10 55.342 N, 85 47.571 W
We arrived at Bahia Santa Elena, Costa Rica at 10:50 am, 26 hours and 146 miles from Puesta del Sol, Nicaragua.
Thursday morning, around 11 am, beating into 30 knot winds, we looked up and saw the staysail sliding down onto the deck. At the head of the sail is a kevlar strap across the top. The shackle of the staysail halyard attaches to this to hoist the sail. It looks like the thread suffered from UV damage and parted so down came the sail. Rich and I dragged the sail to the back deck and I folded it the best I could and we stuffed it below.
We continued our approach of hugging the shore to minimize the affect of the seas. This worked fairly well but during the night we did not want to be too close in. We did see quite a few panga fishermen at night. Their approach is different from that used in Mexico, which never have any lights. These guys had two lights on each boat, one on the boat and another in the stern. In the distance it look like lighted seesaws with one end going up and then the other. At least it may it easier for us to avoid them.
As we got farther south, the winds increased. Our last leg to the bay was a broad reach with winds of 35 knots sustained, gusting to 46 knots. The seas were a bit sloppy and Rich and I got dunked a few times in the cockpit.
We are tucked in on the north side of the bay, to avoid the fetch from the winds. We still get wind gusts but so far it is okay.
Time to take a shower and relax. We are finally in Costa Rica.
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