[For those of you who may not know, the full size version of the thunbnail photos embedded in the text of these posting can be viewed by 'clicking on the thumbnail]
We Are Not Sitting By The Dock of The Bay
A good friend down here in Golfito is a professional sports fishing guide. Bob Sullivan, the proprietor of Pacific Teaser Sports Fishing, operates his boat, the Miss Lena out of the Samoa Marina here in Golfito. Captain. Bob, as he's known, is a colorful character who has been a professional fisherman for 20+ years both in Costa Rica, and in Florida. In fact he grew up on the water in southern Florida. The 'colorful' reference to Capt. Bob will have to be a separate story in some later posting on this blog – it is an entire story in itself.
At any rate, the fishing charter business had slowed down a little bit from the hectic winter schedule and Capt. Bob was itching to do some personal fishing of his own. So he encouraged several of us to go with him on Sunday – it didn't take much urging I might add. So we agreed to meet at 6:30 AM dependent only on Capt. Bob's early-morning evaluation of the weather out in the fishing grounds.
My friends Mattie, Suanny and I met up early on Sunday morning though not at the scheduled time due to a variety of logistics problems. But, no problem – Capt. Bob was MIA. The weather didn't look bad, but Capt. Bob may have checked his sources and found otherwise, we speculated. Nope, turns out he had some crises of his own – bait, gas, a missing 1st mate, etc., all compounded by hangovers from the Saturday night shindig. Oh well, since there were no paying customers an 8AM departure worked just as well – ah, Tico time (Pura Vida).
Our quick crossing of what is referred to as the inner bay, technically a gulf (Golfito means Sweet Gulf) was beautiful. Not only am I still awestruck by the beauty of the gulf, 
particularly in the quiet of the morning – the water was like glass. Smooth sailing on the Sweet Gulf. And when we reached the waters of the outer bay, there was still no chop – water like glass. The day was now starting to go our way.
A few minutes later as we passed the tip of the Osa Peninsula at Matapalo and struck out into the waters of the Pacific. well it was still like glass – the ocean was like glass! Enjoy it while you can, sooner or later the seas are going to pick up we were told. (It never did - all day. And, I don't know about you, but I can do without the rockin'-n-rollin' associated with the open sea and small boats. Capt. Bob said it was the calmest day he had ever seen out here. Wow!)
We now settled down for the 30 minute run to the fishing grounds were we would hit 'blue water', e.g., deep water. We hadn't gone 10 minutes, when I said, “Is that a shark over there?” “No,” answer Bob, as he turned sharply toward the visible fin 100 yards or so off to our starboard side (You belief that? A nautical term from the Kansas hick. Ha!) “Dolphins,” he added. As we got closer we could see it was a 
school of them (or herd, pride, group, whatever. So much for the nautical lingo, huh?), at least 20 of them. As we got closer, Bob turned on a parallel track with them about 20 yards away so as not to spook them. 
So they joined us, moved right up next to us. A couple of them got so close to the boat you could almost touch them. After a few minutes they disappeared as quickly as they appeared. What a sight! It's hard to explain the excitement seeing them in person generates, even exciting to the 'old salts', Capt. Bob was grining ear-to-ear. "Going to be a goooood day," he chuckled.
A few minutes later we saw another group off to the port side. As they got closer someone said, “You suppose that's the same ones?” Just about the time I was thinking, Can't be. We are doing about 35 knots. Bob looked as his instruments and said, “Could be. I've clocked them up about 40 knots before." Shows what I know. Guess I better stick to trying to keep starboard and port straight!
(For those of you familiar with fishing for sailfish, you can skip the next paragraph. But, this was all a new experience for me.)
When we got to the blue water, Bob rigged up the teasers on the outriggers so that they skipped across the surface about 25 feet behind us in the wake of the boat, and the baited hooks down the center about 20 yards back, and we were off. The teasers are big colorful lures whose purpose is to draw the fish up from the 200-300 foot depth where they hang out. Teasers resemble what we fresh water fishermen call jigs – a solid head trailing a skirt. However, teasers are bright colors, about 2 feet long and no hook. When the fish comes after the teasers, you pull it out of their mouth (the reason there's no hook), and get it out of the water, so the fish (while in 'the neighborhood) has 'to settle' for the baited hooks. So much for Sail Fishing 101.
To spare you the suspense, we spent several hours trolling around, 
got two big critters to come up and swipe at the teaser (what a sight), but no strikes. And no strikes = no fish. But, nobody cared -even Bob. Great day. (This is me playing El Captain. Ha!)
As we were coming back saw two big sea turtles, and then – the Big Wow! Somebody said, “More dolphins.” But instead of blasting over to them, Bob turned real easy and throttled back. He said, “Oh my God, get your cameras ready. Those are pilot whales. This is Discovery Channel (expletive deleted)! All my life on the water and I have only seen this 2 or 3 times. And never this big a herd. There must be 8 or 10 of them! I have to ease up and let their curiosity get them to us.”
When we got fairly close they leisurely dove out of sight as a group. Bob said, “Don't worry they will surface again. Number 1, they are air breathers, and 2, they are curious.” 
Sure enough, first one, then another then several more. Their head comes out of the water and they snort and loll around a little, then dive again. Bob had cut the engine and we were just drifting. Another boat showed up on the other side of them and did the same. Each time they surfaced, they were a little closer to us.
About the 3rd time they surfaced, the whole herd just cavorted around on the surface. We counted 14 of them. The bull was huge - must have been 35 feet long. The calf, who mimicked mamma's every 
move, was only about 3 feet long. Then, they all came to the surface with just their heads out of the water, turned towards us and just stared at us. Yes, as if choreographed and on cue, all of them hung suspended - motionless in the water, and just stared! Bob muttered, “Do you realize that every professional wild life photographer in the world would give his eye teeth for this experience?” (er, or words to that effect, Told you he was colorful).
For the next few minutes, the whales played their dive-resurface dance easing towards the other boat. And then they were gone, just as suddenly as they appeared. Bob cranked up the engines, and said, “Better get going or it is going to be dark before we get back.”
The rest of the trip was uneventful. 
Well, uneventful if you discount another Costa Rican sunset as viewed from the water.
And, then there is the wondrous views of the 
Golfito Harbor in fast closing darkness.
We came back hot and parched from the sun, plus out of beer, cigarettes, sun tan lotion and energy. Exhausted after a day of adrenalin rushes! No shoes, No shirts, No fish, but No problemo. Pura vida!
Next time: A Day With the Gold Prospector at His Place on The Island. I am also going to Panama next week. I promise or I'll quit taking about it
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