Monday, December 21, 1998 – Puntarenas

G’day or Saludos (as they say here!)

Heading towards Costa Rica

As I write, we are about two hours away from our destination. Late this morning the weather finally calmed down to good cruising weather allowing all to get stuck into some of the usual cleaning chores. STARSHIP looks prim and proper again ready for our esteemed guest, Dr. John McCosker. Once we get in, the whole check in procedure starts again! As this is our first Port of Call, it shall take a little longer. This is what it entails:

First, we have to get in touch with the Port Captain then the Aduana (customs) and finally the immigration. There will also be an inspection and then the paper work can be completed. The whole process can be quite lengthy and usually takes place during working hours. Michael has been in contact with an agent, who hopefully will facilitate the process and arrange for us to check in tonight.

Our Check-in Team in Puntarenas:
The "Diesel Man", Nixi Cordoba(Aduane),Celina Vargas(Micracion), Marvin Jaen(Port Captain),Gerardo Castro(Cuarentena), Ramon Suarez(Pilot)( From left to right)

STARSHIP intends to leave tomorrow at about 16:00 for Cocos Island which is approximately 330 nautical miles away, so we should be there by the morning of Christmas eve, god willing. However, before we depart, Ib wants to put a little more diesel in our forward tank and DJ will hit the town for some re-provisioning. We shall also meet up with Avi Klapfer, who is the owner of the famous live-aboards Undersea Hunter and Sea Hunter, both of which regularly frequent the Cocos.

STARSHIP is now flying the flag of Costa Rica. I shall fill you in about the country once we get back from the Cocos. One thing we are all very happy about is that unlike Mexico or the US, the metric system is in use here. But what about Puntarenas? Well, in 1517 the Spanish set up their first outpost on the western coast of Costa Rica at a place called Bruselas, which is very close to Puntarenas and means sandy point. The outpost was abandoned three years later and moved to Nicaragua. In the late 1700’s coffee became an important export commodity and hence an ox-cart trail was set up to transport both coffee and bananas. The trail led from the capital San Jose to the port of Puntarenas. Today, the port is not nearly as important commercially though the tourist trade is holding its own.

Another port, another country, I love it. We are all hanging out to get wet and it looks very much like the 24^th will be the day. We may have to dust off and check the dive gear before we jump in. If luck has its way, we may even get us a local skiff driver for this leg so that all of us can get in the drink together and when ever we want to. We may even have our own little Christmas and new years party underwater!

Until tomorrow I wish you all the very best.