Andiamo!

Just a quick entry to say that Andiamo is back in Utila, after a productive stay in La Ceiba and then Roatan after that. I’ll be following up with a better-detailed post outlining all that has happened in the past couple of weeks.

Stay tuned. =)

So we FINALLY left Rio Dulce last Thursday. We finally got Sjelle’s boat settled to a point where we were able to leave it. We didn’t secure a mast, but there were a good couple of prospects that we can revisit when we get back here in about a month to check on things. We did find a guy who was selling his whole rig, mast, sails, cables and everything else, for a good price. The rig is a little shorter than what Sjelle had on her boat. So we’re going to ask Luigi to go and check it out before Sjelle makes the decision on whether or not to buy it.

There was a big ol’ coldfront heading our way that was due to arrive in the area sometime Saturday. So we wanted to leave Thursday afternoon, so we can get to La Ceiba by Friday afternoon. I decided to go to La Ceiba, because the weather was looking to get pretty nasty over the weekend, and I didn’t feel like dealing with that in Utila. Plus, we had to get a bunch of work done on the boat during this week anyway, so La Ceiba it was.

The sail over was quite nice. We had great wind for the first 8-10 hours or so, and then it just died. So we had to motor quite a bit. The winds picked up in the morning, so we were able to get some more sailing in, before it died again. The motoring was a good thing, though, because I had purchased some new batteries in Rio Dulce, and this gave them a chance to get charged up pretty good. The weather stayed nice through most of the trip as well.

We arrived in La Ceiba Friday with time to spare. Interestingly, Rob was there with “Siqqittuq”. He was getting ready to head out back to Canada. And his crew to go back at least to the states was none other than Lisa, the crazy ex-lawyer from Ohio. It’s ok to speculate that something has been going on between these two for some time now. Parciularly since Rob and his wife Heather had unfortunately split up a few months back. Now I’m not one to gossip, so don’t spread it around ok?

Anyway, Lisa was supposed to come in from Tegucigalpa on Saturday. She had lost her passport, and had to get a replacement (don’t ask). She showed up on schedule, and it was an odd reunion again of sorts. We had dinner that night (I made my always fantastic sauteed conch steaks), and played Turbo Cranium. Sjelle and I killed them, Rob didn’t seem to like that very much.

The weather passed through by late Sunday, but we still had the heavy northerly winds. The port stayed closed all day Monday, so Rob and Lisa couldn’t leave. They’re due to leave sometime today for Isla Mujeres.

So the rest of this week promises to be a busy one. Sjelle and I are now working on the galley countertops, replacing the HIDEOUS, disgusting old formica with new, bright white formica. Should look nice. The paint guy is supposed to start work today spot-painting and fixing all the dings and nicks that Andiamo experienced over the past few weeks’ ordeals. I also have a metal guy working on some long-standing issues on my bow pulpit that have needed to be fixed since the boat was in Key West. Hopefully, we’ll get everything major done that’s on the list, and get over to Roatan by Friday afternoon.

That’s the plan.

In other news, I’ve introduced a new section on the “Tony’s Blog” section called “Tony’s Anecdotes”. Basically, this is where I will put interesting (at least I think they’re interesting!) stories of experiences I’ve had in my oh-so-illustrious past that do not quite fit into the time/space continuum that belongs to Andiamo. I find I have alot of interesting memories and stories around them. I think I should write them down before I lose them forever. Some of them may end up being horribly embellished, but only I will know the truth about that. =)

So, this section is really for me, but you are welcome to peruse them if you so wish. Stories should start trickling in over the next few weeks.

So, as of today, I’m now the same age Elvis was when he signed off while sitting on his toilet. I guess if you outlive Elvis, you’re more or less doing something right with your life. At least that’s the way I see it.

So for this birthday, I’m still hanging out in Rio Dulce. We’re putting the final touches on Sjelle’s boat as we prepare to lay it up for the rest of the season, since there’s not much you can do with it without a mast. Luigi was nice enough to let her park it on his creek on his property, so she has a nice free place to keep her boat for the rest of the year. We’re trying to secure a deal on a mast before we leave here, which needs to be today or tomorrow, because we really do need to get out of here soon.

The plan is to head back to Utila for a few days, get reacquainted with things there, and then head over to La Ceiba to see about getting my hull back to normal after being all banged up during the ordeal with Sjelle’s boat. I suspect we’ll be there about a week.

At the end of that week, a friend of Sjelle’s from Denmark, Bergljott, is due to fly into Roatan and meet up with us. She’ll then be sailing with us around the Bay Islands for the next three weeks after that. We’re going to try to get to Guanaja and see some new places in the Bay Islands that neither of us had been to.

Because of the rather recent developments with Sjelle and her boat, I think I’m going to just end up staying around here for the rest of the season rather than try to rush down to Panama. Things may change, but that’s the way it looks right now.

One thing I’m sorry I will miss is meeting up with Steffen, Frederik and Raf, who are scheduled to deliver a boat from Fort Lauderdale to Trinidad sometime in April. I was kinda hoping we can meet up while I was down south, but that’s not looking very feasible at this time. It’s too bad, because it would be a heck of a reunion.

Back at Mario’s for a couple of days, getting the boat squared away before leaving. The cats seem to be glad to be back here, so that’s good. Also getting to see some old Rio Dulce friends that I hadn’t seen in awhile like Paul and Linda from “Miramar”, who’ve just gotten back from a long stateside stint.

In other news, I’ve upgraded my blog script to a newer version that will hopefully filter out all the comment/trackback spammers once and for all. It’s really unbelievable how much a problem it has become keeping these losers for posting all over the site. Could they possibly sell more viagra or porn by posting obnoxious links on my blog??? I highly doubt it. These people need to get a life, and fast.

Oh, and before I forget, I’ve received many very thoughtful emails with happy birthday wishes. Thanks so much to everybody who actually remembered, it’s really quite thoughtful.

Heck, I barely remember my birthday these days.

Comment from: Jodi [Visitor]

Happy Birthday Tony!!! 🙂

03/23/06 @ 15:40

So the work on Sjelle’s boat has progressed at a pretty good click over the past 2 weeks or so that I’d been here in Rio. After taking care of several issues with the mast, the mainsail, and other things, the “LF Ase” was ready for a test sail. After some final rig tuning by Luigi, we made way for El Golfete, which is a fairly large lake that lies in the course of the Rio Dulce. We spent the afternoon testing out the sails and motor, and remarkably all worked ok. After a couple more small tweaks, Sjelle made the determination that it was finally time to try to get her boat out of the Rio Dulce for the first time in about 2 years.

The weather was in our favor for a good sail over to Utila. The plan was to go there for a few days, and then head into La Ceiba so Sjelle can meet up with a friend of hers from Denmark that was flying in. Then we would head east to Roatan and Guanaja, and then south to Panama via a few islands on the way. So we definitely wanted to get to Honduras as soon as possible to give us the most time to prepare for the rest of the trip.

We made our way down to Livingston last Wednesday, which was a nice motor down the Rio Dulce. Once we got to Livingston, we rafted up close to the harbor, ate lunch and made some final preparations for the trip out. We had to wait for high tide, which was going to be that afternoon. Once high tide was close, I pulled up my anchor, and we made our way out into open sea, Sjelle and I both kept close touch via VHF radio.

We got out over the shallow bar without any issues. Once I was clear of the sea buoy, I raised my sails and proceeded to head north towards Punta Manabique. That’s where you take a hard right and then head east to get to Utila, which is less than a day away from there. Sjelle raised her sails not long after me, and we were both sailing towards Utila. Because Andiamo is significantly larger than Sjelle’s, it’s considerably faster. So I had to keep Andiamo reined in pretty tight in relation to the wind in order for me to not get too far in front of her. Sjelle did get her boat to a very respectable 5.5 to 6 knots, so I didn’t have to hold back too much. It was nice to finally see her boat sailing on bluewater after all the work and preparation she did. Andiamo didn’t mind being back out there either.

We made it around the point in great time. As the sun set, we adjusted our course more and more to the north/northeast so we can better point to Utila. We were not able to go as much northeast as we would have liked, so we kept the best easterly course we could, knowing that we were going to have to tack north sometime the next 30 miles. This was fine if doing that was going to let us sail most of the way to Utila (a rarity due to the prevailing easterly winds).

A little after 8pm, Sjelle called me on the radio and told me that one of the turnbuckles on her aft shroud (this is one of the several cables that supports the mast and keeps it upright and tuned with the sails). I became concerned, that is not a good thing to happen. Particularly since the all the rigging work was newly done. By this time, the winds were over 20 knots and the seas had kicked up pretty good. This was just due to local weather systems, however. Overall, the weather was still pretty good for the sail over to Utila.

A few minutes later, she said she was able to secure the loose cable by tying it down with a line as tightly as she could, but part of the turnbuckle was gone. I told her that I thought the best thing for us to do would be to turn around, head back to inside the point and anchor. There, we can see the situation in calmer waters and safe conditions. If anything can be fixed, it can be done there.

By this time, the winds had kicked up to over 20 knots, and the seas were getting fairly high. Sjelle said ok, and turned the boat around, although still under sail. I suggested to her that she take the sails down and motor the few miles to get around the point, since it wasn’t a good idea to put any load on the mast with such a critical shroud out of the equation. She said that the boat seemed to go ok with the sails, so she would leave them up for now.

I also had to turn my boat around. Which is a real pain doing a 180 degree turnabout while singlehanding. So I ended up having a few pratfalls while I did my best to safely turn the boat and head the other way in such strong winds and heavy seas. I managed to resolve everything and get the boat going back towards Sjelle and the point.

About the time I finished my last turnabout and the unwanted jibes that resulted from it, Sjelle called me on the radio again. This time she said, and I couldn’t believe it, that her mast had just come down! I asked her to repeat, and she did. According to Sjelle, she was in the cockpit holding the tiller, keeping course, and in a second, the boom was in the cockpit, missing her, and the mast was in two pieces, dangling in the water. She said it made no sound or anything until the boom slammed into the cockpit.

I could NOT believe it, this is every sailor’s worst nightmare. I got Sjelle’s position (which I had been doing about every hour or so), and found that we were only about 2 miles apart. I told her I’d be right there, and off I went pointing to her position she stated on the radio. I was absolutely flabbergasted that her mast just broke or fell off like that, but I was also glad that she wasn’t hurt. If a mast falls on you, it will probably kill you.

I got closer, and saw Sjelle waving her flashlight at me. Remarkably, despite the fact that her VHF’s antenna was mounted on the top of her mast, which was now sinking to the bottom of the Bay of Honduras, I was still able to keep radio contact with her. I had already brought in my sails, and proceeded to circle around her boat to review the overall damage. I can see part of the mast hanging over her starboard side, the end of it was smacking her hull pretty good. There were rigging cables dangling everywhere around her in the water.

Sjelle was on the deck trying to make sense of it all, and thankfully, she didn’t appear to be injured. I told her to get back to her radio. She had already tried to run her motor, but it stalled out. More than likely because something was fouling her prop, I thought. I told her we’d have to try to tow her back in around the point. Her boat appeared to be stationary despite the strong seas and winds. My theory was that her boat was being “anchored” by the fallen mast and boom. Both of which were still connected to her boat with the rigging cables.

I told her that she was going to have to cut away the rigging cables, so everything would be freed up from the boat. Then it would be safe for me to tow her boat. I knew she had a pair of massive bolt cutters aboard. So as I watched, she proceeded to go around the deck to all the rigging cables and cut them away with relative ease. After she was done, she went back to the radio to let me know.

I then told her what I thought would be the best way to get a tow line aboard Andiamo so we can see about towing her boat in. She had a very long anchor rode on the foredeck, and I told her to use that as the tow line, securing one half of its length to each bow cleat, and then preparing a long leader line at the other end, that would make it easier to get the ends of the tow line onto the boat. After Sjelle prepared the line, I instructed her to go midship, and I would bring Andiamo’s bow up to the boat so she can grab on and get aboard.

That operation went well, Sjelle grabbed on while the bow was fairly close to her boat, she jump on and started walking the leader line aft towards to the cockpit. When she got there however, we found that that the tow line had become twisted and tangled all over her bow hardware and anchor windlass. Even though we knew that the leader line was not strong enough to tow her boat, we tried to cleat it and and tow her boat anyway. It didn’t hold for more than a minute.

Now, we had to act fast to try to save Sjelle’s boat. We were both getting drawn closer and closer to the shore of Cabo Tres Puntas. That are was not accurately surveyed or charted, thus we had no idea what the depths and bottom conditions were like along that shore. This started making me rather nervous.

We made a couple more passes around the bow to try to see if we can still grab the tow line that was dangling off the bow. No luck. I kept circling the boat as we tried to strategize the next attempt to try to get a tow line connected. The seas were still quite rough, and the counter currents were starting to confuse the seas. For a good while, the winds and currents were acting with inertia on Sjelle’s boat and kept it stuck in one position. It didn’t move much from one point for quite a long time.

I tightened the circle pattern that I was doing around her boat with Andiamo as we attempted to back Andiamo towards stern-to. The idea was that I can keep a safe distance from the boat while Sjelle tried to grab the tow line that was in the water. During one attempt, she did manage to grab the line, but by this time it was badly twisted and tangled around itself. We did get one good end of the leader line, and I tried to hang on to it long enough to get it on the cleat. The force on that line was unbelievable, and I couldn’t hold it long enough to secure it. So we proceeded to circle the boat again to figure something else out.

We were running out of time, because the boats were getting dangerously close to shore. Just about then, while I was maintaining the circle pattern, keeping Sjelle’s boat to Andiamo’s starboard side, the boat shot off into one direction in a flash and got right in front of Andiamo. It caught me by total surprise, and there was no time to react. Andiamo hit Sjelle’s boat broadside, making a horrible sound. Sjelle went forward to review the damage and to see if our boats were locked up. Luckily we were not, and I was able to back away. But Sjelle’s boat did get significantly damaged by the impact. Luckily though, all the damage was above the waterline. So the boat stayed afloat.

But now, according to my gps position, we were only about a third of a mile off the shore. This was just much too close, and I was afraid at any time, that the depths were going to pop up to horribly shallow, and we would run aground, or worse. I told Sjelle that we may have to leave the boat until morning, and head back to inside the point, where we can anchor. Everything Sjelle had was on her boat, including her money and passport, which neither of us thought for her to take with her when she got aboard Andiamo, just in case. So leaving the boat was hard to do. I told her, that with some luck, we can get back to the boat in the morning, and hopefully all her stuff would still be there, even if it was washed up on the beach.

So, with enormous regret and apprehension, we shifted Andiamo’s course to head back to the inside of the point. We would anchor off Punta Manabique for the night. By this time, we also realized how banged up and exhausted we were after the whole ordeal, particularly Sjelle. It didn’t take long for us to get around the point, and drop anchor. Luckily, the anchor was still able to work despite the anchor tray and roller being banged up and bent from the impact with Sjelle’s boat. We were set in no time, and within a matter of minutes, we were dead asleep from total exhaustion.

The next morning, we tried to figure out the best way to go retrieve the boat. I suggested we call Inga, a dutch girl we know back in Rio Dulce, who had a guatemalan boyfriend in Livingston. He owned a shrimp boat, so maybe he can come out with it, and help us go retrieve Sjelle’s boat and tow it back. I managed to reach her, but she was not able to reach her boyfriend by cel phone. She did put the word out on the radio net back in Rio Dulce, however. The next move was for Sjelle to call from friends she had back in Rio Dulce to see if they can arrange for a lancha to come out to us. They were able to secure a lancha, and told us that they would be out to the point in about an hour and a half. So now all we could do was wait.

The lancha did show up in good time, and within minutes we were on our way to the position where we left Sjelle’s boat. My theory was that the boat was a bit to the east of that position, and either aground close to shore or on the beach. We were really hoping it was aground, because that would make it fairly easy to get her freed up and towed back to where Andiamo was.

Within 10 minutes of leaving Andiamo, we caught site of Sjelle’s boat. It was still floating less than a quarter mile off the beach. But it was actually closer to us than we anticipated. More than likely she caught a countercurrent as she drifted that managed to keep her off the beach and moving west, instead of east with the prevailing current.

As we got closer, we also noticed that there was a lancha tied up to Sjelle’s boat, it looked like it was trying to tow the boat. There was one guy on the lancha, and had one line attached to the stern of sjelle’s boat. When we got there, we told him that the boat was hers, and we were there to retrieve it, and for him to release the boat. Sjelle jumped onboard to check if anything had been taken, and thankfully, the boat had not yet been picked clean. The lancha left in a hurry back to the beach. We then prepared a tow line on the lancha to get the boat taken back. In daylight, it was easy to see just how close to the beach we really were when trying to recover the boat. We really couldn’t get that much closer without running aground somewhere, I think.

As we were towing the boat back around the point, another lancha came alongside, and there was a military policeman onboard. He told the lanchero to stop the boat, and proceeded to question us about everything that happened. After a good 20 minutes or so of checking Sjelle’s papers (whose permit for Guatemala was LONG expired), he let us proceed. We were relieved, because when officials get involved, you have to be ready to expect anything to happen.

We were also relieved to have the boat back in Sjelle’s possession, along with all her stuff onboard. We got the boat back to where Andiamo was anchored, and rafted her up alongside. After that, we proceeded to figure out what to do next, but most of all, just rest and recover. We were exhausted.

After several hours of sleep, we woke up and made some cel calls. We called Luigi, who as always was very helpful. He offered to let Sjelle keep her boat in his creek off Rio Dulce while we figured out what to do next. We had already decided that Sjelle would come aboard Andiamo, and we would sail on to Honduras to at least get some sailing in this season. Maybe make a go for Panama, who knows? It was clear that Sjelle needed a break from her boat, and the Rio Dulce. We do have to secure Sjelle’s boat for the time being, and at the very least try to find a mast so we can get her repaired and operational again down the road. If not in Rio Dulce, then elsewhere.

Fast forward a few days, we are back in Rio Dulce after checking in at Livingston. The officials there were more than gracious enough to give Sjelle a pass for having a permit that expired almost 2 years ago, and for me not actually having checked into Guatemala at all from Honduras yet (remember that I never checked out of Honduras when I left?). So we were both official and legal again, much to my relief.

We are now anchored off Luigi’s house, trying to get Sjelle’s boat squared away, and to locate a mast somewhere here on the river if possible. There are a few prospects, and we hope to nail down a mast soon. We will also build a structure around the damage on Sjelle’s boat to keep her boat dry inside until we get the repair work started on her, which could be several months from now. Sjelle has a friend flying in from Denmark at the end of the month in La Ceiba, so that forces us to get Andiamo out there to get some exterior repair work done, and to meet up with her friend. After that, we’ll do some fun sailing, hopefully to somewhere new and interesting.

Which, trust me, is overdue.

Comment from: Mick [Visitor]

Never a dull moment. Glad to see you got through this one OK. In the process of making plans to bring my boat down to Rio early June for the season. Cheers Mick

2006-03-16 @ 21:07

So it had been a pretty quiet week or so in Utila. The weather was just blah… and things were getting a bit on the mundane side. About the most exciting goings on during this week were our hellacious poker games at Tranquila. So I was considering sailing over to Brick Bay in Roatan to visit my friend Ann, the Swedish dive instructor, and check out a couple of dinghys that I heard were for sale there. I looked into lining up some people who were looking for a way to get to Roatan to make a couple of bucks in the process as well. About the same time, Sjelle was telling me about all the trouble she was having with her boat back in Rio Dulce. Lots of stuff she was fixing, just kept breaking again, and her hired help was actually causing more harm than good. Things were not going very well for her, and she was having a lot of trouble getting some good help so she can wrap things up. “Duty calls”, I proclaimed, and I told her I’d come over to Rio Dulce and help her finish off her boat. The weather was getting better, and actually giving me some good wind to actually sail there this time. So with only two days’ notice, I put out the word that I was heading to Rio Dulce for a short stay and was open for passengers. I did manage to find a couple of Brits who were looking for a way to Rio, so we set up a meeting time at the fuel dock on Friday the 17th before noon. I would fuel up, get checked out and head out by 2 pm.

Well that morning, a couple things chinked my plans. First of all, the two brits bailed out. They decided they wanted to do more diving for a few more days. Then, when I tried to check out, I found I couldn’t because the immigration officer was off the island for what sounded like a couple of weeks. The port captain said I would have to go to La Ceiba to check out. But if I were to do that, that would have seriously messed up my schedule, and gotten me to Rio Dulce too late for the needed high tide to be able to get into the river’s entrance.

So… to cut the story short, I sort of just left without checking out.

So I shoved off the fuel dock, but not before a huge dive boat that was docked in front of me left a nice gouge in Andiamo’s hull as their crew pushed my bow outward supposedly well off their stern dive platform. The idiot who was pushing my bow off didn’t really know what he was doing, and now Andiamo has a nice little gash on it. Lovely…

So this was going to be the longest singlehand trip I’ve done on Andiamo to date. At an average of 6 knots, the trip would take a little less than 20 hours. But with the wind coming from the Northeast at a nice click, and with the seas moving under me, I figured I’d go faster.

Once I got out of Utila’s harbor, I set the sails for a fairly broad reach, and off Andiamo went. The boat took off like a rocket, and with the help of my good ol’ autopilot, I was having a nice easy sail. It would prove to last like that the rest of the afternoon and evening.

About 9 pm, I found that Andiamo was going way too fast! Over 9.5 knots at most times. That’s a great problem to have, but this meant that I would get to the bay outside of Livingston by something like 4 AM. And that meant that I would have to wait a good 7 hours before high tide came so I can pass over the shallow bar. So, with great regret, I brought in the genoa, which slowed the boat down to about 7 or so knots. This would get me into Livingston early still, but I can manage my course to kill some time on my approach to the river, so no biggie.

The weather stayed nice until about 4:30 AM, and then some hard rains came. The seas whipped up to about 8-10 feet, but thankfully, I was going with them, so it wasn’t too bad. The boat never got overpowered, and kept going on course like clockwork. I managed to sleep in the cockpit most of the night, waking up every hour or so to make sure that there were no oncoming ships. Lucky for me, shipping traffic was light this night, so I was able to relax.

I killed some time in Amatique Bay before approaching Livingston. I got to the river entrance about 30 or so minutes before high tide. Andiamo made it through with no problems, and I proceeded up the river. It was a bit rainy, but Rio Dulce was as spectacular as usual. I never get tired of that ride through the river, that’s for sure.

I arrived in the anchorage at Frontreras about 2:30 PM, Sjelle met up with me shortly after, and we went and got some dinner in town. There was a lot of work to do on her boat, and we were going to start bright and early the next morning.

Since then, we’ve repaired several issues on her boat’s mast, replaced her lights, her spinnaker pole mount, and other hardware. She had a new bow pulpit made, which after much finagling and imaginative mounting techniques, had it mounted on her bow and looking sharp. She also needed her lifelines put back on, along with some other stuff.

After a good week of working on her boat, the “L.F. Ase”, she is finally ready for some sea trials. So tomorrow, we’ll give her diesel a little workout to make sure it’s up to snuff. Then we’ll anchor off of Luigi’s (the italian sailmaker) house so he can have a look at her sails and give us one of the genoas he was re-cutting. After that, time permitting, we’ll take her into El Golfete for a little sailing sea trial, and to test out her new tiller pilot. If all looks good, and if the weather is still holding up, we’ll head out of here on Tuesday back to Honduras.

So it’s been a pretty productive week, albeit not on my own boat. But it has also been nice hanging out with Sjelle once again, and seeing her own boat come together. So I guess it’s all good.

Comment from: Judy [Visitor]

Haven’t heard from you… saw some great pictures on your web site….

Keep on having fun for the rest of us drones!

J.

2006-03-14 @ 11:39

Since getting back to Utila last weekend, the weather has taken a real turn for the worse. A coldfront that passed through here on Sunday, seriously messed up the weather and brought some seriously cool temps into the region that most people here are just plain not used to. The weather has been bleak and dreary since then to boot. We had some serious winds blowing on sunday, both day and night, which had me seriously watching the anchor. Luckily, it stayed pretty well set, and Andiamo has gone nowhere. This is a refreshing change after what I went through in Roatan about a week and a half ago.

Right now, the winds are coming in from the southwest which means there are some serious swells heading into the bay. This makes for a very rolly and uncomfortable anchorage. Hope that this clears up soon, because it gets old rolling around all the time when you’re trying to sleep. It’s still cool and just plain ugly outside. It makes for a pretty serene and dreary setting on the usually sunny disposition that I’ve come to know on Utila. Really hope it clears up soon.

In other news, I have a new laptop to add to the Andiamo arsenal to replace the two that were stolen a couple of weeks back. It’s a slick new HP Widescreen baby with all kinds of cool stuff that my last one didn’t have. So I’ve been “oohing and aaahing” alot lately getting to know it. I’m actually in the process of setting it up for the boat right now as I write. I’ve had to install a bunch of software for my usual uses as well for navigation, which is its main purpose. Mitzy, my Guatemala City connection, was nice enough to find me a good deal and bring it over with her on her last visit to Utila over the weekend. She was on a trip for her magazine job. So a big thanks to Mitzy for helping me get computerized again. Muchas gracias!

In other, other news, I’m also updating photos today while I have the chance, so there should be some new stuff in the photo gallery shortly.

Didn’t get to do that charter last Friday, although the weather was great on Friday, I was not able to get out of La Ceiba soon enough to get to Roatan on time. So instead I sailed back to Utila on what was an outstanding sunset sail with a beautiful full moon arrival into Utila harbor. I’m really starting to get the hang of anchoring single-handed, so that’s a good thing.

And my Danish pal Sjelle is still trying to get out of Rio Dulce with her boat. She’s had some serious calamities to deal with, ranging from incorrectly made parts to broken windows and it’s really getting frustrating for her. I really feel for her because I went through alot of what she’s going through now. Hopefully she’ll have the reamaining bugs worked out soon, and she’ll be sailing out of Rio Dulce within the week. I’m supposed to sail over to Puerto Escondido on the Honduras coast, and meet up with her. Rob and Gabby from “Siqqituq” have signed on for the trip, so it should be a fun little flotilla there and back.

Hoping the weather gets better tomorrow because I was looking into making a run out to Brick Bay in Roatan tomorrow and staying there til Friday. Anie, my Quebecois friend here on the island and some friends of hers were planning to come along. But if the weather stays like this, I may need to put it off.

Hope it clears up soon.

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.

2006-04-30 @ 10:39