Crew Blog

Hello Costa Rica and Goodbye

13 May 2008

Today we popped over to Costa Rica for breakfast.  We putt-putted into Banana Bay at 5.30 this morning just as dawn was breaking.  The coastline was stunning, rugged hills & dense jungle, which complimented the purple haze of sunrise beautifully.  As we approached the marina, monkeys were chattering, parrots were singing their morning chorus and a rooster was belting out his wake-up call.  An old man was sitting on his porch with his dog watching our progress.

The Marina staff were waiting on the pontoon to greet us and start the re-fuelling.  However, their first priority was to provide us with breakfast, which consisted of ice-cold beers for starters followed by delicious ice cream and rich Costa Rican coffee.  Unfortunately due to immigration rules, we weren’t allowed to jump off the boat to explore so we had to make do with chilling out on deck.  We were in and out of the marina within an hour. Hull & Humber were queuing up behind us so we had a wave and a “Morning!” with them before we set off once again for Panama.  We not only left Banana Bay with a full tank of fuel but also bags of fresh mangoes, pineapples, apples, papaya, red peppers and lettuce so we’ve been scoffing ourselves all day with delicious tropical fruit and vegetables.

Back on board Rob has been my co-mother again today.  Luckily for me, with his new hirsute look (long hair and ginger tache) he’s been more of a bouncy Afghan hound than rabid Rottweiler in the galley this week.

I rejoined Moose watch at 9:00 this evening and by 10:30 we were in yet another storm. Our mast was hit by lightning for the second time in two
days; let’s just hope lightning doesn’t strike thrice…

Less than 24 hours to go before we finally reach Panama and are allowed to step on dry land - hoorah!

Nina