Category: Ship’s Log

January 4th, 2016 (-5 on UTC)

Dear Friends and Family,
I last left you hanging with the description of the elements needed for a \”weather window\” to get from the Rio Dulce of Guatemala around \”Punta Gracias Adios\” (Thank God Point).

We did indeed escape the Rio Dulce, the last hurdle being the very shallow river bar that gets down to 4 1/2 feet for about 250 yards.
No worries there and we headed for our first waypoint, Puntas Tres Cabos (The Three Points) which was only about 9 miles to the Northeast. The seas were calm, but the winds were predicted to be about 7-10 knots which meant that we might see 12-18 knots.
The issue with this is first, it\’s straight upwind and second, being at the bottom of the funnel, we get the local phenomenon known as the \”Utila Bounce\”. Utila is the most Westerly of the three Bay of Islands (Utila, Roatan – the most famous and Guanaja) and an overnight trip for us at 7 knots. True to form, the bounce was in and it was a very rough evening. Not our idea of a great first night at sea, but the piper had to be paid to get out to the expected Westerly that would last long enough to get us around \”PGA\” (Punta Gracias Adios).

The winds were 12-18 knots most of the night and didn\’t go calm till about 7 a.m. It was lunch losing for most, Nikki was a trouper and I suffered in silence. All the \”first day at sea stuff\” went awry as always, open hatches, yada, yada. Will we ever learn? The morning however was flat calm and we kept evaluating the weather files as we could download new ones every six hours. Our Westerly front was looking very strong at first and very fast, but then it started to weaken and slow down.

As such, we decided to get a good nights sleep at the Island of Gunaja (the most Easterly of the Bay of Islands and wait for the front to catch up to us. This as it turned out was a good idea and we were in email contact with friends Dennis and Lisette who had made the trip at the end of last season. They are now waiting for this front to go away, so they can get across the Gulf of Tehuanepec in Mexico. The anchorage was a bit tricky to enter and I was violating my \”3:30 p.m. rule\” in the most egregious way. That\’s my personal rule for when I want to be at an anchorage. We arrived at 5:30 p.m., entered the reef system, dodged the fishing nets and were hooked up with less than 15 minutes of light left. This is not a good idea. The luck part was in full force here. Without Dennis\’ waypoints, I would have had to skip the good nights sleep.

The weather showed the front catching us near dawn and the squally rain started around midnight as predicted.
We did some boat chores and were off around 0900 (that\’s boat speak for 9 a.m.) and just beat the blinding rain squall to get through the reefs. The seas were a bit confused as they didn\’t understand why since they always come from the East, this \”West thing\” showed up. After a 3 hour motor, the winds blessedly filled in from the West at 7, then 12 then up to 22 knots!
We managed to miss all the rain around us, set full main and genoa and were sailing WEST – a strange occurrence in these waters.

I\’ll post part 2 now and bring you right up to the present in the stirring tale of \”We\’re Off, Part 3\” so stand by!
Scott and Nikki

January 4th, 2016 (-5 on UTC)

Dear Friends and Family,
I last left you hanging with the description of the elements needed for a \”weather window\” to get from the Rio Dulce of Guatemala around \”Punta Gracias Adios\” (Thank God Point).

We did indeed escape the Rio Dulce, the last hurdle being the very shallow river bar that gets down to 4 1/2 feet for about 250 yards.
No worries there and we headed for our first waypoint, Puntas Tres Cabos (The Three Points) which was only about 9 miles to the Northeast. The seas were calm, but the winds were predicted to be about 7-10 knots which meant that we might see 12-18 knots.
The issue with this is first, it\’s straight upwind and second, being at the bottom of the funnel, we get the local phenomenon known as the \”Utila Bounce\”. Utila is the most Westerly of the three Bay of Islands (Utila, Roatan – the most famous and Guanaja) and an overnight trip for us at 7 knots. True to form, the bounce was in and it was a very rough evening. Not our idea of a great first night at sea, but the piper had to be paid to get out to the expected Westerly that would last long enough to get us around \”PGA\” (Punta Gracias Adios).

The winds were 12-18 knots most of the night and didn\’t go calm till about 7 a.m. It was lunch losing for most, Nikki was a trouper and I suffered in silence. All the \”first day at sea stuff\” went awry as always, open hatches, yada, yada. Will we ever learn? The morning however was flat calm and we kept evaluating the weather files as we could download new ones every six hours. Our Westerly front was looking very strong at first and very fast, but then it started to weaken and slow down.

As such, we decided to get a good nights sleep at the Island of Gunaja (the most Easterly of the Bay of Islands and wait for the front to catch up to us. This as it turned out was a good idea and we were in email contact with friends Dennis and Lisette who had made the trip at the end of last season. They are now waiting for this front to go away, so they can get across the Gulf of Tehuanepec in Mexico. The anchorage was a bit tricky to enter and I was violating my \”3:30 p.m. rule\” in the most egregious way. That\’s my personal rule for when I want to be at an anchorage. We arrived at 5:30 p.m., entered the reef system, dodged the fishing nets and were hooked up with less than 15 minutes of light left. This is not a good idea. The luck part was in full force here. Without Dennis\’ waypoints, I would have had to skip the good nights sleep.

The weather showed the front catching us near dawn and the squally rain started around midnight as predicted.
We did some boat chores and were off around 0900 (that\’s boat speak for 9 a.m.) and just beat the blinding rain squall to get through the reefs. The seas were a bit confused as they didn\’t understand why since they always come from the East, this \”West thing\” showed up. After a 3 hour motor, the winds blessedly filled in from the West at 7, then 12 then up to 22 knots!
We managed to miss all the rain around us, set full main and genoa and were sailing WEST – a strange occurrence in these waters.

I\’ll post part 2 now and bring you right up to the present in the stirring tale of \”We\’re Off, Part 3\” so stand by!
Scott and Nikki

January 4th, 2016 (-5 on UTC)

Dear Friends and Family,
A whole lots happened since we wrote you just the other day. First, we went to visit friends Peter and Laurie of Switch 51, \”Zia\” and were hoping to have a relaxing New Years Day! Not to be. We leisurely started doing the last minute projects when we discovered our entire Navigation Electronics system was on the fritz! I was able to call the local guru and he agreed to meet us on the morning of the 2nd.

The underlying issue for us was \”the weather window\”. This whole \”weather window\” thing is part science, part magic and part luck. The luck\’s is usually the least important, but not always. It wouldn\’t have made any difference to us what exact day we\’d leave except for the unusual location where we were. So, in short, the electronics issues we believe were resolved by Chris Wooley on the morning of the second and we dashed the 4 hour trip up the Rio Dulce to Livingston – our port of exit. P.S. a little gremlin has showed up in the electronics since, but nothing we can\’t live around – for now!

Now the long of it:
After we cleared Customs, etc. it was nearly 3:30 pm and the weather looked good to go for the roughly 24 hour trip to the island of Gunaja in the Bay of Islands.. The key was getting to the Bay of Islands of Honduras in time for the Westerly push we needed to get around \”Punta Gracias Adios\” (Thank God Point). This name has significance – read on.

Think of the Rio Dulce of Guatemala(Caribbean side, being at the bottom of a big funnel that you have to climb out of. The sides of the funnel are Belize and Mexico to one side (the North) and Honduras and Nicaragua to the other side (The East). Now going North, there are several opportunities for light to no wind conditions, but going East is an entirely different event. The Easterly Trade Winds blow across the northern coast of Honduras giving only intermittent opportunity to escape. Add to this the famous Gulf Stream current going against you and you\’ve \”got issues\”.

Columbus,(yeah that Columbus), was trapped in the Rio Dulce area and tried to get East to go around a final point of land to Panama as we are. First, he had no idea where the land ended and allowed him to turn south. Fortunately, thanks to him and others who followed in his wake – we do. It turned out it was over 350 miles straight up wind and took him over 3 months to make the journey. He didn\’t know about modern weather and needless to say…he was MAKING the charts as he went along.

The trick is to wait for an \”Arctic Cold Front\” which comes across the North American plains, into the Gulf of Mexico and down the coast of the Western Caribbean. This same phenomenon causes the infamous \”Tehuanepeckers\” of the Gulf of Tehuanepec on the West Coast of Mexico. One is just finishing up as we write. Many of our fellow boaters know about these and Cindy and I had to time our initial trip down the West Coast of Mexico to miss them. Fortunately, we did.

When the front gets down to Guatemala, it creates a counter clockwise wind which blows from West to East AGAINST the prevailing trade winds. This allows the escape and why we had to pick the right day to be off!

As I post remotely via satellite, I must break this long blog into parts or it won\’t post. But I bet I\’ve got you attention for the next one?…:-)
More shortly,
Scott and Nikki

January 4th, 2016 (-5 on UTC)

Dear Friends and Family,
A whole lots happened since we wrote you just the other day. First, we went to visit friends Peter and Laurie of Switch 51, \”Zia\” and were hoping to have a relaxing New Years Day! Not to be. We leisurely started doing the last minute projects when we discovered our entire Navigation Electronics system was on the fritz! I was able to call the local guru and he agreed to meet us on the morning of the 2nd.

The underlying issue for us was \”the weather window\”. This whole \”weather window\” thing is part science, part magic and part luck. The luck\’s is usually the least important, but not always. It wouldn\’t have made any difference to us what exact day we\’d leave except for the unusual location where we were. So, in short, the electronics issues we believe were resolved by Chris Wooley on the morning of the second and we dashed the 4 hour trip up the Rio Dulce to Livingston – our port of exit. P.S. a little gremlin has showed up in the electronics since, but nothing we can\’t live around – for now!

Now the long of it:
After we cleared Customs, etc. it was nearly 3:30 pm and the weather looked good to go for the roughly 24 hour trip to the island of Gunaja in the Bay of Islands.. The key was getting to the Bay of Islands of Honduras in time for the Westerly push we needed to get around \”Punta Gracias Adios\” (Thank God Point). This name has significance – read on.

Think of the Rio Dulce of Guatemala(Caribbean side, being at the bottom of a big funnel that you have to climb out of. The sides of the funnel are Belize and Mexico to one side (the North) and Honduras and Nicaragua to the other side (The East). Now going North, there are several opportunities for light to no wind conditions, but going East is an entirely different event. The Easterly Trade Winds blow across the northern coast of Honduras giving only intermittent opportunity to escape. Add to this the famous Gulf Stream current going against you and you\’ve \”got issues\”.

Columbus,(yeah that Columbus), was trapped in the Rio Dulce area and tried to get East to go around a final point of land to Panama as we are. First, he had no idea where the land ended and allowed him to turn south. Fortunately, thanks to him and others who followed in his wake – we do. It turned out it was over 350 miles straight up wind and took him over 3 months to make the journey. He didn\’t know about modern weather and needless to say…he was MAKING the charts as he went along.

The trick is to wait for an \”Arctic Cold Front\” which comes across the North American plains, into the Gulf of Mexico and down the coast of the Western Caribbean. This same phenomenon causes the infamous \”Tehuanepeckers\” of the Gulf of Tehuanepec on the West Coast of Mexico. One is just finishing up as we write. Many of our fellow boaters know about these and Cindy and I had to time our initial trip down the West Coast of Mexico to miss them. Fortunately, we did.

When the front gets down to Guatemala, it creates a counter clockwise wind which blows from West to East AGAINST the prevailing trade winds. This allows the escape and why we had to pick the right day to be off!

As I post remotely via satellite, I must break this long blog into parts or it won\’t post. But I bet I\’ve got you attention for the next one?…:-)
More shortly,
Scott and Nikki

December 31st, 2015 (-6 on UTC)

Dear Friends and Family!
Well, it\’s been a long time since we last checked in with you and this one will be brief.
We have had the boat in Guatemala since June and have done EXTENSIVE work aboard \”Beach House\”.

We\’ve also been to Skye and Sean\’s Wedding in Southern California, NYC, Columbia, Panama, Israel and touring around Guatemala with friends and of course
the lovely Sra. Carmina Robles here in Guatemala. As well, Nikki spent a considerable amount of time in the land of \”OZ\” visiting her family and
new grandchild \”Billie\”. Lot\’s to catch up on.

We\’ll depart RAM Marina this afternoon and go \”somewhere up the crazy river\” to Texan Bay. This is an ex-pat
community where we\’ll spend New Year\’s Eve with Laurie and Peter and their Switch 51 – \”Zia\” at their dock on the bay.

We\’ll soon depart for either the Bay Islands of Honduras (Utila/Roatan/Guanaja) or may just head straight for Isla Providencia
which is owned by Columbia (but nowhere near Columbia), about 90 miles off the East Coast of Nicaragua.

We\’ll then head to the Panamanian Islands of San Blas and on to the Panama Canal en route to our final destination for the year – Australia!
A very long sailing season indeed!.

Love to hear from you all. We can most easily be reached by writing us at our emails.
Speak soon!
Scott and Nikki (Rio Dulce, Guatemala)