Posted by: Annie
Guatemala - been here about 6 weeks and I'm just now getting around to posting something on our blog. Obviously we are not faithful bloggers, just 'busy' living life and don't feel a need to write about it anymore. At least not in this way. So it's time we give it up and put the $100/year we spend for the sailblogs subscription to other uses. Red wine for instance.
Friends and family, we'll see you on Facebook. To our other readers, may our paths cross again, perhaps in some tropical port? As Carol Burnett would sing on Sunday nights: "I'm so glad we had this time together." (Many of you will be cursing me because you will have that tune stuck in your head all day :-)
Ciao!
Annie & Tom
(the photo - we met these adorable chicitos 2 weeks ago, they love Photo Booth on the Mac)
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Saturday, 22 May 2010, Isla Mujeres
I'm not sure there is a physical limit to the number of passengers that can be accommodated in a 10 passenger Toyota van. Maybe in Guatemala physics takes a much needed break. At one point when we were coming into Morales from Frontera, I counted 25 people on board, and they were still looking for more bodies to cram in.
We had a chance to see the Rio Dulce, where we will be spending hurricane season, last week. A neighbor here in Isla needed some help getting his boat south. Doug has been sailing around the Caribbean for the last seven years or so in a 38' ketch, but he's not real interested in single-handing any more so we loaded up some provisions and headed down with him. Easy sail, beam reaching in 25 to 30 knots most of the way. The river entrance is breathtakingly beautiful with cliffs hundreds of feet high on either side, choked in luxuriant jungle and echoing to the sound of cicadas. The Marina Tortugal is just upriver from the town of Fronteras, clean water and a delicious afternoon breeze that fills in at noon. We walked into town one day, about a mile, through mangrove swamps and teak orchards. Fronteras is bustling, heady with commerce, as were Morales and Puerto Barrios.
We took colectivos from Fronteras to Puerto Barrios and then caught a lancha across the Bay of Honduras to Punta Gorda, Belize. We spent the next several days on buses with one night in Belize City in a little hostel after a delicious venison stew and the next night in a hotel in Tulum. Hell of a lot more fun than an airplane through Miami.
Tomorrow I wash another boat, the last one here that needs done. The work isn't bad but it isn't all that much fun. Not much of an intellectual challenge in scrubbing powerboats. I hope to find some work with a little more zest to it when we get south. Washing boats pays the bills though and I'm glad to be doing anything really. Annie has been sewing slipcovers for the Villas here, the ones I tiled the stairs in a couple weeks ago, so that should cover our slip fees.
We visited a floating island constructed with empty plastic bottles this afternoon. The builder was away but a friend showed us around. He laid plywood over the bags of bottles, poured sand on top and brought in dirt on which grow mangroves and other salt tolerant plants which surround the two story house and outdoor living spaces. The carpentry is not all that impressive, but the follow through is truly stunning. What an amazing feat to conceive of such a bizarre home, let alone construct one. Actually it's his second floating bottle island. The last one was destroyed in a hurricane and I'd hate so see what will happen when this one takes a direct hit.
Isla Mujeres has been a truly fabulous place to stay. We've met some really great people like Doug, who we crewed for last week and Dave who sailed down to Guatemala and is also staying in Tortugal along with us and Doug and another couple, Greg and Marisol, both in the Merchant Marines but headed back down when their 3 month tours are over. Tom and Elly, the owners of Marina Paraiso are great, Kevin is an excellent seaman and naturally lots of fun to drink with as is JB, an Aussie who got here a few weeks ago and if he can find a sailboat to trade his powerboat for, we are going to crew for him over to Australia. Looks like next week has some pretty solid decent weather. Maybe a little wet from time to time, but east winds 15-25 knots heading north late in the week, so we'll fill up the wine locker and cast off the lines in a couple days. I'll miss this place, but the ocean calls...
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http://is.gd/cFTts
Posted by Annie.
I came 'home' - back to my hometown, that is, for a visit. Ten days to be with my mom & dad during mom's 3rd chemo treatment (she's doing fantastic!) and to visit my brothers & sisters, my son & his wife (who's expecting in November!) and my precious grandkids and my friends. It's lovely, it doesn't seem like enough time, only ten days, but I sorely miss home - Tom and our small ship EMMA, currently in Mexico - and ten days seems much too long to be away.
While I'm here I am acquiring several things that we need (want), filling up an old suitcase I bought at Goodwill just so I can check a bag on the flight home. Things like a charcoal filter for filling our water tank, basting tape & Velcro for my canvaswork, zippers for Grace's dodger (a job I've already got lined up in Guatemala), parts to fix the compass light which we can barely read at night, a chimney for our kerosene lamp, a fan for our aft cabin, a knife to replace the one that the sea took from Tom, jeans for both of us, a camera to replace the one stolen in Cuba but this one much nicer (is that wise?), weather seal to fix our dripping portlights, rechargeable batteries, blank CDs for sharing our music and photos. And I'm trying to get our tiny printer fixed while I'm here but it looks like it will not be possible in ten days, I will be sending it off to HP under warranty.
Some people ask: 'Have you completed your sail around the world yet?' I laugh and try to explain: We are sailing around. The world. Not necessarily 'around the world.' We're just sailing from here to there, deciding where we want to go along the way. Tom jokes that if it looks like we are getting close to doing a circumnavigation then we will turn back and go the other way, just so we don't. Our journey so far: from Annapolis, MD down the U.S. east coast to Miami, across to the Bahamas and south down the chain of islands, through the Windward Passage to Cuba and west along the south coast, across the Yucatan Strait to Mexico.
After I return home next week we will sail south to Guatemala to hunker down inland on the Rio Dulce during hurricane season (roughly June through November). We'll haul EMMA out to clean the fuzz & barnacles off her keel and rudder. And we hope to find work, we are both ready to work again, to exercise our minds and our bodies and to add funds to the sailing kitty.
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We've been putting together a checklist for sailors. I just added the charcoal filter to the list. Maybe you have some other ideas for additions? Take a look:
http://www.pacificsailors.com/p/checklist-project.html
-Jonathan Vince
Note the two backdated blog posts about our Cuba adventures:
Farmer's market (Saturday, 20 March 2010)
One week in Cuba (Wednesday, 10 March 2010)
(photo is Yuri & the Lada)
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Friday, 02 April 2010, Cienfuegos
I just can't bring myself to spend more time fucking around with the officials of this country. The immigration officer at the marina here decided that he didn't want to extend my visa after all and we need to go to the office in town at 29-31 46. Are those directions to some place? and you want more money? but the only other place that we are likely to get ashore is the tourist resort island of Cayo Largo, no cubans allowed unless they work there. Hanging out on a beach with a pile of fat white people never really did much for me so we'll take off for Isla Mujeres on Monday, the day our visas expire. What an amazing time, an amazing country. My thoughts are still scattered by the intensity of the last month, might be slightly drunk still from Cuba libres last night too. They sell you the whole bottle at the bar, 5 bucks. More and hopefully more coherent commentary to follow.
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Monday, 29 March 2010, Marina Marlin Trinidad
We've been in Cuba three weeks now, sailing west along the south coast. Have had some very light winds so had the opportunity to fly the kite a couple of times and some spells of no winds so had to use the iron jib (the engine) - sigh. The sailing is beautiful, though, the pristine waters of Cuba amazing, the fish delicious. We haven't done any fishing ourselves but we've bought fish from the local fishermen who are very generous. Arrived at the marina near Casilda two days ago. We got our bikes out yesterday and rode to Casilda, Trinidad, and La Boca - a great ride even in the stifling heat. Met a local Cubano who spent eight years in prison for trying to leave the country -- una loco sistema!!!! (a crazy system!) Another crazy thing about this country, cruising sailors cannot go ashore except where there is a government run marina. And the paperwork! They love the paperwork. Tom keeps the paperwork quite organized and he stamps everything with our ship's stamp -- the officials love that! Seems so, well, official. Tomorrow we head to Cienfuegos. So much more to share about Cuba but internet is quite expensive (not to mention quite slow!). More later. Chao!
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Saturday, 20 March 2010, Manzanillo, Cuba
It felt good to be on shore again. The crazy fucked up government here hasn't let us off our boat since we left the marina in Santiago. They say it's for our safety, or security or because the jefe said so or some other bullshit. They'd just rather not have these independent minded people floating around the country anywhere, anytime... it's too damn scary, foreign, not like people who look a little different and have different clothes and music, I mean like alien, from fucking outer space, these cruisers. I'm not actually used to people telling me where I can go and when... not used to listening to them when they do.
Toby and Helena on MARE sailed into Cabo Cruz the other day. What a delicious sight, a 28' sailboat. They had come straight down from Santiago. We sail at the same rate, being of similar length, and drink a pretty similar amount and enjoy each others company a lot. Congenial. That's the word. So we made our way to Manzanillo sharing an anchorage in Niquero where the Guarda came out and told us we had to anchor right off the town (so they could keep an eye on us) and the next night about 3 miles off the ciudad de Manzanillo in a sheltered bay in an uninhabited cay where the Guarda came out in an official Guarda boat, first one I've seen here, and anchored about a ½ mile away and watched us all night.
So word was that Manzanillo, being a port of entry, would have sufficient paper pushers to allow us to go ashore, we were short of rum (oh shit) and MARE needed a new part made for their primary fuel filter. We anchored just off a fishing dinghy anchorage close to where we thought the appropriate authorities could be found. No one came out, no sign that they noticed. The guarda have come out to our boat on every occasion that we have ever dropped the hook in this country or at least come out and watched us, so it was a little strange to be ignored. We asked around and found the Capitan de Puerto in the Guarda headquarters just around the corner from the dinghy landing and he took us to a white shirted Guarda (more important and usually not a teenager like the green shirts) who told us the same old tired bullshit story. No va a la tierra aqui, no tengo Marina. I told him we needed to come ashore, we need rum and Toby needs a filter part. We don't need a Marina, we're happy on the hook. No, es impossible. He says they have no water in Manzanillo and the imbecility of the statement causes me to laugh in his face. No problemo, no necissitamos agua, no necissitamos Aduana, which they also didn't have. He said the boats were our responsibility, no shit, soy el capitano, of course it's my responsibility. The port captain came out in the dinghy with us, cleared us in, took the despachos, said he'd come back Sunday morning to clear us out, and please wait an hour or so before we go on shore so he doesn't get in trouble. So that is how we came to be celebrating Emma's 1 year anniversary of floating in the Bay, drinking Cuban rum at a little beach bar in Manzanillo. They don't sell drinks, just entire bottles and mixers, most of the customers don't bother with mixers.
We went in to a restaurant with Toby and Helena in the evening. There was some question as to whether or not we could come ashore, so as one guy was helping us to pull the dinghys up far enough that the Guarda wouldn't see them when they went by, another guy, also Guarda is telling Annie, es impossible, no va a la tierra aqui. He asks where she's from, Los Estados Unidos, oh, no problemo. Huh?
As the morning sun clears the trees over our rolly and exposed anchorage, the music starts up. It's 0700 on a Saturday and the music was pumping out of town until late last night too. Reggaeton, rap, pop, Cuban music pounding out of a loudspeaker on the Malecon, half an hour later, another PA system starts a couple blocks down, the Malecon is packed with people, just standing around, walking, riding bikes, a couple horse drawn cabs, crumbling concrete apartments and unpainted wooden clapboard shacks, walls covered in beautiful murals, a water truck with potable water that people pour into 55 gallon drums. What farmer's market would be complete without thumping music after all. Meat and vegetables, guayaba jelly, restaurants spring up out of the sidewalks, people crowd around the horse drawn beer wagon with old 2 liter bottles and gallon jugs in hand. I'm as far from understanding this country and the generous and friendly people we meet as I was the day we sailed past Guantanamo Bay, hoping the Coast Guard wouldn't see us. My ignorance is probably only surpassed by the complete incomprehension of the people, and especially the authorities, when they see us sail in to town
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Saturday, 20 March 2010, Manzillo
We celebrated the first anniversay of EMMA's launch yesterday. Details to follow.
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Sunday, 14 March 2010, Navigamos
Very light winds today. Anchored next to Austrians in lovely Cabo Cruz.
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Ever since you hatched your (hairbrained) boat scheme, you said you would go to Cuba! Congrats on the follow-thru!
Eager at this end to hear more impressions, if you'll land and where, and to see whatever photos you can post. Bob is still hoping to get there too, but, since you left without him, he's stuck studying Greek and watching two lovable, hand-me-down kitty-boys.
Be safe and keep your heads down.
XOX
Wednesday, 10 March 2010, Chizirico
Five days in Santiago de Cuba, in the nearby barrio (village) of mella. Where to begin to share our impressions; our observations? It would take pages and pages...so very briefly (we don't have live internet today, anyway):
Cuba is incredibly rich and at the same time, unbelievably poor. The Cubanas are rich in music, dance and art; rich in the style and manner in which they present themselves and their humble homes; rich in health and education; rich in the peace and love in their hearts; free in spirit and in the way they express themselves; rich in the intermixing of race and ethic groups; rich in their relationships with family and friends; rich in their kindness and generosity amid such poverty!
The poverty is evident in the vistas of crumbling houses, there are no materials to patch them; the crumbling roads, there is no concrete to patch them; indoor plumbing runs to the kitchen, but the water is not potable; outhouses are common; working the fields and hauling the harvest with horses and oxen. Perhaps worst of all, the Cubanas are poor in their ability to change their situation. They can not organize dissent without fear of being thrown in jail, and they can not freely leave the island.
Today we are in an anchorage near Chizirico, but we are not allowed to go ashore because there is no state-run marina to keep a watch on us. Despite our camera being lifted, we managed to get a few photos on our Mac laptop, but only out of site of the Guarda and any members of the Cartivo (sp?).
Posted from our SAT phone.
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Glad you made it! Have fun and Charlie is thriving! So far he has been shared with two other friends. We are back in George Town and can't wait to get out. You know how it is.
