February, 2006:

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