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January 5th, 2016 (-5 on UTC)

Dear Friends and Family (yes, midnight has just arrived as I write!) Happy Birthday Laurie Robertson, wherever you may be!
I last left you in 22 knots of wind, sailing West toward \”PGA\” having departed the island of Guanaja in the Bay of Islands, Honduras.

We had a lovely 6 hour sail and just before dark, Nikki was sure that the rain in front of us, was coming our way. Umm, that\’s strange I thought. So with lots of wind right behind us, why would the rain in front of us be coming toward us? Of course I have an answer!

When we had studied our weather files, I noted that the winds would shift to the north, then northeast around 6-9 p.m.
What we were seeing in the back of my mind was the interface where this shift would take place. Very often, the wind shifts around fronts or in the trade winds in general will be associated with rain squalls. I said to Nikki, lets be safe and put away the sails, the wind is dropping and we\’ll motor into the light stuff. The first problem was, I didn\’t adjust the boom angle correctly and when we took the mainsail down, I pulled it out of it\’s feeder. That will be tomorrow\’s boat project, to replace it. Once is all you get with this lovely piece of plastic. I\’ve 3 spares! Think this has happened before? It\’s always my fault and always seems to happen at the beginning of a sailing season when we haven\’t used the mainsail in months. As the French say, \”Les plus change, les plus meme-chose\”. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The good news was, my hunch was correct and 10 minutes after we furled sail, the wind shifted back to on our nose. Nikki would not have liked dealing with that with me just going off watch. So as I write, we are at the Northeast tip of Honduras, about 20 miles off the coast and about to enter a 120 mile long shallow bank. The depths are 25-100 feet, which may sound like a lot too you, but in the pitch black, we\’d of course prefer to see what\’s ahead. The charts are great and there are no obstructions till daylight, so not too worry. If I were Columbus, this might have been terrifying in the middle of the night. When they used their \”Lead Lines\” to take depths, not being able to see what was ahead could have been disastrous. Many a ship has been lost under such conditions before the advent of modern navigational charts and GPS systems. Thanks to all who have sailed before us.

We\’re 51 miles from our next waypoint, the Vivarillos Cays. These cays are really just two small pieces of flat land in the middle of nowhere. Often fisherman will use them as a wind break to stay out of strong trade winds, but that\’s about it. The diving might be pretty good as well as the fishing, but we\’re on a mission. After the Cays, we\’ll be only another 40 miles or so from being abeam of Punta Gracias Adios and heading south to Isla Providencia!

Columbus Crew, after 3 months of trying – and upon \”escaping\” – the Gulf of Honduras, seeing the last point they had to clear before heading south to Panama – exclaimed, Gracias Adios! (Thank God) and so the border of Honduras and Nicaragua is located at Punta Gracias Adios! (Point Thank God).

We should be around tomorrow afternoon, with predicted 7-12 knots from the NEast, all should be good.
Thank God!
KIT,
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,
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