More Time in The Bay

With the overly priced internet racking up at two dollars an hour, this is going to be quick post.

I am still anchored off the beach about 3/4 miles from quepos pier. It is a lovely place, and i have been having a pretty good time.
Sence taking the dinghy though the surf is about as chancy as russian rollet for staying dry, i didnt take the camara to give you any photos.
I got some provisions the other day and should be sailing away in afew days, if all goes well. or maybe another week?

chears,
Josh

S/V Elusive
Live Your Dream

Filling in Some Gaps

I left Drake on the 13th and sailed for Bahia Uvita.

There was a little wind, but not to much. the skyies were clear, and the water blue.

I was planing the trip to be about 26 miles, and thought it would take about six hours.

along the way the wind picked up enough to turn off the engine, not hearing the engine noise was welcome.

I sailed not directly for uvita, but rather just strait out across the wind, with the idea of then running with the wind into the bay, for a nice down wind sail.

the plan worked flawlesly, i got a marvelous down wind sail strait to uvita. with poled out forsail, and the boom on the other side the ride was marvelous. If that is anything like the Pacific crossing, or Atlantic i cant wait! with the wind and swell dead astern, and sailing about six knots the ride was wonderful!

however the arival point was far less the friendly.

the first glance at the area is nothing like what the charts say- it is simply HELL.

all around the area are rocks awash, rocky coastline, no shelter area to speak of. not a good sign for someone who is handsteering with out a crew member. I saw an island called Bellina, and noting the direction of the predidcted ten foot swell that was running into the rocks and making incredable breakers, i decided behind the island would be the safest place.

getting around the reefs was intersting, big breaking waves all around.

when i got inside i found the going behind the island wouldnt work, it was to shallow and the waves were breaking all around it.

so i anchored in as much of the lee as i could, but still had alot of swell. the boat was rolling more that night, then anyother moment. from gunwale to gunwale.

next morning, I woke up and sailed to Quepos, all was wonderful. a perect sail here.

afew breaking rocks at the entrance, but over all quite nice.

cheers

Josh

Live Your Dream!

signal problems

Hello,
due to signal problems i have been un able to write lately.
I have sailed from Bahia Drake, to Uvita, and am now anchored in Quepos.
The internet here is through the roof over priced, so this is just a short update.
All is well, and Uvita is the worst anchorage i have even seen in my life!
cheers,
Josh

S/V Elusive
Live Your Dream!

On the Road Again

It was 6:00 AM when i raised the anchore at Golfito. The rain from last night was still pouring down, it looked as if it was going to be a long trip. As I was hiosting up my anchor the chain got really heavy. when I got the heavy spot to the surface i could see clearly what was the matter. I had snagged another anchore that was lying on the bottom, and it had come up on my chain. The anchore was one used by the comercial fishing boats that depart golfito, one of them must have dropped it overboard right where i was.
After a seemingly long while of pulling, prying, twisting, yanking, winching, and anyother manuver i could do, i finally got the monster off my chain, and hung it off my bowsprit.
I finished raising my anchor, and headed out for the passage to get to the golfo dulce.
I passed a few small fishing boats on my way, and finaly got one to come over and talk. I tried to give him the anchor, but i gues he had to many already. so i dropped the beastie over the side, because i did not want this anchor either.
The rest of the trip was fairly unevent full, twenty LONG hours of hand steering the boat sixty one miles to Bahia Drake.
I had orignaly planned trip to take about twelve hours, but there was a knot and a half current against me, and NO WIND!
The only stronger wind i got on the trip was short lived, and came from a squal near by. but for that time i was able to turn off the engine, and do some real sailing (FINALLY! it only took five hundred miles!)
I started to enter the bahia at about two o'clock in the morning. the bay was pitch black, except for afew lights on shore, and some flashing things that seemed to be on the water. hearing the surf thundering away at the side of the bay i aproached with caution to the flashings lights. when i was right at them i could see they were coming from little pangas on moorings.
I went below and turned on my depth finder, It read forty feet! Forty feet, and we are just off of this thundering surf and rocks, with little pangas on bouys!
"This cant be the right anchorage!" I told myself, and put the boat back in gear, and drove deeper and deeper into the dark bay. It is interesting and little stressing to be heading into deeper darkness, hearing surf thundering all around, and not being able to see where you are going really. all i could see was few lights up ahead, and to my starboard, the dark shapes that can only be the edge of the bay. with the moon covered up by clouds, and the stars the same, there was no natural lighting that would have made this aproach easier. there was only, drive ahead, check the sounder, drive some more. hear the surf, check the chart (yeah how acurate has it been before? at least we werent in the middle of costa rica yet, like we were when at golfito!)
putting along into the darkness, then WHAMM! some guy turns on this ultra bright spot light right at me! geezs thanks buddy! now i cant see even the compass!
I grabbed my flash light and beamed it right back at the guy. It seemed to be some body out in a panga fishing. I shown the light around, and it bounced back an image of a sport fishing boat anchored right near by.
I checked the sounder again, I cant rember now, but it was eitehr 32, or 25 feet. I dropped the anchor, and let out a ton of chain. I wasnt sure if it was high tide, or low tide. so i wanted to make sure i wouldnt drift away.
I went back to the cockpit, and put the engine into the reverse gear, then went back to the bow. I could feel through the chain what the anchore was doing down there. Slip, Slide, Oh theres a jump! Whack! I could feel it dig into something. the bow pointed around, and the chain came taught. I put the bat out of gear, and watched the chain slacken.
I shut down the motor, and stowed the handle for the windlass. Trip over! now i could relax, sleep, and wake up in the morning and find out where the heck i was anchored.
Cheers,
Josh

Live Your Dream!

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The Dead Can Come Back to Life!

The maricle man has done it again. together we have brought back a outboard that had died after taking a plunge at Isla Cebaco!
The poor motor was siezed up, and a real mess. but in 24 hours we got that motor to run again!
hurrahh! many praise to him!
It looks like tomorow will be the day for departure number two I hope. I have the dinghy up on deck, the motors too. I ran the engine today, it looks fine. the weather should be alright, hopefully I will get a bit more wind then it says so I can try the windvane. which will hopefully work.
The seas should be about four to eight feet, so no problem there, unless the are really together and a mess.
well thats todays update,
cheers,
Josh

Live Your Dream!

The Little Bugger VRrmmss...

I have spent another day here, I found out about a wizard who fixes outboards, wonderfull!
so thirty minutes of hocus- pocus later the little guy came to life! my outboard is back!
today I took a dinghy trip down, and around the bay here, I am really amazed at how gorgeous this bay really is! I would have never thought that just around the bend would lay such a beautifull place. I am considering hauling anchor and staying there for the night before i leave, it is just so pretty. there were about 25 howler monkeys playing in the trees, and i saw a huge veriety of birds, and some really exotic flowers.
I will have to lead-line the depths before sailing down there to make sure there is enough water.
It is so calm over there it makes the anchorage in front of land and Sea look choppy. I could paint my hull over there, and i am giving that idea some thought too.

well we had some pizza tonight. but other then the things above, that is about it for today.
cheers,
Josh

Looks like another day

well what can you do, I didng get all that i needed to get done today in order to leave tomorow.
so it looks like one more day here, if all goes well it will then be back to the seas heading to bahia drake.
I have no new photos to post, but things dont really change much around this bay. but the roller furling makes the boat look alot better, i like it, it is eye apealing.
hopefully it will be a perfect day tomorow so i can finish up whats needs to be done, then sail away.

Live your dream!
Josh



If anyone is interested in contacting me, for question comments, or a lil chit chat, you may reach me at
Joshhi53@gmail.com

if your intention os to spam me, dont bother, thats not my normal email, its only for the site.
cheers mates,
Josh

4th of July

So today is the fourth of July. Hurahh! we of course had a celebration here, Katie, and the rest of them worked really hard in the kitchen and we had a marvelous dinner! with homemade apple pie! I dont hink i have ever tasted a better apple pie! it was unbelievable!

The moring started out fine, i had to wait untill high tide to move the boat to the sea wall that Juan operates for drying the boats out. i had to go over there to pick up the roller furling profile sence it would be to risky taking it by dinghy, or panga.

the whole process was done in the rain, but i guess what can you expect from the rainy season!

after getting the furler on board, i went and re anchored. then atached the furler to the mast head, and the bowsprit.

then i went ashore with my dink, and ammo for the fourth of July Party.

the rest of the evening was quite relaxing. i fired quite afew rounds from my homebuilt canon (quite loud! made every dog in the whole of golfito bark!)

the smoke is impersive, and the flames coming out the end! ugh really cool, i got alot of aplous form the rest of the crusiers here. its really loud, if your fairly close your ears ring for a bit.

well thats the day,

Live Life to the Fullest!

Josh

Rolling sails, and bodged up props -.^

Lots of stuff been going on in the last few days, we had are share of catastofies, and recently some great rewards (well not to bad).

It is always amazing, and never fails, that when one trys to tackle a small project on a boat, it turns into a big one. usually kind of like a tree. meaning that you start with one thing, that leads to another, or you have to stop and do some thing else, if you were to see the problems, and their fixes from above, writtin out as a picture on paper. it would reseble a Tree.

I was having a transmition problem, whe i would put the boat in forward it seemed to work alright. however, when i would put the boat in the reverse gear, all heel came sounding from the direction of the trany, clunks, clanks, skipping noises/ the whole nine yards.

so that is always not a good sign. I believed it to be that the cable was not giving enough swing to the shift lever.

the next day, i took out all the sails and then the sound panel from the engine area.

here was my first mistake- I saw the sea strainer when i was taking off the cover, and got the idea to check the strainer, a simple routine procedure. ( the mistake was getting side tracked form the orignal goal of removing the cable from the shift lever, and manualy shifting gears directly on the tranny to see if the cable was the problem.)

so i shut the sea cock, no problem, i cleanned the strainer, no problem, i went to open the valve again, CRACK! It broke! now i got a whole new bundle of problems, a broken valve leaking in the ocean. The valve being broken in the off position which doesnt permit me to run the engine. and still not knowing about the tranny.

it took a while to relise that i didnt have to dry the boat out against the sea wall, but that i could use a plug to stop the water long enough to change that valve. that was relief.

once i got the vavlve changed i went down under the boat again to pull the plug. while i was down there i figured it a good idea to check on my prop. NOT GOOD, the prop key was gone without a trance. so i thought here is another project, and one that still impared me from trying out the transmition. next day, I removed the prop and put on a new key. but another problem showed its self. the prop had been freewheeling on the shaft for who knows how long.... that made the bore on the prop larger then what was excepted with my current mounting hardware... urrr.

another two days of thinking out a solution later this being today. I finally got my prop back on, and gave it a spin, it didnt fly off so it must be on there. but i want to put on a second nut just in case. I tried that tranny, it seems to be fine without the cable. i put it back on, only with the nut on the bolt that holds the cable to the arm, a bit looser. this seems to have fixed my tranny problem. HURAHH! lets hope it keeps working.

I bought a roller furling head sail today aswell, i am going to try abd drive my boat over to the sea wall to load it onboard. then that will be next project. putting up the roller furler, should begin tomorow.

well thats whats new. in my free time i have just been doing some internet, and shearching for a spare autopilot. today i got to fire off a cannon!

so ARRR!!

Back to me peace, Nd me sunset!

Josh

the cabin went through a cleaning faze aswell durring the pondering.

I had just lost a really long good post that i wrote, so i will take another day or so to re write one. alot of things going on onboard right now, only problem is that they are all serious.
the autopilot came back, no go. so it is back to the vane and the arm.
well i will write something better in time, but i am still in Golfito, and working hard to leave again, and head south, below the equator to Ecuador.

Josh