Saturday morning we were in bed when Richard spotted a little hand come through the open hatch…and then Cheeky peered in.   Richard shouted at him and quickly shut the hatch – and we went on deck to find both Cheeky and Lucy sitting on the solar panels. 

Cheeky decided to steal our citronella candle, tasted it, didn’t like it and threw it back onto the coach roof.   We needed to try and get them off the boat as I had loads of washing hanging up and I had visions of underwear and pegs getting scattered down the dock.  But by now Cheeky had spotted me and came in for a cuddle….and Lucy jumped off the rigging into the trees alongside us.    Finally…after bribery of some cereal bars…they left us to create havoc on the other boats. 

By the time I had got dressed most of the dock were up and Cheeky had stolen three cans of soda from Island Sol;  had managed to open the stern shower tap on Evenglow to drain their fresh water tank;  had stolen a water bottle from another boat;  and had played on the canvas under the solar panels on another.   He is such a naughty boy LOL.     

Saturday afternoon we were finally ready to go to sea – Richard having installed the new halyard – so we took ourselves off to the beach for a final bobbing session before heading to the cruisers tiki hut to say goodbye and kept the bar open late again with John and Deb (Orion 1) and Paul and Mary (Genesis) ie the British and Canadian contingent plus Debbie, Steve and boat dog Libby of course.   We had a great last night.

Sunday morning by 8.40am we had said our goodbyes and slipped away from Fantasy Island, Roatan.   We motored in light airs towards Guanaja and the seas were totally flat….so made very good time.   Richard decided to try fishing and did hook one but he got off – never mind.  By 2pm we running alongside the island and by 3.30 pm we were on the hook having completed a short passage of only 36 miles.   

Guanaja is the third of the Bay Islands of Honduras so our Zarpe (exit clearance) from Roatan covers us to be here – no need for more officialdom at this stage.  Guanaja looks really pretty from the anchorage and it is a shame that we didn’t get a chance to explore this island.   I’m totally fascinated by the Villa on Dunbar Rock behind us!

Later on Island Sol pulled in behind us and we collected Saundra and Charlie and took them over to Manatis for dinner.   At the last minute John, their guest, decided to remain on board alone.   We also met up with Simon and Samantha from Signora (Jersey, UK) who were going to be travelling with us.   Both Island Sol and Signora are bigger boats than us so we are the slowest of the group and have based all our calculations on five knots SOG (speed over the ground) which, of course, may vary as we go along according to conditions and currents against us.   The key thing to note in a convoy is that it travels at the speed of the smallest boat which all crews accepted.    

The pilot book for this area gives two routes – one recommended and another for emergencies only (the one that runs along the coast)  – but by the time we had arrived in Guanaja another pirate attack had been reported. 

The level of theft and violence had escalated and these attacks were much further out than before – 20 miles away from the Gorda Cay.   The pirates are actually the local fishermen who fish and live on their boats in these shallow waters.  There are no coastguard patrols in this area so the chances of them being caught are very slim…and travelling yachts are easy pickings.   So we revisited our route and decided to go the very long way round, which added another day to our passage, but meant we only had 50 miles crossing the shallow banks towards Providencia and it took us, at the closest point, 40 miles away from the known hot spots.   

All happy with the plan we returned to our respective boats for an early night and a beautiful Guanaja sunset.

Monday morning we got up early and started secreting our valuables around the boat – if we do get boarded we are not going to make it easy for them to find everything!    The wind is howling at this point and it looks like we could have a feisty sail but at least it is coming from the right direction. As agreed at 9.15am we all picked up anchor and headed out.  Once we were clear of the shallow water we pulled out the sails deciding on a double reefed main and genoa in the 27 knot breeze.    We moved into deep water and the seas were pretty big – 8-10 feet – and we recorded gusts above 30 knots.   So we were moving pretty swiftly along at 7 knots with 10 knots recorded when we surfed down waves.  The waves were coming behind us onto our port quarter (back left-hand side) and were breaking….they crashed over us a few times.    All very exhilarating and, although it kept us on our toes, we were enjoying ourselves.   The group managed to keep together and all boats were within one mile of each other – which we were pretty pleased with.  

By 5pm we had dinner and watched our first sunset at sea.   

As the conditions continued to be brisk we decided to reef down further for the night – putting away the genoa and pulled out the staysail instead.    Island Sol did the same.    We put the engine on to charge the batteries and Island Sol were clearly doing the same as they are pulling away from us rapidly.   I radioed them to ask them to slow down and was told, by John, to put my engine revs up higher.   Well…not an option…I’m not planning to motor sail the whole damn night and what about conserving fuel for the low wind days we are expecting?!?    Pretty fed up I had to call Richard back up into the cockpit to help me put the staysail away and pull out the genoa again so that I could keep up.   I managed, eventually, to catch up – with Signora matching me bringing up the group from the rear.  I felt slightly nervous with the genoa out on my own, despite it being heavily reefed, as gusts were still coming at us in the 30s.   Richard took over later and by 11.00 pm we were leading the pack….so he slowed down to keep the group together.  

By 1am on Tuesday morning the seas were easing and the winds had dropped to 15-20 knots but there were still big gusts.  Again we had fallen behind so we shook out a reef in the genoa and increased our boat speed.   By 3am we were in the lead again!     Quite a dark night and the moon didn’t rise until 3.20 am.    But by 8am we had fallen behind again and, as the latest weather download said the wind was dropping, we pulled out full sails in a reducing wind. 

By now it was 12-15 knots and we were chasing down Island Sol half a mile ahead of us.   At 10am we had a wind shift in our favour and by 11 am we had caught Island Sol again.  The wind was now steady at 12 knots and we were not getting any gusts either.   The seas continued to flatten and by 2pm we were all parallel with half a mile separating all three boats with Morphie in the centre. 

At 4pm we started our engine again to charge batteries and started to run back towards the rhumb line.  

As we were motoring towards Signora we had a wonderful visit from about 50 dolphins which played on our bow for about half an hour.   Magical, just plain magical.

By 5pm the winds had swung to the north east and it was difficult to hold our course so we increased our revs to 1800rpm and were motor sailing away from the rhumb line again.  Island Sol pulled away strongly and we couldn’t catch them – again I asked him to slow down and again John refused.    Grr……   So we continued motor sailing hard…to keep above the rhumb line and eventually, at 11pm we caught up with Island Sol.   Definitely a shift change issue here…Charlie and Saundra maintain contact with us…John clearly couldn’t give a damn.  What he doesn’t appear to realise is that if a suspicious vessel approaches him for every mile he is away from us it is going to take us 12-15 minutes to get to him to offer assistance. 

By 1am on Wednesday morning we were all together again and were sailing close to the rhumb line.   At 3am there were lights to the starboard ahead of Island Sol and alongside them.   So we all decided to run dark and moved to our own working channel for radio communications, although we kept on our AIS so that big ships could see us and we could keep tabs on each other’s position.  

At 4am the lights had gone away – they were big shrimp boats – and the wind shifted to the east.  This was earlier than forecast and was now right on the nose.  We dropped all our sails and motored straight into the waves, wind and current at 2000rpm to maintain our agreed five knots SOG.  

By 9am the wind had switched again and so we had all three sails up fully in 10 knots of breeze.   At 10am Island Sol were coming up fast from behind us…and we watched as they got closer…and we had to drop 15 degrees off the wind to let him pass. John was sitting on the rail taking a video of us.  Nice thought but, for god’s sake, what about the rule of the road that says the overtaking vessel should keep clear!!!!   That man’s a menace.    

By 11am we were constantly playing wind angles to keep moving in the light airs and, by now, we had moved back in front of the pack.    We came off the wind slightly and picked up speed to find, at 12 noon, we had a huge shrimp boat moving around ahead of us with his nets deployed.  We furled our genoa and sat and waited for his position to become clearer.  By 1pm we were all back sailing with full main and genoa and Island Sol are coming up very fast again from behind…this time they overtook us very closely to starboard and then turned straight across our bow.   We were so surprised we didn’t even say anything on the radio – and, anyway, the rules prohibit the use of profanity over the airwaves LOL.

Island Sol continued to pull ahead almost two miles ahead of us and we couldn’t catch them – Signora continued to maintain contact with us.  Charlie came on the radio at 3pm and said that they wanted to go faster across the banks and were going to maintain 6+ knots SOG.   So I asked if that meant they were leaving us behind and abandoning us.    Yes was the answer.  I just said ‘Thanks for that Charlie’ and returned to Ch.16.  Both of us were stunned, used some working-class language, and I was very upset – we had worked hard to maintain contact with them – and now, at the most critical part of the passage getting close to the danger zone, they were going to leave us to it because they could run faster.   Signora, in the meantime, confirmed that they would remain with us so that made me feel a bit better as we weren’t going to be going it totally alone and I knew that our calculations were going to work with getting onto the banks at dark and leaving before sunrise.

Then, a little while later, Charlie came back on the radio and said that they were going to stick to our agreement and wait for us after all.   Fine, thank you.  That told us everything we needed to know – John was influencing their better judgment.  No words to describe my feelings towards this obnoxious man.     Although we had now agreed to stay together Island Sol remained two miles ahead of us – and then they reported a surveying vessel towing a long line of floats to port.  So we got on with avoiding that…   Then Island Sol reported a fishing boat to starboard and they decided to slow down so that Signora and we could catch up with them.    How kind.

We moved into a close formation with us in the lead and started motor sailing to maintain our agreed 5 knots SOG – keeping a constant RPM and taking any lift from the wind we could get to speed up.  Moving along and, at the critical waypoint which is the closest to the danger zone, Island Sol reported a transmission problem.  So Signora and ourselves reduced speed dramatically and just hung around waiting for them to resolve their problem.  They had propped their propeller and were dragging a line.    They did what they could and, after 45 minutes of sitting around like nervous ducks awaiting the hunters, we all took off again in formation.    

At 2am on Thursday morning we all made a 20 degree change to port to return to the rhumb line and to avoid a shrimp boat to starboard.   By 3am we were back on the line and were experiencing some currents against us.   Come 4am (shift change I wonder?!?) Island Sol had gone walkabout again…

Before a lovely sunrise at 6am we were off the banks as planned despite the delay and we were motoring along with a main and staysail with only six knots of breeze.   It was flat calm out there and the wind had shifted towards its normal easterly trades so we were looking forward to a great day of sailing ahead without having to keep the formation now we had passed through the danger zone.  

By 9 am we were still chasing the wind around to try and keep our sails full.   Signora headed above the rhumb line as they were considering continuing directly to Panama rather than coming with us to Providencia.   Island Sol remained below us.   Suddenly, at 10am the winds filled in and we had 11 knots of breeze from the right direction and relatively flat seas.  Woo hoo!!!  Then, of course, the winds shifted to the SE but we could still sail.  We were going along nicely so Richard decided to fish again…    Within an hour he had caught his first mahi of the season….and within another hour the fish was filleted and we had lots of fresh fish in the freezer.     Richard was very happy indeed (and yes, he does sail in his underpants!).    

And to cap off the day another sunset.

Come 7pm the winds had dropped but we continued to sail along nicely although our speed had dropped to 4kts SOG we were unconcerned as we wanted to enter Providencia in daylight.   By 9pm we were catching Island Sol again and we switched on the engine to give our batteries an initial burst before running the generator on the rail – which is what we will do in the Pacific later in the year.    While I was having a snooze down below Richard surprised me by installing my new helm seat – so I got comfy straight away!   Fantastic, it made such a difference, and my back will be eternally grateful LOL.  Here’s a picture of me enjoying it the following morning.

In the meantime we are creaming Island Sol and they are dropping further and further behind us.    Signora are off to our port side by almost six miles and are debating their next move – so we downloaded the weather for them and gave them an update over the radio.  Apart from 3m swells forecast the weather was favourable so we said goodbye as they changed course directly to Panama.   At 11pm Island Sol woke up and started to pull back very quickly for the wind conditions – we think they must have been motor sailing again.  

At 1am on Friday morning the seas had picked up and we had slowed down again.  It was quite rolly so we continued to sail the best course for comfort rather than for speed.   At 5am we had Land Ho! and by 6am we were approaching Providencia which looked quite foreboding in the rainy squalls. 

Earlier in the morning I had radioed Signora to give them an updated weather report but they were, by now, out of range.  And I got told off on the radio by John for waking up his crew!!!  Well, turn the bloody thing down or off then. 

By 8.30 am we were on the hook at anchor having completed our passage of 444 miles in an average speed of 4.72 knots SOG – so despite wind shifts and low wind days; adverse currents; technical delays etc our detailed navigation planning had been pretty damn good.   We were very pleased with our performance on this passage and both felt we could have continued on. 

Oh yes…and Richard renamed the boats during one of his watches…as at times it felt like we were flying in formation.  So in honour of that terrible movie Top Gun we became Top Mum to reflect our head of the formation position as we crossed the banks.   Signora became Ice Man for his cool and calm approach to everything during the passage.   And, for obvious reasons, Island Sol became Maverick!

The anchorage here in Providencia is absolutely lovely and we are looking forward to staying here for a short while to explore.   We contacted Mr Bush – the required ship’s agent – who arranged to meet us and Island Sol at his office for clearance procedures.   We recovered all our belongings from their hidey holes and got ourselves cleaned up and sorted out before running ashore.  

We went to Mr Bush’s agency and did the paperwork with the customs and immigration officials that were there waiting for us.   We have since realised that there is an actual one hour time difference and that we were late!   Oops…note to self…next time ask the local time on arrival.

We had to hand over our passports and return later so we decided to go in search of a cold beer and a restaurant having now got some drinking vouchers from the ATM.  We wandered for a while but didn’t find anything much so returned to a local place that was rammed.  We had an OK lunch and some cold beers but John couldn’t keep his big mouth shut and decided to berate me again for using the radio in the early hours and for refusing to increase my engine speed to catch up.   Well…I flipped…and said what about him wanting to leave us on the banks?   He told me to eat s**t!!!   This from an educated man who was a management consultant in his previous life….   I didn’t respond to the insult as Saundra had left the table and restaurant in tears and I went to find her.  Richard was furious with me for rising to the bait.   I caught up with Saundra and we had a long chat and hugged.  This ignorant man is not going to ruin our friendship.   So we returned to the restaurant and, despite my real desire to punch the guy, I made my peace with him and we shook on it.      

After lunch we went off to the little island linked to the mainland by a footbridge and had a few cold ones looking over the water.  

John behaved like nothing had happened so I tried to do the same even engaging him in conversation.  But, really, I can’t wait to see the back of him!!!!   I really hope that he does not continue with his poor behaviour as it will ruin Charlie and Saundra’s trip to the San Blas islands.

At just before 3pm Richard returned to Mr Bush’s agency to collect our passports and pay our clearance bill of US $180 – which Richard questioned.  This seemed a lot for only a few days but what can you do?!?    Feeling pretty jaded by now our next stop was the store to buy a SIM card for internet access as we had been offline for a long time.  Really appreciated the Iridium Go unit on this passage for downloading weather information and letting people know we were safe…  Mission accomplished we headed back to Morphie.   Back on board we had a few more cold beers before having an early night.

This morning, Saturday, and I’m blogging while Richard continues sleeping.  Not sure what we have planned today other that some boat and domestic duties.  The wind is howling and it’s raining but we’re happy to be here.

Bye for now

Jan

Friday morning we carried on with boat jobs before having a bobbing session with Charlie and Saundra in the afternoon – check out the size of that hip flask!

Later on we headed out to movie night at the cruisers’ tiki hut.    The offering was one of our favourite films – Point Break (the original) – and we were looking forward to seeing it again.    Everyone decided to order a pizza delivery so we opted for fried chicken instead as we weren’t impressed with the pizza last time.  We had a good time and the increasing British contingent – aided by the Canadians – kept the beer fridges open late again LOL.    

Saturday morning and we had emptied our water tanks so we finally got round to un-pickling the water maker and changing out all the filters before starting to fill the tanks again.  This takes a while as we only make eight gallons an hour so we are on a water-making fest at the moment.    When this was done I got on with cooking as it was time to prepare some passage food for the trip ahead.    Richard kept himself busy with other boat jobs – this time it was to repair the lock on the anchor locker using his new rivet gun….and to install another 12V socket on the chart table….and to service the anchor windlass.      By the middle of the afternoon there were four meals ready for the freezer and we were both feeling a bit jaded.  So we had a quiet night on board.

Sunday morning and it was time for more laundry.    When that was done we had a nice leisurely brunch before heading over to the beach and had a bobbing session with Charlie, Saundra and John.    

We stayed later in the water than usual and caught this beautiful sunset through the trees….and then ran for cover back to Morphie as the mossies were out in huge numbers!!!     We had another quiet night on board.

Monday morning and Charlie was taking his skiff into town so we went with him.   He is crazy fast and we all got a bit soaked on the way through the channel towards town. 

We tied to the dinghy dock and walked up the mud hill to the main road before getting a cab to the mega mall.  We withdrew some drinking tokens and purchased a SIM card to give us limited internet on board.  We are fed up with the daily grind of walking to and from the hotel lobby, especially as we often fail to connect.  We also managed to get some new fishing lures – we need different colours here to attract those baby tuna and wahoo – and then headed back to Eldons supermarket.   Charlie did a quick shop while we wandered around. 

On the way back to the marina we got soaked again…and rinsed our clothes through with fresh water to get the salt out when back on board.   We had a relaxing few hours before getting ready to go out.   A crowd of us headed over to Herbys, which is an American sports-themed bar and grill, in the Paradise Resort.    With all the TVs and sports paraphernalia it was difficult to believe that we were in Roatan.    Everybody chose different items off the menu and all the food was good…and they served supercold beer that was very refreshing.    Fun times.

Tuesday morning we made more water and checked the weather again.   The  window we have been watching remains favourable….woo hoo…..looks like we are finally going to get moving.    So we carry on doing pre-passage checks.   Charlie thought he had a problem with his mechanical shaft seal so Richard went off to help him while I continued cleaning and tidying.   After a bit of prodding and poking Charlie was satisfied that everything was OK and Richard caught up with me just before the shopping bus arrived.   We did our final provisioning and Morphie is now full…no more food needed!!!   

Later on we took ourselves off to the cruisers’ tiki hit and, as we walked along the beach, we came across Cheeky rummaging through the dustbins.    He saw us, immediately abandoned the bins and decided unusually to sit on Richard…..although did I get to stroke him.    He likes licking his head for some reason…and he stayed on his shoulders all the way round to the dive shop…when the temptation to break into the equipment room was too strong to remain with us.  We tried to get him to come back out but all we could hear were cylinder tanks clunking and weights being thrown around as he was having fun LOL.  

We had another beautiful sunset along the way too.  

At the tiki hut we enjoyed a couple of cold ones before heading back to Morphie.   And heard the horrific story of one of our fellow cruisers who had been bitten by a moray eel while snorkelling….it did a lot of damage and she ended up in the hospital having 20 stitches.  She was very lucky not to lose a couple of fingers.  

Wednesday morning and the weather window continued to look good so we needed to get our paperwork in order.   We ordered a taxi and took off with the others to the immigration office.   Along the way Charlie wanted to rent a 4×4 so that they could further explore the island – much of which is dirt roads – and our taxi driver found one for them straight away.   So Charlie and John followed our taxi with the rented truck while Saundra remained with us.    This was a lucky break as, when we got to immigration, I realised that I’d left the passports back on the boat.  Seriously????    Yep….had ben OCD about checking the paperwork before we left:  copies of passports;  copies of boat registration;  copies of photos of boat;   digital images of boat;  cruising permit – that I’d missed picking up the originals.    As you can imagine Richard was not a happy bunny.    But because Island Sol had hired the truck they could continue on while we returned to Fantasy Island so we didn’t disrupt their day.   Finally…back to immigration with passports in hand…and we get checked out with five days to depart.

Next stop was customs – to purchase the Zarpe form – and then the port captain.  Glad we had a taxi driver to show us where it was…would never have found it on our own.   Such a depressing office but look at the view from behind the street.    

We gave the captain our documents and emailed him the digital images there and then.   We were told Thursday night or Friday morning that our Zarpe would be ready.   We knew that this was a two day process so weren’t surprised.

On the way back we asked the driver to stop at the beer distribution place as there had been no beer at the supermarket the day before.   Result…got three slabs….and at only L17 a can (28 to the pound)…that’s not a bad deal.  

By the time we got back to Morphie it was lunchtime so I prepared the BBQ meal for later – stuffed peppers and chicken kebabs.    All sorted we chilled for a little while before heading over to the tiki hut.   We enjoyed our walk along the beach at dusk and meeting the local wildlife….and I had my Cheeky fix for the day.  

When we got there the grill was full so we had to wait for a while to cook but that was fine as we watched the sun go down.    We had another lovely social evening with Diane entertaining us on the guitar.  

Thursday morning and Charlie was heading to the Port Captain’s office as he had heard that his Zarpe was ready….so we tagged along in the truck.    Ours was too so we went back to immigration to give them a copy and yay, sorted, we are free to go.   They did spell our boat name wrong – but we not going to revisit this process to get that sorted.  I’m sure that our next destination won’t care!  

Back to Morphie I got busy in the galley as we were having island Sol over in the evening for a curry night.   Both John and Charlie are great cooks/chefs so didn’t want to disappoint.    I cooked a full-blown Indian meal with poppadums, sauces and chutneys, followed by three different curries, rice and naan.    While I was doing this Richard was sorting out a new halyard – we have an opening in the mast for a spinnaker halyard (which we don’t need) – so we have decided to pull another halyard through as a safety line for mast climbing or even a spare if one of our existing halyards fails.  This will give us spares for both our genoa and our main.   We were amazed to find a cruising boat willing to sell us a brand new unused one so we bit his hand off and purchased it.

Thursday night and the gang turned up after their day out exploring.    They piled into the food and absolutely loved it!   We loved the ice cream desert that they bought for us too.   Fun times.

Friday morning and I’m blogging while Richard is doing other boat jobs.     Listening to the weather guru this morning on the SSB we heard that there had been another pirate attack on a yacht near the Nicaragua banks…no details available yet although it sounded like the crew were OK.   We will be giving this area a very wide berth staying offshore by at least 30 miles and travelling in company with two other boats so there is some safety in numbers.    We need to discuss our strategy with the other boats but I think we’ll definitely get to our closest point to this troubled area during the night and may well run dark…and we’ll use a dedicated radio channel rather than hail each other on Ch16 (although we will obviously do a dual watch) in case the vagabonds are listening in.  

The plan is to leave Roatan on Sunday and head over to Guanaja.    This is a day sail away.   Then Monday lunchtime we’ll head off on the three day passage to Providencia.    The weather is looking really good as we are expecting north west to north winds throughout the passage before they clock back to the east….looks like winds could be brisk for Monday but then die down…so may be some motoring at the end but at least we have a sailing angle all the way.

Tonight we are heading to the tiki hut for movie night – the offering is Deep Water Horizon – which we’re looking forward to seeing.   No cooking for me today – curry leftovers are on the menu LOL.    

Tomorrow, Saturday, and I’m hoping that we can spend more time on the beach before we leave here.   Bye for now

Jan

Friday night we stayed home and treated ourselves to a roast beef dinner with lots of vegetables and Yorkshire puddings.    Yum….. 

Saturday morning we were up early and headed over to the dive dock.   We got loaded up and were under way just before nine.   The first dive of the day was Mary’s Place which is our favourite spot here in Roatan.    Canyons and caverns and some great coral but the new dive leader got the route wrong so we didn’t visit the deepest cut and there were even less fish than last summer.   Felt quite disappointed but loved being back in the water.

The second dive of the day was Gold Chain and this was a wall dive. Nice topography again although still disappointed by the lack of fish – but this was more than offset by our encounter with a really friendly turtle who posed for photographs on his way to the surface.  We also came across a giant crab living under an overhang.     Saundra and I still had loads of air left but Richard had had enough so we all surfaced together.

In the afternoon we chilled out before heading to the Tiki hut for a pizza delivery.  We stopped at the hotel reception for our daily internet fix on the way and I had another Cheeky monkey cuddle.   The pizza was pretty tasty but the toppings could definitely have been more generous.    Never mind, no cooking for me tonight, so I’m not complaining.

During the night and into the early hours of Sunday the wind picked up and the rain was coming down hard.   We got up – around six – to take down our canopy as it could get torn in the strong gusts.   While we were doing this we looked up and OMG the Russians are coming!!!!   They are dragging their two anchors as well as the mooring and were headed straight at the trawler in front of us on the dock.   We got the air horn out and, eventually, the Russians come up and are flapping around like looneys.   At one point the mother is dragging the baby around with her on the slippery dock attached to her boob while moving things around…..not sure what the hell she was thinking off.   Would have thought having the babies safely tucked down below would be better?!?  We had woken the whole dock and people were on the trawler physically fending them off….  

It was a very close call before they finally got their engine running and moved forward.   The Russians were screaming for help on the radio and Steve, the dockmaster, called for a tow.    A powerful motorboat came out to assist….but the Russians sent them away saying they were fine.   Really???!!!    Eventually they grounded just in front of the dock so we tied them to a tree so they couldn’t drift any further.    At least there they were no longer a danger to other boats or a navigational hazard.    We all watched for quite a while to make sure they were safe and even Debbie and Libby came by in their best wet weather gear LOL.  

But in the meantime the Russians had requested urgent assistance again and, on being told it would cost them $150, they declined.    Words cannot describe their stupidity – you would have thought the safety of their children might be more important than a few quid?!?   Steve would not sanction any assistance from us either as the conditions were really rough and our dinghies would be ineffectual against their hulking steel boat – their only option was to pay for a tow.   By around noon we had relaxed – they were clearly safe where they had ended up.

In the afternoon we were sat in the cockpit and Charlie came by to talk about our proposed departure.   Island Sol is going to be travelling in company with us for the next few islands which is great, particularly as we are going to be transiting some dodgy areas on the way to Panama.    We looked together at the weather and spotted a potential window for next week……we drank rum and beers….and that is where we stayed for the rest of the day and evening.    As it was Sunday and we had fresh veggies left over we had another roast dinner – this time chicken with sage and onion stuffing…..    It was the perfect antidote to a long rainy day.

Monday morning early and I spotted the Russian boat was underway…. we quickly got dressed and went to watch just in case they needed help untying from the tree.    They managed to get themselves off the bottom, cast themselves adrift, and headed out…only to go the wrong side of the channel marker and run aground on the reef.   They reversed hard and got themselves off – not sure how much damage they sustained – and finally left.    They popped round the corner and headed into the main anchorage and dropped their hook.   Hopefully they are secure this time.

Tuesday we spent a few hours in the hotel reception online before heading over to the cruisers tiki hut for the supermarket bus having a chat with Lucy the monkey while we waited.   

We carried on topping up our supplies – particularly canned goods – and trudged back to the boat heavily laden down with goodies.   Tuesday night we went for sundowners at the Tiki hut and ended up staying quite a bit later than planned but it was a fun night.

Wednesday and Happy Birthday to me!   Thanks everyone for your messages, cards and gifts – it really means a lot to me being so far away from home.    

We wandered across the bridge – admiring the view of Morphie on the dock now that the Russian boat no longer marred the view – and had a chat with Cheeky along the way.    Was surprised to see him on the bridge as I didn’t think he ventured that far away from the easy pickings of the restaurant buffet LOL.

We were met by Miguel our taxi driver – and headed off to West End.  This is the tourist end of the island where the sleepy waterfront is full of restaurants, bars and shops.   It was quiet – and slightly gloomy when we arrived – so we wandered from one end to the other checking out the stores along the way. 

We did manage to get two new hats and a t-shirt for Richard.   It started to get really busy so we headed to a restaurant that sat over the water and just enjoyed watching the comings and goings of boats coming into the anchorage;  the tourist water taxis;  the dive boats;  the snorkelling day trip boats etc etc.   We treated ourselves to fish and chips and a few cold beers….was lovely.

The cruise ship passengers were around by now and, probably because this is their main destination on Roatan, everything was priced in US dollars – the official currency here is the Honduran Lempira.    We had to get everyone to calculate the price for us that we could pay for our purchases and we know that we got ripped off by the exchange rate they used in the shops.   Certainly we would have used dollars too if we had known.   Back to the roundabout to await Miguel’s return we sat in a bar overlooking the water / street and watched all the tourists being herded like sheep onto their respective buses before being taken away.

On the one hour drive back we admired the colourful and varied shop displays along the route and the narrow roads that go up and down over the hills.    We took a different way back and actually went past the cruise ships sitting at anchor waiting for their passengers to return.   From the street, at water level, they are absolutely huge!

Back to Fantasy Island – via Ace Hardware – Richard’s favourite shop.  Today’s purchase was a rivet gun which we realised was missing from our tools inventory on board.    Back on the dock, having said hi to this friendly peacock, we met up with Charlie, Saundra and John for a few hours bobbing in the sea – which was great fun – and they sang Happy Birthday to me.  

Later on we headed to the Tiki hut for BBQ night.  I had some ribs prepared which we took with us and, despite having eaten a large lunch, we did tuck in and enjoy them.  There were about 40 people there and they all sang Happy Birthday to me.  Then one of the cruisers started playing and singing and we all made requests and sang along.    Was a great birthday! 

This morning, Thursday, and Richard has gone off to visit the vegetable truck and the hotel reception for his internet fix while I’m blogging.   We are certainly not planning on being sociable tonight after the excesses of yesterday LOL.

Oh yes…and that weather window…has closed right down.   Damn!    We want to get moving but this is a difficult passage straight into the wind and waves when the trades blow from the east… so we really just have to wait for lighter airs than the current forecast.  Right now the weather guru, and our satellite downloads agree, that there is no suitable window for the next week.   Feeling slightly frustrated as this will cut down our time when visiting other islands on the way to Panama but at least we are in a pretty spot.   It also means sadly we’ll probably have to miss out visiting the San Blas islands now.  

The marinas in Panama are going to be busy soon with the World ARC as they have 36 yachts scheduled to go through the canal the first week of February…..so we are now looking to arrive just as they depart and make our arrangements, using an agent to speed up the process.    We should be ready to go at the earliest opportunity so we are still hopeful of making a late February transit. 

Bye for now

Jan  

Monday morning we caught a lift with Charlie into town in his hire care.  Richard got the propane gas bottle filled – it ran out when cooking dinner the night before – and we dropped him off at Ace Hardware while I went to Eldons the supermarket.   I’m not a great fan of shopping but I got quite excited by the selection on offer.  After the basic provisioning in Guatemala it felt like supermarket heaven LOL. 

Charlie returned to the marina to give back his car, taking our gas bottle back with him, thanks it was much appreciated.   I wandered the aisles until Richard caught up with me and we did a big shop.  Eventually, a few hours later and significantly poorer, we caught a taxi back to Morphie.   Then the hard work started getting everything stowed away.   Richard got on with the installation of a sea-water wash down in the anchor locker.

Later on we took ourselves off to the beach to make the most of the sun and enjoyed bobbing in the crystal clear water.  Check out this beautiful place….stunning location, just a shame that the hotel is a bit shabby now.   While we were in the water there were further monkey shenanigans on the beach with Lucy terrorising the tourists….no pictures I’m afraid…but I did get a cuddle when I walked up the beach before she went back to stealing drinks!

Monday evening we went to the cruisers’ tiki hut and enjoyed a spectacular sunset….and had a few beers with the gang….was a lovely day. 

Tuesday morning and we compiled a list of everything we had forgotten.  So excited the day before by things like naan bread, salt beef and baked beans we forgot basics like eggs and soft drinks LOL.     At lunchtime we headed to the beach with Charlie and Saundra for a bobbing session and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in the sun and surf chatting to visiting cruise ship passengers. 

At three we took the cruisers’ courtesy shopping bus to Eldons for another provisioning run.   We managed to get everything on the list and headed back to the bus.   It was chaotic and one of my bags got turned over and things fell out….at the end I think I lost a bag of crisps.   Debbie (who organised this) was frazzled by getting the Russians off the bus.

So…the Russians….   There is a family living on a decrepit boat on a marina mooring – a pre-existing arrangement going back years and the only mooring in the resort.    It is quite close to us as we sit tied alongside the dock.   

The boat has been unoccupied for some time but recently the family returned and moved back on board.  There are two babies – one about three years old and one about twelve months.   The mother is dropped off every morning by her husband and she sits on the beach with the kids while he remains on board fixing the boat.   The kids run around naked and they are wild and not potty trained as they just go wherever they squat.  Including in the hotel reception!    Ewwww…..   The husband only picks her up in the evening when she screams across the water from the dock to him – usually just by the side of Morphie.   The shopping run was a nightmare – she had two kids, one can of petrol and two boxes of groceries – while he stayed on the boat.  Despite the usual screaming and shouting the husband left her on the dock until he was ready to collect her a few hours later.   What an existence!!!

Tuesday afternoon Richard finished the sea water wash down installation – woo hoo!   No more manual cleaning the gunk off the anchor chain with endless buckets of water.   Great job.    Later in the afternoon we wandered to the tiki hut for a couple of beers before returning to Morphie via the hotel lobby to get our daily internet fix.

Wednesday morning and I made some potato salad in preparation for BBQ night – the ribs were already marinated and cooked so just needed to be put on the grill later.   I did some laundry while Richard cleaned up Morphie’s topsides which were covered in a layer of pine needles from the trees.   I’m not a fan of hand washing – particularly when we are in a marina so not getting such a good breeze – but the local laundry is no longer being recommended and the nearest one is now in the shopping mall in town.  A long walk away or an expensive taxi – so I’ve decided to do a little bit each day – to get through the huge pile we seem to have accumulated since we left NanaJuana.  

We then took ourselves off to meet Charlie, Saundra and John and headed over the footbridge to the security gate.   We were met by Lester – a local tour guide we had chatted to on the beach the day before – and two vehicles.  

We took off across the island to Punta Gorda… a sleepy fishing village where we can buy fresh fish which is actually the reason for the trip.  

We were taken to the Perla restaurant to sample some local food.  On arrival we were not particularly impressed…but we were led through to the back across some massive mangrove roots and onto a covered dock over the sea looking out onto the reef system…and it was simply lovely.   I really loved watching the local kids having fun in the sea too.   

There were some local guys who decided to share their root alcohol shots…and were quite engaging, if not a little drunk.   We were served a huge fish lunch and thoroughly enjoyed it – Richard had lobster and I had shrimp – and we all shared some fish.  We left the conch to Charlie and Saundra to sample LOL.  

It was a lovely spot and a nice way to spend a few hours.   Sadly the only fresh fish available to purchase was parrot fish – which we don’t eat – so we left empty-handed.   But it had certainly been a fun experience which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

We got back and had a snooze before heading off to BBQ night.  Both of us were still full from lunch so we decided not to bother with food and just had a few beers instead.  We socialised with the other cruisers before returning to Morphie via the hotel lobby.  We couldn’t get online though so we ended up having a relatively early night.

Thursday morning and we listened to the daily weather report from Chris Parker on the SSB.   We are looking for a weather window to move east to Guanaja and then onward around the corner of Honduras and Nicaragua and southwards towards the island of Providencia (which actually belongs to Colombia) making our way towards Panama.   Ideally we are really looking to hitch a ride on the back of a norther to get the best sailing angle.   It is a number of days at sea as we have to take a very long route round due to vagabonds in the area – so we are looking for a reasonable gap.   Right now there is a norther coming this weekend but the forecast is very strong with winds potentially sustained at 35 knots (with gusts to 45) so think we’ll pass on this opportunity and keep watching for a future window.  Check out the colours on the grib file and this only shows it as it builds in the area.  Time for boats to look for shelter….and a number of them have already arrived here on the south side of Roatan.

At noon – having done more washing – I headed to the tiki hut to visit the vegetable truck.   Richard stayed behind to service the generator.

Later on we met up with Charlie and Saundra and headed out in their tender to the outer reef.  Fantasy Island looks pretty in the sun today.  

We dropped into the shallow water expecting lots of lobsters but found that a summer storm had moved the sand around and lots of the overhangs had been filled in.   But we spotted some lovely little critters including this huge crab in his shell.    And Saundra had the find of the day with a bill fish! 

Moving on we came through the cut and got ready to get back in the water again. 

This time we dropped on top of a wreck that was about 90 foot below us, swam across the main channel, and meandered along the reef wall.    The snorkelling was more interesting here with nice varied coral heads and looking down the wall into the depths below. 

After all that exercise Charlie drove us to the beach and we had a bobbing session to round off the afternoon.  It had been a good fun day with lots of laughs.   Later on we headed to the reception for internet and then went to the tiki hut and spoke to the English couple who had been rescued earlier that morning.  They had broken their transmission and had been carried this way by the current despite the lack of wind.   Many of the marina guests went out in their dinghies to raft up and propel them through the narrow dog leg entrance in the reef and into a marina slip.  They were very happy to be here…  

This morning, Friday, there was no net being broadcast on the radio, which made us wonder what had happened.   Well….a boat from the anchorage had left….and they had hit the reef on the way out.   So there was another rescue mission underway to get them off the reef and bring them into the marina.   They need to get their boat hauled out here now to check for damage.  Bet that ruined their day!  

In the meantime I’ve done another load of washing and Richard has finished with the generator.  He has disconnected the oil switch as this meant the generator cut out when we tried to use it at sea when we heeled over.   We need this operational for the Pacific to keep up with our power consumption without running the engine and he’s sussed out how to do it!  Obviously we’ll have to watch the oil level every time we use the generator in future but, hey, we can now use it underway.  So another woo hoo.   Well done again Richard.   

Today we are planning a lazy day.  As the weather is due to turn on Sunday we may have more beach time and then have a quiet night on board.   As we have loads of vegetables we are planning a roast.   Might even get carried away and make Yorkshire puddings….  We are going diving tomorrow morning so looking forward to that.

Oh yes…update on the Russians.   For some mad reason, they moved the fixed mooring line from their stern to the bow so, to all intents and purposes, they were now behaving like an anchored vessel (they do actually have bow anchors down too) and are swinging in the wind.   There is not enough room for that without putting boats on the dock at risk.  We reported it to Steve and Debbie and, after they made sure the boat was properly secured once again, they were given their marching orders.    This situation was clearly the final straw that broke the camel’s back for them.  

Sadly I have to tell you that our first GoPro video was a disappointment due to operator error….so we need to go back to the manual and try again.  I think we may have been a little ambitious first time out with all the different video options.   Never mind, I’m sure we’ll get the hang of it before long.

Bye for now

Jan

Monday (Boxing Day) we paid our electricity bill, topped up our water tanks, and disconnected everything electrical we had charged as we were leaving shore power behind, and slipped away around noon from NanaJuana for the trip down the Rio Dulce to Cayo Quemodo.   We thoroughly enjoyed the moody jungle and mountain scenery before we pulled into the bay and anchored.   Boy it felt good to be back on the hook, even in the rain!

We went to drop off our sails at Toms and took a few photos of Morphie on the way back.  Our next destination was Utila, one of the Bay Islands of Honduras, and they require boat identification photographs for the check in process.  So while Richard busied himself pulling all our ropes through the new blocks in preparation for the return of the sail, I turned the photos into an A5 sheet complete with boat stamp.   Hopefully the Port Captain will be suitably impressed with my handiwork LOL.   Oh yes…and I ended up buying a new bracelet…from the visiting local women who paddled over to Morphie.    And ended up giving the kids some biscuits too – who could resist those little faces?!?

Later on we dinked over to Mike’s new restaurant called – not sure why – Minnie Mike’s Juke Joint.   We had an early dinner and a few beers while we caught up with Texan Mike and his Guatemalan family.   We had visited them on our arrival in the Rio and were surprised by how much the smallest child had grown.  He loved proudly showing us his new shoes.   Was a fun evening.

Tuesday morning we were up early and headed over to Mikes as he had offered to give us a lift to Livingston to get our clearance documents sorted.   We headed off in his lancha with the family and we were in awe of the beautiful scenery through the gorge.  

We arrived at Livingston and docked at the Fishermen’s Jetty.   We climbed out and loved watching the huge numbers of pelicans hanging out waiting for fish handouts.  

We then headed to Servimar – which is Raul’s place – the ‘fixer’.   He had pre-prepared our exit papers for us and, within five minutes of handing over our passports, we had exit stamps and everything was sorted for us to leave….   Great service!   We have 24 hours to depart which is fine by us as we planned a dawn departure on Wednesday.

We did a bit of shopping enjoying the empty streets after the chaos of Fronteras – and stopped to watch the women doing their laundry in the communal washing area – before catching up with the internet over a coffee.   

We headed back to the pier and found Mike.  He was there drinking beer so we joined in…and waited for the women to return from their shopping spree.   Eventually we were all reunited and we headed back up the river again.

It was about two when we got back so we headed straight to Toms for a sit rep on our sails.   He had almost finished the staysail but had had to do more work than envisaged as the original sacrificial strip had not covered the luff tape so there was quite a bit of UV damage.    We returned to Morphie to wait   Come four we are getting slight anxious….so Richard went off in dink to see what was happening.    He returned with the staysail and said Tom was hopeful that he would finish the genoa later today.  So we hanked on the sail and just chilled out….but by six it was pitch black so Richard went off again only to report that Tom had had to give up due to lack of light.  Fair enough…will be done by eight in the morning….  

So we headed over to Mikes and gave the boys our present – an old-fashioned wooden spinning top.   Well….the adults loved it….although this might be something to do with the fact that they were pretty stoned.    Pure marijuana joints are constantly being passed around – and no one minded when we declined to participate.  Eventually the kids got to play with the top and they were fascinated by it with the baby dancing around it as it spun on the floor. 

Before we turned in for the night we did some passage scenarios and plotted our route.  Basically we have to go across the bar at Livingston by 8.30 latest to stand a chance of getting through the Belizean reef and out into open water before dark.    Hmmmm…that’s not possible even if the sails are ready for eight in the morning….so we decided to stay another day. 

Wednesday morning Richard went round to tell Tom the news….   Later on he came by with the finished sails and we waited for a break in the rain before hanking it on.   And, of course, the furler jammed at this point so we had to re-feed all the line through the drum…while we sailed around our anchor in the bay.   Finally it was all sorted and at last Morphie was fully dressed and ready to return to the sea.   Later on we downloaded the weather again and saw that the wind forecast had strengthened to 20 knots so it might be a bit lumpy out there…never mind….Utila here we come!

Later that evening we went to say our goodbyes to Mike, Suli and Tom.   We had really enjoyed our stay in Cayo Quemodo.

At six on Thursday morning we upped anchor and headed off down to Livingston through the gorge in the rain showers.   We actually made our first GoPro video whilst underway but we need to learn how to edit it before we share it….but hopefully we’ll have something for you soon.     

By 7.30 we arrived at Livingston just as the fishermen arrived back from their night at sea….there were birds everywhere following them, including some taking a break on the sea buoy.

We safely crossed the shallow sand bar and headed up towards Belize.   We were thoroughly enjoying being back on the water although the AIS decided to play up and the high wind and torrential rain squalls were a little tiresome.    Before sunset, as planned, we were through the Ranguana Pass and out into open ocean heading to Utila.   Then the radar gave us an error message….great…..    We managed to sort out both the AIS and radar before we had dinner and started our night shift patterns.

During my first watch – six to nine pm – the squalls worsened and the seas picked up.   We were reefed down….and then the wind shifted 120 degrees and hit us right on the nose.   I had to get Richard back up into the cockpit to help me deal with the genoa.   We decided to take it in and deploy the staysail instead as I’m able to tack without assistance so I started the ‘where is the wind coming from game’ responding to constant significant wind shifts by working my way above or below the rhumb line towards our destination.   It was slow going as the seas continued to build with some green water over the bow.

Richard’s shift – nine to twelve – brought more of the same except that he had cargo ships to play with and the AIS went on the blink again.  But in the pitch black he was easily able to spot them so he left me to sleep.   When I came back on watch at twelve I restarted the systems and got the AIS working again…all was good.     Within ten minutes of being back on watch I got hit by a 35 knot squall which didn’t cause any difficulties sailing Morphie but I did manage to get soaked by being in the wrong place in the cockpit at the wrong time!

Then bang…something broke…and bits flew into the cockpit.   I realised that the main sheet block had parted from the traveller so had to call Richard back up urgently to help lash the boom down.    Luckily I was able to find all the bits!    With the boom secured and the main now furled away we continued motoring towards our destination.   Richard went back to bed while I radioed the large container ship behind us to thank him for giving us safe passage…he had clearly slowed down and changed his course.

We swapped shifts again at three and Richard woke me early with shouts of ‘dollies’!   We were being welcomed to Utila by a couple of dolphins who had come to play…   Absolutely magical.   And, of course, don’t forget the beautiful stormy sunrise at sea…

Finally we worked our way around Utila, through the reef, and anchored in the bay by eight on Friday morning.   Our first passage of the season was 143 miles which we completed in 26 hours, not too bad considering the conditions and problems that we had faced.  We were able to fix the traveller block quite quickly – obviously this had just shaken loose over time – and definitely something to add to the pre-passage checks in future!

By ten we were cleaned up and ashore trying to check in.   But the immigration office and the port captain’s office were closed.   So we went shopping and returned about half an hour later.  

The Port Captain was surprised I had the photos ready and accepted them without question – phew!    First part done so we went to see the immigration lady who was struggling with non-working computers, power cuts and lack of internet, so was manually – and tediously – hand completing forms for the French family ahead of us.  Finally by the time she was ready to process us the power came back so we were done quite quickly.  We returned to the Port Captain who asked us to return at two pm.   Really?!?    We are both feeling tired from the passage and know that if we return to Morphie we won’t make it back….so decided to stay in town.   We had breakfast at Mango Tango and then headed off to Buccaneers for more coffee and internet.

By 1.30 pm both of us were completely jaded and feeling slightly unwell….so we returned to the Port Captain in hopeful mood.   Our papers had still not been processed by the mainland but he just created new ones for us and gave us our cruising permit.   Great – thanks!    Finally legal, and in the rain, we headed back to Morphie and went to bed.  And that is where we stayed only surfacing to turn on the anchor light LOL.

Saturday morning we were up early and picked up the anchor before seven…and the fan belt started slipping…so we dropped it again.    Richard was frustrated as he’d done an engine check the night before and all was well.    Nevertheless he quickly swapped it out and so we took off again leaving Utila behind in the pouring rain.   The wind was lighter than forecast so we motored….hopeful that it would fill in later…but, of course, it didn’t.  

Thankfully the clouds and rain went away and we motored across to Roatan enjoying the sun and the sights of the two huge cruise ships in town.  

By mid-afternoon we were tied into our slip in Fantasy Island and I wandered to the marina office to pay – and had a lovely reunion with Cheeky the monkey along the way.   I thoroughly enjoyed my kisses and cuddles to the amazement of the hotel guests who he had been swearing at from the trees LOL.

We went to the lobby to get online before we met up with Charlie and Saundra when they returned from a day out.   They invited us to join them for dinner on a friends’ boat for the evening.   We declined though as we had already eaten but hoped to see them on the beach for the fireworks later.

We cleaned ourselves up and headed over to the Cruisers tiki hit and caught up with Steve, Debbie and Libby the boat dog.   Libby seemed pretty pleased to see Richard again…  We spent a few hours there before heading off to the beach where we watched the dancing entertainment;  enjoyed the fire being lit;  before the fireworks went over the beach at midnight while quaffing complimentary champagne.   It was a lovely evening.   Happy New Year to you all.

This morning, Sunday, and Richard installed an anchor wash down pump and re-secured the traveller block with a special product we found in Utila.   We’re both now in the hotel reception getting internet….I think the rest of the day might be for rest!  

Bye for now

Jan

On Thursday Richard identified and fixed dink’s leak so he was able to be lifted back onto his davits.   We then relaxed for a while before joining Ulla and Jo at the pool where we shared a pre-Christmas bottle of bubbly with them.  Very nice it was too before we returned to Morphie for an early night.

Friday morning we awoke to torrential rain again…but we needed to go into town to do some provisioning and also to check whether our cable had arrived.   So we dragged out our oilies and made our way across the river.  The package had still not arrived but we were promised it may arrive later in the day.    Oh well…so back across the river…until it was time to do it all again.  Check out this boat near us – can you believe that someone actually lives on it?!? 

Just after three we returned and were amazed that, yes, our parcel had actually arrived.  Woo hoo!   We can make plans to get out of here now once we’ve done the installation and test that the Iridium Go is working with the external antennae.   We were both pretty excited and didn’t even care that customs charged us £20. 

Back on board we quickly unpacked it and….oh no….they have sent four of the same connectors.   So we can connect to the unit itself but not to the antennae as the connectors supplied are too small.   This is turning into some sort of farce!   Feeling pretty despondent we fired off another email to the company.   We have decided we are not waiting around any longer – especially as they are probably closed for Christmas – so will try and get them sent to us in Panama. 

Saturday morning and the rain finally stopped.   Richard decided to cut the antennae connector from the original thicker cable to see if he can connect it to the new thinner version.   Check out the difference in size!   

Anyway….he managed to do it…and the continuity tests of the braid and the core were successful so he knew we had a good termination.    Fantastic…well done.   So we then focused on pulling through the cables into the boat.   Here is what the arch looks like now with its recent addition.

While Richard was terminating cables and reattaching the GPS I took myself off to the petrol station – and topped up with petrol, two-stroke oil and a gas fill for our BBQ propane bottle.   We then did some more pre-passage testing:  radar, check;  GPS, check;  Iridium Go, check.   Hey we are almost ready to go – really just the sails left to sort out.  They are currently loitering in the saloon and getting in the way.  When we leave here we are heading down the river about 15 miles to where Tom the rigger is located.  He is going to strengthen the stitching on the sacrificial strips for us.  We are also going to install an additional boom bail for the boom break while we are there.

Later on we went across to MAR Marine to join a group of cruisers who were coming down the river with us following Santa.   We all piled in – it was pretty full – and headed around to Backpackers to await Santa’s arrival admiring the beautiful sky as the sun went down.  

In the meantime we checked out Santa’s sleigh and said hi to Rudolph.   Finally at six the generator was started and the sleigh was lit up – Santa and Mother Christmas arrived and got settled – and we took off into the darkness.    Oh yes…and that hair and beard is real.

We skirted settlements and marinas along the way and there was a noisy reception from land as we went by.  We sang carols too…   Fireworks were going off all over and it was just an amazing journey. 

About 45 minutes later we arrived at Casa Guatemala and went into Santa’s Grotto.   Here some of the resident children were waiting to receive their gifts.   Santa’s helper is actually Heather who is the CEO of this charity and a very special hard-working inspirational individual.  The connection she has with the kids is amazing and they all love her back.   We thoroughly enjoyed watching them wait their turn for a hug with Santa and, surprisingly, not one of them opened their bags.   Can you imagine giving a two year a Christmas gift and them not tearing it open immediately??  Oh yes, and the blonde cutie, belongs to one of the resident volunteer teachers.

Then it was time for the local children from the surrounding villages to receive their gifts.  We took ourselves off to the gymnasium area – well it did have a basketball hoop – and we sat on concrete steps to watch the proceedings.   Fire crackers / bangers and other assorted fireworks were being set off all around us and the air was pretty thick with the smoke.  

Shortly afterwards Father Christmas arrived….and took his place on his decorated throne.  The villages were all asked to queue – the mums (some of whom are as young as 14 years old) with their children – and the dads (some of them were just boys really) watched from the perimeter.   They were let forward one family at a time.  There was no pushing, no shoving, nothing…just polite anticipation although there was some jostling as they first got into line LOL.   There were hundreds of them.

As each family came forward the children were identified by gender and age to ensure they got a relevant present, which was all gift wrapped and given to them by volunteer children. 

Then they had a hug from Santa before excitedly running back to their family groups to tear open the gifts.   Can you image the pure logistics of this huge endeavour?  No child left without a gift.   Fantastic or what?!?   This whole experience was incredibly humbling.   The pure joy on their faces – and their mothers too – was just stunning.  As this was their only gift some of them started quietly and politely bartering with each other if they fancied something different.   Cuddly toys seemed to win the popular vote!

After this huge present exchange we went to the kitchen where all the boarders were fed with a special Christmas meal – which included turkey and cake.   Once they were all tucking in more plates were distributed outside of the dining area to the village families.   Interesting  observation – not one child turned their nose up at anything….   When was the last time you gave a two or three or four or more aged child something to eat and they didn’t complain they wanted something different or whinge about being made to eat vegetables???   We wanted to help give out the food but our launcha was about to leave so we had to make our way back to the boat.

The trip down the river was dark and fast.   Was a little concerned about how many of us were on board and the load was definitely not evenly distributed.   But we made it back in one piece and dry!

Back on board we had a few beers and Tim joined us to try out one of my Dark and Stormies now that I had found the ginger beer in the store.  It ended up a very late night – and we thoroughly enjoyed the huge firework displays across the river – and it was a perfect end to a very special and different Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning we had sausage rolls – sadly bread rather than pastry – but hey we are in Guatemala!   Thanks everyone for the lovely cards.   

We had a lazy time before getting ready to go out.    Tim picked us up at the dock and we headed over to Backpackers.  The noise levels were high with lots of locals sitting on top of the bridge throwing firecrackers into the water.   Who would know that setting off fireworks would be such a popular pastime here in Guatemala?!?   

We managed to get to Backpackers just before the heavens opened – looks like we are going to have a wet return trip!   We liked the nativity scene here….it certainly feels like Christmas….unlike our marina which still hasn’t got a bit of tinsel anywhere let alone a tree!   

The lunch was an interesting plate of food – turkey, ham, stuffing, carrots, beans, cheesy mashed potato plus some unusual extras like roasted beetroot and tomato.   That said it was very flavoursome and three courses with a glass of wine for £15 is just amazing value.    Heather had set out a ‘friendship table’ for the cruisers to all sit together but this got ruined a bit by a bunch of them deciding to sit at the other end of the restaurant and watch American football…..and another bunch deciding to take a private table….   Never mind – there was enough of us – and we had fun and our waiters did a great job.

After we had had enough – and during a small break in the rain – we headed back and ended up stopping off at Seraphim for a few pontoonies before returning to Morphie.  Thanks for your hospitality and company Tim.  

This morning’s weather download (Boxing Day) continues to point to a weather window on Wednesday  to leave Guatemala – and the high tide is conveniently timed at 7.45 am to get across the sand bar at Livingston.  So we are heading down the river today to get our sails re-stitched.   While we are there we are hoping to get a lift in a local launcha to Livingston on Tuesday so that we can check out a day early which enable us to head straight off very early Wednesday morning without being forced to do an ‘officialdom’ stop (which would mean catching the later evening tide).   Our next destination is actually Roatan but we’ll be taking a convoluted route.   We’ll head up first into Belizean waters to avoid the vagabonds near the coast of Honduras and then run down to Utila to check in.   This gives us a slightly better wind angle too.  But, of course, I don’t need to tell you all this now as you can follow our track.     There is no internet or anything down the river so we’ll check in with you all again when we can. 

Bye for now

Jan

Friday morning we received a tracking message that the new communications cable had arrived in Miami.  Now it is in the hands of the airfreight company to Guatemala.  No further tracking available so just keeping everything flexible crossed. 

By eight we had Arnie on board doing the varnish keepers again….and he’d finished by 11.30.   At 1.30 the heavens opened with huge heavy raindrops.   The minute it stopped we rushed around drying the newly-varnished areas and were very surprised to find that it had survived the deluge without any damage.   Check out the weather coming across the river.    

We continued to sort out spares and storage holes down below.   We decided to get rid of some more clothes and old charts so Richard ran over to MAR marina to drop them off at Pass it On – a local charity.   Hopefully they’ll find some use either for the items direct or will sell them on to top up the kitty. 

As we are now stuck here until Christmas we decided to pay our marina bill for a month’s stay as the  deal is much better at only $220 including water.  It was hot and humid all day so we took an afternoon siesta but had to retreat down below once the sun had gone down as we felt so cold in the wind.  The barometer, however, said it was 27C so shows how acclimatised we have become LOL.    Another movie night on board beckoned.

Saturday morning and we had a 7.30 start with the last layer of keepers being done.   So we kept busy and cleaned all our saloon cushions – while Richard made extra bungees to secure the seats and back rests so things do not come flying out of the storage areas behind if we hit heavy weather conditions.   I left him to it and went off in search of internet as I wanted to learn how to best download weather files and synoptic charts when using a satellite connection.  I watched the video, amended my settings and was able to get weather routing and everything.   I was very happy with the outcome.   Everything is set up now – all we need to do is get it wired up and get off this dock!!!   Later on we had a cooling bob in the pool before returning to Morphie.  

We had paired our Sony Bluetooth speaker so there was an eclectic mix of music on a random selection.  Good job we had no neighbours LOL.   Well, we stayed up late, singing and chatting. Richard decided he had to try his newly-purchased Guatemalan Rum and drank all my coke in the absence of any ginger beer on board.  So I ended up with White Russians.   Suffice to say we were pretty merry by the time we retired at about midnight!

Sunday morning up early again as it was final varnish day.   This was for the whole rail to integrate the keepers in with the rest.   Arnie turned up at 9.00 am and got on with it.   Well it looks absolutely amazing……     

In the afternoon we went bobbing with the crew again and this time I remembered the camera.  After the excesses of the night before it was definitely time for an early night.

Monday morning we were up earlier than planned as the boys knocked on the hull at 7.30.  They quickly dried the boat and removed the blue masking tape.   We headed into town while this was going on…we wanted to purchase Christmas presents for the kids at Casa Guatemala.  

Close to the orphanage site (which is only accessible from the water) there are thirty surrounding Mayan villages where kids live in extreme poverty without access to clean water, electricity, schools or healthcare.   Casa Guatemala offers them a free education and almost 50% live on site receiving free room and board as well as tuition, materials, clothing and health care.   At the minute almost 600 children are being supported – some are orphans while others have families who are just too poor to care for them.  So the large cruising community here have been asked to supply small gifts and goodies so that Father Christmas can give every child a gift.  We managed to get 20 small simple items in town so filled up one of the collection boxes.  It felt great!   We are planning on following Father Christmas down the river to see him deliver the gifts on Christmas Eve.  Here is last year’s effort – should be a lot of fun. 

By Monday afternoon – despite the rain showers – the topsides have been thoroughly washed and cleaned.  We continued with boat jobs but are running out of things to do down below now – so look forward to the lads finishing so we can continue on deck.   After a break we took ourselves across the river, getting soaked, wearing our Santa hats. Here we are looking dishevelled to say the least but at least we were trying to get into the Christmas spirit! 

The promised carol singing didn’t really take off, although the local kids did have a good time, so we came back about 8.30 chilled through to the bone.  Oh yes..and dink was a bit floppy…looks like he’s developed a slow leak now.

Tuesday morning and the temperature had dropped to 23C which is positively freezing when combined with strong winds.  The boys came back and spent the whole day waxing, polishing the topsides plus the stainless – under close supervision….   It feels very decadent having all this work done for us but two lads for two whole days costs only £80.  Here they are working hard.

Apparently, according to the locals, giving them work earns us more respect.   Not sure if that is true but it’s certainly an unusual USP.   And we’ve been invited out with Arnie (the boss) on Friday for a beer, so there may be some truth in it.  Here’s Morphie looking absolutely stunning!

Later on we restored all the cans on the rail and reinstalled the cockpit cushions.   Then we installed our new rope holders before we gave up in the heavy rain….  

For the first time the sun did just peep through as it said goodnight to us.  

We sat in the cockpit for a while watching and listening to the heavily laden trucks go across the bridge – they are well illuminated – we just can’t help breaking into song of Holidays are coming….Holidays are coming….  LOL

Wednesday morning and it was the first day when we weren’t expecting anyone to call.   So we had a lie in listening to the rain beating down on the coach roof.   We had a brunch while I popped off to the posh marina provisioning shop as they had told me they were getting restocked that day for Christmas.

Found some fresh orange juice – to go with the bubbly for Christmas Day – and some breakfast sausages.   Happy girl!     While we were sitting in the cockpit we waved goodbye to Charlie and Saundra on Island Sol who are on their way to Roatan for Christmas.  Really sad we will not be with them – but we have fingers crossed for a New Year’s Eve reunion if everything works out with the cable and the weather decides to be kind.

In between rain showers Richard installed the dodgers on the rail so we are completely canvassed up now.   He’s also installed the new triple / double blocks to the rail to integrate the additional lines from the whisker pole.    And rain keeps stopping play.    Later on we headed off in the water taxi to MAR marine for a movie night – well, the food wasn’t great and the film was dire!  Oh well, at least we had a night off the boat.  

Oh yes and we have made our Christmas lunch reservations for 4pm at Backpackers who have a visiting Canadian chef – so they are promising turkey, ham, stuffing and all the trimmings.  Fantastic deal at only £15 a head!

This morning, Thursday, Richard is troubleshooting dink’s leak while I’m in reception blogging.   

So to sign off today we’d like to wish all our family and friends a wonderful happy and healthy Christmas.   We miss you….  Cheers!

Jan

Saturday afternoon we went bobbing in the pool and it turned into a bit of a party for a few hours with Jo, Ulla, Charlie and Saundra plus a few others that popped in and out. Was great fun and, of course, I forgot to take a single photo of the festivities.   So here’s a picture of the pool without us.  

We made the conscious decision to shower on board as I certainly have no intentions of utilising the hotel facilities – especially now that I know someone recently found a snake in there. 

Sunday we had a lazy start and a hearty brunch. In the afternoon we started to trace the cable from the arch into the navigation station.  This cable belongs to one of our GPS receivers and goes through the area of the arch we are having altered to accommodate the Iridium Go antennae. We traced and disconnected it before securing two strong cables to act as the draw wire. Check out this wiring maze behind the chart plotter.

We took apart the GPS and as the cable inside is in a sealed unit – presumably to protect from water ingress – Richard started pulling the cable from the arch while I pushed cables up into the arch from the back cabin.  Finally we had mission accomplished and were now ready for the welder.  Last job for the day was to put the fuel cans in their covers. They look great – we shall look so smart when everything is installed and fixed on the rail.   

Late Sunday afternoon we headed to the pool for our customary cool down before another night on board.

Monday morning we were up very early in readiness for things to happen and, of course, it is pouring with rain.  Great – no varnishing again today!   So we took all the canvas off – in anticipation of the welder’s imminent arrival – and waited…and waited.  I got on with the laundry in the meantime.  By 10 am when the rain stopped Richard went off on his man hunt again.  He found them and eventually they turned up along with all the gear.   So we were feeling slight more hopeful of finally getting this done.  Richard showed them the autopilot steering arm which needed to be cut to size. This then frees up a stainless piece to extend the antennae mount. We seem to have things under control – then they decide that to do this they have to go elsewhere. So Richard goes with them as he is not confident that it will either happen or be done to our specification if they are left to their own devices!  So off he goes on the back of a scooter to Fronteras……

Lunchtime and the fridge guy turns up – nothing majorly wrong but he did tweak a few things and install the new thermometer. He also showed me how to recalibrate the Carel thermostat offsets which was part of the problem. In the meantime, I was troubleshooting the Iridium Go unit as it had decided to stop talking wirelessly to the iPad and wouldn’t submit the GPS readings to the tracker. By the time Richard returned the fridge guy was just leaving – so he taught Richard how to use his gas gauges properly. We are pleased to report the refrigeration units are working perfectly now and not drawing as much power. Feeling happy that something has gone well!

I finally managed to fix the Iridium Go….and realised that some settings had reset themselves and, with the wifi being turned off, it couldn’t communicate either.  A complete mystery how this happened but at least I worked it out.  So….woo hoo….the tracker is now live!  You can follow the link from either the right-hand menu or the new tab on the menu bar.   Am so pleased that this has finally gone live – although as you can see we are not going very fast tied to a dock LOL.

The steering arm came back with Richard and the guys had done a good job cutting it down to size and welding it….so fingers crossed for the next bit!

Richard popped into town for a few things while I stayed on board. He returned with fried chicken – the staple diet here – and it was actually really tasty. The welders returned later and cut a hole in the rail….ready for the new fabricated post to be welded in place.   

And that was it for the day….. Finally at around 5.30 we were home alone. Supervising work of local workers is very tiring.   We decided to stay put so after cleaning and tidying up we had a movie night.  

Tuesday morning and the sun came out again.   There was lots of movement in the anchorage as everyone with a deep keel was heading down the river to catch the super high tide across the bar.   Astonishingly by eight we had varnish workers….by nine we had welders. Wow things are finally coming together.

The varnish workers were kept to the bow of the boat when the welders started. We had covered the stern with corrugated cardboard which we soaked in water to catch any stray sparks. And we also had a fire blanket to hand. We were very worried about potential damage.  Anyway….we disconnected shore power and turned all batteries off…and sat on the dock.  Thankfully it didn’t take too long and the welders left to go get some cleaning / polishing materials.   Here’s the latest look….

All going well except that we’ve just realised that the cable itself will fit through the arch but, where the rail is fixed to the boat, the installers have used some type of gunk that has reduced the diameter which is not amenable to being cut nor filed.  OMG.  One problem resolved to find another created…..   Here’s a picture of the gunk!

So we sent an email to the distributors for information on alternative cables we can use – we had actually asked this before we left the UK but was told there wasn’t anything else without a severely compromised performance.    By the time everyone finished for the day it was getting late and we just cleaned and tidied up again…and reinstalled all the canvas.  We were pleased with the end result. 

All we need to resolve now is the cable issue.  Sadly there was too much cloud cover to see the super moon or the Gemini meteor showers.

Wednesday morning we were up early the varnishers came by and we headed into town for some fresh vegetable provisions.   Busy in town again today….   

Back on board and the heavens opened….and then again…and then again. The varnishing is suspended again (sigh) so I did some computer work while Richard got on with the installation of a new helm seat.  

Island Packet build a great boat but the helm seat on Morphie has to be the most uncomfortable ever designed…. The seat back is too far forward causing me to get backache and there is nowhere to brace ourselves in a seaway either – my feet don’t even reach the floor. We decided not to make any structural changes as the seat is fine for short multiple day passages – but definitely not for the long periods planned this year.

So we purchased this seat from West Marine – it folds completely flat when not in situ for easy storage – and Richard did his magic with webbing design again and fixed it in place. He even made me a foot rest.   Here he is testing the outcome.   I found it very comfortable – great job.  We then dismantled it all again – this is something we’ll utilise later. 

We had dinner in the cockpit watching the biblical deluge bounce off the topsides. We got another email from the support team about the installation issue.  They do have another thinner flexible cable we could use – problem is that they are in Miami and have no presence here. This specialist cable is not available in the shops. Well thanks for that. Shame we couldn’t have been given this information when we asked in the UK!   Oh yes and the best helpful comment was….”Have we thought of securing it with cable ties rather than using the arch”. Completely missing the point that it is getting access to down below that is the problem!  Richard held me back from firing a “Dear Numpty” response.  We have now started to call the Iridium Go the Iridium No!!!

We composed together a very polite response saying that having a hatch open to feed the cable into the boat (however it was fixed externally) wasn’t perhaps a sensible idea!  There is an airfreight forwarder here in the Rio who can ship from Miami so we may have to go down that route. Christmas in Guatemala is now looking like a distinct possibility…..

This morning – Thursday – and it is cloudy but dry.   Rubbing down the keepers has happened but the varnisher didn’t show to apply a coat – apparently his bike has broken down.   Oh well….that’s life! Richard has just reactivated our wind generator and I’m blogging…..   We have loads to do but really can’t start on some of the list until the varnishers have finished….for example we are planning to install triple blocks rather than double blocks on the rail to accommodate the lines from either the whisker pole or the boom brake.

We headed over to the concrete mall again later….visiting Rita the Air Freight lady along the way….as it is a definite that we are going to have to order this thinner cable.   This is a crucial bit of kit this year as we need to access weather whilst at sea.

Anyway….we got some narrow handled chisels…and when we got back Richard managed to get the gunk out of the hole.  But it didn’t open up as anticipated – the installers had installed a plate over the hole which also reduced the diameter and this is not accessible to remove.  Clearly they were sizing for the cables that existed not for any future additions.    Damn! 

Anyway we are now sitting in the hotel reception on the internet and have just ordered and paid for the cable and connectors.   We’ve cancelled our Christmas reservation at Fantasy Island and we are resigned to staying here while we play the waiting game.  And, of course, our marina is the only one on the river that has absolutely zilch decorations – very sad!   But was cheered by this snowman made from plastic cups we found in Brunos today. 

Remember the bugs from the last blog?   Well, while sitting here Richard killed a beastie trying to sting him and we were very impressed by the speed in which the ants carried him away.    Dangerous place this LOL.  

Think it is time soon to call it a day and maybe treat ourselves to a bob…  Has been a long, hot and stressful day!

Bye for now

Jan

Sunday afternoon we were ready to splash – with only food and some old working clothes left in the apartment – so we accepted Charlie’s invitation to have dinner with him at another restaurant hidden up one of the Rio’s tributaries. At five we took off into the mangroves….to this lovely little place and had a great steak dinner (which is a pretty unusual find here).  We had a fun time.

By eight we were back in the apartment quaffing our last cold beers before soaking up our last night of air conditioning and mindless TV before retiring to bed.

Monday morning we were up very early and paid our marina bill – no cash no splash LOL – and headed to RAM’s West Marine-affiliated chandlery to collect our big order which had been sitting waiting patiently for our return.  Well…we were there ages which annoyed lots of other clients….and, finally, they agreed to let us take our goods and to return the following day to pay.   The till could not work out the final amount left to pay and the young guy was totally confused by their complicated system.

We were heading back to our apartment when we were suddenly called on the radio – they were ready to splash us in ten minutes!  So we headed to Morphie and made sure everything was ready for her trip to the water.  The travel lift turned up – we got off – the ladder was removed and they lifted her off her blocks.

This made us nervous, especially as they left her hanging there while one of the guys topped up the antifouling in areas affected by the stands and chocks.  We just sat on the wall helplessly and nervously watching while the guys took a short break as they waited for the newly-applied antifoul to dry.

Finally Morphie was on the move and we followed behind on the torturous long walk until she was lowered into the water.

Richard walked the plank and checked for leaks…and then we were pulled out of the launch area until we were snug alongside the fuel dock… feeling very relieved the ordeal was over for another year.

While Richard was topping up the ten fuel cans on the rail I did a final trip to the apartment to collect our frozen food, hand in the keys, and returned just in time to pay the huge fuel bill LOL. We sat on the fuel dock – turned on the fridge / freezer – and waited for confirmation that we were good to move across to our slip in NanaJuana. That came sooner than expected and we motored around the corner very pleased that everything had worked as it should. Then we realised the fridge was playing up….which we expected because we knew that its thermostat was dodgy in the summer.  The freezer was, thankfully, working perfectly.

We spent the rest of the day sorting ourselves out and headed to the pool for a quick cool down before returning to Morphie for our first evening and dinner on board followed by an early night. We were tired but happy to be back on board.

Tuesday morning we awoke refreshed having slept through – despite the lack of air conditioning on board LOL. And the fridge still needs some help. On the list!  Our first task was to get dink off the coach roof. We pulled him up above the deck with the Genoa halyard…pumped air into him…and launched him over the side into the water. Then we got the outboard off the rail and lowered it down onto dink’s transom. Mission accomplished. We then sorted out his gear and locked him to the dock. Next job was to reinstall the ropes / pulleys / cushioned pads etc onto the arch. After that it was time to reinstate the dorade – this has to be removed when dink is on the bow – and put up the canvas. Here she is looking pretty in her slip.

In the meantime we had a visit from the varnish guy who is going to make good some “keepers” that had been affected by the UV during our time on the hard. We also spoke to a canvas guy who we hope is going to make canvas covers for our fuel cans as they are also getting affected by the sun.  Plus we would like a couple of lightweight sun canopies to cover the boom. Then we took ourselves off to get some drinking vouchers / internet to make arrangements for the refrigerant guy and electrician (utilising the winning bids from Saturday’s auction).

We also approached a stainless steel welder to help us with the Iridium Go installation on the arch. Oh yes and we finally agreed and paid our outstanding bill at the chandlery. Phew…busy and so very hot…so we spent a few hours in the pool before returning to Morphie for dinner. Sadly we can’t pick up internet on the boat here so we went back to the hotel reception to check on emails before another early night.

Wednesday morning we awoke to rain and cloud. So the guys coming to do some varnish keepers have cried off starting today. The canvas guy has been and gone – and we have shaken hands on the deal with promises that it will all be finished by the end of the week.   That would be amazing.

In the meantime we’ve temporarily fixed the fridge by isolating the dodgy thermostat and injecting some gas. But we still need to replace the thermostat before we set off and the whole system given a proper check. Access to trades will become more difficult (and significantly more expensive) once we leave the Rio. At ten o’clock we were expecting the welder. He did turn up eventually and had good ideas but he couldn’t fit us in until 20 December at the earliest. Hmmmm… we definitely want to have moved on by then. He has gone away to look at his schedule to see if he can do it earlier but told us to shop around just in case. Not confident of getting this done and not a job we can tackle ourselves….

We carried on working.  Richard has added additional clips to our safety harnesses so we have both short and long tethers available when under way. He has also sewn together some webbing straps to fix our new helm seat in place for long passages – although we probably won’t use this for a while yet.

Appointments have been finalised with the electrician coming Friday and the fridge guy Monday.   So we just have an alternative welder to source. Lunchtime – in the crippling heat – we took dink across to Fronteras.

We were assaulted by the noise, smells, trucks, and manic activity all over again. Nothing much changes here on the river.  But as we needed to get some basic provisions it was a necessary evil.  Four heavy bags later, wilting in the heat, we returned to Morphie completely drained so took to our bed for a siesta once we had unpacked.

Wednesday evening we headed across to MAR marine via their complimentary water taxi service for movie night. Great dinner, happy hour all night, and thoroughly enjoyed the Tom Hanks film Scully, about the pilot who landed his plane on the Hudson River, saving all 155 people on board.  Here is a picture of the actual immediate aftermath of that dramatic event.

Thursday morning we were up early and the varnishing work started in earnest. We got more money out of the ATM and I did laundry while Richard sorted spares. Then we found another welder through Edgar the dockmaster here…who also acted as an interpreter. Allegedly the work starts Monday. Fingers crossed!

Richard carried on sorting through spares and packing things away while I sorted out our first aid supplies – spare items to be stowed and an emergency kit to deal with all eventualities in one place. At one point looking at the mess spread across the whole of the cabin sole Richard said he thought I could perform open-heart surgery and still have supplies left.    Well….you can’t have too much…can you?!?

Lunchtime we had a reunion with Charlie and Saundra (who had just flown in from Texas) and went out for a nice lunch on the river. Check out Saundra’s local Garifuna fish soup – yes that is a whole crab peeking out LOL.

Back to Morphie and we did some more tidying before taking ourselves off to the pool for a short bobbing session. On our return we were surprised that the canvas man turned up within minutes – he must have been watching out for us. He had finished the job. Amazing turnaround and good quality work. Woo hoo…things are starting to come together.

Friday morning and we woke to more rain. Damn….another day without the varnishing guys. But the electrician turned up and while his minions did the small job of swapping out the oil pressure gauge he and Richard put the world to rights in terms of electronic equipment.    We could have done this small job ourselves but, as the welding had not been done, the original task we wanted help with was not going to be worth doing.  Never mind.  This guy was interesting…he was sailing from the US to Panama…he came across the Rio and hadn’t left since. I really can’t imagine living here for 20+ years. After the electrician had gone Richard took apart the navigation station and put in new power supplies for the digital barometer and the Iridium Go. Here he is having fun….

Then he cut the holes in the panel and installed them.  Brilliant job – well done!  All we need now is that welder.  Pulling the cables into the arch and installing the receiver will be the final part of the installation – so the nav area will remain looking like this for now.

While Richard was creating a mess down below I took all the fixings for the cans off the rail – the footman loops we had purchased as marine stainless steel clearly weren’t.   Grrrr….   They have rusted badly making a right mess on deck which I had to clean up.   Not happy.    We couldn’t take them apart and replace them as we don’t have enough spares on board – so the only way forward was a compromise solution.   So I took them all off….cleaned them up…and covered them in a rubber solution which, hopefully, will reduce the rust.   Here I am re-fixing them to the rail….

Oh yes we also put up the new lightweight canvas to give us some additional protection from the sun.

Phew – busy day – and later on we cooled off in the pool chatting to Jo and Ulla.

I guess you might be wondering about the title to this blog?  Well….it is spider season here in Guatemala. My absolute nightmare as they frighten me. These beasties are everywhere and each morning Morphie is covered in new intricate webs. Thankfully no tarantulas have made it on board or into our bed as was the case for one cruiser on the radio net the other morning as he sought advice on venomous spider bite treatments.

I pushed seven smaller ones off the deck today this morning – and trust me that is really brave. But I did beg Richard for help with a particularly large nasty looking beastie. This one was aggressive, reared up and jumped at him before it became fish food in the drink. My fear of spiders is not helped by the fact that many of them here are venomous with some of the smallest being the most dangerous. Yuck!

On top of that we are being feasted upon by other bugs despite taking preventative precautions. We often wake up with blood on the sheets where some critter has got squished during the night. And they seem to like biting my face so I feel like a teenager with bad skin and zits.   Oh yes – and the best story for last – after bobbing we cleaned up onshore. The hotel public toilet / shower facilities are pretty big so we locked ourselves in and shared a shower. At one point Richard told me to move urgently – and I can’t see without my glasses – so I followed his instructions. Grabbing my specs to finally see what was going on as Richard worked hard at dispatching the critter – I was horrified to find out that a scorpion had actually been walking across my foot!!!

Seriously….it was a small one….but OMG….get me out of here!!!   Richard has never met a real live scorpion before – my hero – so brave.

Saturday morning and I’m sitting in the hotel reception with views over the pool making the most of the internet to get this blog done.

I’m also simultaneously downloading more KAP files from Google Earth. Frustrating that I lost time with computer problems so that I’m still working on this – had really hoped to have finished this by the time I left home.

Anyway, more boat jobs to do after I’ve finished this, and am hoping to be able to go bobbing again this afternoon.   The tracker should be going live soon – so watch this space.  In the meantime, bye for now.

Jan

Monday 28 November we were rudely awoken by the alarm clock at three in the morning.   It was time for us to start the next adventure.   I was full of mixed emotions at this point – sad at leaving our family and friends but also excitement about what was to come – and I admit to shedding the odd tear.   At 4.30 we were picked up and by six we were at the bag drop desk at Heathrow Airport Terminal 3 ready for our first flight of the day to Miami.  

We had more baggage than our ticket would allow so we had to pay for one additional 23kg bag for the hold.   The guy behind the counter didn’t know how to charge us the advertised £65 so he took the bags, printed our boarding passes and we were walked over to customer services to process the transaction.  Well, the computer said no, and at one point we had four agents working on the problem.   Rather than let us off the fee they persevered and, finally, after 30 minutes we had paid and were free to go.   We were very pleased to find out that our bags had been tagged to go direct to Guatemala so we didn’t need to reclaim and recheck them in Miami, which is often a nightmare.

We got through security with no further inspection – which was pretty surprising with the amount of electronics we were carrying – with two hand baggage bags alone weighing almost 20 kgs each!   Relieved that all was going to plan we headed off for some breakfast and ended up with some sausages baps.  Yum…. 

Finally after a bit of retail therapy it was time to go to our gate and onto the plane – it wasn’t full and was only running 29 minutes late.   Was glad to be underway and settled in to the trip, finding the seats slightly narrower than usual.  We haven’t put that much weight on, honest!!!   We took off smoothly and we settled down to watch a film with both of us opting for Finding Dory.   Almost two thirds of the way into the film the whole plane’s entertainment system failed and had to be rebooted.   Once it was back up and running neither of us returned to the film as we were slightly disappointed.  Finally the service trolleys arrived and we ended up with another breakfast – what?!? – was hoping for an early lunch at 11.30 really.  Never mind…..   By 2pm having had no additional service Richard went off and collected wine for us both so we could celebrate our departure in style.   Eventually just before we landed they fed us again – and we were surprised to get a basic afternoon tea.   What happened to lunch?!? 

Hungry and feeling a bit jaded we got off in Miami and did the endless walk to immigration.  Queues were surprisingly light and we cleared quite quickly before returning through security and to the gate area where our next flight was due to depart.   We went into a nice looking bar and grill – ordered two appetizers and two beers – expecting US-sized portions for the price.  Oh no, they were tiny!  Having just spent $50 (made more painful by the pound’s slump post Brexit) we voted with our feet and went off to the Chinese buffet where we filled up on cheap and tasty grub.  

Later on it was time to board our second short three-hour flight to Guatemala City. The plane was full to capacity but more spacious seats than the BA international flight – go figure!  

When we arrived we had another long walk to immigration which was all very efficient.   I was feeling quite anxious now as this airport’s customs have a reputation for checking all bags and taxing contents heavily.   We hired a porter and he helped us through the security lines and onto the x-ray area where all bags are screened.  I was disappointed to notice that one of our large checked bags had lost both its padlock and its metal ID tag.   Anyway…we declared maximum imported personal goods allowances…and had fingers crossed for a favourable outcome.   The lady wanted to check both hand luggage bags – we declared Yacht in Transit status – and showed her Morphie’s customs papers.   Well, it worked, and we got through with no charges.   Woo hoo!!!

We exited the cool calm of the airport terminal into craziness – people everywhere, sweltering heat and no courtesy bus to our hotel to be found.  Another hotel driver asked us if we were OK – and we were grateful for his intervention.   He telephoned our hotel and agreed to take us with his guests as the Intercontinental Hotel was just across the street – and no charge either!  Thank you so much for rescuing us from the madhouse!   Finally we checked in at the Clarion Suites and wearily took to our bed around 10 pm local time (4 am London time). 

Tuesday morning we were awake at the crack of dawn – despite being really tired – as we had failed to adjust successfully to the time differential.   So by 7.30 am we were having a leisurely and substantial breakfast.   At 10 am our minibus turned up and we were ready for the six hour road trip to be reunited with Morphie in the Rio Dulce.   

Having a private bus was definitely an extravagance but worth every penny.   In the end we elected not to stop once along the route and arrived at RAM marina shortly before 4pm.   We were horrified, though, that our driver was going to drive straight back to the City without a break.   Hope he made it back OK.

We picked up the keys to our apartment anticipating a quiet evening in front of the TV in the air conditioning….and perhaps a glass in hand.    We had booked this place exclusively for our use many months in advance.  

I was NOT happy to find instead that the marina office had double booked the accommodation and there was a French couple sharing with us.   So we ended up just locking our bags into the small second bedroom and, having been to the office to vent our displeasure along the way, we went off to give Morphie a pat and then to NanaJuana where we surprised Jo and Ulla poolside.   We then had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant before returning to the apartment.  

The French couple were clearly annoyed to be sharing with us too.   Well, I was furious, especially as they had taken the ensuite bedroom, and I was quite clear (rude according to Richard) letting them know this situation was for one night only!   We ended up holed up in our bedroom….and luckily the air conditioning unit was working.    But I couldn’t help myself be a little heavy handed with the bathroom door during the night when I had to leave our room to use the facilities.  I blame it all on tiredness LOL.

We got up early Wednesday morning and visited Morphie properly.   Her bottom paint looked great and we were very pleased with the work that had been done.   Funny though, how some people just felt the need to draw in the protective wax covering….

On board we were surprised to find that the exposed ropes had gone mouldy.  That had not happened to us before.   Down below there was a film over some of the walls and various items – I think we would have been covered in mould within another couple of weeks despite our vigorous laying-up procedures to avoid this.  Oh well, time to get to work!    We scrubbed and cleaned all day, and come three pm we had had enough in the sweltering conditions so returned to the apartment.   And, yay, the French couple had left…we called that a Frexit.   They are now living on their boat on the hard so not surprised they are unhappy but, sorry, not our fault.

We headed to the pool and enjoyed a bobbing reunion with Charlie, Jo and Ulla before returning to RAM Marina where we had a burger dinner enjoying the views across the lake.  Not great but now that we have the apartment to ourselves we can shop and cook each night.    We had an early night after a tiring day.

Thursday and we were up early again.   We unpacked everything that we had vacuum packed and put it all away.   We then went off to finalise our slip in NanaJuana for when we splash on Monday.   We also went shopping and provisioned up the apartment.   Then we took all the canvas back to the apartment and did some preventative patching of some worn areas.  We also re-waterproofed bits and, when it was all dry, we returned to Morphie and reinstalled the canvas to give us some protection from the fierce sun while working on the hard.   Later on we had another quick bob in the NanaJuana pool before returning to our air-conditioned haven and a home-cooked pasta meal.

Friday morning it was time to wash the ropes, clean the topsides, put a little air into dink and get rid of his tarp.   Y-valves were worked, sea cocks were opened, the knot meter was reinstated and all fuel cans were removed, washed and put back on the rail.   Sun screens got installed too.   Then it was time to tackle the hull and wash off the wax and we got the boat yard to polish the hull using their industrial machine.   Doesn’t she look a treat?

We carried on moving stuff from our big bags piecemeal as we didn’t want to lug them up a 10 foot ladder!   We even made our bed on board in preparation for Monday.   Finally at just gone five pm we called it a day and returned to our room for another cool evening in front of the TV with a curry.   There is only one English-speaking channel so we are watching absolute drivel but, hey ho….

Saturday morning and we were up early again and just did more unpacking, sorting etc.   In the meantime the huge paint shed next to us was being emptied and readied for an afternoon charity event supporting school children to get an education in a small fishing community in Cayo Quemado.     At around 11 ish we returned to our apartment and got cleaned up before heading off to the event.

This event was hosted by RAM marina and had lots and lots of donated raffle prizes and items to bid on in a silent auction.   We enjoyed catching up with some cruisers that we had met previously and bid on quite a few things….and purchased about 24 raffle tickets.  

Children in Cayo Quemado (and this is pretty standard across Guatemala) only get educated for free up to the age of 12 years old – after that their parents have to pay towards the costs of tuition etc.   Although not a lot of money in such a small impoverished fishing community this is beyond the means of most of the families.   This is a very worthy cause and we were very happy to participate.    Here are some of the students who have benefited from the trust in recent years – having now successfully graduated from High School.

We tucked into free food / popcorn and a courtesy beer (yes, we did purchase more!) before we settled down to listen to the results…. 

Charlie won two free haircuts and lunch for two at Brunos.   Richard and I won nothing!   But we did succeed in three of our auction bids:  a Q100 voucher for the store; an hour’s electrical service worth Q440; and an hour’s refrigerant service worth Q450.  Not bad for a Q500 (about £54) outlay.   The electrical guy we hope to utilise when we pull the cable through the arch for our Iridium Go (satellite) unit.   The fridge / freezer sometimes struggle when we first go back in the water so will be nice to have assistance to trouble shoot if that happens.   And, if it doesn’t, we know we need to swap out the thermostat on the fridge so we’ll use our ‘expert’ for that.  

After the event was over we headed off to The Shack with Charlie in his lancha where we continued drinking and having dinner.   Here are the men behaving badly!   Was a lovely end to a fun day. 

This morning – Sunday – and we have just taken all the bags to the boat and unpacked them.   We are almost ready to be splashed tomorrow morning.    Richard is doing his final engine checks and will be applying barnacle buster to the prop and keel plates later.    I’m in the apartment creating more KAP files for OpenCPN and blogging simultaneously.  I’m really looking forward to getting Morphie back in the water tomorrow and moving back on board although I know I’m going to miss the air conditioning LOL.

The plan next week is to stay in NanaJuana and continue with our jobs. There is the installation of the Iridium Go unit (and the tracking page will be made live once this is installed and tested); the installation of the new electronic barometer in the navigation station; adjustments to the helm seat; stainless steel cleaning; getting the wind generator operational again; un-pickling the watermaker etc etc etc…to give you just a flavour of the tasks ahead.     Looks like we’ll be pretty busy!

Bye for now.

Jan