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.