Islas Tortugas, the small islands offshore from Playas del Coco

The search for a kayak started soon after I arrived in Playas del Coco. In fact, I mentioned it briefly in a post to my brother's blog back in January, in a super-short entitled Hearstrings. This thing has been a long time coming.

I bought the little fiberglass sea kayak from a friend's neighbor back in January. It spent plenty of time in my friend's yard on account of me not having much space at my apartment, and because transporting the waterlogged craft was semi-nightmarish. It got cleaned up, stripped of paint, drained, patched in a few areas where leaks were located, and repainted over the course of the next few months. It even got a custom plug installed for purging it of sea water every so often, a feature that no other kayaks in the area have and the reason they're all consistently waterlogged. My friend, Peter, was nice enough to take care of all of the fiberglass and painting work for me as a favor. Awesome.

A new sea kayak means more diving

The oar, stainless steel anchor, and nylon braided, one hundred and fifty foot or so rope were all additions that I made one at a time while waiting for all the alterations and improvements to come together. There are a few more things I'd still like to do. Devising a handle for easier transportation, adding better straps for keeping my anchor line untangled and well secured, and possibly fastening a tiny cargo net to the nose are all on the short-list.

So far, I'm pretty thrilled with the experience. A sea kayak with an anchor and a long anchor line makes a fantastic diving platform, and my effective day-trip radius has skyrocketed. Islas Tortugas, the islands just off the bay of Playas del Coco, are within a fifteen minute kayak trip. That's an excellent trip-time compared to the forty five minute hike and fifteen minute swim that it used to be.