Rio Dulce, Guatemala
15 June 2014
And, this is their boat, Ambler.
She is 40 feet long, narrow beamed for her length at around 10-1/2 feet and weighs 16 tons! She’s a tough old lady!
Built in 1928 in England as a motor-sailing lifeboat, she is built to take whatever the sea can dish out. Stan and Cora’s story of the 3 days of 65 knot winds that they all survived together in the southern ocean is enough proof of this for me. That is not an experience I ever need to have myself – and hope never to have forced upon me. KR can take it – but I am not so sure of her Captain.
Ambler was retired from life saving service in the 50’s and was converted to a yacht soon thereafter. Stan and Cora take good care of her – and clearly the opposite is just as true.
Dinner was on board Ambler one night last week. With Stan and Cora (German), Marie Claire and Alain (French), Erwin and Jrmina (Swiss) and myself as the token American, it was an international group. Dinner was Stan’s Hungarian Goulash served with dumpling-like freshly cooked bread. What a fun evening!
Ambler is a boat whose systems have been developed, or simply evolved over the years, on the dual principals of absolute reliability and absolutely low cost. As one example, sitting in the cloth seat strung across the aft companionway, the bronze tipped spokes of Ambler’s wheel falling readily to my right hand (I could SO see myself at sea in that position), I noticed a knotted rope, with essentially just the knot showing, sticking up through the cockpit sole just a little forward of my feet. Obviously, it was some form of obscure control line, the function of which I could not fathom. I finally asked Stan about it. He said: “Go ahead, pull it.” I did and was surprised when Ambler’s 6 cylinder tractor engine diesel rumbled immediately to life. Who needs a fancy control panel with a start button when you can rig a line to close a barb switch and energize and engage the starter?
That was a rhetorical question.
I will see Stan and Cora here in the Rio again in the fall before it is time for me to head back out to see and will look forward to spending more time with them.