Summer 2006 Update
08/05/2006, USA
Greetings,
We hope this overdue cruising season overture finds you thoroughly enjoying sweet summertime. As our 05/06 season was such a mishmash of great moments mixed with frustrating ones our tardiness follows suit. While the season is nearly 2 months behind us many of it's highs and lows still linger. Below is the update we started the first of June. How time flies…..
Hola Amigos,
Ken and I are safely if not surely set on U.S. soil once again. In less than 24 hours we went from the steamy heat and humidity in the jungles of Guatemala to the searing aridity of Arizona. Needless to say our bodies as well as our brains are working overtime to absorb the astounding change of climate. From drowning in our own sweat and waking to the strange sounds of howler monkeys to dousing ourselves with lotion to keep from flaking away and the roar of Yuma traffic the changes are extreme. What a wild and weird lifestyle we have chosen.
It is with just a tinge of regret that we closed our 2005/2006 cruising season. I believe, and I think Ken will begrudgingly agree, that this was the most frustrating of the five years we have spent cruising. Some of that has to do with unpleasant situations in the Rio, but mostly it has to do with our beloved Polaris showing her age. Besides looking a little rough around the edges we had more system failures this year than ever before.
Polaris officially turned 20 this year. I'm not sure what that is in boat years. I expect aging of a boat is similar to what it is in people. So much depends on the climate it lives in, the amount of use, over or under, how well its maintained and so forth. Lets say she has at least reached middle age, coincidently at the same time Ken and I have. But we have put her to much more rigorous tests in the past 5 years than we ourselves have been subjected. That said she has really began to show signs of over-aging.
You may recall the problem we wrote about in our New Year missive about our engine's overheating issue. It certainly is not the first time that we have had engine problems, but this one seemed to be far harder to diagnose and was due less to disrepair administered by a mechanic, as has happened several times in the past few years, than by normal wear and tear. After much troubleshooting and head scratching it was determined our engine needed a new head gasket. If you think of the engine as being the heart of the boat to repair this meant nothing short of major heart surgery. I won't bore you with the gory details but the fix required removal of the engine head and dealing with the complications that arose from a surgery that radical. I guess we should be happy she did not require a transplant, eh?
Once she was put back together again the overheating went away, reappeared, went away and reappeared and went away. Was she misdiagnosed? Could it be she's menopausal and just having hot flashes? After weeks of anguish we did discover a serious leak at the base of the heat exchanger. As we had checked out of the country and were preparing to cross the bar and head up to Belize the following morning Ken administered CPR in the form of a Mar-tex patch. No more leaking and no further overheating issues for the course of the season. But Ken was ever so nervous waiting for the next engine problem to rear it's ugly head.
While still tied to the marina dock we'd had several other complications. The very day we thought we had all the problems licked our anchor windlass broke. For the land lovers amongst you, the windlass is a piece of equipment at the bow of the boat that lowers and raises the very heavy anchor and attached chain into and out of the water. We had replaced our original unit with a new one 3 years ago in Florida. But its seems the manufacturer forgot to add sufficient grease to the new unit and it seized on us at the dock in January while we were replacing the chain after removing it for a cleaning and maintenance check. After much yelling and pleading and negotiating Ken was able to convince the manufacturer to replace the unit. As they no longer make the manual kind, we were upgraded to an electric unit. A major upgrade for Polaris, but definitely a cut into our cruising season to the tune of almost 4 weeks. That was akin to a knee transplant for our little boat.
Once we finally got to Belize the weather decided not to cooperate for much of the season which kept our sailing and exploring to a minimum. We were unable to make it to northern Belize to pick up friends Barb and Rick so they had to make a last minute change and fly down south in order to join us. In the 2 weeks they were with us the wind blew strong out of the direction we wanted to go. We poked our noses out several times only to turn back to Placencia. Our plans to find a marina in Belize City and do some inland exploration with them was thwarted as well. Not a bad place to be stuck, Placencia. Luckily our work weary and gracious friends were content to hang at anchor in one spot and do little but eat, swim and catch up on sleep.
We were finally blessed with favorable winds soon after their departure and we promptly sailed north, visiting several islands we missed last year, before our next issue reared its ugly head. I detected a choking in the engine while anchoring at a cay not far from Belize City. Ken was able to arrange for a tie up at the only marina in Belize the next day. As bad luck would have it we ran hard aground in the entrance channel at high tide. With the help of the wind and a couple waves we got off and side-tied at the dock a half an hour before mosquitoes swarmed the boat. The next day Ken dug his heels in, tore the boat apart, again, removed our fuel tanks, siphoned out some really fouled fuel and installed an inspection port. Call this the blood transfusion incident. It pretty much scraped away what was left of Ken?? s eroding confidence. The rest of the time in Belize he sat warily in anticipation of the next shoe dropping.
We were to be spared any further trials and made it back to Placencia to welcome Suzie for a lovely weeklong visit. We ate our weight in gelatto, swam a lot and forced Suzie to read a book cover to cover….a feat she has had zero time for in her hectic recent years. Ken and I are so grateful to be rich in time and to be able to share that wealth in the form of relaxation with our dearest friends.
A mere day after Suzie's plane flew her away we set sail eastward with our friends aboard Wind Quest. After a couple days of island exploration we sailed south back to the shallow waters of the Rio Dulce. Not quite ready to say good bye to the season that barely was, we stretched it a few days longer with a 2 day stop at Gringo Bay, a lovely little spot midway up the river in the widened part called the Gulfete. There we celebrated Ken?? s birthday. An hour or so prior to our celebration a small Swiss boat hurried in and anchored nearby. As they passed Ken swore he saw a alpine horn on the side. As the sun began to set and friends Jim and Carol dinghied over for our spaghetti fest a fellow actually began to play said alpine horn. Soon they dug out another one and the 3 gentlemen onboard took them to shore and blissfully serenaded our dinner celebration for hours. That right place-right time stuff is so amazing. Who would ever think of having an experience like that in the jungles of Guatemala? Needless to say Ken felt pretty special. It was one of the best moments of our season and made us forget all the delays and frustrations of the previous months.
Of course the very best part of the season is always hanging out with old friends and making new ones. This year we were blessed with making the acquaintance of a Dutch/German couple, Lutz and Krina onboard Topaz. They didn't quite fit in with other American cruisers, but their loss was our gain as we spent many enchanting dinners with them before they headed Topaz towards Annapolis. They left 20 years ago for a 2 year cruise and have never gone back. The creative ways they keep living the nomadic lifestyle was both fascinating and inspiring. We will definitely see them again.
Once back in the Rio we tied up to our new marina and began the exhausting task of preparing Polaris for our seasonal departure from her. With the memories of our rotten moldy return last fall still swimming in our brains we were overcome with hyper diligence in our efforts to thwart a similar return this year. But even with all our aims at preventing damage we are 100 per cent positive our boat will be infested with one or possibly all of the following: cockroaches, tarantulas and other scary spiders, possibly scorpions and most likely ants. Please God……no snakes.
As for our plans for next season we cannot say yet. Much has been bandied about. A bus trip throughout Central America for 6-8 weeks is one possibility. Another is to volunteer with an organization that does good works in Guatemala. Another is to point Polaris towards Panama.
We are sure, however, that Polaris is in desperate need of other more cosmetic type surgeries, including painting her topsides, her bottom and her sides. It wearies us to think of the mess and the costs, but it has to be done. The head walls even require painting. The cushions need recovering and the list goes on. When we return at October?? s end we will need to spend at least a month or more on those projects.
That's it now. So get back to enjoying your summer. We will be seeing some of you in the weeks ahead.
Wishing you sunshine and cool breezes,
Becky and Ken
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