Bahia Manuel Antonio

Off we go to try and find a good anchorage along this Costa Rican coast. They seem to be few and far between. We filled up with dinghy gasoline at Quepos' Marina Pez Vela and left at 11:00 and arrived at Bahia Manuel Antonio (N09°22.908' W084°08.876') exactly 1 hour later. No other boats but a few tourists on the beach and swimming. This is the same place where the Manuel Antonio National Park is located, but by now, we were hiked out, and didn't even go ashore - as pretty as it looked.

But Jordan did lower the dinghy into the water from the stern dinghy davits as he knew later in the day it would have to be raised onto the fore deck for our next over-nighter voyage. Oh no!!! When Jordan turned around, he saw the dinghy floating away! I forgot to tell him that I had untied the painter (its tether rope) earlier. He immediately jumped in and swam successfully retrieving it.

Then we both jumped in and tried some snorkelling in the beautiful emerald green water but it wasn't quite clear enough. Ya, we are fussy. Must be because runoff of the rainy season. So we threw our 2 water chairs into the ocean, tied them to the boat, and just relaxed, bobbing around in the perfect temperature water for about an hour.

Later the Coast Guard came to Sea Turtle, politely checked our papers, advised us that we were in a No Fishing Zone, and went on their way.

At 16:45 we pulled anchor expecting our passage to Golfito to be an over-nighter and most of the next day. Cabin temperature was 30.7°C (87.2°F) with 86% humidity. There was nearly a full moon, but it's under increasing cloud cover, and the breeze was warm as we motor-sailed into the night. Thunder cells with prolific lightning started to show up and confirmed by the vivid display on the radar, so we started to take evasive action as things deteriorated.