It's a rainy cool (relatively speaking) day. Cayo Quemado is located at the other end of the Golfete, quite a distance. Nonetheless Tom the Rigger arrives mid-day as promised, in the longest lancha I've ever seen in the RioD; built long for hauling heavy materials and big sails. A wood one painted black and gray with red trim on the outside, pink on the inside. Distinctive.

What is it about riggers? They're seem all to be small wiry guys / people built to scamper up, around, and down masts nearly unaided. Tom doesn't want the electric wenches used so Jerry manually works the line while Tom sort of walks up the mast. He's up and down and all around the rigging within 15-20 minutes. His assessment: the rigging is old, showing some wear, however not in dire straits. The short term need is replacing the swages at the bottom of the mast diamonds. That said, the entire rigging needs to be replaced within 2 years / before we go through the Panama Canal. Cost to replace the entire rig is US $12,000 - $14,000 all in. He'll quote the near term fix. And with that, he's off to this next appt, no charge for his time.

Well...., we're feeling better about our situation. We still need to fly in parts and have work done but it's a much much smaller deal. It's highly likely we'll wait until we're in Panama to do the re-rigging. Yes, we'll need to fly in a rigger but ocean shipping the needed materials there should be less of an ordeal. For obvious reasons, we are not keen on Transcargo / Guatemala customs. Speaking of them, news on the bar fridge / other held goods is that people are back to work post-holiday. We should hear some kind of news at the end of the week.

Tom emails a quote for near term fix: Q.5,000 / US $714; Q.4,459 materials, Q.540 labor. Reasonable. Jerry emails him back: Go!