Bahia Santa Elena, Costa Rica
14 December 2012
kenandcarole@gmail.com
Bahia Santa Elena
Dec 14, 2012 - On the way down to Bahia Santa Elena, we had about 3 ft waves which increased to about 5ft for the last few miles, we had a great trip down and arrived in the anchorage at 4:30pm. Picture sailing around BC in the Strait of Georgia with the mountains around you and the wave height mentioned previously, it made us feel like we were home. The anchorage is very quiet, you can hear the Parrots talking every evening and morning, we are surrounded by hills and mountains and there are only the 2 of us in here, Gosling and Ourselves. Once we were settled, we started to get gusts of winds, the Papagayos winds, but all was good the anchors held well. These gusts continued until Monday when they seemed to subside. It was just an annoyance rather than anything. Over the next few days we ventured up to the Waterfall, it was about a 1/2 mile hike and at the waterfall there was a pool of water where we swam. If anyone ventures up there make sure you take a swim suit and good walking shoes as you walk a fair way up the creek bed which can be slippery at times. We will post the pics. Yesterday we ventured out around the corner to a white sandy beach which was covered in shells, all kinds of shells. The beach was alive, crabs and sealife moving around on the sand. This was where we managed to get a Claro (WiFi) signal, so we checked the weather and brought in emails. We also did a little tour around the anchorage and saw what we think were barracudas swimming close to shore and spotted rays.
Our friends on Beverly J and Risk Taker joined us in the anchorage last night (Dec 17th) and we all had dinner and cocktails on Beverly J. Risk Taker calls them the mother ship, they are a 48ft Trawler. Today Carole is baking, she has made Rum Cakes in a jar (6 of them) and a Banana Rum Loaf, it will be a great addition to our Christmas festivities.
We are looking forward to our good friends Russ and Doreen joining us for Christmas, they advised us this morning that they are leaving Chiapas bound for Costa Rica, they may have to stop in Nicaragua on the way but they will judge it as they get farther down. We are all planning on spending Christmas at Marina Papagayo at the dock, it will be much easier to do dinner on a dock that dinghying back and forth between boats.