Costa Rica to Panama

We left Marina Papagayo Saturday afternoon, November 28. Not too far from the marina we started having auto pilot troubles and just started making big circles in the bay. The Captain figured this out quickly and off we went. The plan was to go straight to Panama City and get in the que for the canal. The 3 day trip started off ok with calm seas and light winds. We were looking forward to this leg because we were going to be passing through Hannibal Banks. Hannibal Banks is known world wide for producing great fishing. We made plans to make sure we had at least 2 lines in the water at daybreak on Monday....and that we did! (Actually we 3 lines in most of the day). The first fish we caught were Bonitas....Tuna bait fish. Those went back in. Then the engineer hooked up with a large sailfish and successfully got it to the boat before it broke off. Here are a few photos....not great pictures but at least its something..

Not long after that I hooked up a nice sized Dorado----Mahi!

It turned blue when we put it on ice...imagine that! Here is a picture of one of the islands near Hannibal Bank

Other than the good fishing, Sunday and Monday were pretty calm and uneventful....we passed through dozens of sport fishing boats that were all talking on the radio about how slow the fishing was. Here are a couple pictures of the great scenery.

Little did I know that all this was the calm before the storm. I woke up about 1 am Tuesday morning thinking something was not right..and then I landed! We had run into the roughest seas yet and I was being tossed around in my bunk like a rag doll! Now that is saying something considering my stature! The feeling of the bed falling away from you and then coming back up to smack you is one that I won't soon forget! I found a way to pin myself in between my bed and the cabinet on the port side. This didn't last long because after a few more minutes something fell on top of me in the dark and scared the hell out of me.

One of the ceiling panels over my bunk came down! That was all it took....I found a way to make it to the sofa in the aft cabin by the galley....I just sat there and held on! The next 14-16 hours were just more of the same. When we finally saw the Panama City Skyline I think we were all very relieved because we knew we were about to get a break.

We radioed Flaminco Marina and made our way around numerous large cargo ships waiting their turn to go into the canal and finally pulled into the marina around dusk. Next post-----Flaminco Marina and day 1 of the Canal Experiance...Cheers

More Costa Rica

It has taken a while to update the blog because of poor internet connections at our last location...So let me catch you up. We arrived in Costa Rica on Monday, November 23, 2015 around noon. We were not able to leave the boat until we were cleared into the country by customs and immagration. Costa Rica is much more strict than any other country we have been to so far. The customs folks finally got to the boat around 11am on Tuesday, Nov 24. We were given our clearance and off we went! We rented a car and drove around the bay to Playa de Coco, Playa de Hermosa, and Playa de Panama. They were all neat little beach towns catering to tourists. Playa De Coco had a Hard Rock Cafe. It was very interesting seeing the open air bars/restaurants right on the beach as well as the different beach front hotels. Here are some pictures of that area.

The Marina that we stayed at was Marina Papagayo. It is part of a huge Four Seasons Resort on the Papagayo Peninsula. The Marina Manager Dan and the rest of the staff took great care of us. http://marinapapagayo.com/

The last picture is another Nordhavn 55 (Terrapin out of Morehead, NC...Small World) we were parked next to. On Wednesday, November 25 we took a trip up in the mountains to the Borinquen Mountain Resort and Spa. It is a great place to relax. You can sit in the natural hot springs sauna, rub soothing hot volcanic mud all over, sit in the hot mineral baths, or hang out in the cool mineral pool and order drinks from the poolside bar. It was a very relaxing day. Unfortunately i do not have any pictures of the resort but you can go to this link and see what it looks like. www.borinquenresort.com I highly recommend a visit! The trip up to the resort was an adventure in itself. The last 18 kilometers is all gravel and dirt roads winding there way through rural Costa Rica. Here are some pictures of the scenery we encountered.

One of the great things about staying at Marina Papagayo is that you get to take advantage of the Four Seasons Resort amenities. So on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) we spent the day at the beach club. Great Pool and Beach and the staff were all wonderful. The marina has a dockside restaurant that is run by the resort. So all of the bartenders and wait staff rotate through all the restaurants in the resort. When we got to the beach club we saw all the folks that had taken care of us at the the marina.

Illana and Fabio

Maria

From right to left..Ivan, Illana, Maria,and unkown Here are some pictures from the beach club

I spent Friday washing clothes and lounging in the marina pool. Saturday morning was spent going to town for groceries and preparing the boat for departure that afternoon. I enjoyed Costa Rica very much. I highly recommend everyone visit it at least once in their lifetime. It is more expensive than any of the other countries we have been to but I think it was well worth it. The people are fantastic and the country is absolutley gorgeous! If you make it by Marina Papagayo and the Four Seasons Resort Tell Dan, Illana, Ivan, Maria, and Fabio I said Hi...Great Folks! So all for now...next post will be about our 3 day voyage to Panama.