Hot town, summer on the Rio

It's really hard to believe we've been here in Rio Dulce for 3 weeks and in 1 week we will be flying back to the US for 2 months to visit family, friends, Doctors and get stuff we need for next year. We're adjusting to summer on the Rio.

We've been keeping up our routine that we started when we came here but trying to get more done and exercise a bit more. We were excited when we booked in here because the website said they had a fitness center. Well, maybe sometime in the future they might but as of now they don't. According to the owner he has plans to do it but right now all the equipment is at his home in California. He showed us pictures of it.

A view of one of the tiendas in Fronteras.

This is the tropics and summer is hot. Although, it really isn't much worse than summers in the DC area although in DC there are occasionally days that are cooler. The high temperature here range from the upper 80's to the mid-90's but night temps fall into the 70's. The humidity is usually in the 60-70% range except before it rains it goes up to 100%. Since this is the rainy season it rains almost everyday. We've had some days where it didn't rain or rained only a sprinkle. Most days it rains at night beginning anytime after 1600, So far the rain has only kept us from venturing out for some evening social events. But for some of the ones we've attended we got there dry, then it poured down rain while we were there and got home dry. So far we haven't had any monsoonal rains lasting for days.

Last week we have experienced 2 tropical weather events and an earthquake as TS Cindy formed off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula just northeast of here and then proceeded to move to make landfall in the vicinity of Louisiana. Another unnamed tropical system moved through the lower windward islands but dissipated once it hit the Carib.Thursday a 6.8 magnitude earthquake hit in western Guatemala. Some people here said they heard it but we didn't notice it. Guatemala is an active seismic area. There are several active volcanoes and frequent earthquakes. Of course all of Central America is part of the Pacific "Ring of Fire" denoting the Pacific borderlands with potential for significant seismic activity.

A view of Shell Bay looking toward the mountains.

Thus far we have been focusing primarily on boat chores because next week we have our boat hauled for the time we're gone. When we get back there is work to do. We are having the yard redo the teak, repaint the bottom, rebed all of our hardware, clean and wax our hull and topsides (which includes all the stainless). This is all work I usually do myself but they can put a couple guys on it and do it all for not much more than it would cost me if I did it. So now we are getting ready to get hauled out next week.

When we leave next week it will be the longest time we have been gone from the boat since we moved aboard. We are leaving for 2 months. We could leave the boat in the water while we're gone as some friends are doing but there is just less worry on the hard. We will leave an air conditioner and dehumidifier running to keep the boat cooler and drier inside to prevent mold and also keep our nonperishable foods from spoiling in the heat. The yard has a guy that comes around once a week and checks everything and wipes down the insides to help reduce mold.

A gathering with friends at Sundogs Cafe to watch the America's Cup races.

The marina here is really interesting. It is more of a working marina than a resort marina. There is no pool as there are at other marinas in the area and it would be really welcomed on these hot days. Many of the marinas here have no haulout capability or no yard to do work. RAM Marina, where we are, is well managed and there are hundreds of boats ashore for work or just being stored. The launch facility is busy hauling boats and on weekends they launch all sorts of personal watercraft and small boats for local Guatemalans. It is interesting because the fuel dock is busy all the time while the fuel dock for another marina just 50 meters next door (with cheaper prices) has little business. Service counts. The marina has a fence with barbed wire and security guards 24-7 who are armed at night. So far we haven't heard of any criminal activity on the Rio.

A Sunday morning cruiser swap meet.

Preparing the boat for storage we have pulled in all the halyards and sheets as best we can out of the sun so that they are under cover. When we leave, everything we can will be moved inside for storage out of the sun and rain. We have removed our headsails, our main is furled in the mast and I've covered the furling drums with aluminum tape to shade most of the furling lines. I did not go all the way around them to allow water to drain out and air to circulate to dry them preventing mold.

Backpackers Hotel and Resort with our marina in the background.

We have a full fuel tank and we will fill our water tank to reduce the risk of growth and I will once more flush out our holding tank with the fresh water. It's really nice being up the river in fresh water so it cleanses out all the salt. Running the engine getting here flushed it out, I ran the generator the other day to flush it out and our head hoses have been running with fresh water to help remove the salt. It's really enjoyable having fresh water to clean everything. I can even clean our anchor line although we had it down in the river the night before we got here that should have rinsed off all the salt.

Looking over Fronteras from the top of the bridge.

There are many reasons to like it here, up the Rio Dulce.

The town of Fronteras is a vibrant community made up of mostly Mayan people with a mix of other folks and actually lots of tourists. Rio Dulce is a vacation town for inland Guatemalans where they come to play in the river, hike in the parks and stay at one of the many resorts along the river. The sights and sounds of the busy tiendas along the streets where vendors sell almost any sort of agricultural product make for fascinating shopping. At one shop they sell raw cocoa beans. (We plan to buy some and make chocolate from scratch!) There are women making tortillas, grilling chicken and selling ready-to-eat foods. The street is busy with traffic. You can walk down the street with trucks rolling by 6 inches away. There are lots of motorcycles, taxis, buses and 'Tuk-tuk's" which are a 3-wheeled motorcycle that is used for local taxi runs.

Looking down from the bridge at Jocelyn's restaurant on the Rio.

Besides all the boat reasons to like it here it is a great social community. While we work to improve our Spanish there are lots of English speaking cruisers here. Many we know and many we are now meeting. Several of the businesses here have people that speak at least some English so it is easy doing business. Even the street vendors that speak no English are happy when we try to engage with them in commerce using elementary language. The "gringo" bars all speak English but we enjoy the local places better,

In the park by the river.

Fruits and vegetables are plentiful from street tiendas or from the Dispensa which is a big (relatively) grocery store that is supposedly owned by Wal-Mart. We are finding new things to try and new ways to buy things we like. Folks here talk about not liking the local beef. Of course we eat little or no beef so it's not an issue for us. But, I've noticed that all the cattle trucks passing through have Brahman

Mayan woman making tortillas in her tienda with chicken and peppers on the grill.

cattle so they must be big around here and I'm sure their meat tastes different from Iowa grain-fed beef from a feedlot. I suspect that based on their lineage they do better in hot weather than say Angus cattle and that probably accounts for the different taste. Also, the local cattle eat mostly indigenous greens rather than grain so that would account for a different texture and taste. Probably more healthy.

Looking down at a hotel along the street.

Evenings here are not forgotten. On 3 of the evenings there are movie nights at different marinas. The marinas offer a dinner special and then the movie for a cost of about $15 a couple plus they will pick you up at your marina in their lancha saving you from having to drive your dinghy after dark. There are also nights with entertainment at some of the local bars so on any given evening there are great socializing opportunities. Once people return to their boats in the Fall it will be even bigger!

Cleaning a winch.

When we come back from our summer hiatus we have work to do but there is so much sightseeing to do from here as well.  No place else in this region offers the opportunities that exist here. A few years ago the social and political instability made this region a high-risk for "gringos" but that has seemingly passed and much of Central America looks like it is open for business.

After being here for 3 weeks we can see why people stay here with many returning for the season year after year.  We may change our plans and go cruise for 6 months but come back here. It's relatively safe from crime and horrific weather; lots to do; friendly people, and fresh water. But for right now it's get the boat ready for haul-out and us to fly back to the US.

Life on the Rio

After 9 months, 3300 nautical miles, 4 countries and lots of fun offshore we arrived in Guatemala for our hurricane season stay. We chose to go west in the Caribbean instead of east (as many people do) for several reasons that many people don't consider. First, we've never been to most of the places we will be visiting going this way and cruising is about finding new places. Second, going east from the time you leave the Bahamas until well down the island chain you're going upwind (more on this later). Third, we needed a place where we could be on the boat for most of hurricane season and not just put the boat on the hard for 5 months.

Coming up the Rio in really deep water and about 1 kt of current.

The trip up the Rio Dulce had some very spectacular scenery and one of the really nice things was the water in the river is really deep. Especially since the electronic charts stop after a few miles. At that point we used the paper charts in the cruising guides that enabled us the rest of the way up the river.

After a week here we have started to get into the sense of things and it really is pretty nice.

Stopped for lunch our first day out on the town with our friend Bob Heuther on Moondance who had been here before and was showing us around.

There is a large ex-pat community here so plenty of English speaking folks and because they are here lots of the locals have some understanding of English which makes doing business easier. Also, many of the businesses are owned by ex-pats or folks that spent time in the US and can speak English fairly. Just like in other countries there is a steep currency conversion. There are about 7.3 Quetzales, the Guatemalan currency per US $ making the Q worth about $.13. Counting in Spanish is easy so asking a vendor Cuantos? their answer makes buying easy. It's the currency translation that becomes challenging when you pay 8Q for a pineapple and realize that's just over $1. Also when dealing with street vendors bargaining is required. Almost everything is negotiable.

Brunos Hotel, Restaurant, Bar and Marina aka our dinghy dock.

Just next to our dinghy dock.

Our marina, RAM Marina is as good as any marina in the US except a lot cheaper. The marina is owned by a California entrepreneur who has made it first rate. It has small water frontage with few actual transient slips but has covered land and in-water storage; a paint building where they can put a sailboat with the mast up; support staff capable of doing most services; and a West Marine store that has a wide selection of everything although I'm not sure if it is as good as Durae's in Kingston (it doesn't have a bar). The marina is located on the south bank of the river in an area known as Shell Bay so we take the dinghy across when we want to go into town.

The town of Fronteras is an interesting little eclectic village with an interesting story. It is named Fronteras, or Frontier in English, because before the bridge was built it was where civilization stopped. There were lanchas (launches) to take people across the river to the other side but there was really nothing much. United Fruit Company was headquartered just outside Porto Barrios on the south coast of the Gulf of Honduras where they shipped out millions of bananas hauled over dirt roads or down the river in lanchas. Guatemala was the "Banana Republic" because United Fruit controlled the government.  

Looking up and down the main street in Fronteras.

There is so much history here with Mayans still a large percentage of the population in this region. Livingston down the river has lots of Garifuna people and Mayans. Garifuna is a race that developed from African slaves intermarrying Carib or Arawak Indians in the 17th century who live in isolated coastal villages in Central America.

The streets of Fronteras are a scene of high activity with lots of native Mayans, Spanish and occasionally a gringo tourist. The main street is paved over so many times that it is much higher than the shoulder and sometimes treacherous to walk. Main Street is Hwy CA-13 (Central America Route 13) and carries the Pan American highway from Mexico across the Rio Dulce to Guatemala City where it becomes CA-1 and runs through Panama to a gap before continuing into South America. It is also one of the few paved north-south roads in Guatemala so the traffic is heavy including tractor and trailer trucks, buses, and cars moving through.

CA-13 bridge over the Rio Dulce.

Looking across the river from our marina.

Along the side are all sorts of colorful tiendas (stores), produce stands, bars, vendadors and hotels. The main street of Fronteras is actually several blocks long and has at some point almost anything you would want to buy. One afternoon we stopped at one of the local cruiser bar for a cold beer before dinghing back across the river and a Mayan girl came by carrying a huge basket of homemade pastries to sell. We bought 2 pastries that were sort of like small pies with mango filling that were excellent.

So far our days have been a mix of boat chores, shopping, working on an estimate of work we want the yard to do, socializing with other cruisers and learning how to tolerate the heat of the day. During the day the temps have been in the mid-upper 90's and at night cool down to the mid 70's but the humidity is very high. It rains everyday here. So far we haven't had any days of all rain but that's coming with the advent of the rainy season soon. The trick is to get work done early, stay inside (although we've been going shopping) in midday and then collect things before the storms start in the evenings.

Getting ready for movie night on Friday. Saw Will Smith in Concussion.

There are so many places to go here and things to do. To help folks there is a Cruiser Net on the VHF every morning to let everyone know about everything going on in the area and help find needed services. There is something going on somewhere almost every night and most places have lunch specials to attract lots of interest.

The Park surrounding the Fort.

The four of us in front of the Fort.

The dedication stone of the Fort.

The entry with the drawbridge over the moat.

The battery outside the Fort.

Saturday we did a tourist diversion and along with our friends Bob and Nina on Moondance we dinghied upriver to the Castillo de San Felipe de Lara which is a fort built by the Spanish in the 17th century to protect the mines and the settlements upriver. Apparently it didn't work too well because it got ransacked by pirates several times and the villages got raided from shore by hostile tribes from Honduras. On the way back we stopped at a very nice local place where not many cruisers go.

View from the top observation point.

Part of the inscription on the cannons. These were cast in 1736.

Rosita's set in the jungle along the river and the food was excellent. Lanchas kept coming in while we were there bringing vacationing Guatemalans. Little pricier, but the food was excellent.

Nina's dish of conch carpazio.

But key among our chores is to develop a list of stores that we need to purchase either here or back in the US to get shipped here for us to do our cruising next year. As we journeyed down the east coast we stocked up with lots of supplies but we won't be able to do that this year. So we find a local source of supply here at whatever cost or consider the cost of buying and shipping from the US. We tend to keep a plant-based diet so as long as we have access to local farmers we can do well. But, it's the other things that get difficult. We still have beer, rum and some wine we brought with us but we've been able to augment our US brews with beer in the Bahamas, Jamaica and even here isn't so bad. We are now in the land of good rum. Zacapa and Botran rums are made here in Guatemala. For the next several years we will have no shortage of good rum. Wine, however, is a different story. I have the number of a wine dealer who has a boat here and I need to discuss with him so we can buy several cases to restock while we are here.

Relaxing in an embrasure.

Above I listed the reasons we came this way and besides the fact they are new places, they are also inexpensive. Compared to the eastern Caribbean where things are Bahama-priced or worse. In Jamaica and here food and staples are inexpensive. So for a place to subsist and restock, cheaper is better. I also mentioned that we didn't want to fight the flow. There is an entire science dedicated to figuring out how to go from the US east coast to the eastern Caribbean. Coming the way we did, it's all down-wind. When we head further south it will be reaching. Then we will have some short slogs across Colombia and when the winds and waves subside in late spring we will make the short passage to the ABC's. Unlike the folks going east, our upwind passages will be short and far-between instead of one long constant upwind battle from the Bahamas to Antigua, almost 1,000 nm.

People that go east have to haul there boats and tie them down for hurricane season, unless they choose to stay in the water and gamble. Even if the boat is tied down somewhere in the box it can still get damaged in a hurricane. Here, the terrain will protect the area from severe winds. A storm may dump lots of rain but it will just wash down the river. Being in the shelter of Shell Bay or on the hard we will be protected from issues with flooding. Where we are on the river is fairly far above sea-level so there is no tidal surge and no backing up of flood waters. This is a great hurricane hole.

So, we are staying on the boat until we fly back to the US and when we come back we will have work done and then have the boat back in the water hopefully very soon. Once back in the water we might even do some sailing up on the lake. This is really a great place for hurricane season with so much to do and so much available. Plus, we already have friends here and more are coming this week. I just hope we can get done all the things we need to before it's time to leave. Well, maybe we'll stay longer or come back. Life is sweet on the Rio Dulce.

Down to the Banana Republics

The Steve Goodman song about American ex-pats taking up residence in any of the Central American countries certainly applies to Rio Dulce. The Rio is known as the river that swallows gringos because norte americanos come here and never leave. We had a plan to come here for months and we also have a plan to leave in months. It's obvious why this is such a great hurricane hole. Our insurance company specifically endorsed our policy approving our layover here. The triangle of the Caribbean that ends at Livingston gets narrower with lots of points of wind shear that would suck the life from the storm and then there are the mountains around here. So having made it we are here until the end of hurricane season. Not that we will be here the entire time because we do plan to travel back to the US for 2 months to visit friends and family plus we want to sight see in the region.

The day before the day before we left some folks on another boat came over and gave us 3 big bags of marlin. We grilled one bag that was excellent, gave one away and have one more to grill.

Dinner the night before we left with our crew member Jim Upson at the George Town Yacht Club.

Getting to Rio Dulce is the culmination of planning, discussions and preparation of more than a year. We left Oxford, MD in September and traveled just under 3300 nautical miles down the US Coast, through the Bahamas, Jamaica, Cayman Islands and into Guatemala. This is really only the first leg of our multiyear cruise through the Caribbean. Sometime in the last few weeks we got below the sun. The sun is now north of us and will be until sometime late in the summer.

A passenger along for the ride.

Jumping off from the Caymans became a big deal because we were getting ready to take the longest, most challenging and final step to going to Guatemala. After cruising for almost 9 months we had come to the last jump. The rhum line passage from Caymans to Livingston, Guatemala was about 470 miles so in reality it would be more because of the ancillary travel needed along with some turns in our course. I estimated that it would take us between 70-75 hours to make the crossing because we can usually do 160-180 nm per day. But this time we were complicating it by going with a buddy boat. Our friends on Kuaka, Serge and Charlotte Crottaz who are originally from Switzerland but have moved to New Zealand and are now on their way back home down under.

An offshore shot of Kuaka rocking in the swells.

Keeping in visual contact and matching speed with our buddy boat.

Amekaya sailing partially hidden by a wave.

We haven't traveled with a buddy boat in the past because we haven't needed to and we prefer to keep our own schedule. However, this time with the length of the passage and security risks we were looking for a boat going our way near our time schedule. After several conversations Kuaka agreed they wanted to team with us. They were smaller and slower than Amekaya but we agreed that we would keep to their speed because the value of their companionship offset the increase in time. They actually left before we did but we caught up with them and stayed close until late in the second day when we agreed to stay in visual contact so that potential attackers would know there was another boat close by and not try to approach us. The classic mantra of strength in numbers is true offshore. We also turned off our AIS but used our lights at night.

Kuaka in quieter waters going up the Rio Dulce.

So we actually made the trip from Barcadere Marina on the Sound side of George Town to our anchorage across the Bay from Livingston in about 80 hours. After we anchored across from Livingston we had run the engine 24 hours of the 80 hours of the trip. Most of that occuring in getting out of North Sound, motoring the night of the squalls and motoring when the wind died into the anchorage. Other than that we sailed trying to match Kuaka's speed along the way. With the wind almost dead behind us most of the way the apparent wind was low producing minimal wind power so our batteries ran low at night with the heavy draw of the autopilot, the electronics and everything else. The autopilot drew heavily because of the large waves running behind us. One night we ran the engine for a couple hours to juice up the batteries and gain some speed. The next night we ran the engine because of the squalls and the third night we ran the generator to charge the batteries. During the day we got ample solar to run everything and keep the batteries charged for several hours.

Looking up the Rio Dulce from Livingston as we start our trip.

Across the river as we head inland.

On Monday morning (29 May, Memorial Day in the US) we took a taxi to the Port Security office in George Town, Grand Cayman (GCI) to clear. We returned to the boat, made the boat ready for sea, filled up with fuel and departed. Normally, we fill with fuel when we arrive, but in the Caymans after you clear for departure you can buy fuel duty free so it saved us $.70/gal on 68 gallons. The Barcadere Marina in GCI was wonderful. Using a weekly rate the dockage was only $1.25/ft and water that was only $.15/gal compared to $.40 or more in the Bahamas. It was also conveniently located to town, the airport and they had a free shuttle to some common places. Leaving was very hard because it was such a wonderful place.

Cockpit view looking upriver.

Jungle foliage along the shore.

After getting our fuel we left the marina and after we got out of the inner channel we ran aground because I didn't turn soon enough. Coming in it was easy to follow the marks but going out the outer marks weren't obvious and I was trying to follow our chartplotter tracks. We tried getting ourselves off for a few minutes and then a small power boat came out and pulled us out and we continued out the way we came in passing the outer marks.

We motored out through North Sound even though there was a fair wind blowing because the Sound is shallow, the route goes through hazards where I wanted firm control and the multiple turns would have required tacking at crucial steering points. We cleared the barrier reef and began to sail. We sailed up to northwest point on GCI where we jibed and then went to our waypoints. We had a third crew member with us who made the trip from Virginia to help us. Jim Upson arrived on Sunday afternoon after we suggested he delay his original arrival because of forecasted bad weather which never materialized.

Egret in a tree along the river.

One of the river's many bends.

Several days before we left I had reviewed the paper charts and selected some points that would guide us through several shoals just west of GCI that we wanted to avoid and on to Guatemala. The route would take us around charted hazards and keep us far enough north of the Honduran coast where pirate attacks have originated. Serge and I discussed the route and he agreed it was reasonable and we wanted to be sure we steered far enough away from any potential hazards. It's hard to believe that in the middle of the Caribbean there are shoals with rocks and islets sticking up that show on charts but you may need to zoom in on a chart plotter to see them. They are on the paper charts and unless I had gone over the entire route on the chart plotter at a small detail I never would have seen them. That is why you need paper charts along with chart plotters.

Some of the houses along the river.

Details of the day to day were posted in blog updates. Generally we were in a summer tropical weather pattern with light winds in the morning and early afternoon building during the afternoon and very strong overnight with squalls and storms around. Winds were very constant from an easterly direction sometimes more southerly. Wind shifts occurred around the squalls for short periods as they blew through but that didn't usually effect us. Every night there was serious lightening around but mostly far off so it wasn't an issue.

On Tuesday, our first morning of the passage a water spout developed off our port stern. A water spout is a weak tornado caused by wind sheer in the cloud. It usually isn't as strong as one on land because you don't have the great disparities at sea as you do on land. We watched it develop and tried to track it on radar but it didn't provide a return. It appeared to be moving in our direction so we turned on the engine and pulled in the sails to try to get away from it faster and minimize damage in the event it did hit us. Not far from us it dissipated and the cloud passed over us dumping heavy rain for a few minutes. Our buddy boat got nothing out of the cloud.

The water spout forming.

The water spout with the disturbance on the water.

Thursday we began to smell the end of the passage and we needed to get in before dark to an anchorage and also avoid forecasted bad weather coming in the evening. So about noon when the wind was down to single digits we began motoring. Later the wind came up but we needed to keep up speed. We rounded the Cabo Tres Puntas (Cape of Three Points) and got the anchor down just as darkness fell. Overnight the breeze died and we had a quiet peaceful night on anchor after 3 nights on the passage.

Some locals in one of the common forms of travel on the river.

We had made it to Guatemala but 3 formidable challenges remained. We needed to cross the shallow bar into Livingston, we needed to clear through the authorities and we needed to negotiate the river up to the town of Rio Dulce.

To help us successfully get through the bar we would follow Kuaka who had a 3' draft. To negotiate our way through the authorities we agreed to use an agent and we had cruising guides to help us find our way up the river because our electronic charts stopped part way up it.

Parked at the fuel dock at RAM Marina.

When we awoke Friday morning it was still overcast and foggy. Good thing we didn't plan to leave early because low tide was about the time we would get there. So we had planned to leave about 8 which would get us there on a rising tide. Kuaka left first and we caught up with them and followed them through the bar. We came to a point just outside of Livingston where Serge warned us about a shallow spot that should have been enough for us to clear so I accelerated thinking that if it was a little high we could push through. I had turned on the AIS trail for Kuaka so I could go exactly where he did. Well we got to the area of the high spot and boats came out from shore towards us and were sitting there waiting as we ran aground. We were just outside the deeper water. The first boat tried to pull us off and couldn't. He then went and got another boat that gave us a line for our halyard and tipped us as the other boat pulled and we got off. Tipping a full-keeled boat doesn't necessarily help because the one side will go up but the other side will go deeper. We haven't run aground this whole trip and now in this trip we hit twice and needed help. Won't make that mistake again.

Kuaka in the morning fog.

Once off the bar we called our agent and he said he would be out shortly. Well it was over an hour later when he appeared with all the authorities in a launch who came on board asked for our papers which we gave them. They asked a couple questions, took our papers and we were told to go tour agent's office at 1430 to get our permits and papers back. So we had lunch on the boat and then dinghied in to walk around the town and get some local currency. We left Jim, our crew member on the boat to keep an eye on it so nothing disappeared. We found an ATM at a bank that gave us the local currency, Quetzoles, and we spent some buying bananas and a souvenir T-shirt for our crew.

Livingston was a busy little town. There is no highway coming there so all the traffic in and out is by boat. Lanchas carrying large number of folks and larger boats carrying cargo to the docks, even vehicles delivering material to this isolated town.

Busy street scenes in Livingston.

Our business concluded about 1530 so it was now too late to get to our marina in Rio Dulce so we talked with Kuaka and planned to stop in a cove off El Golfete known as Bahia de Tejano or Texan Bay.  We turned and began our trip up the River. It wasn't very wide but it was deep and had some current running. With the hills and mountains the wind was inconsistent and weak so we couldn't sail. Also in the course of the trip up to El Golfete the river went every direction at least twice as it wound around through the very scenic highlands. Supposedly, this is where the Tarzan movies were filmed and the jungle clearly could have been the setting. The pictures will hopefully convey the beauty.

The rigging shop on the Rio Dulce in Texan Bay.

A woman working in a shop on Texan Bay.

The trip through the jungle took about 2 hours and we found Texan Bay using only the charts in the guide book and dropped the anchor. The Bay was very well protected from the breezes out on the lake and in fact it was a very still and quiet night. Once we got the anchor down a Mayan family in a canoe paddled over to us showing us there crafts to sell. It was a father, mother and 8 month old little girl. They had some very nice hand-made items and we bought a pair of hand-carved turtles from them. As they were there Kuaka came in the Bay and asked to raft up with us and we helped them tie on to us. In the over 30 years of sailing they had never rafted to another boat. We were honored they did it with us. Once we got settled they came over for a happy hour that went until well after dark.

Looking out the mouth of Texan Bay about sunset.

Saturday we got up not so early after a very quiet and restful night at anchor and got ready for the culmination of our journey. Our last night on anchor for months. We savored it and hated to leave but we were anxious to get to the finish line. The last 15 miles through the rest of El Golfete and up the river to Rio Dulce was an adventure, especially without any charts other than what was in the guidebook. Finally we rounded the turn and saw the bridge and the marinas we were here.

Coming around the bend. The far side of the bridge is visible.

We were unable to raise the marina on the radio, either because we were on the wrong channel or whoever had the radio didn't speak English. But we called them and they had us come in to the fuel dock to wait and we topped off with fuel. A short time later they showed us our tie-up on the face dock across from the fuel dock between 2 boats that was almost wide enough for us to fit into. The wind was blowing us into the dock so I turned out and backed along the fuel dock as far as I could and with the wind blowing the bow over I drove into the slip. The crew threw lines to the handlers on the dock and they pulled up right in. Our dinghy was just about hitting the bow pulpit of the boat behind us and our bow was over the swim platform of the boat in front but we were in.

Amekaya parallel parked in her new home on the Rio Dulce.

So here we were. The end of almost 9 months of travels where we would be for 5 months. We would now be switching from a travel dynamic to a maintenance dynamic with an entirely different set of considerations. We have work we want to get done here, enjoy the local culture and travel throughout the region to do sightseeing.

Today our crew left and we just sat down to decompress. Tomorrow our new adventure begins.

Creative gelcoat design on one of the boats in the yard.