It took us an extra day to complete the paperwork in Golfito, but considering we were dealing with a holiday weekend, we were happy with the turn around. We got up early to begin our 60+ mile sail to Bahia Drake (pronounced dray-hay).
A very easy motor. We had flat seas, light winds on the nose and a bit of sea life. We did see a few dolphins and birds. Matt put 3 fishing lines and 2 teasers out with the hopes of catching dinner, but only a small fish jumped on the line and we tossed him back- we think this was a Spanish Mackerel.
Small Spanish Mackerel caught and tossed back
This passage is all around the Costa Rica peninsula. The image below shows where we started (red dot on right side in Golfito Bay), our path around the tip, our boat (red triangle on left side of peninsula) and our destination at the end of the red line.
Golfito to Bahia Drake around the peninsulaGg
Since it was a long day with little going on, I took the opportunity to clean our interior wood. Wash down with 409, then vinegar, then Howard Feed N Wax Orange Oil. Not a difficult process, just time consuming as we have a lot of wood in the house. This is a monthly process. You can see in the upper photo; the darker wood has white spots (mold) that needed to be cleaned and preserved.
Cleaning up our interior wood
This photo is the wood trim on our interior table, before top, after bottom.
Before and after table wood project
Bahia Drake is a wide-open bay on the Costa Rica coastline about one day’s run from anchorages to the north and south. There is a village on the south end of the bay, a few small hotels, and a wilderness camp can be found ashore. Dozens of fishing boats line the shoreline making this a picture-perfect fishing town.
We anchored around 1700 and decided to take a quick dinghy ride around the bay to get a better look at the town. Several of the boats had large barrels attached to either side. We could not figure out what their purpose was – do you have any ideas? It was if they were keeping the boats afloat
Bahia Drake shoreline and bay with fishing boats
Back at the boat, we enjoyed a sundowner on the bean bags as the sun put on a glorious show.
Beautiful sunset at Bahia Drake
PASSAGE DETAILS:
- Total distance: 60.7 nm
- Total travel time: 10 hours 22 minutes
- Top speeD*8.2 kn
- Averfe speed 5.9 kn