Fishing With Chris

Our bitch, Mateu, the owner of Costa Boats finally “finished” the boat and when it was delivered I was not surprized to find that he did not do nearly what he was expected or even what he was paid to do. The compass and VHF radio are not here, the two rod holders that were paid for as was the installation fee are nowhere to be seen. The washdown pump had been wired on the negative, but the positive wire went nowhere, though he assured me that it had been working…it had never been connected.
These are just a few of the goofups, The name is not even on the side of the boat even though he was provided with the art on cd. Matt (the bitch) speaks mostly french, and while he speake english just fine, he likes to act like he doesn’t understand when it is something he doesn’t want to hear.

Anyway, the petty stuff aside, the boat kicks ass! The twin Yamaha 4 strokes purr like kittens and move the “Kinembe II” along at mach 3 or somewhere thereabout. I have been connecting the electronics and getting her ready to fish over the past few days and in fact am on my way out the door now to rig the outriggers and mount the teaser reels.

Even though the bitch is playing games, I am very happy with the boat and look forward to a lot of fish catching in it.

So, we’re just over two weeks into the one week project and the “salesguy” from Yamaha calls to tell me that the dual engine control that is on the boat won’t work with the new Yamaha motors.

(me) “But you told me when I bought the motors that the controls were universal and would work even though the boat had previously had Evinrudes”…

(salesguy) yes, Mr. Bernstel, I know and I apologize, but you will need to buy the new Yamaha control – $700″…

(me) …”No, you will need to make these controls work with the Yamahas or else I will need to cancel my new Yamahas and buy Etec motors from the Evinrude dealer to match the ‘universal’ controls in the boat”…

(salesguy the following day) …”Well, Mr. Bernstel, after furthur inspection of the boat, it seems that if we just make some modifications blah blah blah, we should be able to make the controls work with the new motors…but we will need some new cables as the ones I told you were universal are not universal after all”…

(me) just shaking my head in disbeliefe.

They don’t call it “Tico Time” for nothing. An hours turns to a day, a day to a week, a week to a month and so the story goes.

The fact that the week originaly needed to complete the additions and changes has now turned into over two is just par for the course. We are after all in a third world country and it is obvious why it’s third and questionable how the country rose to it’s current third world rank. I have learned to believe in de-evolution.

If you have nothing better to do, go check out some Costa Rica scuba diving tours.

Things went ok for the most part this past week in San Jose, let’s hope the coming week goes as well. The boat is almost ready and the shiny new Yamahas should be mounted by mid week and with a little luck the boat could be here in Quepos by next weekend. Since we are in Costa Rica and things hardly ever work out in the planned timeframe, we’ll give it 3 weeks.

Last nights wether was more than expected and riding to the pier this morning i saw some of the damage. There were 2 50-60 foot sailboats lying on the beach as was one of the “BlueFin” boats. The “Bendicion” was another boat that broke loose from its moring and ended up on the beach but was removed last night. Another 2 boats, the 30′ “Golden Marlin” was on the bottom and the 24′ “High Tech” was upside down. That is the fishermans nightmare, I’ve been there and i don’t wish it on anybody.

So tomorrow afternoon we’ll be meeting at the Costa Boats (San Jose, Costa Rica) showroom to hopefully purchase a new boat. I met with Mateo, the owner, and his staff last week and looked over a 2 year old 25′ “Samara” that we were able to agree on what I think is a pretty fair price for the boat in its condition. Additionaly Mateo agreed to handle a few of the blemishes and shine her up a bit at no charge.

The plan is to get to the showroom and then head over to the workshop where they are touching up the minor details and get an idea of how fast they are moving. If all goes well, they have it about done and we will move on to the motors.

With a little luck, by friday we at least have decided on what to put on her…1 big one or two smaller ones. There are pros and cons to both, the most obvious is with the one big motor if something breaks, you aren’t moving. Enter the “kicker motor” option which pretty much just hangs a few thousand dollars off the back of the boat with the hopes of never actually needing to use it. And should the need arise to return on the “mini” motor one day, it will be at a whopping 5-6 knots. That’s a six hour ride from 30 miles, leading into the thought of 2 usable motors. Twin motors have long been the standard among outboard boats in Central america because of the remoteness and risk in being afloat with a broken single motor. This is less of a concern here in Quepos with more boats out there and better odds of contacting help, but nothing’s guaranteed.