From: John Barbie [jbarbie11@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, March 15, 2004 6:43 PM To: jbarbie11@yahoo.com Subject: Greetings from Tamarindo, Costa Rica I feel like wearing a t-shirt that says “I survived the 2004 Papagayo Winds.” There would be at least a couple dozen boats that would sympathize along with a few that would have to add ‘almost’ in there. My dad had offered to join us on a difficult leg of the trip but I don’t think he meant sailing 230 miles in near gale winds. We left El Salvador last Sunday coolly waving good bye to our new and old sailing buddies as we followed a pilot boat down the mangroves on an ebbing tide –during the day. Obviously our new crew member was having positive effects on our sailing decisions. We cleared the breaking waves and the shoals without incident and I naively hoped that was the worst of it but the notorious Papagayo winds had something else in mind. We sailed the total distance to Costa Rica in winds that whipped water off the waves into little swirling clouds. Of course we don’t have a wind meter so instead we monitored the wind according to how much stuff we lost – one sail bag, two hats, a couple oars, dinghy seats, maybe a few pounds and definitely a lot of nerves. Reports and other sailors claim we were in 30-40 knots winds regularly with gusts up to 60 (I think hurricane starts at 80?). Effectively this meant we couldn’t do anything but sail. After my first night shift I went below deck to and settled into bed relieved to assign watch to John. Within minutes a few bucketfuls of cold salt water gushed through a top hatch and swamped me much to John’s amusements. When I resettled into my water bed I would have needed a horse tranquilizer to ignore the movements of the boat pounding through the waves. At times I was free-falling 2-3 feet before catching up with the rest of the boat. If it is too challenging to cook Mac and Cheese or Ramen noodles sea conditions have definitely deteriorated and in my opinion it is time to check into the nearest Holiday Inn and order Moo Shu. Unfortunately some things are not so easy. Just in case matters weren’t interesting enough…while my dad and I were trying to edge to the lee of the shore with the added muscle of our engine, we got a line caught in our prop (a first for us but a gale was as good a time as any). Now we had no engine and the only way to lower the main was by cutting the halyard. It was a slight glitch but we identified a sheltered bay 20 miles away where we would re-group, unfoul our prop, and wait out the winds. Just as things were looking peachy we heard a “clunk clunk clunk” and discovered that our centerboard had fallen off and was being dragged under our boat. As quickly as we cut it away, we lost it and watched it sink to the sea. I think my dad was surprised and perhaps concerned when John and I just shrugged and said “oh well, we didn’t really need that thing anyways.” This somehow seems to be our modus operandi at all times except in the case when we lost our dog… As if to shed some light on the situation, a huge whale surfaced not 40 ft from our boat prompting Spot to challenge the 5? Ton mammal – a true David and Goliath stand off. We accomplished our first engineless anchor successfully and have done it since for the hell of it. We spent 3 days in a totally isolated bay in northern Costa Rica waiting out the winds and polishing off all our beer and ice. I am not sure if it was the lack of bacon or the lack of liquour that prompted us to leave questionable prematurely but we made a run for it and headed home essentially to a port 30 minutes from my parents house in Costa Rica. We received quite the greeting party from my mom, brother and family friends who had been anxiously watching the Papagayo winds whip up a horizon of whitecaps. I was thankful my dad, an experienced sailor, helped us out even though I think his view of our overall trip is slightly tainted. We are taking advantage of the idyllic life my parents have set up – John surfing, Spot and I lazying around pampered with computers, refrigerators, and beds that don’t taper or move. We’ll be out of commission for 3-4 weeks as we head back to the states for a wedding and taxes. I gifted Spot to my parents for two weeks so I am sure they are thrilled with our planning… This will conclude our correspondence for the next month or so until we return to Costa Rica continuing our journey. Ruth, John & Spot __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail - More reliable, more storage, less spam http://mail.yahoo.com