Alas, the bottom job project in Puerto Cortes was completed on time, on budget and on schedule. I never thought I’d be able to say those three things in the same sentence when it comes to anything having to do with Andiamo maintenance. Even more bizarre, it was despite some delays due to some rather idiotic planning by the navy yard guys.
This involved them putting a navy patrol boat back in the water before my boat, then leaving it in the lift dock. All day. Then they lowered my boat in the water in front of it, but I couldn’t get out of the dock, because I was blocked in by the patrol boat. Which, incidentally, they couldn’t get started. The end of the day came and went, and I was still stuck there.
Luckily, I found the commandante of the base at his office and told him about the situation. Being the “take charge” type, which is rare in these parts, he dealt directly with the issue. After arranging a mechanic from another boat to come and get the motor started, he personally took the helm and got the boat out of the dock so I can get out. Now I know why he’s the commandante.
Despite my escape from the navy yard, the weather and seas were not at all on my side to begin my trip back to Utila. As soon as I got out of the confines of the harbor, the seas were POUNDING over 10 feet, and the winds were horrific right on the nose. Rather than spend the night getting the crap beat out of Andiamo, I turned around and came back into the harbor. I anchored just off the navy yard, and spent the night there.
The next morning, the winds were still kicking, but the seas were smoother, so I decided to make a go for it. Despite the smoother seas, there was a bitch of a current working against me, so despite doing some exhilarating sailing, I was hardly going anywhere. But I just kept on going towards Utila. After taking more than 12 hours to cover just over 40 miles, I turned on the diesel and pointed the boat right into the wind, which also happened to be the same course to Utila. After another three hours of motoring, and I was in Utila finally. I ended up dropping anchor a little after 11pm.
Of course, it was the peak of “Semana Santa”, so the island was packed with mainland Hondurans and other tourists for the week. I really didn’t feel like dealing with any of that insanity, so I just turned off the lights and went to bed.
I was only going to be there for the morning of the next day. I was going to go get the cats back from Moni, and then get with another friend Deb who’s opening a dive resort with some other people because I had a cabin-load of bamboo for them that I arranged to bring over to them from Puerto Cortes. After knocking those items out, I was to head over to Ceiba that afternoon to meet up with Mitzy and the GC gang, Campollo, Andres and Rosi, who had er… retained… me to take them sailing for the next three days around Cayos Cochinos and the other islands. The weather was looking mostly favorable, despite a front that was supposed to be coming late Friday.
So after checking in with Moni, and talking her into keeping the cats a few more days (which she easily agreed to do, a bit TOO easily…), and getting rid of all the bamboo with Deb, I was outta there. I made it to Ceiba with time to spare. Well, not really, because I was going to need every minute I could scrape to CLEAN THE DAMN BOAT!
After docking, I got right to it. It took a good three hours to get Andiamo ship-shape again, and ready for the guests. They were driving over from Guatemala City, so they weren’t due to get in until later in the evening. The timing was perfect though, the boat was ready. After loading all their stuff on the boat, we headed into town for a late dinner and a couple of beers.
The next morning, we needed to run around and pick up some last minute supplies and some extra diesel. By 10 AM, we were ready to go. The seas were super smooth for the ride over to Cayos Cochinos. The winds were light, so after a while, I came up with the idea of putting up my nice big gennaker sail. I’ve only actually flown it once before, and was anxious to use that baby. These were the perfect conditions for it.
Unfortunately, the last time I tried to fly this sail, was back when Liz was onboard back in February, and it didn’t go so well. Due to some boneheaded mistakes, mostly on my part, the sail ended up taking a nice swim underneath the boat instead of being flown. Only after more than an hour of careful heaving and winching, did we manage to get the sail onboard intact with no injuries.
Needless to say, I was a bit more cautious this time, and I had to undo some knots and tangles as a result of that last debacle before we can get her flying. After a few minutes of untangling and rearranging lines, she was up and flying. And wow! What a fantastic light-air sail it was. We were going about 6 knots on a close-to-beam reach in less than 8 knots of wind. These conditions held for the entire sail, and we made it to Cayos in record time. Note to self… I really gotta fly that sucker more often.
Ok, so we get into Cayos, and settle down on my usual mooring, which is not far from a small resort’s dock and out of the middle part of the bay. It’s close to a really nice reef so snorkeling from the boat is a breeze. After some swimming and snorkeling, we got the dinghy together and headed into the Plantation to have a drink and see what was going on. When we got there, Roger, the manager, was there, cordial as ever. We started talking about the incoming front and I wanted to know what his thoughts on it were. He expected that it wasn’t going to be too bad, but there was another that they had to watch out for that was due late Sunday or early Monday. He agreed that we wouldn’t see any weather from the front due until late Thursday or early Friday. So I figured we didn’t have anything to worry about that night.
About this time, I started feeling the symptoms of a nasty cold that was coming down on me. Campollo gave me some heavy duty cold medicine that managed to ease the symptoms, but also made me pretty groggy. But at least I was feeling better. We all turned in for the night, and despite my cold, I woke up a few times that night to check what was happening outside. By 3 AM, the wind started howling pretty good from the west. This usually means that the anchorage starts to get really rolly from the incoming waves. That started happening about a half hour later. I went on deck to check things again, and everything seemed to be ok and manageable despite the waves.
By 5 AM, it started blowing really, REALLY bad, and the waves were really pounding. Despite my groggy state from the cold medicine, I became more concerned with the movement of the boat. The bow was pitching into the air with each passing wave, and that can’t be good. About a second after that thought, I heard something “pop” on deck as we went up another wave. That caught my attention. Then about 2 seconds later, I felt the boat rise up on another wave and come down on top of the reef we were right off of with an absolutely bone-shuddering, eyeball-rattling, brain-shattering, eardrum-bursting, bowel-quaking, crashing thud that resonated across the whole boat.
Within seconds, I was on deck, and Mitzy was right behind me. I didn’t know whether the whole mooring dragged back and we were now in shallower water, or if the line just broke. Mitzy yelled back that the line had broken off. So we were just getting washed around by the waves. Not a good thing. The boat smacked on the reef again as it came down the trough of the wave. Making the same wonderful crashing thud noise we just heard. I began to worry that the rudder and prop didn’t survive that one, because the boat was a bit more at an angle than the first time we slammed down. Luckily, I got the engine started immediately, and hit the gas and headed for deeper water. A wave had just passed, so we were back in shallow water, I can hear the keel rubbing the reef as the boat started to move. But the boat DID start to move, and turn with the wheel. So was I ever happy about that. 20 seconds later, we were back in deep water, in sheeting rain and gusts of over 30 knots no less. Everything that I just mentioned in the previous paragraph took place within less than 2 minutes. Unbelievable.
I decided to just keep the boat in deep water in the bay, and keep her pointed in the wind until the horrific squall passed over. In the meantime, I would try to find another mooring that we can grab on to after, or at the very least, a good sandy spot to anchor on. It took a good hour for the weather to even start calming down, the waves were still coming in, but at least the wind and the blinding rain eased up.
I took the boat closer towards the northwest wall of the bay, here, the island’s shape deflected some of the incoming swells, giving us calmer waters. I also found a good spot to drop the anchor, so I gave Mitzy the go ahead to get the anchor ready to drop. We got the anchor to set on the first try despite the nasty waves rolling by. I secured two snubber lines on the anchor chain (these lines transfer the loads from the chain directly to the boat rather than to the anchor windlass).
After the anchor was set, everybody started to relax. Rosi was overwhelmed with seasickness during the whole ordeal due to the tossing around we were feeling, but she handled it like a sport. Campollo and Andres were both ready to help me with anything I needed to do during the ordeal, so it was truly an “all hands on deck” situation.
I was relieved that the boat was still intact after that massive pounding it just took. I knew the rudder was at the very least functional, even if damaged, as was the prop shaft. So that left the keel. I suspected the keel was going to have some damage after the pounding it had just gotten. But honestly, I didn’t know what to expect. This boat has proven itself to be pretty damn strong and resilient on so many occasions that I tend to underestimate her strength.
After the seas calmed down a bit more, I donned a mask and snorkel and went in for a look. The rudder was PRISTINE, which not even a scratch on her new bottom paint. The prop, still shiny and polished, as well as the shaft. Big relief. The keel, however, was a different story. Starting from the top, where the keel meets the hull, I was super glad to see that at least on the starboard side, there were no cracks or damage of any kind.
This is where it’s most critical, because damage here, means hull damage, and THAT means the boat is probably taking on water. I looked down towards where the wings of the keel were. There was a pretty distinct crack going along the wing at the base where it meets the keel from one end to the other. I went down and gripped the keel, and there was no movement at all. This is what I was most worried about. I swam around to the other side, and saw that same kind of crack going down that side of the keel as well. I also saw a pretty hefty crack at the front of the wings’ base. So there was definitely damage. But not nearly as bad as I expected. Still bad though, bad enough that I was going to have to haul the boat out again pronto and make repairs.
After looking it over, I made the call that we keep going with the sail. The weather was due to get better by the next day, and at the very least we can head over to Utila for one night. The group agreed. We spent one more night in Cayos Cochinos (at anchor this time, I preferred having a chain hold us rather than nylon dockline), which ended up being very tranquilo and clear.
The next morning, despite being a bit cloudy with patches of rain, we headed to Utila. Unfortunately we had to motor due to the fact that there was NO wind (what the hell was up with that?). We met up with Moni for lunch (she knows all these GC people of course, herself being Guatemalan), and spent the rest of the day in Utila eating, drinking, relishing our good fortune and telling stories. The day was nice and clear until sunset, and then the rain came in. This was the last real party night of Semana Santa, so of course we had to drag ourselves over to Tranquila do some really serious partying. But trust me, we earned this night out.
After a fun night, we headed back to the boat about 3 AM, with the music blasting from the dance club next to Tranquila, which incidentally, kept going until the very time we left the next MORNING! After a rude wake up call from Mitzy, I was forced to get the boat under sail again to get back to La Ceiba so the GC Gang can make their way back to GC. At least the winds were on our side, and we had a great sail over to Ceiba, even with a cracked keel. Made it to Ceiba in record time, and a half hour later, the GC gang were Guatemala City bound.
Sunday evening, I went over to Lucia’s house for easter dinner. One of the German volunteers, Teresa was cooking dinner, so of course I took them up on that. It was a nice way to cap off a very eventful weekend.
So after picking up some needed materials to fix the keel in Ceiba, I’m back in Puerto Cortes to get it done. Now that I know how things work around here, I figured I’d take advantage of the far lower cost to haul out the boat. Just wish I didn’t have to do it NOW.
All I know is that I never want to hear that sound again. 
Comment from: Jacqueline [Visitor]
Poor Andiamo…I’m telling you those French know how to build a boat. Glad to hear everything is okay. Take care and I will see you later.
J