Busted

Our next stop is an island 15 miles off the coast of Costa Rica. Isla de Cano has been a national biological reserve since 1978, but it's history goes back much further than that. The island was used as a burial ground by the Diquis Indians. Artifacts have been found dating back to 220 and 800 B.C. Those mysterious perfect stone spheres lying in the jungle...yup, they're found here. They reportedly range from a few inches in diameter to 6'. Also, it's believed that Sir Francis Drake, the English privateer, spent time here after capturing the Spanish treasure ship Nuestra Senora de la Concepcion. The history books say he stopped at the island in 1579, to recaulk his Golden Hinde. Speculation seems to follow Drake everywhere, no one really knows how far up the North American coast he explored or whether all the treasure he reportedly captured ever made it back to merry old England.

We made a stop at his namesake, Bahia Drake, to get our SCUBA tanks filled and to grab a few provisions. The diving at Isla de Cano is supposed to be pretty good. We've heard reports of 80 feet of visibility and great sea-life sightings, including giant mantas and white tipped reef sharks. We'll be sure to take some pictures. Besides good diving, the island also has the highest concentration of lightning strikes in Costa Rica. Until a few days ago, we hadn't had rain at sea since...hmmmm...never. We left Puntarenas and were passing a spot called Bahia Herradura that evening when the clouds gathered and we begin to see lightning. I'm not going to say I'm afraid of lightning, but I sure don't want us to be struck. Amanda on the other hand becomes pretty darn anxious around high voltage. Being the compassionate captain I am, and realizing that even half a night's bad sleep is better than motoring through a thunderstorm, we headed for Herradura. About a half mile from the entrance the downpour started and the lights from the shore disappeared behind a wall of water. We waited about 20 minutes for the rain to lighten up so we could see and began heading into the bay. We've become quite the navigational team these days, so with Amanda at the radar and the GPS with our waypoints with me at the helm, we made it in and dropped the hook. Liberte is a boat, so she, like every other boat in the world, has a few leaks. She can handle a gentle rain, but when it comes down in buckets, a few of those buckets make their way inside. So we rode out our first tropical thunderstorm, got a decent night's sleep and headed out again the next morning with a rainbow of damp towels on the lifelines.

I feel like I am giving my mom and my mother-in-law gray hairs as I write sharks!!! and lightning!!!, sorry mom, sorry Deb. When Amanda and I first took up surfing in California, it led to the inevitable topic of sharks, which also led to the topic of fear. I can understand taking a few basic precautions. Don't spend too much time surfing near seals, don't act like a seal in the water, and don't chum where you surf. But when I met folks who said they'd never go in the ocean because there were sharks there I thought it was pretty weird. I'm not going to go into the figures of how many people die from getting hit by sharks every year versus how many get eaten by cars or stray bullets. I used to see people's fears as a challenge. Afraid of sharks? Let's go abalone diving, you'll love it. Afraid of heights? Rock climbing, its super fun!

I've backed off a bit, partly because it seems impossible to get anyone to give up their fears without divine intervention and partly because of self interests. What if Jaws had never been made? There would be so many people out surfing, there wouldn't be a peak around without a hundred people scrambling for it. We'd be scuba diving in packs. I'm not going to say that I'm not afraid of anything. There's a time and place for every emotion, like when the grizzly bear rears up on two legs and roars, that's a good time for fear. Luckily, my dive partner no longer harbors fear for large fish that have big teeth, just a healthy respect and a sense of awe. What do I do about Amanda's new fear of lightning and thunderstorms? Not sure, give her a hug. But just so no one gets worried, I am doing my best to not get us struck by lightning.

UPDATE: So we went out to Isla del Cano for our extraordinary diving, only to butt heads with the officialdom of Costa Rica. Apparently we are supposed to buy a ticket to the park in Puerto Jimenez, 75 miles away. Park "officials" wouldn't take our money, said we couldn't stay in the anchorage without the ticket and couldn't dive without a guide. It was a bummer, I'll go ahead and say it might have been the low point of the entire trip, Amanda actually wept. Sadly, we motored towards Golfo Dulce. On a higher note, we made a stop this morning at Pavones, the legendary Costa Rican left. Caught some tasty waves. It made my day, maybe my week. I feel like a new man.

We're in Golfito, just got here this afternoon. We're at an awesome cruiser club, Land and Sea. All's well.