Bye-bye Backstay Adjuster (in Golfito, Costa Rica)

When we were in Bahia Samara, trying to figure out WHAT to do about our backstay, we had a loooong look at all of the spare rigging pieces we had…

Spare rigging parts

And while we hved lots of good stuff (“treasure”, Jon calls it), we couldn’t *quite* replace the tensioner. Turns out — cuz I’m just learning this now — rigging parts come with either “left threads” or “right threads”. Meaning they screw in the normal way, or they screw in the opposite way. Throw that lefty-loosy lesson out the door 😛

And of course we somehow had multiple left-thread toggles, when what we reeeeally needed was one single right-thread toggle.

Enter Tim, from Land-Sea Cruisers’ Club, of Golfito 🙂

We made our way down here to Golfito in 2 nights — 209 miles of mostly motoring and some very very careful sailing with our jury-rig setup — and explained what we were looking for to Tim. Being the great guy that he is, Tim had a treasure box full (literally) of boating treasures 😛 that just happened to have some rigging parts in it… and one of those parts just happened to be a right-thread 1/2″ toggle. Bingo! We’ve got rigging again:

Badabing!

The install process was pretty smooth — the only hiccup being that the windvane has to come off in order to get to the pin at the bottom (always fun to be taking important things apart while hanging over 35′ of water!)…

Installing the new backstay riggingAnd all of *that* basically means that we can sail more securely to Panama City, and then work on a more ‘proper’ backstay adjuster system from there. AND we can focus on other fun things, like tropical downpours…

Tropical downpour

And beautiful sunsets…

Sunset in Golfito, CR Sunset in Golfito with Brio And contemplations of if we should just take the ‘fast boat’ to Maine 😀Maybe we should take the fast-boat home??So life is good again 🙂

– LMK


Comments

Bye-bye Backstay Adjuster (in Golfito, Costa Rica) — 6 Comments

  1. gotta love the generosity and ingenuity of the sailing community. Hope your next leg goes nice and smooth for you both. I DO LOVE the sunset pictures, by the way! Ahhhhh… Just so you know, the snow has melted in Kelowna and the birds are chirping away again. Spring is in the air… love you both.
    R3

    • It’s amazing and humbling and inspiring all in one — honestly, cruisers are a pretty great group of folks (as are uncles 😉 )

    • Hi Sven,

      Nice to meet you! We had such a beautiful sail from Chiapas to El Salvedor — I hope you get those great winds too (and avoid the Papagayos!!).

      We had not planned on checking in to Costa Rica, but because of that wind event we decided to go in to Golfito. We checked in there and found the process quite straight-forward; you visit immigration, customs and the bank to get a receipt proving you’ve paid your entry fee. Neither of us can remember what the entry fee cost, so that means it wasn’t significant (unlike Panama!!!). The most confusing part of checking in to Golfito was figuring out where the various offices were located!! One is in the middle of a fair/market kind of area… I’d advise asking someone for directions. Also good to know: all the taxis in Golfito operate on a fixed-rate… you don’t have to negotiate upfront, just hand them the equivalent of $5 when you’re done and wait for your change.

      The Sarana guides are quite helpful (and not expensive) for this area. You can download them online: http://www.svsarana.com/central_america_guidebook.php

      Hope this helps, and feel free to email me directly if I can offer any other info!! 🙂

      Leah

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