Sailing Costa Rica

I have sailed my whole life in fact growing up on Cape Cod it is practically a law for a kid in his teens to own a sailboat. In fact I recall my dad helping buy my first sunfish. I gave him the first thousand bucks I had saved in life working summers and he came back with my brand new sunfish. I remember I found a two wheeled pushcart especially designed to hand push the sunfish down to the beach. It had a metal loop just like the top half of a giant paper clip that fit through the centerboard hole with two inflatable scooter tires. Hooray I was sailing.

I live now in Costa Rica and still love to sail and have the true fortune to do the sailing Costa Rica thing with a friend and several clients that have allowed me access to their boats. We recently did a marvelous sail up towards Ollie’s Point and around Papagayo on a beautiful 32 foot Trimaran that really hauls ass if you know what I mean. The boat is so fast with the right winds that the dolphins were able to ride our bow wake just like they do in motorboats. In fact the wake as I recall assured me that we could have pulled at least 1 water-skier. Man was that fun.

We were sailing at the tail end of the dry season in Costa Rica which has a surreal beauty all its own. The transformation from lush jungle to dry California hills takes place in Guanacaste every year starting around December and lasts about two months while the jungle transforms from a green impenetrable carpet to a stark, dry, brown landscape of a desert covered with leafless trees.. For those of you not familiar with the weather patterns in the world’s last dry tropical rain forest (I know seems a contradiction in terms but bear with me.) The rainy (green) season lasts from April until December then the winds turn out of the north and the rain stops on a dime. Perpetual sunshine embraces the region for five months without a single drop of rain normally. The days are beautiful and warm but definitely a tourist delight. The dry sunny season coincides perfectly with the northern winters making Costa Rica a very popular destination for snow birds.

All the better for sailors in Costa Rica is that this time of year the winds out of the north are brisk and constant. On this truly fine day we had a north east wind pulling at 15- 20 knots that allowed us to truly have a lot of fun with such a lean lady and a captain that knew how to really trim that vessel.

We moored the boat in Playa del Coco for the after party which is always the custom after a day of sailing Costa Rica. Fresh seafood buckets of beers and a party atmosphere were really the perfect climax to a great day of sailing.