sv evi

06/01/2006, Costa Rica, Part 2

The 3rd morning, with a stiff breeze we sailed into Bahia Santa Elena at the northern tip of Costa Rica. The bay is part of and surrounded by Santa Rosa National Park. Nothing there except nature. No houses, hotels, palapas, roads or people. Snorkeling in 88degree turquoise water, crazy birds and parrots squawking and flying about, monkeys howling in the jungle trees and all to ourselves.

A couple of days of this we decided to re-provision and actually check in to the country. Upon our departure, while setting the spinnaker, we were cut off by the Costa Rican Coast guard and promptly boarded. NO big deal, just checked papers and asked a few questions. Actually i think they just wanted a better look at my crew in her pink nightie……..her standard deckwear. 5 hour spinnaker run put us in Playa del Coco. We are all official now and will do some diving in the numerous secluded bays that surround the area. I look forward to returning to the spot i received my divemaster training for 3 months when i made the 6 month central amer trip, that changed my life, back in ‘92.

Costa Rica has offered a variety of secluded anchorages and little or no other people. Other than a few boats hanging in the bays a short sail from Playa del Coco we did not encounter hardly anyone on the coast.

We spent a few weeks in those northern anchorages and islands relaxing, swimming and diving. Our first dive was a commando dinghy approach to an island off the beach of Playa del Coco. The rainy approach and difficult anchoring (or mooring ball) set the trend for many dives to come. Our next dozen were always premised with a downpour and while making for a wet start it matters little at 80ft deep.

With no support we made conservative dive plans in regards to times, depths and distances travelled from the anchor line. Natural navigation skills, basically remembering stationary features on the sea floor, were a must for locating the dinghy anchor after an hour exploring. Strong ocean currents required us to surface exactly at the dinghy. While every dive was unique they all offered a combination of similar sights. Rocky and or coral bottoms sported varieties of creatures including but not limited to turtles, spotted-eagle rays, moray eels, enormous schools of jacks, parrot, butterfly, trumpet, angelfish, barracuda and a plethora of others I dont know escorted us on each dive.