20 November 2005
Underway to Playa Panama, Costa Rica
We are ready to move south toward Playa Panama where we will enjoy Thanksgiving with our cruising friends.
From the Captain’s log and notes, he wrote the following:
“Leaving the anchorage at Bahia Santa Elena, we did have one problem. As we were bringing up the anchor, the anchor windlass died. Fortunately, it happened with only 10' to go, so we were able to slowly motor out to deeper water, tie a line to the chain and use a winch on the mast to bring up the rest. I've finally learned that when something like this happens, don't do anything rash, sit down and think about it. Well, I realized that as it died, I didn't smell any smoke like you would if the motor was shorting out, it just went slower and slower until it stopped. So, once we were out of the bay and in clear water, with a pair of pliers, I tightened the wing nuts on the windlass battery and voila, it worked. So, this morning, I went back into the sail locker, removed and cleaned the windlass cables and all is well. It's these small maintenance issues that are so easy to overlook.
We had a pleasant trip down from Bahia Santa Elena to Playa Panama. We left at 6:30 AM with no wind and high overcast. Going around Punta Santa Elena was suppose to be one of those awful things - lots of wind and high seas. Well, by the time we got there, about 10:30 AM, there was perhaps, 10 knots out of the northeast and I was real hopeful we would have a great sail across the Golfo de Papagayo. The Golfo de Papagayo is known to have high winds and seas, but our wind died and then came up out of the southwest at less than 10 knots. So, what could have been a three-hour quick sail turned out to be a five hour slow day. Ah well, patience is a virtue.
We passed by the Islas Murcielagos, or the Bat Islands. They are pretty secluded and can be a rolly place to anchor if a south swell is running. After Thanksgiving, I would like to go back up and spend a few days. If a Papagayo should come up, there is a good anchorage about 2 miles to the north that offers good protection from northeast winds.
We have noticed with some interest, that the people who spent the summer in the Sea of Cortez look at the notion of these Papagayo winds as if it were no big deal. After all, there are good anchorages that give good northeast protection so there will be very little wave action. Sure, we may get 30-40 knots of wind, but we had that all summer up in the Sea of Cortez. The other folks that came down, who skipped the Sea, have not had the exposure and practice of such conditions, and are “scared to death” of the Papagayo's and are quickly moving south as fast as they can to avoid them. We consider this a winnowing process of the cruising community.
Even though the sail down was slow, usually between 2.5-3 knots it was enjoyable. It was also good practice to resist turning on the engine. Coming into the anchorage we were greeted by s/v Carina, Leslie and Philip, who we hadn’t seen in two months and several of our other friends from our six months in El Salvador.
Just as we were about to drop the anchor, Liz and Mar zipped over on jet skis to say “hello”. They are the owners of the mega yacht AlumerciA, the boat we spent Sami's birthday on. We thought that was way cool and a nice surprise. They departed on Thanksgiving for Chile, so this will likely be our last sighting of them for a while.”
This will be our third Thanksgiving as a cruising family and each one has been in a different country. We reminisced that every year we have had the fixings of a traditional meal, even if once we were underway and had turkey sandwiches. And every year we have been graced with much to be thankful for.
This year, we give special thanks to the generosity of s/v Carina and Clair de Lune, who provided the roasted turkey. In normal cruising community style, an incredible potluck dinner was brought to shore to the lawn side area of the restaurant run at Playa Panama, La Cangrejo. Paul, the owner, would be closing the restaurant, but offered to loan us the restaurant’s tables and open a toilet room for our Thanksgiving afternoon gathering.
Ten boats joined us, gathering in the afternoon for our feast of roasted turkey, gravy, stuffing, potatoes, fresh green mixed salad, fresh bread, Alaskan salmon mousee with crudités, bulgur wheat and tomatoes, cranberries, green beans, a large platter of fudge and pecan tartlets. Jamila came over in the morning to help Gaby and Sami make table decorations, which were a lovely touch to the celebration.
The four cruising kids (Andrew (6), Jamila (11), Sami (11) and Gaby (12)) ran and played like brother and sisters, more interested in playing than the meal. And the adults ate, chatted and enjoyed stories. As sunset fell, we hurried to clear the tables, and clean up the area to return to our boats before it became too dark.
We rested well, a happy community with full bellies in a calm anchorage.