Up early, I raised the anchor and motored out of the bay formed by Islas Cedros and Jesusita. Our goal was Quepos, almost 60 nautical miles south in central Costa Rica. My crew slept in.

We were not moving very fast over the ground. I realized that we were fighting current as the tide rolled back into the Golfo de Nicoya. After Doug and Jane awakened and had some breakfast, we put a jerry can of diesel into the tank. The last fill up had been in Papagayos and we were running low. Jane had been on board at the beginning of the trip when I had to bleed the diesel engine in Port Angeles harbor after we ran out of fuel. We did not want to do that again on the open ocean.

It was yet another sunny day in the tropics. Everyone on board was jockeying for the shady spots in the cockpit. We read and talked and watched the water. There is a northward current along this coast that kept our progress slow and we began to worry about getting to the marina in daylight. I hate entering an unfamiliar harbor in the dark.

I saw a splash to starboard and alerted my crew to the presence of dolphins playing with our boat. They both got their cameras and headed to the foredeck. As the cetaceans played in our bow wake, Doug and Jane were bent over, butts high in the air, using their camera phones to record the experience. And I was delighted that my alebrije had appeared and that my crew could enjoy the experience. Our best guess was that these were Pantropical Spotted Dophins, although they seemed a bit small.

We called Marina Pez Vela on the VHF radio when still about an hour away because we were not going to get there before 5 pm on a Friday. They gave us instructions and we would have a slip. After checking in we had a nice dinner at one of the many restaurants at the marina. And then we had a shower. Although we had been swimming in the ocean, we had not had a nice shower for three days.

Before leaving Marina Papagayos, I made reservations for a guided tour of Manuel Antonio Parque Nacional. We had the very good fortune to get an excellent guide for our private tour. Hector was enthusiastic and knowledgeable, scurrying around with his telescope to get us the best views of wildlife in the jungle. And that jungle was truly alive, if you knew where to look. I do not know how, but he saw well camouflaged lizards under trees, land crabs, and sloths a hundred feet in the air. And we got to see it all through his scope. All while getting a lecture on the symbiotic relationships of these animals in this ecosystem by our self trained expert. Later we agreed that in a perfect world, Hector would be getting a Phd in Biology and studying his passion, snakes.

Later back in town, Doug and Jane tried a casado, the Costa Rican dish that pairs a meat of your choice with rice, beans, salad, and pico de gallo. They got a cup of Costa Rican coffee and rented a car for the next stage of their journey without me.

The next day, they left me alone, heading off for the area around Tamarindo. Hopefully Jane will be able to indulge her desire for yoga and surfing.

I went to a grocery store for a few items. It was a sign of the times. As I walked in the checker stopped me and showed me the hand sanitizer I needed to use before entering. Everyone inside a business in Costa Rica wears a mask. They get it here. Their economy depends on tourism. They have to control the spread of the infection in order to attract vacationers. And it is necessary to keep the Costa Rican workers safe from being infected by tourists.

On the streets of Quepos masks are ubiquitous.. At the marina, all of the workers are masked up.

This year, many of us have become amateur epidemiologists. We are constantly assessing the risk of our activities and encounters with other human beings. We try to keep up with the scientific knowledge about viral transmission. And I consider the statistical odds more than a Las Vegas gambler. Overall, I feel relatively safe in Costa Rica.