We are anchored down in Playa del Coco.
Yesterday, we tidied the boat and converted it over to anchor mode while Richard went ashore to check us into CR.
It's a neat little anchorage, and offers a mid updated fishing/resort village for support. There is just enough protection in the little cove to harbor moorings and anchoring. It is very calm most of the time, but when winds turn around and come onshore it gets a bit choppy. There are no docks, so we do beach landings. The low surf supports the beginners just fine.
In town, there is quite a mix of locals, transplants, and tourists. First look shows it to be quite the nighttime hangout. Every other building seems to have some form of a club. The town probably doesn't have everything, but just enough of what people want.
With an airport nearby, it looks like we will be bidding adios to crewmember Amit. He has things he needs to do before heading home. He figures this is a good jump-off point. Looking at the map, we will probably be doing day hops the rest of the way, down so it works out OK for us too.
Yesterday afternoon another thunderstorm caught up with us and pounded the area. The boat got a nice rinse and all was calm a couple of hours later. I guess we are in one of the drier areas looking at the cliffs around us which are quite brown and dry. I hear it gets wetter from here on down.
5 comments:
I just read a bunch of entries in a row, but I'll just put on one comment.
Sounds like a nice little spot to land. How far down are you intending to go?
We had a couple of sunny days, but then it went back to raining, altho the temps were in the low 20's at night, it's gotten as high as 60 degrees during the day.
We have crocus, daffodils, tulips & hyacinth in bloom all around town :)
Happy Spring!
Plan A:
We have about 9 days to get down to Golfito(just above Panama). That should be a few easy day hops into small anchorages and marinas.
There the boat gets parked while the owners fly home for family matters. P and I volunteered to watch the boat while they are away. That should be till about the begin of June.
Sounds rough huh?
B
wow, it sounds like you are just cruising and having a really great time!
I look forward to seeing as many old friends in August as possible!
Will you be joining the group?
How does customs work there? Do you have to get visas for each landing ahead of time?
Do you have to check in? Is there some kind of Duty on stuff purchased?
When you come back to the states do they check through stuff?
How about the coast guard? do they "pull you over?"
All very good questions.
We can sail past any country, and stop and anchor if we need- as long as we don't step off the boat.
If we want to step off, we must go through the check in procedures. When we leave the country, we must check out somewhere along the line.
When entering a port for check in, we signal this by raising a "Q" flag (for quarantine). It is yellow and usually flies below the country's courtesy flag you should be flying also.
Checking in is different in every port, every country. One would swear that these guys are making all of it up depending on how they feel that day. It usually involves a stop at the port captain-pay some fees, then immigration-pay some more fees, sometimes the banco-more fees, then sometimes the boat gets an inspection, most of the time they could care less.
You gotta play their game tho- It can be a frustrating day or two trying to catch everybody in their offices, or maybe an hour. This is the main reason you don't try checking in/out on a weekend.
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