Costa Rica and Hurricanes

Until now I have been working under the constraint of having to sail out of Costa Rica for the equator in early June in order to avoid the Caribbean hurricane season. That sounds like an opportunity spend six months working my way south along the west coast of South America for a rounding of the Horn at the optimal time of Dec-Jan. Unfortunately that would mean battling the adverse Peru Current and prevailing winds all of the way down, which I want to avoid. This is why a common route from the Panama Canal or the west coast of North America to the Horn is via a long arc to the west past Easter Island. I also want to avoid arriving in Puerto Montt during or near the southern hemisphere winter.

I recalled reading somewhere that storms do not occur within 5 degrees of the equator and I wondered what would be the hurricane risk of Golfito, Costa Rica, at latitude 9.65N.

The Wikipedia entry below states:

"The 19th and final tropical storm formed on December 7 and moved westward through the Caribbean Sea. Nineteen peaked in intensity on the 10th with 60 mph (97 km/h) winds. Nineteen passed by St. Vincent and continued westward until dissipating near the coast of Costa Rica on the 12th. When Tropical Storm Nineteen formed on December 7, it made 1887 the year with the most off-season storms (five). Nineteen is the only tropical cyclone recorded to make landfall in Costa Rica." (Bold lettering mine) See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1887_Atlantic_hurricane_season

So it looked to me that the only tropical storm to hit Costa Rica happened 122 years ago, was relatively weak, and dissipated near the east coast which suggests that it did not cross to the west coast. But then I found http://www.centralamerica.com/cr/moon/moland.htm which states near the end of the article: "Rarely do hurricanes strike Costa Rica, although Hurricane Cesár came ashore on 27 July 1996, killing 41 people and trashing the Pacific southwest in the nation's worst national disaster in a decade. Large-scale deforestation in the region contributed to massive flooding. "

If I have read this correctly the hurricane risk is relatively low, takes pressure off me to leave Costa Rica in June, and opens up the possibility of sailing from Costa Rica to the Galapagos later in the year, say October, and from there to use my westerly position and make one long sail to Puerto Montt Chile. And there is another advantage: a later departure from Costa Rica opens of the possibility of a longer stay in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico.

I've had a close look at Puerto Montt and it looks like a modern and well developed port rather than a sleepy backwater fishing village that I had expected. I googled "Puerto Montt Weather" and found http://www.google.com/#hl=en&source=hp&q=puerto+montt+weather&aq=0&aqi=g6j1&oq=puerto+montt+w&fp=cbc2f75bf9d43a8f. From there I selected the top item, the forecast for the area, and found a great Google map of the area where I could zoom in and pan around.