We broke one of the cardinal rules of cruising before we even left the dock, by making a rendezvous date four months in the future, halfway through our cruise. It's been in the back of our minds the whole time. We've met so many old salts along the way who have given us a wary look when we told them of our plans. Bending to the will or plans of others is not something that a lot of cruisers deal with well. Some have left family and hometown behind for a life far away and have never looked back. Some haven't, some sail for a few months and return to a life; family, friends, appointments and work seamlessly. But most are enjoying the freedom to dilly and dally as long as they want in one region or another, not hurried by anything.
I haven't lived near my family in about ten years, but at least I've been in the same country most of the time. Amanda's been away from hers for about six years. We make it home for either Thanksgiving or Christmas or sometime in January once a year. There was one stretch where I didn't make it home for about two years. It's something I'd like to work on, spending more time near family.
Well, I think it's a silly rule, this no making plans or schedules. It kept us moving along, we'd need to be somewhere in Costa Rica anyhow if we were planning to hit the East Coast in May. The two weeks leading up to Christmas we were doing some serious moving and we weren't having the best wind for the desired direction of travel. Our schedule had us moving when the weather wasn't perfect, a potentially dangerous situation or one with an expensive diesel bill. Lots of headwinds near the Gulf of Fonseco and lots of adverse currents off El Salvador and the Nicoya coast. We'd get a few hours of sailing in the right direction and end up with the engine running the rest of the day with no wind. We made it though, dropping the hook in Bahia Ballena on the 23rd. We mostly worked on a few boat jobs and tidying up till Amanda's mom and Al flew in on Christmas morning. Can't have mom showing up to a messy boat.
I can't say that this was the happiest I'd ever seen Amanda, but as we walked to the airport to meet up she was pretty excited. After hugs and rental car delivery we headed up a wild dirt road to our home for the next week. The house looks out over the bay, so we could keep an eye on the boat and weather. A swimming pool, full kitchen, huge veranda, settled right in the jungle...pretty awesome spot.
The first two nights we were anchored in the bay had been dead calm, barely enough breeze to get down the wind scoop and cool the cabin. There were also two other cruisers anchored near us, Indian Summer and Sunday. We'd let them know we planned on leaving the boat for the night and they assured us they'd keep an eye on everything. We'd heard of a few thefts of dinghies in Costa Rica, so we stowed everything from the deck down below, including the outboard and used every cable lock we had on the dinghy, also stowing it underneath the boom. We woke up the next morning and I spied on the anchorage with a telescope. There was definitely a breeze from the North, but we appeared to be in the same spot relative to the other boats, this was at about 6:30. Amanda woke up shortly afterward and asked me how the boat looked, I said things looked good but went to take another peek. Focusing on the anchorage in the early morning glint, hmmmm... Liberte was not where she had been. I spotted her about a hundred yards further south, riding in the building wind chop, this was around 7:15. I called up Indian Summer, who said that we had drug anchor but that John and Gill had hopped on and let out extra rode and our second anchor, and that Liberte was holding in about 17' of water. I let Amanda know what had happened and we started getting ready to go down the mountain to secure our gal. We both felt nervous and worried and a tiny bit ashamed. After spending four months onboard, anchoring all over the place in all kinds of conditions our anchor hadn't popped out once. We were actually quite proud at how much better we'd gotten at the whole procedure. The one night we decide to spend away from the boat and she almost ends up on a muddy lee shore. Yikes. We feel pretty indebted to Indian Summer and Sunday for saving our behinds and all the other help and info they gave us while in Bahia Ballena.
We moved Liberte over to the north side of the bay and anchored her again, a bit closer in than the other boats and well out of the wind, also sending down a 40 lb Danforth as a kellet after setting the anchor again. The weather has stayed relatively calm the rest of the week. We spent the next two nights on Liberte and the next two after that up at the house. It's been an awesome week here with Deb and Al, visiting Montezuma for a waterfall hike, and Mal Pais and the Cabo Blanco preserve to help me get a surfing fix. Sharing relaxing mornings and delicious dinners with family was the best Christmas present we could hope for this year.
When we got here, I'd been dealing with problems with our electrical system, engine cooling system and random other things breaking for a good week. I was ready for a respite. Taking a week off of boat work and having some fun has rejuvenated us. We're ready to tackle our boat repairs, get things up and working again and head off in search of more pura vida.
On another note, we've felt quite secure as far as theft goes here. Some folks we met along the way seemed scared to death of Costa Rican thieves. We talked to the folks at the kayak rental spot on Playa Pochote in the north end about security, and left out dinghy there a few times, once overnight for 5000 colones. We also left the dink and kayak under the trees to the west of the yacht club locked up and had no problems. We're sure that theft can happen anywhere and anytime to anyone, but Bahia Ballena has been a safe spot so far and we recommend it to anyone headed this way. Some boats we'd met planned on using the facilities at the Costa Rica Yacht Club in order to do some inland travel. With a buddy boat around I would consider Bahia Ballena a much more inexpensive option.
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