Today we started to get the boats ready to move further south. Dave climbed the mast to finish fixing the radar and helped Mike with some small projects on Wanuskewin. Then it was off to dinner at Ginger with Rob and Rose from R&R Kedger, as well as Mike and Holly. It was the best food we've e…
Blog posts : "2014 Central America"
Who to call?
We've had a number of folks ask us what to do in the event that we go missing. Its come up lately because several times now its gone a week between blog postings. This is because we have been out of internet range a fair bit. This makes people wonder what is happening to us and causes them to wor…
Watch out for that tree
This morning we went on an ATV tour through the woods to a couple of waterfalls. This was a total blast. Melissa and Holly had never ridden ATVs before. Dave says that in the US we would never have been allowed to take the ATVs off road the way we did. There were some spots so tricky that the gu…
Adventure Tours
Today was a day for adventures. We had booked at Hacienda Guachipelin Adventure Tours for a full day's activities. We've learned that you cannot book tours through anyone other than the tour operator or you pay up to double. Example: We paid $85 USD for this whole day adventure because we showe…
A soak in the hot spring
Melissa awoke early to do some blogging. She went and sat in the sitting area at reception. A tarantula came crawling by. Melissa was super proud of not screaming. She shooed the critter out of reception and into the rain where she hoped it would stay.
On our way to our next destination we …
Chocolate!
We got up in the morning because we had made a reservation for a guided nature tour at 8am at the Hanging Bridges. When we arrived we were told that they didn’t have our reservation. Some problem with the central office in San Jose not bothering to email people to let them know whether their reser…
Exploring the Arenal Volcano
Last night Dave heard howler monkeys in the distance and something big ran across the deck. Yikes! After breakfast the hotel owner’s wife took us on a tour of her gardens. Imagine being able to pick a fresh pineapple whenever you want it!
The banana trees are so overloaded that they h…
We’ve arrived in Hawaii
This morning we rented a car and drove into town to start hunting up various boat parts. The most critical item was to replace the dingy gas can than went overboard and is now on its way to French Polynesia. It took trips to both the Yamaha dealer as well as the Jobo Marine store, but fortunately …
Sometimes equipment just needs some love
First thing this morning Dave wanted to go up the mast and bring down the radar. Its been acting up lately and Dave wanted to take a good look at it which is difficult to do while you are swinging from a rope 20 feet in the air. So Melissa lifted him up. And lest you all have visions of Melissa w…
Are you sure we arn't at anchor?
Marina Papagayo is a classy place. They have just one problem, which is that they didn't build enough breakwaters. So the ocean swell comes into the marina and swirls the boats around at the dock. Most boats are tied up across the slip on both sides. We did the same with Apsaras to try and keep …
We are now legal in Costa Rica!
This morning we woke up early and by 7am had pulled up the anchor and headed off to Playa De Coco. This is where officialdom in Costa Rica exists to check us in. We spent the morning having paperwork stamped in quadruplicate, because, well triplicate just won't do here. First stop was the Port Ca…
Yet another flat?
It’s too hot to sleep when its 90 degrees! After a restless night, we awoke early when the sun came up. Mike swam over from Wanuskewin and we all figured to hang out here for the day. Clearing in Playa De Coco is going to take all day and we’ve yet to assemble the stacks of paperwork we need to c…
Caught!
We headed out at 9am. We are hoping for a bit less gusty wind than what we experienced a few days ago. And indeed the wind is blowing 20 knots but much more steady making for a decent sail. The waves are 4 foot and sort of sloshing us around, but on the whole it’s not bad sailing.
We were a…
My arms are gonna hurt tomorrow
At 2am Melissa wakes up and realizes the anchor alarm never got set last night. The wind is howling – she saw 43 knots on the wind meter – which we know reads low. So she wakes Dave up to set it so she can go back to sleep. We didn’t budge an inch. But at 6am the anchor alarm went off. Sometime…
Costa Rica Baby!
At 8am we went to the port captain’s office at the pier. Immigration officials hadn’t arrived yet. So we had to hang out for a bit, but by 9am we had our paperwork and were on our way. We had a few things to do on the boat – get the big motor off the dingy, tie everything down, etc. So while Dav…
Paddleboard Rescue!
Today is our anniversary. No, not for getting married. But one year ago today we started off from Seattle in a small white sailboat bound for adventures. Amazing to think that was a whole year ago. But it was!
Last night we agreed with Wanuskewin that we would sleep in this morning and then…
Should have rented the 4x4
This morning we rented a car and headed off with Mike and Holly with a plan to visit the nearby town of Rivas in search of (1) replacement inner tubes for the dingy as both blew out again yesterday, and (2) closed cell foam for an insulation project aboard Wanuskewin. We figured we would be likely …
Final Exams
Today was our final Spanish lesson. We had been warned that there would be a final exam of sorts. Dave did great because he already knew so much Spanish going in. Melissa on the other hand decided in her own hard headed way, which vocabulary words were going to be useful and hence worth memorizing…
Why Melissa should not do politics
When we went to lunch today at Café Mediterranean we noticed that they had a generator out front.
What we realized was that most restaurants had their generators out today. The waitress said, disgustedly, “Nicaragua!” as though that explained everything. Fascinating. Must be that the power g…
I miss the wind
Yesterday was our second day of Spanish classes and already we are finding that our Spanish is improving. While we had poo-pooed the idea of verb conjugation, the reality is that learning something about it improves your ability to hear what people are saying. Melissa is practicing her numbers. D…