LEAVING GOLFITO – THANK GOD! (or are we?)
6th November 2007

Finally, the engine is fixed, the leaky hatch no longer leaks, the bookshelf is dry. We don’t have a fixed GPS or depth gauge, but we do have a lead line, so we’re off. A couple of days before we checked out, Tom and Carol (Sussuru) returned to their boat at Land and Sea in Golfito and so it was lovely to spend some time with them once again before parting company – once again! Daryl (Liberty Call) is chomping at the bit to ‘get out of Golfito’ (it really isn’t that bad, just WET) and on 6th November we do the rounds – Customs, Immigration, Port Captain, get our paperwork and Zarpe and head back to the boat to make our departure around mid-day. I don’t know whether I mentioned at the last time of writing, how disgustingly dirty the water in Golfito is? Well anyway, we make plans with Daryl to up anchor at 1400 hours, naturally it starts to rain at 1350 hours – heavy. Paul hauls up the anchor, (Daryl’s already disappearing into the rain) and I motor forward – well, I go through the motions of motoring forward. Paul keeps shouting back to me – ‘you can power on now love’ and I gently ‘coo’ back to him ‘I’m at full revs and we’re going chuffin nowhere.’ Naturally Paul assumes that this is operator error rather than a boat problem and comes back to take over. We’re still going nowhere – well we managed a tiny little bit in astern, but we’re going nowhere forward fast. Paul checks to see if we have still have a prop. Naturally we assume it’s an engine problem as that’s been in bits for the best part of 10 days. Once Paul had ascertained for himself that we really were going nowhere we rapidly re-deployed the anchor to steady our 4 knot drift backwards into several other boats anchored behind us. Oh yes, as well as the filthy water there is an impressive tide in Golfito – up to 4 knots at half ebb. Daryl now returns from the fug and drops his anchor. Paul realises that he is going to have to get into the DISGUSTINGLY DIRTY water to check that we still have a prop (it’s man’s work) It’s still raining, it’s actually quite cold, and the tide is now running around 3 to 4 knots as Paul lowers himself into the murk. I have a line around his waist to ensure he sticks around. The minute he is in the water he is ‘whooshed’ away to the extent of the line. With effort I haul him back – it’s impossible to swim against it – and Paul sticks his head under water to discover that our prop (and hull) now resemble a coral reef! He can’t see the blades on the prop due to the build up of ‘crud’ barnacles, weed and general filth. He also can’t scrape it off at this point in time as the tide is so ferocious it’s all he can do to hold on. Just a word of warning to future visitors of Golfito – we were there for three weeks! Our ‘bottom’ was clean when we arrived! There are no diving services for hull cleaning. We inform Daryl that we’re going nowhere that day and Daryl heads out. The rain lashes down for the remainder of the day and all through the night - the silver lining – our water tanks are full to overflowing. Anyway, the next day dawns sunny! Paul’s back in the water at slack tide – which makes the water clarity even more disgusting – and gets the prop scraped off. I make him shower twice using anti-bacterial handwash. We have a last lunch with Tom and Carol and then leave with the outgoing tide. It’s not raining – YET.
As we look back at Golfito we see it disappear into a black hole whilst we head down the Golfo Dulce into a lovely sunset. By 0100 hours it’s hammering down – Paul tells me. I decide that’s a good time for me to take over duties ‘below decks.’ It rained the entire night and was a hard slog around Punta Burica - the border between Costa Rica and Panama – but boy, was it worth it. We arrived the following morning (8th November) in Isla Parida, (08 deg 06.0N, 82 deg 26.0W) the most westerly of the Western Panamanian islands – we’d finally found paradise or have we?