A Little Rain, A Lot of Smoke and a Rainbow

It’s Tuesday and I have spent my morning, as I usually do after a tour day…loading photos and videos from various devices onto my computer, sorting through them and then sending them off to the tour guests from the day before.

Some days this is a long and frustrating chore…other days, like today, it’s relatively easy and straightforward. I am pleased to announce that I managed to take a couple of pictures on my HeroPro without accidental video or upside down pictures. I see this as improvement. Having accomplished that, I passed it over to Paul, a new associate who was practicing his sailing with us yesterday and let him play with it. (He has way more experience than I).

It seems however, that I had one more HeroPro-related lesson to learn…and that is that salt water coats everything…including my waterproof camera case. The videos that Paul took after we emerged from our swim and started our journey home were a little fuzzier in areas that I would have liked. I have to learn to rinse the case with fresh water and then dry it off before taking any further photos.

I tend to get distracted with putting things away and fixing up the fresh fruit and snack tray once I climb back aboard.

Eventually I will get all this sorted into a routine so I can do it without thinking about it. Still, after the previous issues with my new toy, I consider yesterday a success.

We were lucky enough to be taking two very lovely Americans out with us yesterday and I spent a pleasant hour or so chatting with them on the sunny bow deck while the men handled the sailing, it was lovely to be the story teller for a change, even if they missed out on some of Captain Chris’ better stories.

We arrived at Playa FantaSea and were in the water relaxing when a large black cloud rolled in overhead and a true Costa Rican downpour occurred. Since we were already wet, we rode it out for a while in the warm blue pacific waters. Mother Nature paid us back with a beautiful rainbow that arched all the way from the shoreline to the water by The Reliant’s bow.

It always makes me smile to think about how much nicer it is to deal with WARM rain than it is with the icy needles of rain we get back home. Even in the summer months, the rain was seldom anything but COLD.

Eventually we all climbed back onto The Reliant, the rain slowed down to a light drizzle and I set up my fruit and snack tray and presented it to our guests. They managed to get about five minutes into it before the rain picked up again. I draped a towel over their knees to shelter the snacks and we turned for home.

The clouds had brought with them some good strong breezes and Paul got to see what The Reliant can do with a good strong wind. We were heeled over and cruising right along for a good portion of the return trip and would have made good time except for the fact that a large diesel trawler belching black smoke went flying past us, and then slowed down and stopped.

We were already well past it when we realized that it seemed to be dead in the water. We hailed it on the radio and, getting no response, turned around to make sure they were okay.

It took a little yelling back and forth and gesticulating before we found out that they had help on its way. We continued on our way and sure enough, a few minutes later another diesel trawler, also benching thick fumes of black smoke passed us…presumably heading for the first one.

I don’t know what company was in charge of that particular tour but they need to do a little (okay, a LOT) more maintenance on their fleet.

All in all yesterday’s tour was a little more adventure packed than usual but we had a great time regardless and we are hoping to see our new friends again sometime soon.

Thanks to Garrett and Liz for allowing us to post some of their pictures!

Safe Travels Home and Pura Vida Guys!

Toodles for now!