Andiamo!

Yep, it’s that time again, to pull Andiamo out of the water and tend to her undersides. As much as I dread the idea of hauling my boat out of the water, I also understand that it’s a necessary round of maintenance. Nonetheless, I look at it with complete and utter dread each time.

This time around, I decided to try to do it myself. It seems like both previous times I’ve hauled Andiamo to have the work done by the yard, things weren’t quite done up to par. Nevermind that lots of money was paid for substandard work.

At first, the mere thought of doing the bottom job on my own seemed daunting. Then I figured, that I really SHOULD be able to do this kind of job myself. My decision was also helped by the fact that the new owners of La Ceiba shipyard gave me a HORRIFIC quote to haul out my boat and do the bottom job. I had talked to a few boaters who’d done it on their own using a navy yard in Puerto Cortes. Despite a couple of unsubstantiated horror stories circulating these waters, most of the accounts I got were favorable, and the cost could not be beat. The haulout cost alone was less than HALF of what La Ceiba shipyard wanted to charge me. So, I figured, I’d give it a shot.

I got to Puerto Cortes last Monday. Mitzy, who was on Utila most of the previous week, came along for the ride. Getting to Guatemala from there was a much easier proposition than doing it from La Ceiba. So we left on Sunday night so we can arrive in Puerto Cortes on Monday morning. Winds were light, so we had to motor most of the way.

Getting into Puerto Cortes was far easier than I imagined. I was worried that I’d have to dodge a lot of shipping traffic going in and out of there, being that Puerto Cortes is a major seaport for Honduras. Most of the shipping traffic was restricted to a channel that followed the harbor. So all I had to do was enter the bay outside the channel and head straight for the Navy yard. It was a piece of cake.

Getting tied to the dock was a bit of a feat though. Despite the fact that lots of guys on the yard saw us coming in, not one person came up to the dock to grab our lines. We had to abort our first try and back out of the dock, because Andiamo started angling away from the dock because of the current. Finally a couple of guys ran up to get our lines and we tied up safely.

Of course, it was getting close to lunchtime, so the lift operator told me they’d pull me out after lunch, about one pm. But as always, it was closer to two when they actually got around to hauling Andiamo out. The haulout went well, and despite my nervousness to see Andiamo propped up on pieces of railroad ties and PHONE POLES, I eventually became at ease with the situation.

Work started early the next morning. Mitzy had already headed off to Guatemala City, and I had a job to do. I was lucky enough to get chief engineer at the yard to arrange to have my hull pressured cleaned the previous evening. So that worked out nicely. I had to first do the preparation of the keel and other metal parts. The keel, which is iron, had accumulated quite a bit of rust. This took me most of the first day.

There were a few gringos on the yard, some whom had been there for the past few years working on their boats. One guy, an old Jewish guy named Ben, kept things… er… interesting. Ben was a retired businessman, pushing 80, who had a hobby of asking people on the yard some serious philosophical questions, and then discussing the answers, at great length. In fact, Ben’s first conversation with Mitzy and me took off on a huge deep and philosophical tangent that left us nearly exhausted, only after about 20 minutes. Mitzy, who was leaving early the next morning, joked that it was going to be a long week for me.

Since then, Ben made sure to pay his daily visit over to me to hit me with some more philosophical stuff. Suffice it to say, the guy’s pretty damn wise. But nonetheless, I got a bit of a kick out of derailing him with some crazy answers, just to see his reaction. But he made the best of my answers, not catching on right away that I was yanking his chain.

The next two days involved nothing but sanding, sanding and more sanding. This was by far the most dreadful part of the job. I found myself covered head to toe in blue dust (from the previous bottom paint). The stuff got EVERYWHERE and was hard as hell to wash out. Luckily, I used a dust filter so I wasn’t breathing this stuff in. To add to the drama, my sander DIED. So I had to go back to the hotel, wash up, and go into town to get another one. After hitting a couple of hardware stores, I found one, and I was back in business. But that little debacle cost me a half day. Oh well…

After the sanding, the hard part was for the most part over. I then had to apply an epoxy primer, which was in two parts and had to be mixed just right. After the primer, came the pretty blue bottom paint, which I put two coats of on in one day. That was a breeze, except for the part where I dripped blue paint pretty much everywhere around the boat and on myself. This paint is an antifouling paint, it’s designed to stop marine growth on the hull of my boat. In other words, this shit is toxic, and it was ALL OVER ME. It took half a gallon of mineral spirits to get the paint off me. Not sure if mineral spirits are any better for me, but at least I’m not blue anymore.

Anyway, the painting was done yesterday. Now there’s the matter of getting Andiamo back on the lift, so I can take the poles off and sand, prime and paint those areas. Hopefully, that should only take a few hours tomorrow morning, and I should be back in the water by lunchtime. Or maybe just after lunchtime, according to the status quo. We’ll see.

Because of all the work, I’ve found myself utterly exhausted at the end of each day. I was lucky to have a nice hotel, a short walk outside of the navy yard, where I can relax, get caught up on US tv, and bask in the AC. I did manage to get out a couple of nights into the town and the beach right outside the base (called Coca Cola Beach, don’t ask me why). There was also a fun party right on the base that I was able to check out. Most nights though, I was happy to just be lying on my hotel bed watching TV, and/or reading my Dan Brown book.

So hopefully tomorrow, I’ll be on my way to Utila, to pick up the cats, who are being graciously hosted by Moni during this ordeal. I also have a batch of bamboo to deliver to some friends who are building a dive resort on Utila. Then, it’s off to La Ceiba asap to pick up some of the GC gang for a sail around the Bay Islands over easter weekend.

Hope I can keep the schedule…

So here I am, back in Utila for my birthday. Two years after spending a very splendid birthday here with all new friends. That was a very special birthday for me. It was my first birthday onboard the boat, after my marriage ended, and after losing my dad just a couple of months before. Despite the pain, loss and mourning, I was able to fully celebrate. All the great people around me managed to make me feel so at home, loved, and able to celebrate life in a way I’ve never really been able to do before.

I’m still never sure how I’m going to be or feel during these sentimental times I come across where I’m supposed to celebrate. Especially when I use those times to assess all the changes and yes, loss I’ve experienced in my life thus far.

I do, however, also try to use special times like these to look on all the good stuff too. Lucky for me, that’s not all that difficult. Despite all the bad stuff that’s happened to me (some quite recent), I find myself still able to smile about the good things, the good friends I’ve made, many of whom are scattered around the globe, the adventures and misadventures, the places I’ve been to, I can go on and on.

So on this day starting my 43rd year on this rock, I can still say I feel very fortunate, lucky and just downright happy to be living life the way I am now. It helps that I still have my age guessed anywhere between 29 to 35.

It helps alot.

Comment from: mietsie [Visitor]

We know each right about two years now, 🙂

We should celebrate that sometime too!

X mietsie

03/22/07 @ 06:13

Comment from: Elizabeth [Visitor]

Um…I’d say no older than 45. Oh wait…aren’t you 43? I meant to say 35. Yay, yay, that’s right, 35. ;p

03/27/07 @ 18:32

Comment from: Maria [Visitor]

Hi, i came across your Virtual Tourist home page then I got to this site somehow. I loved your pictures, I would love to travel like that some day (unfortunately I know it wont be soon.) Good luck on your travels and be safe. I will check in every now and then to see where you have gone to.
Maria

03/28/07 @ 21:19

The past couple of weeks since being in the Rio have been more on the unproductive side. The time has been more or less evenly split between La Ceiba and Utila.

There have, however, been a couple of jaunts around the islands. The first one was a sail to Cayos Cochinos with Lucia, Cristina, and another eight La Ceiba pals in tow for a weekend. Though winds were light, we were able to sail over from Ceiba. The trip threatened to be cut short because of incoming coldfront. I watched it pretty closely, and it didn’t look like the worst of it would pass until well after Monday. So we opted to stick out the whole weekend.

Though the ride back to Ceiba on Monday morning was a wet and rainy one, we made it in well before the nasty weather hit. And boy was it bad. Three days of NON-STOP rain, serious northerly and westerly winds, and lots of general havoc. I was glad to be tucked into La Ceiba during all that. Then, last week, from Utila, we went on a day sail to the Cays Monica and several other Utila-based friends for the day. The sail over was pretty fierce, reaching in 20+ knot gusts, but fun. We spent the afternoon hanging out at one of the cays, called Bell Cay, until just before sunset, when we ventured back. I had trouble with my main furling again, so we had to motor back into the heavy winds and seas. Unfortunately, a couple of the passengers didn’t handle it very well. I won’t name any names. =)

Since then, I’ve been biding my time in Ceiba and Utila. A myspace friend, Jackey, flew into Ceiba last week. I offered to give her a ride to Utila from Ceiba on Andiamo provided I was there. I did manage to get there on the day she flew in. I had to buy bottom paint and primer in Ceiba as well to prepare for my upcoming haul-out/bottom painting job which will happen in Puerto Cortes sometime this week. After some scrambling around town, we managed to find Jackey. The next day, we set off for Utila. After a nice motorsail, we made it into the harbor. Just in time to deliver Moni her Whopper with Cheese she made me deliver to her from Ceiba (don’t ask).

I was originally planning on heading to Puerto Cortes right away this week. But Moni talked me into staying in Utila for the rest of the week on account of my birthday coming up on the 21st. Since I’d had a memorable birthday here two years ago, I figured I’d stick around and have it among friends. Besides, Moni promised me another pinata. So I’ll head to Puerto Cortes just after recuperating from those festivities.

In the meantime, I got another trip planned for Cayos Cochinos with some Canadians itching to go there. So I won’t just be sitting around.

Can’t believe it’s been three years already since getting on Andiamo. Ay Caramba!

Finally, something happens as planned and on schedule. In just one week’s time, I managed to get Sjelle’s boat stripped and sold off. Yeah, there was probably some money left on the table, but with Sjelle in India, there were not a lot of options to go with. I managed to sell alot of the more valuable gear to Luigi and a friend of his, as well as to Bob, who took care of Sjelle’s boat after we left the river. The rest of the boat, mainly the hull and its diesel engine, was sold to a local guatemalan welder guy who is quite known to be a major asshole. Nonetheless, he came up with the money at the 11th hour, and a deal was made.

I also managed to swap my stove for hers, which was much nicer, and has a working oven. Had a bitch of a time getting it installed on my boat, but thanks to Luigi, and his Italian ingenuity, we got her in, and all is good.

So this turn of events breaks the last of Sjelle’s ties with the river, and I’m relieved none the more for it. To me, it was something long overdue, and I hope she can move on from all that has happened with her boat positively. While it was nice to see everyone, including some good friends like Luigi and Luisa (who as always spoil me with great food, and crostata!!) a week in the rio was enough. I was glad to get the out of there when I did.

For the trip back, Mitzy of the GC gang came along again. She was on her way to Honduras to go hang out with Lucia and the LC gang at Cayos for the weekend, and somehow they talked me in to giving everyone a ride over from Ceiba. Also got two passengers for the trip, Tony and Treva. Tony’s a dutchman traveling in Central America, and Treva is his new travel partner, an american who’s a freelance chef in the yachting circuit. So it was good company for the trip back, which included a now-obligatory stop at Puerto Escondido.

Before getting out of the rio however, we discovered that Aretha was MIA on the boat when we brought the passengers aboard. She was nowhere to be found. After more than 30 minutes of searching the boat, I came to the conclusion that she must have jumped off back at the marina we were tied up at the night before to get caught up on laundry and for me to go up the mast for a repair I had to do to the in-mast furling. So I called Bob back at the marina, and sure enough he said one of the marina residents heard a cat wailing from one of the boats. We motored back to the marina.

After a quick search of a couple of boats, there was Aretha. She was holed up in the boat that was tied up next to Andiamo. I peeked into the boat, and she was lying on the galley countertop, just looking at me as if she was saying “hey, what the hell took you so long?”. After a hairy dinghy ride back to the boat, she was aboard Andiamo again, and visibly relieved. So was I. These damn cats can be worse than kids sometimes.

We made it to Utila yesterday, only to head to La Ceiba this morning to retrieve the LC Gang, and head over to Cayos Cochinos for the weekend. Thanks to the wonders of wireless technology, I can post to my blog in the idyllic setting of a quiet anchorage nestled between two beautiful islands. Can’t beat that.

Probably will have to head back to Ceiba tomorrow though, due to an incoming front which promises to wrack up the weather by Monday. But that’s how it goes.

Hope to get started on the bottom work I need to do to Andiamo, as well as taking care of some new-found mechanical issues. Then, hopefully, I can start planning for my eastward-bound trip to Jamaica and DR. Hope I can pull it off within schedule.

More to come… also getting caught up on photos.

Comment from: Elizabeth [Visitor]

See how you are with Aretha? You didn’t even notice she was missing at first. Now if it had been Queen Lucifer- I mean Lucy…God forbid!!! Long live the Queen!
And despite your negligent parenting, you got some good Italian loving via la cucina. E bene!
A friend’s problem solved, a crostata-filled belly, a cranky ole’ cat retrieved, and a better stove and oven to boot-sounds like a productive journey. : )

03/04/07 @ 11:36

Made it to the Rio no problem on the 21st. After a nice overnight sail from Utila. I had one passenger along for the ride, Amber from Canada, who was coming to Rio Dulce to meet up with her brother.

I would have liked to have gotten here earlier, but last weekend there were two coldfronts back to back that made the weather really iffy. So I waited until Tuesday the 20th to leave Utila. The weather has been pretty good since then though, thankfully.

I’m here to deal with the final disposition of Sjelle’s boat. A local guy here in Guatemala is interested in buying it, but for a much lower price than what Sjelle was asking. I spent the past couple of days stripping the boat down of its valuable fixtures, and will offer to sell him just the hull and motor and what’s left aboard.

It’s kinda good to see the river, at least since I know this is a VERY short visit, and I expect to leave this area soon. Got to say hi to some old friends, and get caught up on the local chisme. My GC friend Mitzy will head down on Monday to crew with me back to Honduras. Also have a passenger along, Eleanor, from Israel who will also be heading back to Utila.

Luigi and a couple of other people are interested in the various other parts I stripped from the boat, so I should be able to wrap up everything soon. So I should have much of Sjelle’s parts sold off soon.

I hope to be out of the river again by wednesday so I can move on to getting my boat hauled out and its bottom painted. All to get the boat headed eastward by mid/late March.

That’s the plan…

Back on Utila after sailing around the Bay Islands with Elizabeth, my visitor who was aboard for 2 weeks. Wanted to head to Rio Dulce for a week or so to deal with Sjelle’s boat last Friday, but the weather hasn’t been cooperative. We’ve had a couple of bad coldfronts pass through on account of the nasty winter weather up in the states. So I had to wait it out. Should be clear tomorrow for the next 2-3 days, which should be more than enough for me to get to the Rio.

Internet has also been HORRIFIC here in the Bay Islands, which has hampered my ability to update the blog, and photos, but I will get caught up once I’m in Rio Dulce.

Stay tuned…

Since getting back to Honduras, much work has been done on Andiamo. Mostly small stuff, but a couple of major projects as well. Also got new floorboards made for the dinghy, which were sorely needed. So the boat is only slightly less chaotic than it was a few weeks ago.

Now that I was in Honduras, I was also able to follow up on the information I’d received that the Honduran police had caught the guys who held up the Hedman Alas bus that we were on last December. Apparently, the cops caught the guys and recovered a bunch of the stolen goods. I had spoken with the manager at Hedman Alas a few times, and she corroborated this story, and offered me a free ticket up to San Pedro Sula to go and inspect the stolen items to see if I can recover anything of mine or Miguel and Arcelia’s. Like I was EVER going to ride on a Hedman Alas bus again. Nope, not this hombre.

Interestingly, Mitzy, who crewed with me from Belize, messaged me online after getting back to Guatemala. Turns out that she met one of the owners of Hedman Alas bus line, and told him my story. She said he was extremely sympathetic, and told her that he wanted to help me out as much as possible. He gave her his phone and email to give to me. I got them from her in pretty short order, and contacted him immediately. He emailed me back with a contact name and told me that I needed to go to San Pedro Sula to find out from the police what can be recovered.

During this same period, I got word that a friend of mine back in the states was thinking about coming down. Her name is Elizabeth, and she’s in the middle of a move from Santa Fe to Los Angeles. I invited her to come down for a couple of weeks while she waited to make the move. After some coordinating, we established a day that she would fly down to San Pedro Sula. So last Thursday, I made the trip up to meet up with her. The next morning, I made the plan to head over to Hedman Alas to meet up with the manager I’d spoken with earlier that week.

She arrived on time, with no problems, and the next morning I went to meet the manager at the bus station. In the classic Honduras style, he wasn’t even there. Another station manager got me into a cab and sent me to the police station. When I got there, I asked around about who I should speak with, and ended up in an investigator’s office. I found this whole division to be quite odd. This was the investigation division, and all the “officers” looked like kids barely out of their teens. The investigator I spoke with had a peach fuzz mustache. Even the women “investigators” looked like they were barely out of high school. They all packed automatic pistols that were jammed in their pants or back pockets. It was pretty surreal.

Anyway, the junior investigator sat me down and cordially proceeded to tell me that they actually caught the people who robbed ANOTHER Hedman Alas bus, which was on its way from Tegucigalpa to San Pedro Sula, almost THREE WEEKS after our bus robbery. I had to make him tell me this twice, because I was dumbfounded. All this time, I was led to believe that the police caught the guys who robbed OUR bus! In fact, I didn’t even KNOW that there was another bus robbery until that time. I also found out that another Hedman Alas bus in Guatemala was robbed during the same time period as well.

I was both frustrated and angry and went off a little on the investigator. I told him that because of this little detail, I wasted a lot of time and frustration to get to them to see if I can recover anything. While I was kinda hoping to find something of mine, I really was hoping I can recover some of Miguel and Arcelia’s clothes and belongings, because they had pretty much EVERYTHING that they came down with stolen. I also went on to ask the investigator if they ever investigated the bus attendant, because I was SURE that he was involved. I went on to elaborate to him details about the case that led me to believe that the attendant was involved, as were two of the female passengers that were onboard. They were rather surprised by what I said, and took a statement. But I think that they did this mostly to placate me.

After a long wait, one of the other teenage investigators brought me back to town, where Elizabeth was waiting at the hotel. I fired off a pretty angry email to the bus line owner I had contacted, expressing my utter disappointment with how all this was handled, as well as to tell him that I held the bus line responsible for our losses, and that they should do something to compensate us for our losses. He emailed me back a day later, telling me that they were willing to pay $25 per bag. Of course, I found this outrageous, and told him so.

I also told him that if the company didn’t make an effort to compensate all the victims of the bus robbery, that he can full expect the facts about Hedman Alas’ purported “safe” security measures to be made known across the net. I told him I would make it one my life’s missions to ensure that everyone I talked to about Honduras knew about my experience with Hedman Alas, and how they should be avoided at all costs. I will stick with only the facts about things were handled, and let people make up their own minds.

Unfortunately, in these parts, there is little people like me can do to get a company like Hedman Alas to answer to justice. So instead, I will focus my efforts and energies on letting the truth be known about how they truly handle “security” and how badly take care of victimized passengers when something bad does happen. Even though they are purported to be highly insured against liability in these cases, they are not at all willing to make even the slightest effort to make amends when something like this occurs.

So, you heard it from me. Stay OFF of Hedman Alas buses when traveling through Honduras and/or Guatemala. You are neither safe NOR secure when traveling with them, and your safety is clearly not their primary concern.

I know it sounds a bit bitter, but it’s all I can do, put the word out. And that will be my hobby for some time to come.

All that said, we’re in Utila right now, have been here for a few days since leaving La Ceiba. I expect we’ll sail between here, Roatan and Cayos cochinos for the next few days. After Elizabeth leaves, I’ll be working on getting Andiamo back to Rio Dulce for a short time to see about finishing off the sale of Sjelle’s boat. I’m also planning another haulout for Andiamo at the end of the month. The goal is to get her eastbound by mid March, and get her in position for the big upcoming Atlantic crossing this coming May/June, if everything else falls into place.

No matter where I go, it’s time to move on from here.