May, 2007:

It didn’t take us long at all to get adjusted to the pace of Providencia. This was such a laid-back, relaxed island, that chilling out was easy. The weather was a bit rainy when we arrived, but that didn’t stop us from at least heading in to get a look around. Apparently, that day was a fiesta of some kind, so everything was closed and the streets were empty. So there wasn’t a lot to do except walk around. Which was fine in itself.

The one thing I found particularly interesting on that first day was the friendliness of the locals. It had been a while since I’d met locals who were genuine and sincerely simpatico. The people in Providencia have a nice and simple island life, and they want to share it with visitors. They´re not just jerking you around for your spare change. It was a refreshing change for me, that’s for sure.

There were a few boats that I knew from Honduras there, so it was good to catch up with some people. Not long after we got there, a local rasta guy named Malcolm came up to the boat to see if there was anything he can do for us while we were there. He was a dive instructor and said he could hook us up with some dives for not a lot of dinero. Both Sarah and I had discussed doing some dives in these waters, so we were up for it. He also invited us to come out with him that night, assuming that there was going to be some good partying because of the fiesta. Sarah and I opted in, but unfortunately, there was nothing happening, and we ended up having a few Aguilas at this funky waterside bar called the “Sugar Hole”. But it was still an interesting taste of local nightlife.

The next day, he came to the boat with a larger panga, and all the dive gear we needed. He and his partner, Severo, took us out to one of the nicest reef walls I’d seen in a long time. Didn’t see a lot of fish on that first dive, but that changed on the next dive. We went down to an inverted wreck just off the island in about 50-60 feet. It had been out there since World War II days. While down there, we saw two HUGE green morays, barracuda, some huge grouper and much more.

The next day, the girls decided to rent some scooters and ride around the island. As much as I wanted to go, I had to take care of some issues on the boat, so they went without me. Then, after they got back, we came up with a plan to go out that night. Again, Malcolm was there to show us around. It was again a kicked back night, so we decided to go to a pool hall and shoot some pool. That turned out to be a good call. We had a great time shooting pool for the next few hours, playing against some locals.

The next day it was my turn to do the around-the-island ride. I rented a motorcycle and spent most of the afternoon whizzing around Providencia. I found some trails off the road that led to a beach called Manzanillo Bay, and had a great time venturing there. Most excellent. Before I knew it, it was time to bring the bike back.

So I had been watching the weather lately, looking for a good time to head to San Andres. While it’s only about 60 miles away, there are lot of local weather patterns that can make the trip iffy. Thunderstorms and squalls roll off the Nicaraguan coast right for the islands. There was also a nasty low hanging out south of San Andres, and over the last few days, I watched where it was going. It headed south onto Colombian shores, and the weather opened up nicely for the rest of the trip.

I came up with the idea to do a night sail over. Because of the distance, we could leave about 10 AM and have an easy sail over to San Andres and get there by morning. The girls were up for it, so we got Andiamo ready and headed out.

There’s a pretty nasty reef surrounding Providencia, so getting out at night using the markers was a bit of a challenge. Once we made it past the reef, we essentially unfurled the sails, set the course on the autopilot, and that was it. With the 10-15 knot northeast wind coming over the beam, we pointed straight for San Andres. The conditions stayed that way the whole night. It was a fantastic overnight sail under mostly starry skies. I really liked the fact that I didn’t have to trim the sails or adjust our course one single time. Why can’t it be like that all the time??

Approaching San Andres was also quite a challenge. The “harbor” lies inside the east side of the island’s reef, which is highly unusual since most islands put their harbor on the leeward side of the island, which in this case would the west or the south side. Once you come into the channel on the southeast end of the island, you make your way back up to the north end of the island inside the reef via a well-marked channel. Definitely a first for me. We had a tough time finding a good deep spot to drop anchor, because the harbor is quite shallow in some spots. A fisherman in a panga came out to us to show me how to get to the deeper water. It involved going around this cay over to the other side. He patiently guided us in, and I happy enough to give him a tip for his help.

So now, we’re in San Andres. It’s a totally different island with a completely different attitude than Providencia. This island is very touristy, lots of hotels, shops and tourist traps. The island itself, however is quite nice, and there’s alot to see and do. It’s kinda nice to see some taste of civilization, with a Colombian twist.

On our first day here, we were on our way back to the dinghy from an internet cafe after getting caught up with online stuff. The really bad internet connections in Providencia caused all of us to fall a bit behind on emails and stuff (horrible, huh? I know…), And incredibly enough, I got to experience another “small world” moment.

As we were walking down the street, I heard someone calling my name, when I looked over, it was Rosie and Scotty!!! They’re the friends I’ve met up with in Utila, London, and most recently Costa Rica when I visited them last summer for a week. And now, here they were, in San Andres and we run into each other ON THE STREET. Unbelievable.

Turns out that they were in San Andres on their visa run (you have to leave Costa Rica every 3 months, stay out 3 days and then come back to get a new stamp, hence the term “visa run”). They came over to the boat, and we had rum drinks and got caught up. It was really nice seeing them. We hadn’t been in touch over the past few months. They were going diving the next day, so they couldn’t come out that night. The girls were also very tired, so I went into town solo to see what was up with the nightlife. It was a bit quiet in town for a friday night, but I still managed to find some fun places, and chatted with alot of locals. The chicas here are VERY friendly. Which is kinda nice.

I managed to meet up with Rosie and Scotty again after their dive, and we had a few more drinks. They were leaving the next day, but were trying to see if they can stretch out their visit, to no avail. I told them about Providencia, and they decided they would try to visit there. We’ll see if they make it.

Then, last night I managed to get the whole crew off the boat for a night on the town. It turned out to be Theresa’s last night, as she decided to head back to Ceiba from here today, because she decided her time was getting tight before heading back to Germany. So we all made it count, and Sarah, Jenni and I ended up closing a disco club down at 4 AM. It was a fun, crazy night loaded with dancing, drinking and everything else.

So, we’re still in San Andres, probably will be here for a couple more days before heading onward to Panama, depending on the weather, which right now, looks really good.

So, after a day or so in Utila, the crew was onboard, last minute details were taken care of, and we were off to Roatan. We did have a little issue with the anchor windlass (that’s the thing that raises and lowers the anchor). Seems that the relay switch that operated the controller decided to stop working, right when we were anchoring in Utila.

Considering that these kinds of relay switches are not just available anywhere in Central America, much less the Bay Islands, I had to improvise. I managed to set up a way of “hotwiring” the windlass when I needed it to work using a pair of jumper cables. Sure, it’s not as pretty as pushing a button to raise the anchor, but it gets the job done. So it will have to do for now.

With the crew aboard, we made way for West End of Roatan. We got there not long before dark, and decided to just stay onboard the night, and hang out as a crew. We made a nice chicken dinner, of which for some reason, I managed to drop TWO pieces of the grilled chicken right into the deep blue (don’t ask me how) as I took them off the grill. That never happened before. So the chicken portions were a tad reduced, but dinner was good nonetheless. After a couple rounds of rum drinks and a movie, we called it a night.

Next morning, we were off to French Harbour, a little more down east on the south side of the island. The plan was to finish up the provisioning there, and for me to go into Coxen Hole and try to get us checked out of Roatan. We saw that there was an empty slip at the yacht club, so we just opted to pull in there. It would make things much easier. Plus, I know the manager, Nikolai, a crazy Russian guy who has owned the marina for the past few years, so I’d get a chance to say hi and bye to him. I’d seen him about three months ago, the last time I was in French Harbour. Imagine my absolute shock when I found out from his girlfriend that he had been shot dead at his house at the marina about 2 months ago. That was really upsetting. I’d known for some time that he’d had some enemies on the island, and being a hot-headed russian, I’m sure that didn’t win him any friends. It turned out that it was probably a hit, as his girlfriend Jessy told me the whole story. Anyway, that was a pretty upsetting note to end my last visit to Roatan for some time to come.

With the provisioning done, and checkout completed, we headed out for Guanaja the following morning. The weather was expected to be good, with light variable winds coming in from the north, which was PERFECT for us. The first couple hours required us to motorsail, as the winds were VERY light, but by the time we got to Guanaja’s soutwestern tip, the wind was blowing nicely, and we were able to sail right up the coast. It was nice, easy-going sail. I was particularly excited, because despite my being in these waters for three seasons now, I never made it to Guanaja. One attempt in 2005 (with the self-proclaimed “Dutch Bitches” as crew) was called off due to rough seas and major crew seasickness. The second attempt was thwarted when my headsail blew out last year off Roatan, causing us to pull into French Harbour and make repairs, thus ruining our already tight end of season schedule. So, needless to say, it was AWESOME finally seeing some new lands and waters.

We went up Guanaja’s southern coast towards a place called Josh’s Cay. It’s a private Cay owned by a guy named Graham who moved to Guanaja from Grand Cayman 15 years ago. He bought the whole island and built a really nice place on it with a bar, restaurant, some bungalows and lots of free services for yachties, which included free ice, water, and moorings. I’d heard about it from some other cruisers who’d been there, and figured that would be the best place to go while hanging out in Guanaja. And we were not disappointed. I even got to meet Graham, who turned out to be a hell of a nice guy. It was a nice, idyllic way to spend a couple of days in Guanaja.

Then, on the day we were to leave Guanaja, we headed over to Guanaja settlement to finish up some final shopping, go online one last time, and get a look at the town. Despite Guanaja being situated on a large picturesque island, the locals instead chose to build their “town” on a small flat cay just off the main island. It’s a cramped, chaotic little town that has no streets, only sidewalks and all traffic in and out of it is strictly by boat. It was a pretty interesting place to see.

After taking care of our stuff, we pulled up the hook and headed out of Guanaja for our first stop, the Vivorillo Cays. The sail over that first night and most of the day were nothing short of phenomenal. The wind kept blowing steadily from the north, and we were able to maintain a beam reach towards the Vivorillos with no problem at all. Our only problem was that we left Guanaja a little late in the day the previous day, making our timing to get to Vivorillos, about 140 miles away, a little tight for a daylight arrival. This got further complicated by a nasty squall that blew on us just about 20 miles out of the Vivorillos, causing me to put the storm behind me, pushing back a couple more miles. This issue, exacerbated by the fact that the weather remained kinda crappy, caused me to decide to not stop at the Vivorillos after all, but instead just keep going. I can see that the crew was disappointed, but there really wasn’t another choice. So we continued onward to Providencia, which was another 200 miles away.

So for the next day and a half, we ventured onward. The weather remained good for the first 100 miles past Vivorillos. But then, the wind died, and we found ourselves surrounded by some nasty thunderstorms and squalls. We luckily managed to dodge the nasty lightning, but did get deluged by one of the rainy squalls pretty good. The weather remained hazy and strange the rest of the day, and into the night. The wind was pretty spotty, and we ended up needing to motor the last 60 or so miles to Providencia.

We made an early morning arrival into Providencia this morning. The weather coming in was nearly perfect and breezy. We all got caught up on sleep, had some breakfast and headed into the island for a look around. This island is far from touristy, which is a refreshing change, and the people are really friendly and genuine, also refreshing. Looks like we’ll be here for at least another day or two while we assess the weather situation south of us.

So far, so good…

Comment from: mietsie [Visitor]

Nice to read you are enjoying being on the blue and getting to see new places, it makes me smile, take care,

x

05/23/07 @ 01:24

Since getting back from the states last week of April, most of my time has been getting Andiamo prepared for the next chapter, heading down to Panama for hurricane season. A trip I’m really looking forward to, because alas, it’s time to move on.

When I got back to Puerto Cortes, I arrived to find that the navy yard’s boat lift out of commission. This was due to the fact that two of the lift’s tires had non-existent sidewalls, and the concept of rotating tires on the lift was apparently an alien one to the navy yard guys. I was told over the next four days that the lift would be ready “manana”, only to find that it wouldn’t happen. Which of course, I’m used to by now.

The main problem was that the guys didn’t understand that they needed to CHANGE THE TIRES. They kept trying to change only the inner tubes, and after four tries, they realized that wasn’t going to work. Mitzy was planning on going to Utila for her monthly trip and offered to crew, but I told her to wait until I knew that the boat would really get ready to be splashed. After the fourth or fifth time that I was promised to be put back into the water, I told her to come down, which ended up being on a Friday.

Of course, the tire blew out again, and we weren’t going anywhere. So we were told that we’d have to wait until Saturday. The lift operator said he thought he can get us into the water with just one tire on that side (each corner of the lift has two tires). So saturday morning, we were told that we’d be splashed that afternoon. Then that afternoon, the yard engineer told us that the lift operator never came back from lunch. Oddly enough, we were walking back to the hotel, when we saw the lift operator kicking back a few brews at a small watering hole just outside the yard. We told him that the engineer was looking for him and that he was trying to get us back in the water that afternoon. The lift operator, Eduardo, was pretty buzzed obviously, but said he’d go and run the lift if someone from the base came and got him.

Mitzy then sprang into action. She went over and lobbied one of the officers to come and get the lift operator and get him off his ass. Then Eduardo had a little tiff with the engineer over how drunk he was. Then, there was the matter of moving the other two boats that were in Andiamo’s way so we can get splashed (planning and organization are also alien concepts to these guys). Mitzy showed her stuff as a mover and a shaker and got everyone involved until the lift guy was actually in the seat and moving boats. We figured it would be a while before they’d get to Andiamo, so we went and got lunch. By the time we got back, they had moved two boats and were only minutes away from moving Andiamo. We were stunned and amazed. They were moving boats so fast that one of the boats they had to move had a french family on it, and the woman didn’t even have enough time to get her kids off the boat before they put it on the lift. Crazy stuff.

Anyway, they managed to get Andiamo on the lift, and start moving her to the water. It was about that time that Mitzy and I noticed that the one tire that was handling all the load on that particular side was eroding before our very eyes. We were watching chunks of rubber fall off the tire as it flexed and rolled over to the lift dock. We were really hoping they’d Andiamo in the water before it blew, which was inevitable.

Luckily, they managed to splash Andiamo in time. And from what I heard, Andiamo was the last boat to get moved by that lift for SEVERAL days while they waited for tires to arrive from the states. So finally, I got a lucky break for a change.

The sail over to Utila was fun, but slow. We battled a nasty surface current that kept us below 5 knots most times. The wind finally shifted a bit to make pointing to Utila better. But the current persisted. We ended up making it to Utila is just over 16 hours.

I then spent the next few days in Utila, hanging out with Moni and Mitzy. Moni was getting ready to head over to Guatemala City for her birthday and some vacation. And she was doing all she can to get me to go. But I was definitely not keen on riding a bus to GC, and I was also rather focused on getting Andiamo ready for the next big trip. Beside, I had to find crew, and a whole slew of other stuff. So I was unable to make the trip to GC for Moni’s birthday.

It didn’t take long for me to line up crew for the trip, so after doing that and knocking out some projects, I headed over to La Ceiba last Tuesday to get some more stuff done, get diesel, and provision the boat for the trip down to Panama. I had a little problem with my coolant tank which required me to pull it off and take to a machine shop. So that cost me a day or two. While in Ceiba, I hung out with Lucia, Cristina, and Teresa of the LC Gang. That’s when Teresa decided she wanted to go to Panama too. So another crew member joined the roll. I also managed to catch “Spiderman 3” at the mall theater for just a little over 2 bucks.

So we left Ceiba yesterday, after a stay that was a little longer than I would have liked. We stopped in Utila to pick up the rest of the crew, which consists of Sarah, a dive instructor from the UK, and Jenni, a Finnish girl who’s riding her bike through North and South America.

So after a stop in Roatan, we’ll be on our way to Guanaja and onward…

Stay tuned…