Northern Costa Rica

    Whew! After some rough seas, and one sea-sick Admaral, we made it to Santa Elena Costa Rica. In the Papaguyo's (area notorious for sudden high winds and rough seas) we actually had "green water" roll across the boat deck and the sea spray fly clear over the hardtop, Windfall took the rough seas and 35 knot winds kindly. We love our boat!

Monkeys in the trees!

  We were contacted on the SSB raido by our friends aboard Royal Albatross as they were just

leaving the bay and gave it high ratings. We pulled into the beautiful Santa Elena Bay at 1:30, dropped anchor and promptly dove into the warm clear water. Our friends aboard SOMF and Varuna were expected in 3-4 days, so we had the whole bay to ourselves. As a note, this is where Oliver North was training the Contra Rebles to invade Nicaragua...which is located just around the corner from the bay!

    Nancy and I love to explore the bay and mangroves with our dinghy "Blondie", we watched as Macaw parrots flew over each morning and evening. One day we decided to take a walk to a 8' waterfall that was rumored to have a nice freshwater pool to swim at the bottom. We treked up an empty creekbed where finally a trickle of water began, and before long we were wading chest deep in the creek to continue our journey to the waterfall. After 30 minutes we walked upon a beautiful clear water pool and jumped in. The water felt refreshing in the tropic heat and I even did a cannonball from the top of the rock bluff! It was a slice of paridise and we hads it all to ourselves.
    The next day we dinghied our bikes to the shore and rode along a dirt road where we spotted MONKEYS in the trees! How cool! The monkeys had white faces and looked like they were having as much fun seeing us as we were snapping photos of them.
    The next day we spent snorkeling and exploring more of the big bay. We spotted lobsters clinging to the rocks, colorful fish you only see in tropical aquariums, and even a 7' nurse shark, don't worry, these sharks are very dosile...at least that's what "they" say,,. I turned to tell Nancy about how tame the shark is..."Hey Nancy"! She was nowhere to be seen...aparrently she was "forgetting" something important on the beach that she needed...Well, at least that's HER story!
    Our friends arrived early in the moring, and that afternoon we went snorkeling at one of our newly favorite spots. Over the next several days, we hiked back to the waterfall, swam, snorkeled, fished, and even panned for a little gold in the stream....gold flakes sure are tiny, but those gold rocks seem to add weight more quickly! Yes Sir, Jerry and I  probibly panned a total of $1 gold flakes! Only $2 million more and we can make a downpayment on those new boats!  Oh, did I mention we had a poisonous sea snake pass by the boat.....Ewwwww! Gulp!
     We spent a total of 2 weeks in the bay, needless to say we did not want to leave! Of course, we were "Pirating" as we had not check into the counrty. yet...but, oh well. We were out of beer and veggies...and I think in that order!
    We sailed to Playas del Coco, Costa Rica and dropped anchor in Playa Panama (just around the corner from Coco...and where the Port Captain wants boats to anchor till they are "officially" in the country. Ok, so we got a little chewing out from the Port Captain, but after a two day process to check in with the Port Captain, Migration, pay a fee at the local bank to have an Agriculture Inspection done aboard the boats, and finally (the second day) a taxi trip to Customs in the nearby city of Liberia, we were officially in Costa Rica. We had to dinghy the Agricultrue Inspection guy out to the boats where he looked inside the refridgerator and freezer and our "inspection " was complete. Jerry and Loren aboard SOMF has a dog and cat, but aparrently were  listed as "No living animals abaord"....Jerry said he's pretty sure the cat isn't dead and does move once in awhile, but the guy had to step over the dog to come aboard!
    May 24th was my 51st birthday...or 15th as Nancy says is more true. We all went to a neat little beach bar and enjoyed great food and drinks...Ahhh, Costa Rica is a nice place to celibrate for sure.
    We moved the threee boats to the Coco anchorage, it's right in front of the cool little village, but the anchorage is VERY rolly and not plesent to be aboard, sleep, or cook meals...time to check out with the Port Captain and leave!!  Fun little place, too bad the anchorage is so rolly for boats.

Nancy looking at Windfall "on the hook" - Looks nice!

    Currently, we are traveling with SOMF and on our way to explore other Costa Rica bays and have made it a whole 8 miles from where we were anchored. We have a beautiful beach right behind the boats, and in 15 minutes we'll be in the water snorkeling.
    Ok, time to get the fins on...... more postings later.

Check us out on www. youtube.com at Windfall Adventures...it's FUN!!