Sailing and cruising to Cocos Island, Costa Rica.

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COCOS ISLAND - Sailing in Costa Rica

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November, 1991
After almost three months in Golfito, Costa Rica, it was time to leave. But as anxious as we were to continue cruising, we were very reluctant to leave this warm and friendly place. In fact, we said good-bye for three days running before we finally pulled the hook. We headed for Isla del Cocos (5° 33’N, 87° 02’ W), a little dot in the ocean hundreds of miles from anywhere, which is a national park owned by Costa Rica.

After 7 days of sailing, seeing nothing but sea and sky, Cocos rose out of the sea as a lush green oasis. Cocos is a magical place, almost beyond description. It rains a lot, over 22 feet a year. There are about 200 waterfalls on the island, and this real estate is only about 10 square miles in area. OKEANOS, a luxury dive boat that comes here twice a month tells us that this island is unique – the greatest collection of large sea life in the world. One dives with huge schools of large sharks, enormous manta rays, turtles, porpoises, etc. Peter went trolling in the dinghy and he caught a large fish, fought it for about an hour (actually, fighting it consisted of letting it tow him all around bay and island). He was quite excited until he brought it to the dinghy, and discovered that he was hooked onto a 12-foot shark, just a bit larger than the dinghy. Peter lost lure and line, but made it back to the ‘Melon safe and sound. There are so many fish that catching one requires only the skill of landing it before a shark eats it. We never thought we’d share the water with a 12-foot shark, but here it’s “no problem.” We also thought that we’d never get tired of eating fish and lobster, but after a month we started calling the white egrets “chickens” and seriously considered cooking one. We were prevented from this folly only by our inability to catch one.

The island is uninhabited; there are two Coast Guardsmen stationed here for two-month stints who welcomed us with open arms. They’re a bit bored, we think. They took us on a hike to the highest point on the island, which they call “La Iglesia” – “church” or “cathedral”. It’s only 1300 feet above sea level, but that’s almost straight up through an incredible rain forest. The only mammalian life here are imported – some deer, cats, rats, and wild pigs left here by the Spaniards. The Coast Guard puts an M-16 in your hands and instructs you to find and shoot a pig. Just don’t put the gun on full automatic, they’re a bit short of ammunition, and all those bullets in the pig makes for difficult eating.

A few fishing boats from Puntarenas, C.R. come out to Cocos for weeks at a time, and they are all

friendly and generous. We couldn’t starve, for sure! They brought us fish, lobster, ceviche, cake, milk, and ice. We made a deal to trade two packs of cigarettes and the earrings that I make out of shells and mother-of-pearl for ten gallons of diesel. This far from anything, there’s a spirit of sharing that is most heart warming. Sometimes the fishermen get a bit carried away - I asked them to bring me some shark’s teeth, knowing that they are fishing for sharks. I now have over 200 shark teeth to play with! We thought we were really going to be roughing it out there, but with the generosity of the Costa Ricans, we survived nicely.

The dive boat OKEANOS, part of the Aggressor group, is a very high-class operation. For serious divers

we can’t imagine a better operation. They even have their own photo lab on the ship to develop slides, prints, and video tapes the same day they’re taken. Instant gratification for these very dedicated divers (three to four dives every day for the week that they’re out here, and these are exciting dives). One night we just went over to say hello, and they insisted that we have dinner with them! And when we left, they loaded us up with onions, fruit, bread, and cake for our long (to them) trip to Ecuador. For Peter, the highlight was that the American tourists on OKEANOS saw the earrings that I was giving to the Costa Rican crew as a thank-you for all their kindness and generosity and offered to pay me cash money for some. We left Cocos with fresh provisions and with more money as well. We couldn’t get over getting paid for something I’ve always given away as gifts!

[Just a note. We stayed at Cocos for seven weeks, which was a bit longer than we had expected, and could have stayed much longer. That’s what cruising is really all about – stay where it’s good, haul anchor and raise sails where it’s not.]

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