Bahia Drake
15 March 2008
Roger
Trip log: 1863 nautical miles. We were under way from Isla del Cano to Bahia Drake just after 10:00 am, and it took us two and a half hours to make the trip with Komara. We decided to go ashore in Komara's dinghy. We had been watching the waves on the way in, and they seemed quite small at the beach. The wheels were down at the shoreline when Julie said, "Here comes some big ones". As the first one approached and peaked up, I thought we were going to miss the break, but it peaked suddenly, kicked us sideways and dumped us. The dinghy tipped right up on its starboard side, dumped Sal, Julie, and Larry out, then flopped back full of water with the motor running. Julie very nearly went under the dinghy. Tane got the motor out of gear and then stopped. We had a great struggle to get the dinghy, full of water, in past the breaking waves. There we got the wheels down so the water could be drained, but the motor was fine.
There's a rumor that Sir Francis Drake buried a large treasure in this area in the late 1500's. The locals pronounce it "Bah-heeah Dra-hay". The main industry is tourism, with tour boats (pangas with shades) taking divers out to Isla del Cano, and a number of jungle lodges with excursions into the Corcovado National Park, a (very) wet tropical jungle that occupies all of the Osa peninsula. The annual rainfall is over 220 inches. There are frequent violent thunderstorms, especially October to December, and an average of 10 tremors a day. There is an amazing variety of life in the jungle.
We went ashore for lunch. The first stop was at a jungle lodge overlooking the bay. It had beautiful hardwood floors, with big open covered areas with spectacular views of the bay and a crazy, dense, surrounding of foliage. Here, we saw the largest stand of bamboo I've ever seen. The lodge served meals to guest only, so we tried another. This one required reservations, but they didn't accept my offer to make a reservation for 10 minutes hence. We finally found a little family run restaurant, hidden in the growth.
The trip back to the boats was considerably less eventful, and we all convened on Kena for evening snacks and drinks as a light rain fell from a squall sweeping the bay. It is 60 miles to Golfito, so we've decided to start this afternoon so we'll arrive there in the morning...the guide says, "Because of shoal waters in the vicinity, it is important for even small vessels entering the Gulf (Golfo Dulce) to use all aids to navigation available." So... we plan to use one of the best aids---daylight.