This post is about a day/night a few night ago, we didn’t have internet access so I’m just getting around to posting it now. Lo siento, but no pictures on this one.
It was one of those almost perfect days. An absolutely perfect example of how we are currently living our life. No plan, just going with the flow.
The day started off with us anchored in a bay called Bahia Santa Elena in Northern Costa Rica. We woke up with the plan to go another anchorage about 16 miles away; Key Point.
As we were motoring out of the bay/bahia we made a last minute decision (for no real reason) to skip going to the Key Point anchorage and to continue on down the coast to one of the other anchorages a little closer to Playa Cocos. Which is where the first official immigration and customs office is for checking in to Costa Rica. We have unofficially, been in country for a week or more and should really think about checking in.
As we rounded Cabo Santa Elena, the weather was perfect. Sunny, 85 degrees. Not a cloud in the sky. We hear over the VHF radio two of our friend’s boats talking to each other on channel 16. We have not seen them since we left San Juan del Sur in Nicaragua a week of so ago. We hailed them on the radio and they tell us they are anchored off an island, near Key Point. Right were we decided just two hours ago, not to go.
We told them our plans and that we would meet up in a few days in Playa Coco. We were going to keep going and pass them by.
Barely ten minutes after the radio conversation, Tawn looks at the fishing line we have out and says “I think we have a fish on the line”.
YUP!
Fifteen minutes later, we are filleting a HUGE Dorado/Mahi-mahi on deck. More than we can possibly store in our small freezer and/or eat ourselves. What to do. We call our friends back and tell them to cook up some rice and beans for dinner and will see them in a bit with fresh fish to share.
An hour later we drop the anchor near our friends boats (Wiarua & SunRunner). I nap the shit out of the cockpit, and Tawn swims over to our friends boats to make dinner plans.
Dinner plans were; beach fire, cocktails, and grill up the Mahi on the fire! Hell yeah, we can do that.
Now picture this.
Five of us are sitting around a fire on the beach. Waves, hitting the shore behind us. It’s warm, but there is a nice breeze. The Sun has set, the moon is not up yet, so it is pitch dark. The sky is absolutely filled with stars. An insane amount of stars.
We were all just chilling. Talking. Drinking. Digesting an awesome dinner. With my flashlight I spotted two hermit crabs in an epic duel over a shell. We all watched that go down for a bit, enthralled.
I click off the flash light and walk around the log to where our cooler sat to make myself another rum drink. I click the flash light back on to avoid tripping over what I thought was a big rock. The rock moved….kept moving. I almost shit my swim trunks.
What I thought was a rock was in fact a huge sea turtle. HUGE. Three feet away from me, slowly crawling up the beach to lay her eggs. Whut!
I start spouting brilliantly insightful things like; Shit!, What the fuck!, Jesus, look at this fat bastard! Everyone jumps up and we spend the next hour or two watching this, and three other giant lady sea turtles laying their eggs on the beach. Unbelievable!!
After the turtle we all decided to head back to the boats. Me and Tawn had swam from the boat to the beach, so we had to swim 200 yards back out to the boat. Pitch black. Not a light anywhere, other than the stars. The water was warm, and looking down with our snorkel mask we could see the trails of bio-luminescence the fish were leaving as them swam around below us. Ridiculously cool. And insanely frighting all at the same time.
Sometimes people ask. How can you just quit your jobs and do this trip. Seriously, people ask that question. Stupid, I know. But they ask it.
The answer?
One day, thirty odd years from now, as i’m sitting in a pair of dirty depends adult diapers, eating from a can of cat food. This is what I will think back on. This is one of those days. One of those many memories that makes it all worth it.
