My intrepid crew and I set out from Marina Papagayos. We made a last minute trip to Playa de Cocos for more groceries before returning our rental car. Altere had full water and fuel tanks.

We finally had our National Zarpe that gave us permission to cruise to Golfito. Dan Eafaldino, the manager of Marian Papagayos, helped this along and the concierge service sent copies of my boat documents to the next two marinas I plan to visit. As I wrote earlier, this marina is pricey but a good value. So we set off late morning and headed out into the North Pacific Ocean. Looking back at the marina (pictured) where I had spent a month, I had some fond memories.

Skirting the coast, we were not beset by the infamous papagayos winds. A bit of an offshore breeze allowed us to unfurl the jib and get a speed boost for most of the afternoon and into the late evening. We set an informal watch schedule of two hours on and four off. My experience is that with three crew members, a boat can maintain this schedule for weeks without exhausting anyone.

I came up from below to assume command for the midnight to 2 am watch. Doug informed me that it had started to sprinkle. Ten minutes into my watch, the rain became a heavy downpour. I closed hatches and then stayed under the dodger. I had no visibility and spent some time below. I considered going back out side with a bar of soap and getting a natural shower. It was short lived and cleared up before I could “clean up my act”.

It is always fun having congenial crew aboard. Great conversations often ensue. We talked, read, and slept. Oh, and we ate. We had the foresight to bring along some great snacks and a dinner of leftover pasta. A happy crew is a well fed crew.

We rounded Cabo Blanco a while after sunrise and made the turn to cruise along the southern end of the Peninsula Nicoya. We were now out of the northward current that had been slowing our progress so far and we picked up a little speed over the ground.

According to the chart, Bahía Ballena has a smoothly sloping bottom up to a sandy beach. Doug became our “sonar guy”, operating the cheap kayak depth sounder. He called out the depths as we approached the beach after lowering the transducer into the water for each reading. We anchored in about 17 feet of water and went for a swim.

As the afternoon wore on we rested and then held a “happy hour”, with snacks we had bought at an Italian specialty store before we left. The temperature cooled and we had a pleasant dinner together in the cockpit.