It has been a hectic 2 weeks, or so since I last posted. Our dinghy that Jim is building is almost complete. It still needs 2 more coats of epoxy, gunnels & the seats and oars. Our first stop after leaving the estuary will be Estero Jiquilisco. Barillas Marina is there and Presto Mar. PM has the bottom paint we need and also fiberglass cloth. Jiquilisco is 35 miles down the coast- you might remember this is where we had to take our 4 Fed Ex packages to and went through that fiasco to get them to our boat. It will take us about 6 hours to get there. We will stay at Barillas only one night then leave the next day for the Gulf of Fonseca.
Jim has also spent 3 days building the dagger boards for Sunshine. They were not with the boat even when Jim came down to look at her a year ago in January, but he has them nearly complete. Again the bottom paint will be needed for these.
Early last week, maybe Sunday, when we talked to my parents, we were surprised a bit when my Dad and Mom decided to have Dad fly here to San Salvador to start our journey with us and return to Michigan from Panama. Up til then it was sounding more like he'd fly to Panama about the day we got there, stay with us a week-10 days while we get our paperwork started and wait for our day to go through the canal while doing some work on the boat and going to the Las Perles Islands. So I went to the airport with Lucio to pick up my Dad on Tuesday (11th). Lucio is someone we met here who has a truck, is the captain of one of the sport fishing boats, and also the owner of a pupuseria and tienda along with his wife Amelia and 4 sons. Anyway, Dad's flight was to arrive near 8 p.m., it landed about 15 minutes after, and I was anxiously and impatiently waiting to see him. Making a long story short, he finally came out, the last in line, no luggage except his carry-on. The luggage, which again had many supplies for Sunshine, including 500' of line for our sails, among many other much needed items that we cannot get down here. The lady in baggage services that helped Dad, Ingrid, came out with him to let me know what was going on. 150 pieces of luggage had been misplaced! She completely understood our situation that we were planning to leave in 1 � days, (Thursday morning), and needed my Dad's luggage as soon as possible. She told us it should arrive on the next flight from Houston, Wed. morning and gave me a number in Houston to call first thing in the morning to check on them. I did that and Nick in Houston told me they should be on that flight and asked where to deliver them to. I gave him the Hotels address, and hoped for the best. Wednesday we beached Sunshine, cleaned the bottom again and put some underwater epoxy on the areas that needed it. Called Ingrid in the afternoon to make sure all was a go- it wasn't. They were not on that flight and she told me she'd call Houston and call me back. When she called back she said they were on a cargo flight to Miami at that time and would be arriving at the San Salvador airport in the morning and were first priority to be delivered. While this is all going on, Jim ordered some more epoxy and a couple other items needed from a store in San Salvador called Marinsa. AquaFun here in the estuary has jet skis and does business with Marinsa. Awhile back, AF told us that we were welcome to order stuff and have it delivered to AF with their supplies, and these items were also suppose to come down here Wednesday- they didn't. The epoxy is needed to finish coating the dagger boards and the dinghy!! Oh Help! Didn't come yesterday either. But Dad's luggage did, 1:00 in the afternoon Miguel- our favorite waiter at the Hotel Restaurant called over the VHF radio, and said someone from Continental was here to see us. YES! So Dad and I went over and picked up his luggage. All there and other than it was obvious they were extensively searched, no harm done. We ate dinner at AF last night and talked to the owner, he was glad to help us get the issue with the items from Marinsa we desperately need worked out. If all goes well-THIS TIME- the items should come today and we'll be pulling out of here tomorrow morning. Also today, I am going to try to get Dad's return flight changed for a few days later from Panama, since much of the hold up for us leaving was Continentals fault. Hopefully that will work out, because if not, we really got to cruise right along to get Dad down and THROUGH the canal before his return flight. But as I was writing this, there was yet another snag in work needing to be done today. In doing some work up on the main deck, one of our winches on our mast for our lines was being put back on and in the process fell down and of course... rolled right off the deck and into the estuary. So everything else was stopped. I went and got Scotty off his boat who is a good diver and his gear and he came over and spent close to an hour looking for it, to no avail. It's not a major necessity, we can take another winch off in a lesser needed location and put it in it's place until we can replace it. It's just time spent that we need to do so many other things to get ready. The tide rises later and later each day and tomorrow slack high tide, which is the best time to make the crossing from the estuary into the Ocean, is at 9 a.m.- and suppose to be light winds and shallow swells tomorrow. A perfect day for sailing. All we can do is do our best and pray for the rest!
Posts after today will be only when we are at an anchorage that has internet access. But it won't be long and June will be here and we'll be able to see you all and talk to you in person! We are looking forward to it!