Blown away

Marina Papagayo, Costa Rica

Sometimes you just don't know where you will end up at the end of a passage.

After a blessedly peaceful night in Bahia Ballena, safely anchored behind a small protective reef, we got an early start on Sunday morning, expecting to motor for much of the way to Playas del Coco, some 110 miles around yet another peninsula. We rounded Punta Blanco, the only spot I thought we could run into some wind and currents, around 9:30AM in very calm conditions - just the way we like it.

Indeed, other than a few hours around mid-day when we were able to sail in some onshore thermals, we did end up motoring the entire distance. We had to go very slow in order to avoid arriving before sunrise, especially as we had a very favourable current pushing us along for much of the way. We arrived at Playas del Coco around 7:30 AM on Monday morning and anchored just outside the many moorings there. Shortly thereafter is when the problems arose.

Around 11:30 AM the Papagayo winds struck with a vengeance. Gusts of up to 30 knots coming off the land persuaded our boat to try and leave the anchorage. I did not have adequate scope out on our anchor, primarily due to the limited swinging room we had amongst all the moored boats, and the anchor dragged (pretty much the first time this has happened to us in our short sailing career). Now the question was "what do we do now?".

We elected to bring the anchor up (lots of fun in 20 to 30 knots of wind), and we motored some 7 miles, out of the bay, across the mouth of Bahia Culebra (lots of wind and waves hitting us on the starboard side), and into Bahia Huevos, a spot that we know from our experience when coming the other way down this coast last year. We managed to anchor in a great, much better protected, sub-bay near the entrance to the bay. Here we sat out the afternoon winds, which rarely got over 10 knots, and watched all the local tourist boats come and go. This is a favorite little beach for swimming, snorkelling and playing in the sand - we even managed to get in a swim ourselves. We spent a peaceful night and got caught up on our sleep.

Early this morning. before the winds had a chance to get going, we upped anchor and motored about 8 miles into Bahia Culebra, where we took a slip at the upscale Marina Papagayo. We are much happier being tied up to a dock for now.

The expected winds put in their appearance, starting just before noon again today - we are seeing gusts up to the mid-30s. The only danger for us is the possibility of popping a fender or two, as the gusts are pushing us strongly onto the dock.

The reason that we were stopping in Playas del Coco is that this is where we need to check out of the country, however we can do that from here by renting a car and driving to the town. Much more civilized.

{GMST}10|38.45|N|85|39.17|W|Marina Papagayo, Costa Rica|Marina Papagayo, Costa Rica{GEND}
{GMST}10|37.89|N|85|41.18|W|Bahia Huevos, Costa Rica|Bahia Huevos, Costa Rica{GEND}
{GMST}10|33.495|N|85|41.879|W|Playas del Coco, Costa Rica|Playas del Coco, Costa Rica{GEND}

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