4-7-2015 Passage to Costa Rica III



8 05.630'N: 82 20.289'W Isla Parida

We felt a little sad leaving Bahia Honda as it was a very protected and pretty anchorage, and the people were nice. We motored out of the bay and around a couple of small islands to find a nice NE wind at 8-10 knots and a gentle following sea. This was a nice day to motor-sail to our next anchorage at Parida Island. As we approached Parida the wind veered to the west, the direction we were going, but we were almost there. The approach to Isla Parida is a little tricky as there are numerous rocks, reefs, and small islands around the main island. The kind lady on the catamaran at Bahia Honda had given us way points to the entrance of the protected anchorage at Parida. We followed the way points into a nice and protected bay on the SE of Parida behind Paridita (little parida island). It was a little shallow going in, but we anchored in about 20 feet of water in the middle of the little bay--we were the only ones there. There was a passage facing to the SW through which we did get a little swell, but that died down later and it was very calm. After six years of anchoring in different places and conditions we have definitely seen worse. After a good nights sleep we were up at 0530 and on our way to Golfito in Costa Rica.


8 37.297'N: 83 09.163'W Golfito, Costa Rica


When we left Parida anchorage we were tempted to go out the SE passage as that would be faster than going out the east entrance that we came in through. But our chart plotter did not give depths for the SE passage and the guide book says to only go through the east passage--so, we followed our tracks out and were on our way to Golfito. We had hoped to find NE winds again, but the wind was on our nose from the west but again only at 8-10 knots. As we approached the long appendage called Burica Peninsula that separates Panama from Costa Rica we were a little anxious. There were strange currents that made patches of small wavelets on the water. We could see the point off the peninsula and there were big rollers crashing on the end of the land--we are always anxious off points of land as the currents and waves can get nasty. But as we rounded the point we were fine. We did go up and down on some big waves, but the period was long and it was like a gentle roller coaster ride. We were soon on the Costa Rica side and as we settled onto our course we were hailed on our VHF radio by a sailing yacht called Meander with Jim and Sonja on board. They had left Golfito in the morning and were heading to Panama, stopping at the anchorages that we had stopped at over the last week. They were from Canada and we swapped advice as we passed on our opposite courses.
The wind was now on our port beam and we were able to set our genoa as we headed into the large Golfo Dulce (sweet gulf). We were making good time and by 1700 we were entering Golfito (small gulf). The guide book says that boats entering Golfito need to call the local port captain to inform them of the ship's arrival--which we did but did not get an answer. We had hoped that the operator of the moorings at Land and Sea Yacht services would still be around and he did answer our call on VHF 16 (actually, it was 1640 when we called as we had passed a time zone). Tim told us to pick up the only available mooring (they used to have 12 moorings, now they only have 2 moorings left), and check in with him in the morning--he was definitely a gringo. We had made it to Costa Rica--Pura Vida! This was a greater milestone than you know--which we will explain in the following blog entry.