04/23/2012, Guanaja, Honduras, CA
Sunday, April 22. I awakened just after midnight with the wind howling. It was blowing a steady 25 kts and topping 35 kts in gusts from the NW. We had swung around and were now closer than I liked to a nasty looking bank of coral. We had about 50-60' of good water behind us and the anchor was holding well with no signs of dragging. We had set it well, put out 100' of chain, the kellet, another 20' of chain to be sure the kellet stayed on the bottom even with a good pull, and the bridle. I decided that it made more sense to stay put and trust our ground tackle than to try to move in the pitch black and find a better place to anchor. It was a good decision. The wind howled all night, mixed at times with rain (good, I hate the taste – or lack thereof – of RO water. Some rain will help.) I was tired enough that I slept well anyway. By morning, it was still blowing in the low 20's but the rain had stopped. After breakfast, we did pick up and move to a safer location, dropping the anchor precisely in a spot of sand. Deb is real good at that. I go slow and tell her to drop when she is directly over it – I cannot see it then – and when I hear the chain going out, I quickly reverse to stop the boat in that position. Works well. We set it down just as before. If we drag, everyone in the anchorage is going to drag and so they will still be the same distance behind us – no worries. Liz really want to go over to Bonacca to get a SIM card for her modem. She thought the stores were open until noon on Sunday and was worried they would not be open Monday and didn't want to wait that long for internet. I could have waited. But since they were going, I said I would go too and we could take dink because he is drier (bigger tubes, sits higher) than theirs. The trip was probably a mile each way and since it was all in the lee of the main island, by hugging the shore we made it fine and even fairly dry. In town we found several stores that sold time for Tigo (the local cell phone company), but none that sold the SIM cards or the “sticks” (modem – apparently you need to buy a Tigo stick as their cards will not work in generic sticks – sort of a revers locked modem. Anyway the stick comes with 1 month of free internet and costs just about the same as a month service, so no big deal.) To get them, everyone agreed we needed to go to Miss Angie's and she was closed until tomorrow. Oh, and by the way, there is NO holiday tomorrow. Everything will be open as normal. I did find the beverage distributor and bought Deb some more diet coke so the trip wasn't a total loss. It was a lazy afternoon. I spent quite a while on Albatross talking about Belize – where they are headed next. Albatross is an Island Packet 38 with husband, wife, and two pre-teen boys on board. Very nice people. We had met them briefly in Bocas and then again in Providencia. I promised to give them my stick with our old website on it for more on Belize and also loan them my cruising guide to Honduras for a few hours to read about here and Roatan. Back on Always, I laid in the hammock and finished “Sphere,” my next to last Michael Creighton book, and then enjoyed a home brew. I must really thank both Shary & Luke. Shary for initially turning me on to Dogfish Head 90' IPA and Luke for getting me started brewing a clone of it. Now I enjoy one most days. I brought two cases of it with us and one is almost gone. The beer in Columbia was nothing special. I liked Columbia Club the best, but never felt the urge to buy a case to have on board. There are four Honduran beers. I have only tried one and it was OK, but not worth buying a case of. I'll try the others a bottle at a time and see if anything is worth buying in quantity. I still have a third case of home brew (an English Bitters) and more Balboa from Panama so I am not running short, I just like to try the local brews and see if I find something interesting. So far, not so much.
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04/22/2012, Guanaja, Honduras, CA
Saturday, April 21. The dawn came early as we are only just barely into Central Time zone. Once again it was a brilliant red ball that rose from the ocean. The clouds had mostly gone. We were making 6+ kts with just the double reefed main, but with the sunrise, the wind promptly fell. I added a bit of gennie (I am still amazed at how smoother the roller furler works with just that little change, it is like a whole new unit.) and then a bit more and more until it was full out. Each time our speed would climb to over 6 kts and then fall to 5 as the wind continued to abate. Then I shook out the second reef and then the first. By late morning, we had everything up and were still back down to 5 kts, so I added an engine. Guanaja is a fairly straight forward entrance, but we still needed good light for arrival and I had hopes of being able to check in today as tomorrow is Sunday and IF offices are open to check in, there may be surcharges and we just learned that Monday is a holiday (shades of Panama). Full sail and the engine lasted a while and then the wind continued to drop and began shifting further South as it clocked around as predicted. Gennie refused to draw and so was rolled up - again just as easily as you please. Eventually the wind got to SW at less than 5 kts. This is what the grib files had all predicted and what usually happens with a frontal system. As the winds move through the S-SW-W quadrant, they die because (at least in my understanding of weather) the frontal wind is directly opposing the "normal" trade winds (which always blow E +/- and are due to Coriolis effect) so the resultant wind is near 0. But Chris Parker had insisted that we would have 25-30 from SW - W which is why we did not stay in Vivarillos. Anyway, with essentially no wind, our apparent wind is what we create which is 6 kts on the nose and the main is slatting and so I drop it and we run bare poles - quite a difference in about 12 hours. At least the seas are flat and we can make nearly 6 kts with one engine. Salida is about 10 nm in front of us (they ran engines while we just sailed most of yesterday and through the night.) and Silver Sea, who left 10 hours before us, are a few miles ahead of Salida. They will arrive and get to figure out clearing-in procedures so we should know exactly what to do. (It is a bit different in every country - sometimes they come out to the boat, sometimes just the captain goes I with all the paper work, sometimes they want everybody to come it - but whatever the procedure, it is important that we follow it precisely the way that country wants it or it can get difficult.) By shortly after noon, we hear from Silver Sea that the port captain is only open until 3:00 and we are stil ~10 nm out. OK, they claim diesel engines need a work out every now and then, so both engines, 90% rpm, 7.5 kts. We'll have anchor down by 2:00 and Salida will be waiting to pick us up in their dinghy and go ashore to clear in. It all worked fine. It was a bit wild coming through a narrow cut in the reef with 100' of water under the keel and breaking reef quite close by on both sides, but the charts were accurate and the water was easy to read, so no problems. We tied up the dinghy at a grocery store and walked the length of Bonacca town (8,000 people living on less than 100 acres!) Narrow walkways for streets (no cars), and two story buildings. Reminds me of Kuna Yala, except the buildings are cement block and the walks are cement. We found Migracion and Capitan de Puerto without difficulty and to out delight, found that clearing in and getting our cruising permit cost absolutely nothing! First country we have ever experienced that. We then found an ATM (18 Limpira = $1.00 US), a small grocery, and then a bar to celebrate our arrival (1 beer and 1 rum & coke for $L60 including tip ) Once back at the boat, we moved from Bonacca to El Bight. There was no wind and boats were every which way so it was a bit difficult to determine where and how to anchor. We ended up near the outer edge of the harbor well anchored and with the kellet down. I had my requisite Guinness that I shared with Neptune and after the last of the Columbian conch made into conch fritters, we had an early bed.
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04/21/2012, Off the coast of Honduras, CA
Friday, April 20. Remember the saying, "Red sky in morning, sailors take warning"? Well, the sky dawned bright red. Beautiful really. But then everything went to hell. We had a course change to direct down wind, so we needed to roll up gennie and launch the spinnaker, except gennie wouldn't roll. I had had problems with the halyard wrapping at the top of the roller furler in the past, but took it down, lubricated it and thought it was fixed. NOT. I simply could NOT get it to furl. So, we dropped gennie and stuffed her in the cockpit to sort out later once we are anchored and popped the spinnaker. I couldn't get it to set right with the main up, so pull down the sock, turn into the wind, and drop main. Except that I did not secure the sock down and half way through the turn the spinnaker popped. And then the main gibed, popping a batten out of its socket. (Fortunately the batten stayed in place and was not lost.) OK, secure spinny, turn and drop main, (fix batten when anchored) and pop spinny again. Set beautifully and making 5.5 kts. Beautiful. Then Craig called on VHF. They talked to Chris Parker and he said we were going to get 25-30 kt winds from SW Saturday night. Now no other source is predicting strong winds from SW, only Chris. BUT he has an enviable reputation of being right and Vivarillos has NO protection from SW. SO, we need to continue on to Guanaja which is very well protected. We can visit Vivarillos and Hobbies on our way back South so that is not a big issue, but it means another overnight and I am already tired, AND I have repairs to do. With Spinny doing his thing, the ride was smooth and comfortable, so I went up on the catwalk above the bimini to fix the batten. I wore my harness and clipped in so Deb was happy. It actually went very well. I didn't drop and parts and it all came apart and went back together without difficulty. See, there is some benefit to having fitted out the sails myself back in Belize when TMM gave us a hard time! For the gennie, I think the problem may be that there is too big a gap at the top and the halyard has room to wrap. If I raised the whole gennie up by placing a pennant at the bottom, it might have a better angle and not have room to wrap. Worth a try and easy to do under way after we douse Spinny. So, we can go on to Guanaja, but to make it in day light we need to average at least 5.5 kts. Spinny is only doing 5.0 (but doing it very comfortably and beautifully). So, I try running one engine and the spinnaker. Sounds "if-y" but it works. Auto has some difficulty steering, but it is OK and we are now comfortably over 6.0 kts. And it is a beautiful sunny day. So I guess the world is all right after all. The wind continued to build and we were able to shut of the engine and sail at 6 kts. with just Spinny. Now it is really comfortable and quiet! Auto likes it better, too. We had decided that we would take the spinnaker down, turn and raise the main and then feed the genoa back on at 4:00 PM, but we needed to change to Central Time for Guanaja, so at 1600, I turned the clock back to 1500 and had another hour of spinnaker sailing. (Of course if I had really been thinking, I would have waited until 5:00 and had two happy hours!) When the time comes, Deb feeds out the sheet as I pull down the sock. Except a gust lifts me off the tramp (remember that, Dave?) As she lets out more sheet I return safely and finish snuffing the spinnaker. It comes down easily and is put away in its turtle. Next, it's engines on and turn into the wind and raise the main. It is blowing ~18 kts but we only felt 12 going down wind. Now we feel it all, but the main goes up without problems and the repaired batten is fine. Next, back on course so we can raise gennie in the lee of the main (and have less apparent wind). Carrying the whole mess from the cockpit back onto the tramp was a project and a half, but once we got it there, it went up well. Except that it has more lift than Deb has weight. She wisely decided (at the last minute) not to try to hold it down by laying on it. Once it was up, I tied a pennant between the sail and the shackle. Ended up being ~12". We were still to nearly down wind for gennie to fly right, so I rolled her up. And she rolled up easier than she ever has in her entire life! Problem solved! (I hope). Full main, 6 kts. Life is good. We earned our happy hour. And the setting sun provided entertainment as the perfect fiery ball dropped directly into the sea. No green flash, however. After supper, before I went to bed, we talked about tucking in a reef "just because", but we were only seeing apparent wind in the low teens and mostly single digits, so we didn't. Thirty minutes later, Deb was seeing 20+ so I got up and we put in a double reef. Do it now instead of later. Still doing over 5 kts. I got up around 10:00. No sooner had Deb gone to bed than we were hit with a squall with 30+ knot winds. I only had a double reefed main and no gennie so I couldn't reduce sail any more unless I went bare poles (and getting it down in such a blow would be a real bitch!) so I just turned and ran directly down wind. This reduced apparent wind so I only saw 25 or so. We were doing 9+ kts. It only lasted briefly and soon we were back on course, still with double reefed main but now making 6 kts and quite comfortable. It would continue like that through the night.
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04/20/2012, Off the coast of Nicaragua, CA
Thursday, April 19. George & Pixie left about 8:00 PM last night. They are definitely not stopping at Vivarillos and are concerned about the speeds they can make and what hour of the day they will arrive in Guanaja. Salida and we waited until first light. I set the alarm for 0500, but it was still too dark. By the time I had coffee made and everything ready, it was 0530 and beginning to get light. At that time, however, Chris Parker was doing weather on SSB. By the time that was over, it was 0545 and plenty light to see the coral on the way out. (Yes, I had breadcrumbs from coming in, but I feel SO much more comfortable when I can visualize the coral that would wreck my boat if I hit it instead of just trusting electronics. We made it out without incident, raised sails and were on our way by 0605. Making 7.0 kts out of the gate. By 0900 we were sailing at 8.0 kts. And that held through the morning. By afternoon we were down to 7.5 and 6.5 by evening due to falling winds. That was OK. We are way ahead of schedule (planned on 6.0 kts avr.) and it is easier if you go slower at night. We had an early supper and I went to bed by 7:00 PM as I knew we had a course change that would require re-trimming the sails by 10:00-10:30. I got up for that and after we were on course, Deb went to bed. Now, Deb NEVER sleeps the night through. She gets up once or twice a night and stays up for an hour or so each time. I figured I would let her sleep until she got up and then grab an hour or so sleep while she was up anyway. So, of course, she slept through the night for the first time in at least a year (EXCEPT, I remembered, the other overnight I planned the same thing!) How come?? Anyway, I laid down briefly @ 0600, but knew I needed to get up by 0730 for a major course change. All in all a great day sailing in which we made 155 nm in 24 hours - an average of nearly 6.5 kts. (posted late as I slept before writing this so position is off by 6 hrs.)
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04/18/2012, Low Cay, Columbia, SA
Wednesday, April 18. We met with Mr. Bush today @ 10:00 and he had all our paper work completed and our passports to return, stamped. It was very efficient and his $40 fee was well worth all he does for cruisers. We have had on going discussions about this developing low in the Gulf, but what we finally decided was to relocate to Low Cay today (only about 8 nm North and still within the same barrier reef), sail for Vivarillos tomorrow, and decide when we get there what seems to be happening with this low and whether it will be good to stay and enjoy the Vivarillos and Hobbies or if we should go to Guanaja for better protection. Shortly after lunch, I raised the main with a single reef in it and then we pulled anchor and were off. Wind was in the 20-25 kts range and I added a second reef by the time we cleared the harbor buoys. With double reefed main and ¾ gennie, we were making 7-7.5 kts close hauled. The seas were w bit lumpy, but not bad as we still had some protection from the reef even though it was several miles away. When we turned to enter the hook at the Northern end of the reef that is known as Low Cay (there is no real cay here, just enough area of drying reef awash that a light has been erected), we had to drop sails and motor directly to windward. We had to eyeball in to anchor and we left breadcrumbs to assure an easy exit. We anchored in ~16' over bright white sand, though we dropped the anchor in 8'. When I swam the anchor, I discovered we could have gone much closer to the reef as the 8' depth held for quite aways. If we were staying longer, I would move, but for one night we are fine. Salida and Silver Sea were an hour or so behind us and I talked them in following our route. I put the dinghy in the water and went up to the spit of land and the light and then went to Silver Sea to try and help George with his autopilot that had quit working on the way up. It was a chain drive and some links of the chain were frozen. He hit them with WD-40 and worked each one loose while I held the wheel. It looks like it should be tightened a bit, but it does seem to be working again. Hope it holds. Back at Always, I made chili verde for dinner and we will turn in early as tomorrow we get up to leave @ 5:00. The Vivarillos are about 185 nm away, so at 6 kts. we would get there by noon the next day, only one overnight. Yeah!
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