4/4 AND 4/5 QUEPOS AND GULFITO (DAN'S POST)

This is the Capitan taking my turn at this blog stuff. At 1600 hours (4 pm for you land lovers) I gave the command to start the engines and pull the anchor, well nobody was listening so I started them. The main anchor comes up with the help of a winch. Quest had a rear anchor set at Quepos to keep her into the swells. This makes for a smooth ride at anchor. The rear anchor has to be pulled by hand, this is a lot of work on a 35# anchor with chain. After we got both anchors on board we were off to Golfito’s Banana Bay Marina.

This was an all night passage with everyone on a three hour watch. Quest pulled into Golfito at dawn. When we started to talk about this trip, I had visions of boat docks attached to an open air bar/restaurants next to the jungle outside a seedy little sea port town. WELL we are there and I am in heaven.

Before the chores were done we were in the restaurant having breakfast looking out over the most beautiful bay and trying to figure out how long we could stay. Bruce the owner of Banana Bay Marina has been a big help with contacts to get our paperwork done and start the Panama Channel preparations.

Judy and I said goodbye to Robert and put him in a taxi to the airport as he had a flight back to the USA today. The airport is a gravel strip with a hut at the end as the terminal. It was great to have him onboard for the last week. Late Monday night Judy got an email from Robert that he was in Florida.

Judy and I started on the paper work to get out of Costa Rica. The crew found something to do till real early in the morning no questions asked. Judy and I hang out in the bar with some of the local expats sharing small talk and sea stories over drinks till late. MY KIND OF PLACE