A few days after the break-in while Andiamo was in Utila, I decided to go on to Roatan for a few days as planned. I figured I can at least get to West End without the need for my PC charts (which I had no access to on account of my laptops being stolen). So after rounding up what I thought would be a fun group of people to go along, I set the departure for last Tuesday, with a group of 3. I was only going to go over for a couple of nights and come back on Thursday.
On Tuesday, I got word that two of the three people slated to go on the trip couldn’t make it due to work constraints or other reasons. So it was just going to be me and a girl named Jacki, a traveler from Alaska, who was going to come along for a ride over to Roatan. The weather was good, despite there being no wind, so I opted to shove off anyway despite.
The trip over to Roatan took less than 3 hours, and Andiamo was anchored in West End harbor by mid afternoon Tuesday. There were a few familiar boats in the harbor, including Mike and Julie on “Surprize”, who I knew from Rio Dulce, and have seen since then numerous times around these waters. They were in La Ceiba for an extended time while Andiamo was there getting a bunch of work done on their boat. They had just left La Ceiba and made West End, Roatan their first stop. We dinghied over and chatted with them for awhile on our way into shore.
I had assumed that Jacki was going to be getting off the boat after the arrival, because she was just looking for a way over to Roatan. So I was a bit perplexed by her later request to spend the first night there on Andiamo. Since I had no other company aboard, I said it was ok.
The next morning, conditions were ripe for a nice sail along the coast of Roatan. After finding a mooring to stash the dinghy, we raised anchor and headed out of the reef cut. The next few hours had Andiamo in fantastic 18 knot winds. Jacki was kinda out of it, and I didn’t really understand why. She was just passing out everywhere, and not really able to participate as crew during the sail. I finally asked her if she was ok, and she said she had taken a sleeping pill that morning and it made her a little woozy. I found that to be a little odd.
Towards the end of the really fun sail, I wanted to bring in the genoa and prepare the boat for motoring back into the reef cut. I asked Jacki if she can help me bring in the genoa, and she said “sure”. So I instructed her on what line to pull in, while I was on deck doing most of the grunt work. She didn’t have to do much, just keep a little tension on the jib sheet while I pulled in the furling line, and she took up my slack.
Well, my instructions didn’t quite register, and she did none of the things I asked her to do while I was on deck trying to get the furling line in. As a result, the jib sheet’s slack started flapping pretty hard in the fairly strong winds. I kept yelling back to her to pull it in a bit, but she was only pulling on the furling line. After a few seconds, the jib sheet inevitably smacked me in the face with the force of a heavyweight boxer’s punch. I was dazed for a good few seconds before I realized that she wasn’t going to be much help. So I went back into the cockpit and ended up bringing in the lines from there using the winch.
I was a bit pissed off, but got over it pretty quick. After bringing in the main, I proceeded back into the reef cut, and dropped anchor. I dove in to check that the anchor was set ok, and it was. Another good sail done.
I again thought Jacki was going to head ashore, but she somehow squeaked past my questions, and ended up asking if she can stay another night on the boat. The winds really picked up in the evening, and shifting directions several times. I noticed that there was a good chance Andiamo might swing hard around the anchor, pop it it out and possibly drag over the night. I told her that I wasn’t going to be going in that night, because I would have to watch the anchor. So I brought her into shore, and came back.
The winds proceeded to kick pretty hard, and by about 10:30 that night, I saw that Andiamo was clearly dragging across the anchorage at a pretty fast clip. I realized I might have to reset the anchor at night alone, which I really don’t like doing. So I started the motor, raised anchor, and moved Andiamo further up towards the beach. I dropped anchor, got what I thought was a good hold of the bottom, and shut down the motor. I understood that I would probably have to spend the night in the cockpit that night to keep an eye on the anchor.
About midnight, I went back to the dock to pick up Jacki and bring her back. She looked pretty lit up, and was swaying pretty good. I asked her if she was ok, and she said she had been partying with some local friends. I didn´t ask any more questions.
Anyways, back on the boat, I proceeded to stay up in the cockpit for the next several hours to keep an eye on the anchor. Jacki continually talked and talked for hours, which was both entertaining and exhausting at the same time. I finally passed out about 5 AM, observing that Andiamo had dragged minimally, and that things should be ok, the rest of the morning. When I came to about 10 AM the next morning, I woke to a shock. I noticed that the Andiamo was not only about 40 yards from the reef! Luckily, the winds shifted, so she was parallel to the reef line.
So I had to snap into action and get the boat out of there. I tried to start the motor, but noticed that the starter was petering out. I had recently come to the conclusion that this starter’s solenoid had a bad voltage problem and that was why it kept frying starters up. So I couldn’t start the motor. I did have a spare starter, so I had to act fast and install it before the boat dragged any further onto the reef.
So I opened up the engine compartment, grabbed a bunch of tools, and proceeded to pull out the starter and put in the replacement. It took me about 15 minutes to get it done, however sloppily. I started the motor, and got Andiamo out of there. I pulled up the anchor, and brought her in again. I dropped anchor in a fairly sandy spot, and then dove in to check it. Dave from “Expectations” saw all the action on the boat, and dinghied over to help. While I was in the water, I had him put the boat in reverse to dig in the anchor while I watched it. After this little operation, Andiamo was secure again (whew!).
That evening, I noticed that Andiamo was overheating when I was running the engine to charge up the batteries. Oh no… not something else. After investigating, I noticed water dripping down from behind the fresh water pump’s pulley on the engine. I tried to pour more water into the header tank, and the water would just leak out as fast as I poured it in. This was not good. So I told Jacki that I was going to have to sail Andiamo back to La Ceiba in the morning. At least that would seal the deal in keeping her on Roatan, and off Andiamo.
I was afraid I would not be able to run the engine at all without it overheating. But I would need the engine if the wind died, and to motor into the breakwater. So this made me a bit nervous. Once I got out of the reef cut, I proceeded to sail towards La Ceiba, which was about 30 miles away. The winds were light, and at the rate I was sailing, it was going to take 8-10 hours to get there. I had no choice but to run the engine to make better time. I started the engine, and proceeded to pour fresh water into the header tank while it ran to see if it would stay cool. After a while, it started holding water more and more, and the engine’s operating temperature went to and stayed normal. I was very relieved, as there was absolutely NO wind.
I proceeded to make it into La Ceiba by mid-afternoon Friday. As I was approaching the dock, I noticed “Siqqituq” was there. That meant that Rob, his friend Gaby, and Lisa and her sister Carla (who was visiting from Ohio) were there. So that would be cool, because I would have some company to hang out with. I ended up tying up right next to them on the dock.
Turns out that they were planning on going whitewater rafting up in the Rio Cangrejal, and invited me to come along. With Andiamo safely tied up, I opted to go. So that evening, we were picked up to head over to a lodge up in Pico Bonito National Park, where we would start our rafting run the next morning. This is a beautiful mountain rainforest area very close to La Ceiba. When the rains are good, the river starts flowing with Class 3 to Class 5 rapids.
So the next morning, we got our gear, took a ride to the starting point, and started rafting down the Cangrejal. The ride was awesome, and we all flipped the raft on at least one occasion, and went down some pretty fun drops. Towards the end of the run, we parked the rafts, and walked up a couple of huge boulders that banked the river, and had a blast jumping off these 30 odd foot drops into the eddy pools below.
On the way back from rafting, we stopped at the mall, did some shopping for groceries, and headed back to the boat. That night, I whipped some Paella with shrimp and Chorizo sausage and we had a heck of a feast. Even later that night, Rob, Lisa and I caught a cab to Zona Viva, and got a dose of some nightlife. By 3 AM I was ready to go home, but Rob and Lisa kept me there until about 4:30 AM.
Lisa and her sister headed out yesterday. Her sister was flying back to Ohio via San Pedro Sula, and Lisa was on her way to Copan to see if she can try to learn some Spanish. Considering she’s taken classes in Antigua last year, and Utila this year, she wasn’t having much luck making progress. We’ll see how it goes in Copan for her.
So we said goodbye to them, and proceeded to get some work done on our boats. Rob was having some electrical problems on his boat, which I helped him suss out. Then he came over to Andiamo and helped me get my water pump off. At first I thought the problem was with a gasket. But after a good couple of days of trial and error, and after rebuilding the water pump twice, I opted to just get another one. So that should be installed by morning, and hopefully I won´t need to deal with that issue again for awhile.
Might hang out in La Ceiba for another day or so. Mitzy, my friend from Guatemala, found me a good deal on a laptop in Guatemala City, and offered to get me one, and bring it with her on her trip to Utila for work, which should be tomorrow. Hopefully I can meet up with her while she’s in La Ceiba and get the PC from her then. Then, I might head back up to Roatan because Ann, my Swedish dive instructor friend, lined up a bunch of people who want to take a daysail charter sometime this week. This is new territory for me, doing charters on Andiamo, but I thought why not. The weather´s been rather unfriendly lately, so that may have a say in whether or not the charter actually happens. So maybe I’ll be back over there to do that run and see what it’s like.
Definitely want to keep Andiamo movin’….
Comment from: eric voss [Visitor]
Tony fun checkin out whats up with you. Ive been in Daytona alot. Hope we can catch up. Chris knows he needs to call.