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Dear F&F,
February 26-27, 2009

Scott is wide awake by 6:15 am. There is no point in trying to sleep after he gets up. He goes straight outside for the hose & starts to wash the pounds of black soot & ash off our boat. There are some big chunks of burned stuff. Very, very dirty mess. I go for the interior cleaning. Wiping down all the surfaces that are near windows. Pretty much everything I can reach to wipe down I do.

Carmina gets up about 7:30 am & goes out to help Scott detail the windows with a chamois. I continue the interior cleaning, drink my tea & eat a yogurt. I know as soon as Scott is satisfied that he has cleaned the boat as well as he can for now he wants to shove off. The fish boats have already gone out for the day, so not many guys are around the docks. There isn\’t any significant wind so we have a shot to sneak off the dock without a lot of difficulty despite being one engine short.

Poor Carmina looks somewhat stunned as we escort her & her suitcases off the boat & up the dock. She waves & blows kisses as Scott unties our dock lines & gives us a big shove. He then jumps onboard, grabs the wheel, gives our 1 engine a bit of speed & is able to make the right turn without hitting the big dock in front of us. It is just after 8:00 am & we are on our way.

The kindest thing I can say about our experience in Puerto Quetzal is that we were extremely disappointed. We don\’t understand why people would deliberately mislead us. We need to get where we can get our repair done. Next�

We have a lovely sail for about 4 hours. It is an odd distance: too far to make it in 1 day. And too close so that at the speed we are going we will arrive at our El Salvador destination in the dark. Now that the wind stopped we just motor very slowly. There have been several visible fires along the coast. Perhaps more sugar cane fields burning? At least we are far enough away not to smell the smoke or get the ashes on us.

High tide tomorrow, Friday, is not until 4:45 pm. That is when we can call for the Bahia del Sol \”panga\” to guide us across their sandbar. We are staying well off the coast & just plugging along. As a treat during my 6-10:00 pm watch, I attempted to bake brownies. It was a mix. It called for 2/3 cup oil. I had some extra butter to use up so substituted. I used the biggest size pan so they would be thin. The oven temperature was correct. But even 5 minutes over the recommended time they are more like a gooey candy than brownies. Oh well, they taste good. I ate some with a spoon followed by a glass of milk.

While I took my 6-10:00 am nap, Scott motored us to the area we were told to wait until high tide in the afternoon. I felt pretty groggy waking up. We find these 24 hour jaunts harder in some ways than a 3 day passage. You just can\’t get into a rhythm.

As I was pouring my tea, I saw why my brownie mix turned out like candy: the 2 eggs that should have been mixed in were sitting on a plate with my apples & mangoes! It was dark, I had only my headlight on. I had taken the 2 eggs out of the refrigerator but they did not quite make it into the bowl. So only butter & water was added! Tastes really good, just not the consistency of brownies at all!

This is not any normal kind of anchorage. Just a shallow piece of coastline. There are several panga fishermen around, but we can stay far enough away from them so no worries. We put the anchor down in about 42 feet of water. We radioed the marina that we were here outside & would wait for the call of the panga that was to lead us across the sandbar & waves. We spoke to a sailboat on the inside that said they were going to be led out first, so we would be able to see their mast as they exited. While we passed the time, Scott helped me change our sheets, very much due.

I kept anchor watch as the afternoon wind kicked up. I wanted Scott to be as fresh as possible for steering the boat across the bar. By 2:30 pm we were both up & just hanging out in the cockpit. The wind had subsided from 15 knots to about 8. The breeze really helps keep it comfortable despite being 88 degrees. They hailed us on the radio that it was showtime: 3:15 pm – still rising high tide. Alex, the Canadian mechanic, was in the panga with the 2 El Salvadorian guys, Rohellio and his assistant, guiding the sailboat out. It was comforting that he had Alex along so we could speak English & answer some of Scott\’s questions. We could see the top of the 2 masts (ketch rig) & then slowly more of the boat & then the panga. The way they were coming out is not a way we would have known to enter, at all. Thank God these guys know the safe route & are willing to provide this guiding service. Scott put me on video duty which was a good diversion from being too nervous & staring at the breaking waves beside us & behind us. It is hard to explain the crossing of the bar, other than it took only about 10 minutes & we did fine. It was about 4:10 pm. Many thanks to all of you for your good wishes to help see us safely across.

What we entered is an estuary. It looks like a wide river. Mangroves line the banks. 8 guys were standing on the dock ready to catch our lines. Lovely! Scott tipped the panga driver who led us across the bar, and we thanked him profusely.

Bahia del Sol is a very small marina, with just 1 main dock. We are 1 of only 4 sailboats at a dock. We are on an end tie, as usual due to the width of our catamaran. Our boat gets rocked when a panga or fishing boat zooms by too fast & too close which they seem to do intentionally. The other boats are medium sized sport fishing boats. There are many other sailboats on moorings, scattered far apart. The moorings are very cheap, and the dock price is quite reasonable. We want the luxury of shore power so that we can use the air conditioning.

Part of our welcome committee was the Navy & Customs agents to check us in. They heard we were coming & wanted to do the paperwork right away since I think they go home at 5 pm. Learning my lesson from Carmina in Guatemala, I offered them to come in, sit down & served them Gatorade. They were friendly & polite, complimented our boat. Since we have a copy machine onboard it saved some time. There was a $10 fee each for our tourist visas, which is good for 90 days. Surprisingly, the currency here is the US dollar.

Then we walked up to the marina office, which is also the lobby for the associated hotel. Ronney & Elizabeth spoke English well enough for us to manage checking in with them. We signed up for a month since we will leave the boat here while touring more in Guatemala with Carmina as well as while we return to Los Angeles for a 10 day boat shopping trip.

We asked to meet the manager, Mario, who was very responsive to us by email. He lives here at the hotel & said not to hesitate to call him if we need anything at all. Very nice. There is the usual palapa restaurant/bar. And a swimming pool! Kind of a funny shape, but I will definitely take advantage of it. The WiFi does not reach the docks, but we can take our laptops to the palapa or hotel lobby. So far it seems quiet, safe & generally lovely; even the wifi up there is good.

We are so tired we are getting in bed now, just after 7:30 pm. The all night passage, the anticipation of the bar crossing and all day waiting for it, on top of our headaches at Puerto Quetzal has left us pretty wrung out.

Alex the mechanic will come at 9:00 am tomorrow to review our transmission situation. We will show him an underwater sketch of our boat & review the high to low tide careening process. If necessary we will call his boss Murray who, unfortunately for us, is currently in Canada. Murray told Scott that he did not think hauling us on their careening docks would be a problem. Scott specifically asked if any extreme high tide was needed & he said no. Just an average high tide would be fine. So that is our next hurdle. To find out more about this careening business & when we can do it.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
February 25, 2009

We were not too surprised to hear from Ziggy the mechanic that the ship yard would not be ready to haul us out on Tuesday. But when we got another \”manana\” story this morning we decided to go there & see what was the hold up. Carmina drove us the 10 minutes to the area where the haul out yard is. Scott had been there on Monday with Ziggy & saw the big shrimp boat that was in what is called \”the ways\”. Imagine a cement ramp with cement side wall. There are railroad tracks on each edge of the cement ramp. Divers have to go underwater to brace the boat with supports. The supports are either wood, metal and sometimes rubber tires depending on the type of boat. In our case, probably a combination of wood & tires. Then the whole contraption is winched up along the railroad tracks until the boat is out of the water. In this shipyard there can only be 1 boat out of the water at a time. So until the rust-bucket shrimp boat is finished & put back in the water, it is not possible for us to be hauled out. When Scott saw the boat Monday it looked like just the rudder needed to be bolted on. He heard one worker say that it would be 4-5 days. But when he & Ziggy asked Vladimir the yard manager they were told 1-2 days. Today was day 2, that is why we went there to make sure we aren\’t on indefinite \”manana time\”.

Vladimir was very polite & pulled up chairs for Carmina, Scott & I at a big desk. It is 10:30 a.m. Carmina translates all our questions into Spanish. We would like information about the crossing the sandbar to enter the lagoon. Vladimir at first indicates that if we come at high tide the waves are very gentle so it is no problem. A minute later he describes that the waves are big enough to surf and that the passage can be very dangerous. I raise an eyebrow & look at Scott. We don\’t know what to make of this conflicting information & Carmina is unable to get him to clarify.

We know due to the sandbar we can only cross at high tide. We have a print out of the tide table & show him that the high tides for the next several days are pretty late in the day. We want to find out how late the workers will stay to haul us out. He says, yes they will work late. As he studies the tide graph, he comments that he wishes that the high tide were a little higher than the predicted 5 feet. This is like wishing the sun would hang in the sky a few minutes longer. Again, Scott & I look at each other & do not know what is going on. Something is odd.

What we really want to know is, \”How much longer until the shrimp boat is finished & you can take us out?\” He tells us he is going to have a meeting with the manager of the job at 2:00 pm today to find out the status. He proposes that their crew can work 24 hours a day to accelerate the job. He says they can put lights on & work at night. This is nonsense & we know it. We don\’t know why he is telling us this b.s. He suggests we return at 2:00 pm with Ziggy the mechanic to have further discussion.

We drive by the lagoon entry & look at the waves. We ask a fisherman how much he would charge to take us out in his panga for a test run of crossing the sandbar at high tide. Today high tide is about 3:20 pm. We can check it out after the 2:00 pm meeting.

We drive back to \”Beach House\” & I make sandwiches. Scott & I both have bad gut feelings about the haul out yard. Something is fishy & we aren\’t being told the whole story. We decide perhaps we should consider Plan B, which is to leave here & limp down the coast on 1 engine. It is 120 miles to El Salvador, at 5 knots it will take us about 24 hours. There is also a sandbar to cross there. We have to call the marina as we approach & they will tell us when it is safe to cross (also high tide) & send a panga to guide us in. We are told the entry is 1000 feet wide. The Guatemala entry was very narrow, which is part of the danger.

Next to information about Bahia del Sol, El Salvador, in the margin of our cruising guide book, I had written a note from a meeting with a boating friend who was down here a few years ago \”Don\’t go. Many boats swamped.\” Oy veh. I know timing is everything. We have talked to many boats that have crossed this bar without too much excitement.

There are 2 places that have haul out capability in El Salvador. Scott calls Murray Barrett who he spoke with last week when we discovered our breakdown. He is still with his sick mother in Canada. He owns Island Marine which provides mechanical service in Bahia del Sol. He explains the \”careening\” process in more detail & upon further consideration, Scott thinks that this may be the way to go.

Barillas is the other option. It is 20 miles past Bahia del Sol and has a railroad haul out like here. The big question is when will they be able to take us out? Do they also have a boat stuck in the ways for 5 months? Carmina calls the haul out yard in Barillas. The manager is not in & no one else is there to answer questions. Scott composes an email & Carmina translates it into Spanish. We send both the English & Spanish email & have to wait & hope for a reply.

At 2:00 pm we drive back to the ship yard here to see if Vladimir can give us more information. He seems busy & says we should wait for Ziggy to arrive to have our meeting. Carmina, Scott & I walk out by the shrimp boat. We see an enormous hole in the back. This was not there when Scott & Ziggy saw it Monday. Obviously A LOT more work needs to be done on this boat. We had Carmina ask one yard worker how long the boat has been there. Answer: 5 months! (Scott had been told \”less than a week\” when he first met Vladimir). Another worker said he has been on the job 3 months. When we asked another worker how much longer he expected until the boat was finished he answered: \”Two more weeks if everything goes well\”. Oy veh. When Ziggy did not arrive by 2:20 pm for the meeting, Carmina called him on his cell. He said he misunderstood, he is at his own shop by our marina. We tell him not to bother coming, we cannot wait for this yard indefinitely.

We stop at Ziggy\’s shop on our return to the marina & ask him to please have his mechanic re-secure our engine for our trip down to El Salvador. It had to be unbolted & hoisted out of the way to diagnose the transmission problem. We also need them to bring the new transmission from their shop to our boat. We need to pay Ziggy something for his mechanics\’ time. Scott pays our marina bill. Carmina calls the agent we used to check in, Miguel Oscar, requesting that he come & pick up our passports & request our Zarpe (international exit document). We want to leave by noon tomorrow, Thursday. This exercise in futility must come to an end. Carmina & I drive to the gas station & fill four of our 5 gallon jugs with diesel so we have plenty of fuel for the trip.

It is 7:00 pm now. The engine has been secured. The new transmission is lying on plastic under our cockpit table. Agent Miguel Oscar just left after delivering our exit documents & passports stamped with tomorrow\’s date. In the morning we will hose off as much of the sugar cane ash as we can. We plan to shove off before the prevailing wind comes up & pins us to the dock. We cannot make a right turn from a standstill or slow speed with the port engine/transmission offline. We are tied up on the left side of the boat & need to turn right to get out of here. We will either get a few guys to help push us off, or maybe even hire a panga to tow us off.

Puerto Quetzal turned out to be a major disappointment. We are really disgusted at the Iztapa Lagoon haul out manager. Just how long was he going to string us along? Time to stop sitting around waiting for nothing. Carmina was happy to have us stop with our boat in her country. That was the only good part of this detour. We thank her profusely for holding our hand through this ordeal. In the morning we will hug her goodbye & see her after our repair when she will come & meet us in El Salvador. We have flight reservations from Guatemala City to Los Angeles in mid March. Miles to go & lots to accomplish between now & then. Part of the adventure. Not the most fun part. But we are safe & Lord willing, the starboard transmission will get us to El Salvador. Onward!

Scott & Cindy
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Dear F&F,
February 22-23, 2009

After breakfast onboard, we climbed into Carmina\’s Toyota Yaris (similar to a Corolla) & enjoyed the air conditioned 1 hr drive to Antigua. Guatemala has 36 volcanoes, several active. We stopped to let Scott photograph the grey smoke puffing out of the one called Fuego (fire). At least 2 are currently active in this area. As the road climbed in elevation there was a steady change in climate. Hot & humid in the marina, it was almost cold in Antigua. It is a colonial town, quite sprawling & bustling with tourists. Carmina is a wonderful tour guide, showing us the highlights. Including a former convent turned into a beautiful hotel where Bill Clinton stayed when he was President. The gardens, fountains & grounds are lovely, the staff friendly; a very successful establishment. We used the ATM there to get our first local currency called Quetzals. The exchange rate is about 7.5 quetzals to 1 dollar. Or 10 quetzals = about $12 USD. All over town there are many restored historical buildings turned into shops & cafes. Various indigenous people were out dressed in colorful native costume, selling & exhibiting weaving. We enjoyed a cup of Guatemalan coffee and later a delicious lunch in a different hotel. It was the largest group of Americans we have been around since our tour of Copper Canyon. We kept pinching ourselves as our being there with Carmina & Alejandra seemed somewhat surreal. Twice Carmina & I dissolved into hugs & tears right on the street. It is not that we did not plan on seeing them & visiting here. We did. From El Salvador, in about 2 weeks. With the transmission failure we just altered our plans. So far so good, we are quite hopeful that it will all work out fine. But after 14 months in Mexico we are somewhat amazed that we are now actually somewhere altogether new & different.

We had a lazy evening on the boat. Scott delved into the English language book on the history of Guatemala. Alejandra, Carmina & I tried to attract fish with the lights we can turn on to shine under our boat. We tried feeding them cooked carrots, cold cereal & bits of turkey sandwich. They were most attracted to Alejandra\’s fingers!

February 23
Ziggy & Eldon the mechanics showed up about 8:30 am. They confirmed the diagnosis of broken transmission drive shaft. DHL came through again, our new unit is ready for pick up in Guatemala City. I decided to pass on the 4 hr round trip drive, so am catching up on my emails & other paperwork. Scott & Carmina will drop Alejandra off at home, pick up our delivery & head back.

Scott got a quick tour of Carmina\’s house and met \”Tia\”, Carmina\’s 80 something year old aunt.
The view from her home of two volcanoes and Guatemala City was spectacular. Carmina said when she bought the house she needed a dose of \”Edwin Place\” (Where Scott\’s parents lived in Los Angeles with a spectacular view of the San Fernando Valley).

The haul out yard may not be ready for us until Wednesday. But we will be ready for them whenever they call us. We must drive over a sandbar to enter the ship yard area at Iztapa Lagoon. It will be about a 1 hour trip door to door from here. We must time our entry with a high tide. A panga will guide us in to avoid shallow underwater obstructions.

The 3 of us will stay in a hotel while the boat is hauled out. Hopefully only 1-2 nights. It is such a help to have Carmina for translation, transportation & cheer leader. She helped me transfer my frozen food to the smaller freezer in her cabin. It can run on batteries/solar power & we shut down the main unit. My main fridge must also go offline when we haul out because the keel coolers do not work out of the water. We should be able to eat down most of the food & will give whatever is left to the mechanics.

There are no other cruisers here. The main tourism is sport fishing. They practice catch & release of various sail fish, taking photos & drinking beer. They stay at hotels not on the fishing boats, so it is not that busy here in the marina, especially since the US Coast Guard cutter left this morning. Besides the fact that it is pretty darn hot, one bummer is the ash from the farmers burning the old sugar cane crop. It rains down black soot on us. Thank goodness we have air conditioning and can use it all we want with the dock power. Even the inside of the boat is getting filthy with a fine layer of black dust. And the outside is very sad. We cannot get too fussed about it since the ship yard will add its own layer of dirt.

We are taking it one day at a time. So far so good�..

Scott and Cindy
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message in your response. Messages are sent over a
very low-speed radio link.

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to: \”Scott & Cindy Stolnitz (s/v Beach House)\”
If you DO use your reply button, be sure to delete
the original message text and these instructions
from your reply.

Replies should not contain attachments and should be
less than 5 kBytes (2 text pages) in length.

This email was delivered by an HF private coast station
in the Maritime Mobile Radio Service, operated by the
SailMail Association, a non-profit association of yacht
owners. For more information on this service or on the
SailMail Association, please see the web site at:

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