Tuesday, December 22, 1998 – Underway to Isla de Cocos

G'day

It has been a long long day but we have made it, we are heading due south for yet another dream destination of mine – Cocos Islands. To get to this stage has not been easy then again who said it would be? So what happened? I will fill you in….

Well, at about 19:15 we took on Ramon our pilot to guide us into the port of Puntarenas and ultimately our anchorage. The harbor is infamous for its strong currents, shallow water and rogue dead heads (floating logs). To speed things along, Ramon brought the Port Captain and the quarantine man with him. Once we got to the designated anchorage, the idea was to drop anchor and pull up a buoy on our stern to keep the boat from swinging around too much. The difficulties started with finding the buoy. None of the locals really knew which buoy it was let alone where it was to be found – remember it was pitch black. We did eventually find the right one and then the next nightmare could begin. The current was pushing at 3 knots and the wind was picking up as well. To make matters even worse, we had about 3.0m (9’) of water under us, the boat draws 2m (6’), and the tide was going out! After about three attempts at anchoring and pulling up the buoy on our stern we managed to run aground as well. In the mean time we had more officials join us as well as Roberto the very helpful Operations Manager for the Undersea/Sea Hunter boats and to make it a crowd, many local fishermen also decided to look on and voice their suggestions.

By about 22:00 we did finally manage to get settled and the paper work could begin. More officials arrived along with Dr.John McCosker and a surprise guest – NIKI! Unknown to Ib and myself, Michael had invited Niki back. The bureaucratic stuff didn’t take much time; I think they just wanted to get home and so it was not long before the John and Niki unpacked all the goodies they brought along. Apart from magazines, paint, breakers and Ib’s developed slides, the coolest thing the boys brought with them was the new 100^o full zoom wide-angle lens for our Amphibico video housing. Should make for some fabulous footage of the schooling Hammerheads at Cocos - you have been warned! After gloating over the lens and reading up on the news (shocking stuff) the hay beckoned. As we were a little unsure about the mooring and our anchor holding I slept on the wheel house bunk while the radar monitored our position.

That damned thing kept me up all night with its alarms going off on a regular basis. If STARSHIP moves out of a certain range or if any other vessels enter within a set perimeter, off goes this beeping sound. As our and other vessels were moving around in the current and wind, the alarms kept getting me out of bed, fearing the worst.

Today was another hectic day. DJ and I went off for to provision. Roberto arranged for us to get a good price at the local supermarket. There, Freddie showed us around the shop, took our order and then delivered it all directly to the boat. We also took the opportunity to pick up some Xmas decorations. The Port of Puntarenas is much like any smaller town in Central America – lots of shops, people, cars with loud speakers advertising this and that and generally very generous and friendly people. I do love it here. I was a little disappointed to be offered turtles eggs on the street though. After lunch and pulling up the anchor to tie up along the wharf, the diesel truck also arrived which was another experience.

Normally, the truck comes and we use the counter to measure how much diesel is delivered. Not here. The truck had "apparently" been pre-filled with exactly 1700 gallons (6460 liters). To ensure I agreed, I had to watch as seals were broken on the taps and then climb up on top of the oily truck to break the seals there. Different, but I like that – keeps you on your toes! Once we were filled up, Michael fired up the engines and here we are again, out at sea and loving it.

Regards