We were in luck. Because of our unusable mainsail, we hoped for a calm day to head west - such a difference from our usual desire to have wind.

We followed our track out through the cut before 0600 on Tuesday morning, and sheeted the staysail in really tight for some stabilization. The wind was light and variable to start but gradually clocked around to N and E and picked up a little so we were able to use the big Yankee – along with the engine of course – and averaged 6 knots over the next 19 hours. Little swell, no dolphins all day long; hardly any shipping traffic, a bit of lightning in the distance, lots of stars in the sky and bioluminescence in the sea after dark, but an easy night, and made even easier by the fact that we rounded the corner at Tres Puntas and dropped the anchor by 1:30 am on Wednesday.

There are no shoals to avoid there – the only worry being fishing nets after dark and Jim took a look around with the spotlight before we stopped. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite a good enough look, because we woke the next morning to a paddle banging on the hull! Oops. A middle aged man and a small wrinkled woman in a dugout canoe were holding the edges of their net and pointing to our anchor. With many “Lo siento’s” Jim hauled up the chain and released the net from beneath it. I was so worried that we had dropped the anchor right through it and ripped it, but all was well. Smiles and waves accompanied their departure to continue hauling in the morning’s catch. We were lucky again – but it was a good reminder to look VERY carefully next time.

We timed our departure toward Livingston to allow us to cross the bar about an hour before the high tide at 3:55. With our 6 foot draft we have to be careful, but really – it’s not the enormous issue we used to think it was. The tide was 1.5 feet above mean and when Jim called Raul to tell him we were on our way and to check the timing, he confirmed that a vessel up to 7 feet draft could cross on the high tide today. We use the waypoints in Freya Rauscher’s book and they took us in handily – showing 0.1 below the keel but never slowing or bumping. The waves on the incoming tide helped us surf in too – a nice thing then but not so nice once we were anchored in Livingston. Jim has a wonderful new app on his Ipad – Tidesplanner -that gives tide tables all over the world – and doesn’t need to be connected to the internet to use.

Raul called just as we arrived to say the officials would be right out. 10 minutes later, he called back to say they were busy and could we come to his office. That is what we had really expected (they came out to visit the first time we came in 2012 but not last year) so we weren’t surprised. The problem was getting the dinghy down off the davits in the wicked waves. It swung wildly while I tried to unhook the lift lines and snapped the fastening on the other davit – not the one Jim repaired earlier in the season. Luckily, the weight was already off it so the solar panel wasn’t affected. I eventually got the lines unsnapped and maneuvered it around to the side of the boat. Lowering the motor and getting it secured was another horrible job. The “in the dinghy” part of this operation has become my job since we started carrying the outboard motor on the side of the boat. Jim used to attach the lines, swing himself up and along the side of the boat to get back in the cockpit. Now, with the motor on one side and the BarBQ on the other, it would take true acrobatics. I fit better between the rails of the davits so I climb over the stern and through the rails. It’s a nice division of labour – except on days like this!

Jim gathered our paperwork together and took them ashore while I stood anchor watch. Actually, I poured myself a scotch, got out my mending kit and repaired our Guatemala flag so it would be ready to hoist. I sat there with needle and thread, thinking how calming needle work is, and how my grandmother and great grandmother took such tiny stitches in the quilts they made, and I felt quite in tune with them as I made my tiny stitches. Then I took a sip of scotch and thought, “Hmmm – Not quite the same! They would have been horrified”.

Jim arrived back with passports stamped (90 days for us) and our ship’s visa for 90 days plus one year, so Madcap is legal in Guatemala until June of 2015. We always use Raul’s services and so does mostly everyone we know. He just makes it all so much easier than traipsing from office to office, and his fees are very reasonable. Website, www.servamar.com (navieraservamar@gmail.com, 502 5510 9104 Mobile)

Although it is possible to stay overnight off Livingston, it is a rolly anchorage, and we wanted to get up to El Gofete, so at 4 o’clock we set off to motor up the gorge, watching carefully for the fishing buoys (usually a couple of pop bottles) and nets that the fishermen had started laying out for the night.

We were feeling a bit sorry that the season had come to an end. No more snorkeling, no more turquoise water breaking in splashes of white over the reefs. But on the other hand, here we were between the high green cliffs, passing by thatched houses with tendrils of smoke rising through the trees, and dugout canoes with men, women and children paddling along the shorelines. We each took a deep breath and soaked in the greenness and the beauty and the familiarity.

By the time we turned into our beloved Buenavista Bay, the sun was just about to sink behind the mountain. We dropped the anchor mid bay, sprawled on the cockpit benches watching the sky turn pink, and thought, “We’re home.”