Golden Handcuffs

GB has now successfully replaced all the boat parts that the April 28 lightning strike' had damaged. We did a short spin around the bay outside of Marina Papagayo to re-swing the compass and get the autopilot talking to the wind instruments and whatnot. All went well and it looks like there will only be final, minor instrument adjustments once we get underway again and out into open water.

The mechanic who'd been working on our refrigerator had had to give up on repairing the aluminum coolant tube that had failed, due to lack of the appropriate soldering materials in Costa Rica. GB installed a new fridge unit but found that specialized tools were needed to vacuum all the air out of the system and recharge it with appropriate coolant. So, the mechanic returned to The Fox to handle the purge-and-recharge with a fancy vacuum pump and some real purty hoses and gauges. We'd been without a functioning fridge for only 31 days total, during which time we'd bought bags of ice at Marina Papagayo's fuel dock to keep small amounts of food cool in our fridge box. Ice hereabouts costs US $7.50 for a 5-lb. bag and US $15.80 for a 20-lb. bag. It's sorta warm in Costa Rica and we'd been using 2 large bags every 2 days just to prevent food spoilage. The mechanic's fee for the fridge purge-and-recharge was less than the month's cost for ice, so it made good economic sense for us to stay here until he could finish the job and leave us with a fully functional fridge. But it took a while to get it scheduled.

The downside of the situation has been that we've stayed at Marina Papagayo for far longer than we've wanted to – glorious as this place is and as grateful as we are for all the help and support we've gotten from everyone here. We arrived in late April, Central America's hottest and driest month. We are now well into the "winter" rainy season. And boy howdy does it rain. We have seen the hillsides turn quickly from a dry golden-brown to the lush green and heavy mist that everyone sees in all the tourist brochures. GB and I are feeling time slipping away from us again. It's time to move on south, and pronto.

Yeah, that would've worked except for the weather delay, caused by a frisky low pressure system near shore that precluded prudent progress. However, this morning's forecast shows improvement to the point that we can leave at sunrise tomorrow. We're about 2 weeks behind where we wanted to be in our flabby itinerary, so while the weather's good we plan to scoot south to Golfito in southern Costa Rica, a 265-mile trip that will take us about 2-1/2 days or more, weather depending. It looks like we'll have to spend at least 2 days in Golfito to regroup, check out of the country and get our international zarpe for Ecuador. Our destination, Puerto Lucia, is about 650 miles from Golfito, an offshore trip that – again, weather depending – may take us 5 to 10 days. (I'm betting on 7.) This time of year there should be some lightning cells to liven up our passage, and the winds and the currents will generally be against us, so I expect this trip will be not only slow, but a bit less comfortable than others we've had.

Hey, if we get some good satellite access, maybe I'll be able to post a position report in real time, instead of after the fact like I usually do. Skymate, don't fail me now!

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