On March 13th we left the beautiful Bahía Carrillo heading to Playa Hermosa where we could make the paperwork to leave Costa Rica. On our way we stopped in Bahía Potrero (nothing relevant to mention), and the day after at 1.30 pm we were anchoring in Playa Hermosa.

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March 14th – Playa Hermosa

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March 15th – “Bocelli Bar” in Playa Hermosa

Right after having had lunch we went by dinghy to the beach, took a taxi to get to the Capitania in Playa Coco, but we realized that all offices we needed were about to close. However, we were able to learn that the first place to go was the immigration office at the airport of Liberia, approximately 20 miles away. So, the day after we tried to hitchhike and we immediately got a ride from the manager of the local Sheraton Hotel. At the airport we were able to get our passports stamped, so we got a bus back to Playa Coco, a nice little village, where we cleared customs and Capitania, becoming officially ready to leave the country.

The next morning we crossed the Gulf of Papagayo heading to Bahia Potrero Grande as the weather conditions seemed to be ok to cross the Cabo Santa Elena, the area where the Papagayo winds always blow very hard, sometimes furiously. Early the next morning we left Bahia Potrero Grande with about 12 knots of wind, that raised to 35 by the time we were about to cross the Cabo Santa Elena with gusts at 40-45 knots and the wind almost on our face.

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March 16th – Approaching the Cabo Santa Elena

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March 16th – Cabo Santa Helena

When we passed the cape, everything became much more manageable and in about 3 hours we reached Bahia Santa Helena where we still had some gusts, but no waves. We spent 3 days there waiting for a window of lighter winds to reach San Juan del Sur to make our official entry in Nicaragua.

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March 16th – From Cabo Santa Elena to Bahia Santa Elena

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March 17th – Waiting in Bahia Santa Helena

From Puntarenas to Bahia Carrillo (91 nm)
The new season in Mexico

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