Costa Rica - The Highs and Lows of Sailing Life - Broken Stove, Illness, and Amazing Wildlife Adventures

 

Brightnest's route from Chiapas, Mexico to Costa Rica.

Dolphins escorting us into Playas del Coco, Costa Rica.

After weeks on land, we were itching to be back on the water when we began our passage from Chiapas, Mexico to Costa Rica on Jan. 13^th. A month earlier, when crossing the Gulf of Tehuantepec from Huatulco to Chiapas, we planned our passage very cautiously to make sure we didn’t encounter the infamously strong winds there (called “Tehuantepeckers” or "T-peckers"), so cautious that we encountered a glassy sea with little wind, and motored more than we had liked. So, for this 5-day passage, in which we would be encountering the Papagayo winds, we attempted to plan for a little stronger breeze. We missed the mark a bit and ended up getting the crap kicked out of us by the Papagayos along the Nicaraguan coast.  Live, and learn. Amor fati. One passage is too calm, the other too rough – we’re still homing in on those Goldilocks conditions in the forecast.

When wind speeds get high and the seas rough, things start to break. On our last day of passage, Jen went to heat up some water in the kettle, and the stove didn’t light. After some under-way troubleshooting, I determined that the propane solenoid, located in the propane locker, had cracked and no longer functioned. All the pounding must have made something - a tank or a regulator - smack it. We had food that didn’t require cooking, so we weren’t going to starve. We also had a spare solenoid that I would try to replace once we reached an anchorage.

After 5 days at sea, we anchored off Playas del Coco in northern Costa Rica, an official Port of Entry, safe but tired. Although fatigued, we also felt a sense of accomplishment. While on shore we trudged through the challenges of checking in to the country, we felt pride that this was our first new country since checking in to Mexico in Ensenada over a year ago! 

We caught a bus out to the airport for Aduanas (Customs), then cleared with immigration and the Port Captain.

Playas del Coco, our Port of Entry in Costa Rica.

After a couple of days taking it easy after passage, we decided to move on to a nearby anchorage at Bahia Guacamaya. I wasn’t feeling well, and we wanted a break from the boat and jet ski traffic at Coco.  When we reached over 3 miles offshore and dumped our holding tank, the macerator pump whined loudly and drew a whopping 40 amps from the battery bank. I quickly shut it down and resolved to troubleshoot it, or replace it, at Guacamaya. 

Considering its function, swapping out the macerator pump wasn’t as revolting as you might think, although it wasn’t a pleasant task by any stretch of the imagination. However, after mounting, wiring, and fully installing the new pump to the hoses, and successfully testing it, I felt confident that I was on a handyman roll. I decided to tackle the propane solenoid. Wouldn’t it be great to go to bed tonight with both our major systems failures fixed?

Feeling increasingly unwell, I got to work. To remove the solenoid, I used two wrenches, but couldn’t see very well and worked mostly by feel. I was worried that the nuts would be corroded shut and that I would not be able to free them. I felt a surge of victory when, after substantial effort, the bolts started turning. In the end, after removing it, however, I stared with a sinking feeling at what I had done. I had been twisting the copper propane pipe unknowingly. Now, it was unusable. My attempt to fix it had made things much, much worse.

The twisted copper propane pipe.  I had made things much worse.

I crawled into the v-berth early, feeling more and more sick and feverish. I started to go to the bathroom often and threw up a few times. In the night I woke from an intense dream. Jen took my temperature and I had a high fever.  I was mumbling incoherently about my dream. I had a splitting headache. Jen began to play through in her mind what she would do if I was incapacitated. How would she get me back to town at Playas del Coco? Could she weigh anchor, motor us back, and anchor singlehanded? Could she drop the dinghy and mount the outboard engine alone? 

I mostly slept and went to the bathroom and then slept again, just trying to get relief from the feverish aches by drifting off. I took medicine and drank rehydration salts. So it went on for over 24 hours, almost two days. Gradually, I started to feel better and began to eat a little again. I felt so exhausted after a rough passage and then hit with illness.

We diagnosed it to be a foodborne illness – some kind of food poisoning. The source? We’ll never know for sure, but we have two top suspects. First (the less likely): At a restaurant in Playa del Coco, I didn’t finish a chicken dish when I saw some deep pink uncooked chicken in the last part of my dish.  Second: We purchased frozen hamburgers from a grocery delivery service in Chiapas. When we opened them, we saw they had merged together, a clear sign that at some point they had thawed and refrozen. I should have thrown them out, but they were expensive, and I didn’t want to waste them. So I grilled a few of them up on the cockpit grill in Playas del Coco. They looked sketchy and my Spidey sense was buzzing. I should have listened! We think the hamburger is the most likely culprit.

After a few days, I was feeling normal again, and we decided to move on and turn the next few weeks around after such an inglorious beginning. It would be an ongoing mission for the next month in Costa Rica to find a propane pipe replacement and someone with the skills to help replace it. Until we found both, we’d be without a stove, and have to make do as best as possible.

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Our route through Costa Rica included Playas del Coco, Bahia Guacamaya, Bahia Portrero, Bahia Ballena, Bahia Herradura, Punta Quepos, Drake Bay, and Golfito.

Our route through Costa Rica.

Next, we sailed to Bahia Potrero, where we spent a couple of days hitchhiking around on a mission to find a replacement copper pipe. We had some luck, but nothing that met our standards as a solution.  We sailed on to Bahia Ballena, where our Costa Rican experience began to improve markedly.  It was a calm anchorage with a relatively easy beach landing in the dinghy.  Plus there was a pizza place right on the beach that wrapped our pizza box in a trash bag so we could make it through the surf break back to Brightnest with a dry pizza.  I felt famished now that my appetite was back!

Local families set the beach's laid-back tone.  On the walk back to the dinghy carrying our prized pizza, we saw our first Scarlet Macaw in the wild.  We'd just begun to scratch the surface of what Costa Rica's wildlife offered.  There was so much more to come!

"At the beach, watchin' the kids."  Laid-back local vibes at Bahia Ballena, Costa Rica.

Scarlet Macaw perched in a tree as we walked back to the dinghy with our pizza at Bahia Ballena.

The birding and wildlife adventure had truly just begun. We sailed on, with an overnight at Bahia Herradura, and then on to Punta Quepos, where we anchored off a place called Playa Biesanz. This was a small, calm anchorage (with shoals in the middle of the bay you need to watch for). We dinghied to shore in the mornings and, locking the dinghy to a tree or log, hiked for about an hour to Manuel Antonio National Park! How amazing to have access to one of the crown jewels of the Costa Rican park system right from your boat. We saw monkeys, sloths, many, many birds (including recently hatched hummingbirds in the nest). The hike to the park offered almost as much wildlife as the park itself, with Scarlet Macaws flying overhead and sloths hanging in the trees on the exit trail from our beach landing.

 

White-faced Capuchins, Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica.

White-faced Capuchins, Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica.

Sloth (upside down).  Manuel Antonio National Park, Costa Rica.

Next, we sailed to the storied anchorage of Drake’s Bay. Drake’s Bay is famous as a surfing spot, but it also offers fabulous nature hikes for those of us who aren’t out surfing. We spent our days hiking along the coast, encountering all sorts of adventures, and then taking a break in town for a meal and a sundowner. 

These were iconic Costa Rican days for us. On shore, a thick wall of jungle rose up the hillsides. The ghostly barking of howler monkeys at sunset would fade into a wild concert of jungle noises as we settled into the v-berth for the night, thinking of tomorrow's adventures.

Jen bounces up and down on a footbridge as she goes deeper into the jungle.  Near Drake's Bay, CR.

Crabs in di coconut.

Mesmerizing tree roots, near Drake's Bay, Costa Rica.

Keep an eye out on the trail.  Very large spiders, near Drake's Bay, Costa Rica.

Keep an eye out on the trail.  Spectacular flowers, near Drake's Bay, Costa Rica.

Jen takes a break on a swing while on a coastal jungle hike near Drake's Bay, Costa Rica.

Common Black Hawk, near Drake's Bay, Costa Rica.

After many truly amazing days, we sailed on to our last Costa Rican destination, Golfito, where we would check out of the country before continuing on to Panama.

The whole month that we sailed in Costa Rica, we cruised without a stove (it wasn’t for lack of trying!). While the stove situation concerned us at first, we ended up eating well in Costa Rica.  We used the microwave in new ways (yes, you can make scrambled eggs in the microwave). Coffee concerned us greatly – so we started cold brewing in the French press, then heating one cup at a time in the microwave. We found that we liked cold brew coffee as much, and sometimes more, than our usual pour-overs! We shopped differently, picking up boat-friendly takeout onshore (empanadas, etc.)  just before returning to the boat. We bought more pizzas, a food that reheats well and satisfies. Golfito was our last hope if we were to have a working stove for the 3-day passage to Panama City.  

Golfito. “A drinking town with a fishing problem.”, was how a fellow cruiser, headed north, had described it to me at Marina Chiapas. Jen hopefully scanned the cruiser forums for names of marine handymen. We emailed, texted, called. We finally got in touch with a marine diesel mechanic who was willing to have us dinghy him out to the boat to try to fix it. In the end, working together, we installed the solenoid and new hoses, then checked and rechecked for propane leaks. Finding none, we tested the stove, and the job was done.

Golfito, Costa Rica. "A drinking town with a fishing problem."  This photo is a good example of the "Wall" of jungle rising up behind the town.

We'd heard a lot of other cruisers bag on Golfito as not a great anchorage. But for us, fixing our stove left us over the moon. Plus, two very interesting larger boats shared the anchorage with us. MODOC, from Earthrace Conservation, and most interesting to me, S/V Infinity. You’ll see Capt. Clem and crew on S/V Infinity in the documentary "Sea Gypsies: The Far Side of the World", among others they've filmed. We dinghied over to Infinity to have a few beers, tour the ship, and listen to some interesting tales.

Our month cruising Costa Rica turned into a great example of the extreme highs and lows of cruising life. What started as such a rough beginning with broken equipment and sickness, gradually built into a wonderful experience of wildlife and beaches. We left Costa Rica appreciative to be in good health and able to cook to our hearts' content on the bright flames of our fully functioning stove.

SV Infinity, of "Sea Gypsies, The Far Side of the World" and other documentaries.

MV MODOC, from Earthrace Conservation.