Splish splash we're finally home

Our blog readers will recall we pulled Amekaya from the water at the end of June just before we left to fly back to the US because we knew we had work to be done when we got back and a boat is usually safer out of the water when nobody is aboard. It just made it easier to prepare everything once than coming back from our 2 months hiatus and then getting the boat ready to haul. After we returned we arranged with the yard to accomplish the work that we wanted and now finally we're back in the water after being on the Rio on the hard for 6 long weeks!  After traveling around the States for 2 months living in places for a night or two and then coming back here and living in our casa for 6 weeks we are finally back on board in the water. It's really good to be back home.

Here we go being lowered into the Rio Dulce.

Since first moving aboard our Island Packet 380 in May of 2014 and then transferring the flag to our IP 420 in November of 2014 we have never been off the boat more than 2 weeks even when working on it. This time it was over 3 months that we have not lived in our home. Being the old soldier that I am I know that home is where you take off your flip-flops but I have to say it is nice to be in the comfort of our own home.  Private, secure and feeling good.

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Final comments about our work

I have spoken in the past about the work we had done but will recap. One of the hardest parts of having the work done was watching others do work that I have usually done myself and knowing how I've done it. Not knowing how they would do it it was gratifying to watch them on numerous occasions do things pretty much like I have done it although maybe not in the time or sequence that I would have. It was also difficult to not want to jump in and help get it done. The workers all did a great job doing it the way they know how to do it. The comments I have heard from other people that have had work done here is certainly borne out by our experience and comments from people that have actually seen the work agree. The pictures don't do it justice.

So in final recap of the work let me describe what was accomplished.

Our home in the paint shed.

The major project was refinishing the teak. This was a project I did 3 years ago when we first bought the boat having stripped and refinished it but weather was an issue and on one of the final coats the finish was swarmed by nats. Having worked through all of that we were also under time pressure to get the boat launched because winter was coming. So here in RAM Marina the crew removed all the stainless from the toerails and dutifully noted it's location for reinstallation. The old finish was scraped off and 3 coats of Cetol light was applied with 2 coats of Cetol Gloss on top. The Cetol application was done in the paint shed out of the rain and sun giving it a chance to cure correctly. After completing the Cetol the hardware was all reinstalled and rebedded.

The coamings look great and I serviced all the winches.

As part of the reinstallation the stainless was all cleaned and rebedded. The hull was cleaned and waxed. The topsides are scheduled to be done as part of the work now that we're back in the water.

The bottom work which we thought would be really easy turned out to be a bit more since some of the old paint was cracking and wasn't solid enough to be painted over. As a result all of the old bottom paint was removed. During the removal a fair amount of the barrier coat that I applied 3 years

With all the bottom paint removed and some of the barrier coat before being recoated.

was also removed. As a result the yard applied a coating of Interprotect 2000 over the bare areas and a full coating over the entire bottom. That was in addition to the coat of barrier coat to be applied as a primer for the new bottom paint. At the last bottom service I applied Hydrocoat since Micron Extra was no longer available in the US. The paint seemed to have held up well but it was not ablative and required constant cleaning by hand. We were able to get Micron Extra here and so we had that applied as a new anti-fouling. Hopefully we'll travel enough to keep it clean. The propellers and zincs were also serviced. The props were painted with Petit Zinc Barnacle Barrier paint which has worked well.

The finished bottom.

While the bow thruster props were off I changed the oil in the drive unit. Something that probably hadn't been done in years.

When we bought the boat the only part of the ground tackle that was really serviceable was a 45# CQR anchor that we've used as our second anchor. However, I'm not sure what happened before we bought the boat but it rusted and lost it's galvanic coating. So we had the yard send it out to be regalvanized at a plant in Guatemala City and it now looks like a new anchor. Maybe I should have sent all my chain for recoating.

Our regalvanized CQR anchor next to our 33kg Rocna.

I think I talked about this before but a nagging issue that we've had since we bought the boat was the inability to use the aft head pumping straight overboard. From our experience it seemed like when the thru-hull was opened and the handle was directed to the holding tank, water ran straight in and to the holding tank filling it. I had the yard remove the selector Y-valve and discovered that it had been installed incorrectly and indeed the water would flow directly into the holding tank filling it. So after 14 years we corrected it. The correction will work but is not really efficient. The valve is really a "T" and the middle connection is always open so that is where the drain line from the head needs to be attached. The valve is vertical so the selector ends are designed for discharge. The lower one goes to the thru-hull for overboard discharge and the top one now goes to the holding tank. The issue is that now the line from the head will hold sewage up to the point until it is above the elbow going to the holding tank. As we will mostly be using it for overboard discharge it should not be an issue. After watching the guys remove and reinstall it I'm glad I had them do it. $50 well spent!!

The "Y" valve before reinstallation. The handle says overboard discharge but as you can see with the the head coming in from the top it was blocked. With the thru-hull open the water came into the middle of the "T" and straight into the holding tank.

We also used the opportunity to have our portlights rebedded. We suspect they were the source of leaks into our lower lockers because when I quick caulked  some of them a few years ago it seemed to have stopped the leaks so having the yard remove and rebed them should help keep everything inside the cabin remain dry. With all the rain we've been having we haven't detected any leaks so that is a good sign!

Among the things we shipped back from the States was a roll of Reflectix to replace the insulation liners in the ports and hatches that we had installed when we first got the boat. After 3 years the old ones had gotten thin allowing in light and heat so we replaced them with fresh material. The inside of the boat is now much darker again that helps to keep the heat out.

Right after we returned we worked on our dinghy and were able to fix some slow leaks that were evident. We also had a local canvas maker build a set of chaps, seat, fuel can and engine covers for it all designed to lessen the effects of the sun. The intense direct sun really deteriorates the hypalon. Additionally, it causes the fuel tank to go through a daily cycle of expansion and contraction that will eventually weaken it. We installed a new metal dinghy seat that we had shipped back to replace the old plastic one that cracked and the seat cover keeps it cool on a hot day plus adds shock absorption from the chop.

Our dinghy all dressed up.

I worked several hours on cleaning the packing nuts and inserting new packing material to reduce the amount of water coming into the bilge while maintaining the effective cooling of the drive shaft. When the boat was lowered into the water by the travel lift there was no water coming in. I ran the engine in gear and loosened the nut until water was coming through enough to keep the shaft appropriately cool. When we get a chance to run at speed I will check it again to ensure enough water is coming through. Under way I check the packing frequently to monitor water flow and temperature of the shaft. 

Work in progress on the packing nuts.

With the work the yard did we've received many compliments on our boat's appearance. While it's nice to have the compliments and have an attractive boat, it's more important that it reflects the attention to servicing detail. Most boaters have issues because something isn't maintained. There are many things that I do not maintain as well as should be but I try. Many people just let things go until they fail. One of the first things I learned in my military career was the importance of maintaining equipment. I will admit that I have not kept up everything I should but I try and the thing that will fail is the thing that wasn't checked.

The last winch torn apart soaking the the bucket of solvent.

There are some outstanding maintenance items that we will complete before we leave in addition to the topside cleaning and waxing. I intend to pull the mixing elbow on the engine and check it before leaving and putting a new thermal blanket around it to ensure the excessive heat from the turbocharger doesn't cause a fire. We also are looking at cleaning out our air-conditioning coils and reworking some of the ducts to improve cooling efficiency. We are also adding an ammeter to the windgen so we can monitor the output from the D400 wind generator. When we installed the generator I didn't see the need but would like to have visibility over the output.

Living on the hard 

The hardest part of living on the hard was wanting to be home while it seemed to become an illusive objective that kept getting farther away with each step forward and 2 steps back.  Without going through each frustrating step it's important that it all worked out. I constantly remind myself and others that there are 3 ways to have work done: good, fast or cheap. You can have 2 of 3 but not all 3. I'm always willing to sacrifice to have the job done right. There are times you can cheap out on things but critical systems on your boat isn't one of those times.

Bow thruster props before and after hand sanding off the sea growth.

Among the challenges of having the yard do work that I had always done myself was this is the first  time I had someone else doing it. It is the same stigma that makes doctors the worst patients.  It was complicated by the fact that I could not really communicate with the guys doing the work because in most cases they spoke very little English and I have not improved my Spanish to the point where I could discuss with them the details of what needed to be completed. At the same time we wanted it completed so we could go home. But, again more importantly we wanted it done right. Fortunately, the yard manager speaks English well and she could communicate to them. I felt bad for the guys being called into the manager's office just to ask a simple question.

Repainting the worn off paint measuring marks. Red is 25' and 75', yellow is 50' and 100'.

As the work progressed I was extremely pleased with the diligence and attention to detail by the workers in the yard. I wish when I did the work I had the time and patience to attend to each detail as they did. When we did this work on this boat back in 2014 I was doing the work while directing all the other major work involved in outfitting and getting ready to launch so we could head south before the snow arrived.

A friendly gecko that frequently walked around our casa.

As I may have mentioned our casa had 2 other rooms that shared a bath while our room had a private bath and we shared the common areas including the kitchen. Fortunately we only had one other couple sharing our casa, friends Dov and Rebecca from Blue Compass who are having an extensive amount of work done on their boat. They were good house-sharers and we had many things in common so we got along well. Hopefully we'll keep in touch and see them in our further Caribbean cruising. It is always tough living in close proximity to people you don't really know but we were able to work it well and hopefully remained friends.

Our major effort going forward was planning our future travels. With our changes in time frame we had to scale back our plans for next year. We made a reservation in Porto Lindo, Panama for the time we would need to head back to the States for Linda's back surgery and other social obligations we want to attend. It's almost like we are falling into the schedule of the snowbirds that park their boats in May and return in November or December but we hope to get back in September and continue enjoying Panama before most of the snowbirds have seen their first snowfall.

We're finally home!!!!!!

We left our boat on 29 June before departing to the States and returned 20 October after completion of the work almost 4 months later. Much longer than we expected and by far the longest time away from home since we moved aboard. Hopefully we will not need to be gone again so long. Life away from our boat becomes so tentative. Some people wonder about the rocking, but it seems strange without it.

On our boat we have everything we need to live. Food, clothes, toiletries and the things that make a house a home. When traveling we have what is provided and what we can carry. We adapt to each new environment and what is available but at home we have everything we need. To folks that haven't done this you may not understand it. But if you do it, you will understand. Using a boat on a weekend or even a week or two is not the same. Even spending months on your boat and then going home is not the same. Above the waterline in this torpedo shaped vessel is what we have and what we need.

Work in progress after the stands were moved.

Finally getting home is both a relief and a challenge with all the work that needs to be completed. So far we have cleaned the boat after being gone for almost 4 months; run the engine for the first time in over 4 months; pumped the bilge, cleaned and got the water system working; got the refrigerator running; got the onboard AC running for the first time in months; worked the heads (they were completely dry after all these weeks and the low humidity in the boat); got the refrigerator working well (we added some weather-stripping to decrease the loss of cold air); got the dinghy on board and secured. The only remaining tests are for the bow-thruster and the generator. With that all systems are go. After we get back from Thanksgiving we have some final work to do including pulling back up the halyards and bending on the sails. At that point we will be ready to go!

I believe Linda and I are in complete agreement that it is wonderful to be back in our home after being ashore for months. As much as we have enjoyed visiting and spending time with our family and friends our boat is very welcoming and it just feels like home. Many folks won't understand that but we are happy to be in our home.

Next adventures

Withe the work mostly completed we are looking forward to our next adventures. In the time we have remaining here we will not get to do all the traveling we wanted but we will get to see some key sites. We have a trip to the Copan Ruins in Honduras coming up right away and a trip to Antigua to follow. We are planning a trip to the ruins at Tikal shortly after that before we travel back to the States for Thanksgiving. Those will be featured in our next blog posts.

Waiting for the bus to Copan.

But for now, we're happy to be home.

Life on the Hard on the Rio

Several times in past blogs we mentioned this is the longest Amekaya has been out of the water since we had her out being upgraded in 2014 just after we bought her. But, we also weren't living on her at the time as we bounced back and forth from our 380 although I spent many nights sleeping on her in  workshop condition. This time we also were gone for 2 months while she was out unlike other occasions when we lived on the hard we were actually in the boat. This time we are fortunate that we have the apartment where we can live with air conditioning, a working refrigerator and a head we can use without climbing down a ladder and crossing the Boat yard. But we would much rather be back on board.

Amekaya being hauled into the paint shed for redoing the teak.

This time of year here in tropical Central America is the rainy season and it rains some part of everyday. Most often the storms begin in the late afternoon or evening so most hours of the day here are rain free. Typically the heaviest rains come at night. Most nights there are thunder and lightening and periods of heavy rain. Although so far we haven't seen any monsoonal type rains. Fortunately, our boat has been moved into the paint shed to shelter it from the sun and the rain.

Our home being placed into the paint shed. Tight fit.

Not much room at the top.

Living on the hard here in the jungle has been an experience. There are little geckos that frequent the casa providing little more than an amusement. Since they eat bugs and aren't intrusive they are kind of cute. But on 3 occasions I, the killer, dispatched scorpions that had invaded the fold. One was in my sandal when I picked it up and crawled onto my hand and down my arm before he hit the floor. But, the serious concern was that 2 tarantulas were found in the other casa resulting in fumigating both casas. Just a typical day in the jungle.

A friendly gecko.

A not so friendly scorpion. This one just walked out into the dining room. The next one was in the sheets of our cabin mates and the third was on my sandals when I picked them up.

We have also had major challenges with the internet here. While we were gone lightning struck a cell tower on the marina property and knocked out the WiFi along with lots of other damage. The equipment has all been replaced but data flow is sporadic and they have been trying to ferret out the issues. Just the other day they found a broken cable and replaced it. Of course like many smaller countries the bandwidth leaving here is small so when lots of people are online it ranges from slow to nonexistent.  Onboard our boat with the booster we had pretty good service before we left. We also have the option of tapping into WiFi from other sources with it that may be better at certain times. In the casa we don't have that advantage.

Our tortilla makers where we buy fresh corn tortillas with their friendly parrot.

What does the future hold?

As we've settled in more we are really enjoying Rio Dulce. It is called the river that swallows Gringos and we can easily see why. So many great places to go and it's fun walking down the street with music playing and street vendors selling everything possible. If we didn't want so badly to see so many more places we could easily see staying here or at least coming back here after cruising. Some folks go out and do Belize, the Bay Islands, Cuba and Mexico for their cruising agenda then come back here every year. We are considering joining that thinking. But more likely we want to keep moving forward. So many places so little time.

A cruiser organized shopping trip to Morales, Guatemala.

We have been talking with Bert and Dorothy on Island Girl, another IP 38 as well as our friends Steve Elliott on IP 38 Slow Flight and Dave and Janice on Living Life about their experiences in Panama as we have been considering going their next year. We've also been talking with our friends Bob and Nina on IP 38 Moondance about buddy boating with us to Panama.

Because we will be leaving here in December instead of November as we originally thought and needing to finish up in May which is sooner than we thought it limits the amount of traveling we can do. We now plan to travel back to the States on 16 November for family matters so it hardly makes sense to leave here in the beginning of November only to seek a home port 2 weeks later. Then in the Spring we will need to travel back earlier than previously thought due to the likelihood of Linda needing another back surgery shortly after our Stateside return. These considerations have led us to consider alternative courses of action.

Our friends at lunch one day at El Perico Cafe discussing travel options.

The beautiful grounds around the hotel and restaurante.

A pair of local boats tied to the pier.

One course of action would be to cruise Belize, the Bay Islands of Honduras and possibly some other areas like Cuba or return to the Cayman Islands before coming back here in May. Leaving the boat here where we know it is secure from weather and theft. Then in the Fall head straight to Colombia and Panama for the next season. Plan B is to enjoy Belize, the Bay Islands, then go to Providencia, St Andres and to a marina in Panama before heading back to the States. Then when we return we could immediately push on with sailing around Panama and Colombia. Plan C is to return to the US over the course of the spring and have the boat on the Chesapeake where we could live while Linda recuperates from her surgery. Then head south again in the Fall.

Obviously there are many advantages and disadvantages of each Plan and we will decide in the coming weeks which we will do. We are talking with others and will try to have a buddy boat for our passages. There are plenty of folks going on any of the routes we are considering.

Home Improvements

Our work here is progressing nicely although not as quickly as we had hoped or as slowly as we had feared. I can add it is being done very well with great attention to detail. We are also doing many of our own boat projects employing many of the things we shipped back to improve our condition. The work here in the yard that we have seen is excellent. The local workers are very thorough and pay great attention to detail.  Of course that comes at a sacrifice of speed and efficiency but the young people working here are very pleasant and a pleasure to be around. We are attempting to learn Spanish so we can communicate with them but when I need to be sure we are clear I speak with the marina manager who ensures the workers understand.

The big boat project we are having the yard complete is to completely refinish the teak on our deck along with removing and rebedding all the deck hardware. This was a task I did in 2014 with some help from one of my son's when we first bought the boat. Unfortunately we were in a bit of a hurry when we did it as there was so much to do in order to leave before cold weather that we couldn't take the time we needed and I was never able to work the necessary maintenance to keep it looking good. The teak has come along well and looks exquisite. Now I will have to keep after it. Rafael the young man that has done most of the work has been very diligent.

Some views of our finished teak work.

We also had the yard rebed the ports on the boat which they did right away. I believed it needed doing because we had some water infiltration that seemed to end when I smeared some caulk around the frames although I didn't completely rebed them. So far it seems to have solved the water issue.

The other major work we are having the yard complete is to clean and wax the hull along with the bottom painting. This is the first time I've let anyone else do it in the 14 years we've owned boats. When we painted the boat the last time in the US I could no longer get the anti-fouling paint that I had used in the past. Micron-Extra which is a copper-based ablative paint was removed from the US market about 2015 due to environmental concerns. The last paint I applied was Pettit's Hydrocoat which is a water-based paint and has held up well. Only issue is it doesn't ablate requiring lots of manual cleaning. We can get Micron-extra here and that is what we are having applied. Hopefully, it will be more serviceable than having a paint that doesn't ablate. The props have done well with some cleaning and the Petit zinc-based Barnacle Coat has held up well.

The yard will clean and wax the hull and topsides which also include polishing the stainless. Once it's all done the boat will look great. Then it will be up to me to keep it that way. The great thing about all of this is that it will be done for less than half of what I paid in Maryland to have the teak done on our old boat 4 years ago.

Our dinghy with chaps, seat cover, engine and fuel tank cover.

After lots of thought we finally had "chaps" made for our dinghy. We've talked about it for several years and asked several canvas makers about it but here we did it. They look great. We also got a cover for our engine, fuel tank and the dinghy seat. A few weeks ago when we got back we worked on the dinghy so that it is now holding air well but with the patches and plastic paint we applied it looked sick. Now, it looks like a brand new dinghy! So now we have to worry about it getting stolen! Covering the tank may seem extravagant but the heavy sun causes degradation through continual expansion and the cover will eliminate it.

We've been doing mechanical work as well. I cleaned years of corrosion off the packing gland and repacked it after 3 years.  I am also having the mixing elbow removed for inspection and reinstalled with our new thermal blanket. I removed the plate from our "Speedseal" and applied silicone crease to it although it seemed to be in good condition.

Working on the packing gland.

I also had the yard pull the "Y" valve from our aft head because it has been an issue since we bought the boat. I guessed that it would be difficult for me to do it. After watching them struggle with it I know the $25/hr I'm paying them was well spent. After getting it removed and inspecting it, we have determined the valve itself was improperly installed.  The "T" valve has 3 ports - one on each end and 1 in the middle. The middle port is always open. That resulted in water flowing into the holding tank when the seacock was opened. We have reinstalled the valve with metal tails and the hose to the head will be attached to the middle of the "T" and the one side connected to the seacock and the other to the line to the holding tank resolving the issue. This was one of those boat issues that never worked but we did a work around. Fixing this will enable us to use the aft head during passages making it much easier during rough seas. That will be a huge improvement. Since we bought the boat we simply walked forward to the forward-head which was very uncomfortable in bad weather. It will also enable guests in the aft-cabin to use their head all the time. Also a major improvement.

The "Y" valve in question.

Over the years I developed a simple philosophy about equipment.  It should all work. If there was something on the boat that was important it should work. If it didn't work and wasn't important get rid of it. If it was there and important it should work. If the equipment couldn't be made to work and was important - replace it. We've visited boats where things didn't work for any number of reasons requiring some local knowledge of the workaround. Often times equipment or systems support redundancy. It's good to have redundancy when system A fails. At least when heading offshore everything should work at the beginning because inevitably there will be things that don't. Success happens when everything works as advertised.

The Non-work life

Well not really nightlife but with all the work we've been getting done it would seem reasonable that it would be taking time to get everything done and we can be enjoying the wonderful Country that is Guatemala during that time. Although, a good hustler could get everything finished faster it may be apparent we haven't been as hustling as we could be. The reason is that beside just enjoying being in Rio Dulce we have been socializing with lots of friends and taking time to see the neighborhood. We hope to do much more of that once the work is finished.

Listening to a jazz performance by some cruisers at Sundog Cafe.

In the past several weeks since we've returned from the States we've intensified relationships that we started before we left and formed new ones.  One of the greatest things about cruising are all the wonderful people we get to meet and hang out with. There are many places around the Rio that have entertainment in the evenings although most don't go too late. We've been fortunate of have some wonderful cabin mates from a trawler named Blue Compass that we've been able to share several wonderful dinners together along with cruising experiences.  We also have had several wonderful evenings with cabin mates next door Bert and Dorothy from IP 38 Island Girl that is also on the hard as they do many things to get back in the water.

Looking up the creek on our way to lunch at the Kangaroo.

The Kangaroo Hotel and Restaurant.

View from our lunch table.

The inside restaurant at Kangaroo.

The hotel grounds.

A heron looking for lunch.

Lunch at the Kangaroo Hotel and Restaurant with our good friends Bob and Nina Huether. The owner is an Australian and his wife is Mexican thus the food at the restaurant is Australian and Mexican. Really good food.

We've enjoyed lunches at some other spots along with the occasional evening outing to hear jazz played by some other cruisers or dinner and a movie at other marinas.

One day we took the opportunity to head to Rio Agua Calientes which is a hot water falls. The hot water rises up from volcanic sources through a rock outcropping and then flows down the mountainside and into a river forming a wonderful hot water falls.

The beginning of the pathway to Agua Calientes (Hot Water).

Near the springs a Mayan lady sells coconuts to drink.

Our friends on Moondance scoop out the meat of a fresh coconut.

The hot water falls at Agua Calientes.

Looking downstream from the falls.

Looking upstream from the falls.

Bob and Nina swimming in the pool.

Life on the hard is tough but life on the Rio Dulce is sweet. It's hot here and work produces lots of sweat but it is so much nicer than sweating out hurricanes. Our next blog will be when we are back in the water and then free to roam about Central America.