never really poured hard enough for us to fill our tanks off the deck, much to Dave’s dismay.  But it just stayed grey and overcast all day – reminding us of home.  In the afternoon, the gang decided to heck with i…

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An unhappy generator

We decided to make the short hop to join Wanuskewin at the Tortuga Islands.  Underway Dave was running the generator when it started to make a funny noise.  Melissa yelled up to Dave in the cockpit, but didn’t even get a half a yell out before Dave was headed down the stairs – having already heard t…

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A taste of Italy

Last night before going to bed, Melissa pulled a muscle in her back.  When she got up this morning she didn’t feel much like getting underway.  So when Wanuskewin pulled out of the bay headed for the Tortuga Islands we told them we would follow them over tomorrow since it’s less than a two hour hop …

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The boys try to out do one another

We planned to leave the boats this afternoon, so we were super happy that the Costa Rica Coast Guard ship that pulled in to the bay last night was still there this morning.

We rented a car and headed for Montezuma to hike the water falls there.  A 20 minute hike over rough terrain got us to the b…

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Tales of the Gold Monkey

Today we just hung out at anchor.  We had planned to head up the river estuary to a restaurant recommended by some of the local guys at the beach restaurant where we ate lunch.  But a huge squall came through the bay nixing that plan.  It blew 30 knots and the waves kicked up.  A Costa Rican Coast G…

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What is making all that noise?

Today we went into the beach to the Tambor Tropical hotel for breakfast and for a conference call with our financial guy back home – who has the patience of a saint with us being in a third world country without good communications.  If anyone is looking for a great financial advisor, we can totally…

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It was a dark and stormy night

After another sleepless night for Melissa, she was ready to head for the next bay in hopes of finding somewhere not so rocky and rolly.  Dave somehow managed to sleep like a log.  This is a good thing as we face an overnight passage to the next anchorage.  Tamarindo was supposed to be the “happening…

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Tamarindo rocking and rolling

It was a rocky night here in Tamarindo last night, despite the flopper stoppers.  We didn’t get much sleep.  Bleck.  But it’s hard to complain when a rainbow like this comes to visit you.  Of course the rainbow didn’t show up till after the mid-day rains dumped a ton of water on us.  Dave plugged up…

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Great day for a sail

At 9am we got underway for the short hop to Tamarindo.  It was flat calm but the scenery was spectacular.

And here is Wanuskewin underway.

And the clouds put on a spectacular sunset.

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Friday the 13th Dive

Despite it being Friday the 13th and a full moon we scheduled a dive for today.  Guess we want to live dangerously.

This morning we had scheduled a dive boat to pick us up on the boats at 7am.  So we got up early and got ready.  At 7:45 they arrived.  Why is it we continue to act like folks here i…

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Bad Dingy! Bad Dingy!

The past few days the small 2.5 HP dingy engine has been acting up.  Its been hard to idle - keeps dying.  And yesterday it was super hard to get started.  Then on our way out to lunch today it hydro-locked, the cylinder having filled with fuel.  Dave had to get out the tools and remove the spark pl…

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Bees!

When we awoke this morning Dave went up on deck to do a small repair to the dingy davit.  He heard a buzzing and looked up to see this:

200 bees (yes Melissa later counted the dead bodies) had decided to start making a nest on Apsaras’ arch.  Dave came running back inside and closed all the port…

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Washing the boat in the rain

This morning after getting some fuel we headed off for a 4 hour sail to Potrero Bay.  Just as we were anchoring the rain started.  It POURED.  So Melissa put on her bathing suit, got out a scrub brush, and gave the decks a good wash.  We stayed on the boats for dinner because no one wanted to get we…

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How hot is it here? Well, I'll tell ya...

Its so hot here that the ice maker has tried to commit suicide on multiple occasions now.  Dave keeps taking it apart and doing surgery to revive it.  The only hope of making ice is to move it to the aft cabin where we have air conditioning. 

Not that the air conditioning actually makes it col…

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20 blog posts