s/v Rachel

Three Days Off

2012-01-26T09:21:00.000-05:00

Position: N 25 47.344 W 080 09.419

Location: Miami, FL

When you live aboard a boat and are anchored somewhere warm and beautiful like southern Florida, it can be difficult to arrange some time off. Every once in a while we just have to take a break from the hectic cycle of reading, relaxing in the sun, walking and shopping ashore, doing the occasional boat job, and almost nightly happy hours with friends. It's a tough life and we've found the only way we can make time for some R&R is by being both patient and persistent.

On Monday, with the wind predicted to be easterly and relatively light, we decided it was time. It's only about 4 miles to the top of Biscayne Bay, so we headed down there to go sailing for a few days. The warm weather, clear blue skies, and 9 – 15 knots on the beam all conspired to give us a beautiful sail down the bay. Several other cruising sailboats and the Rolex Miami OCR regatta gave us lots to look at.

The Miami OCR has “529 sailors from 41 countries on 354 boats competing in 10 Olympic classes and 3 Paralympic classes”. We had to tack around a couple of the race courses (there were a lot of them out there) giving us the opportunity for some real close-up views of the action. Very exciting and really, really cool. Here's a link to more info about the regatta: http://rmocr.ussailing.org/

By 3pm we had dropped the anchor 2/3 of a mile east of Elliot Key, part of the Biscayne National Park system. The wind had died down to almost nothing so the anchorage was comfortable even though we were so far out. The day ended with a refreshing swim in the clear water and a romantic dinner in the cockpit watching the glorious sun setting with the tall buildings of Miami just peeking up over the horizon.

Rachel's waaaay out there

The second day (Tuesday) we were up and at 'em fairly early, taking the dinghy ashore to Elliot Key. We love parks as the trails we usually find are a great way for us to get some much needed exercise. The Elliot Key trails took us out to the ocean side and a lovely boardwalk, then back through the forest to the Bay side in a big circle. We were the only visitors on the island the entire time we were there and saw many zebra longwing butterflies, dragonflies, lizards and a tiny snake. There was some trash along the trail so we volunteered to go around again and pick it up as we went along. The rangers really seemed to appreciate our help.

We got back to the boat in time for lunch then hauled anchor for another perfect sail back up the Bay. We took turns reading and driving the boat, having another relaxing, sunny, and engine-less day.

Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park (wow that's a mouthful) is at the southern end of Key Biscayne. There's a very protected basin named No Name Harbor where many sailors anchor while awaiting a weather window to the Bahamas. We cruised slowly through the anchorage but decided it was a bit crowded for our taste. So we dropped the hook just outside the harbor and enjoyed another perfect evening with a beautiful sunset.

We had a more leisurely morning on Wednesday, then dinghied ashore for more walking. The state park has several trails and a big lighthouse so off we went exploring. Unfortunately, the lighthouse was closed for tours but we wandered around the grounds and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Apparently Key Biscayne was a major jumping off point for the Underground Railway during the civil war with escaped slaves making their way to the Bahamas. We decided to come back again on a day when we CAN tour the lighthouse.

After lunch we sailed back up to Miami, once again dodging the races. We got to see some close-up action with the 49er fleet. These high performance boats have two crew, trapezes, lots of high-tech sail area, and are very exciting to watch. Here's a link to a photo: http://www.sailing.org/images/galleries/10_MOCR_49er_Burling.jpg., better than any phote we would take!! All that excitement made us even more glad that we were on vacation on Rachel, not racing, taking it easy, and letting them pass us.

We're feeling rested and relaxed after our 3 days off, and are ready to dive back into laundry and boat jobs and more reading and …

Until next time...

Little Havana

2012-01-22T13:40:00.000-05:00

Position: N 25 47.344 W 080 09.419

Location: Miami, FL

A couple of days ago we purchased four day passes to the Miami transit system. Two for us and two for our friends Bob & Cheryl on “New Passage”. At $5 each, these passes are a bargain as they cover both transportation and entertainment in the form of bus and train rides around the area.

This morning we head over to Miami Beach and leave our dinghys locked to the wall of the canal. We get on a bus that takes us to the Omni Center. From there we hop the MetroMover (an elevated electric monorail train) to the Government Center. We then get another bus that takes us to Little Havana. We get off at 27^th Avenue and walk the 27 blocks down Calle Ocho (8^th Street) to 1^st Avenue.

Walking down Calle Ocho we are treated to the varied and wonderful smells of Cuban cooking and the rhythmic and melodic strains of Cuban music pouring out of the shops. Most of the signs are in Spanish, with the occasional English translation alongside. Electronics, grocery, and clothing stores, pawn shops, instant check cashing establishments, and myriad restaurants all conspire to remind us of our time in Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras. Everyone speaks Spanish and some also speak English.

As we pass one shop, Julie notices some women's underpants with extra “bum padding” on display. We assume these are used the same way a padded bra is, except they make for a rounder, “perkier” bottom. Or perhaps they make long bus or train rides a bit more comfortable. Or perhaps they're for transvestites who desire a more “womanly” figure. Whatever their purpose, we are intrigued. Not intrigued enough to go inside and inquire or snap a photo, however, but intrigued, nonetheless. They become a topic of discussion for several blocks.

A short while later we find ourselves at the Maximo Gomez Park and Domino Club. The park consists of a covered pavilion containing many tables and chairs. Most tables are set up for dominos, but some are being used for chess, too. Lively games are taking place and there seem to be spectators at nearly every table. In retrospect, we wish we had asked if we could sit in on a game. Ah well there's always another day and another $5 bus ticket.

All the time we've been walking, we've been keeping an eye out for a reportedly fantastic restaurant we've heard about. We understand that it's inside a grocery store, is somewhere around 13^th Avenue, and one of the two or three words in the name starts with an “S”. Then we spot it right on the corner of Calle Ocho and 13^th Ave – “El Nuevo Siglo” (The New Century).

On entering, we find a comprehensive grocery store complete with butcher shop and bakery along the back wall, and a lunch counter with a few tables down one side. The smells coming from that side of the store are divine and we are inexorably drawn to the only empty table available. We look at the menu on the chalkboards and realize that, as the only gringos in here, we may be in over our heads. Then a very nice bilingual man appears with some menus in English and we get down to business. He describes each of the available dishes in delicious detail and we make agonizing decisions about which of these gems to try. He even brings over a sample of the “tasajo” for us all to test. Sublime. The orders are placed and we sit and chat amongst ourselves as our food is being prepared.

Julie and Mark split an order of “ternilla” ($7 - literally translated as “gristle”, but nothing like gristle in reality), a sort of beef pot roast w/ delicious gravy, and an order of “costilla puerco” ($6 - grilled pork ribs), also excellent. We also share yucca, fried plantains, bread, and black beans, and rice. These have got to be some of the best black beans we've ever had. Bob & Cheryl split an order of the “tasajo” ($10 – shredded marinated dried beef in a marvelous sauce) and an order of the “ternilla”. We all stuff ourselves full but not so full that we can't select a few awesome pastries to take home us from the bakery. As we roll out the door and continue our walk we all agree that this is some of the best Cuban food we've ever had.

Woohoo

2012-01-12T17:42:00.003-05:00

We just heard from Julie's attorney that her citizenship application was approved. We do not have any paperwork as yet but are thrilled and wanted to share.

Dancing with joy in Miami,

Chillin'

2012-01-03T09:11:00.000-05:00

Position: N 27 09.212 W 080 11.715

Location: Manatee Pocket, FL

Hey! This waiting game is not as bad as we thought it might be! We've just spent 4 days anchored in Manatee Pocket, Port Salerno, near Stuart, Florida. There are a few other cruising boats here who we did not really know before. We've made new friends, had a dinghy raft-up happy hour, on New Years Eve, had friends over for dinner, and been to friends boats for dinner. We rigged Belle, our dinghy, to sail and spent 2 days sailing around the anchorage. There's an awesome little Mexican grocery, vegetable stand and restaurant close by..... and best of all we don't have to rush off to be anywhere.

Sailing our Trinka "Belle"

Julie's naturalization is still in limbo and we've resigned ourselves to be patient. We're still confident it will all work out fine, we just don't know when. That being the case, we've resigned ourselves to hanging around Florida for the time being. It's giving us the opportunity to explore places we usually rush by in our quest to get further South, and it's nice to not have a destination or an agenda. Sort of like being on island time w/o the islands....

The last cold front brought us temperatures in the low 40s and upper 30s – pretty darned cold for our thin blood! The story of our voyage south from the Chesapeake – hang out somewhere until it gets too cold, then move further South hoping to get warm again. We'll be heading out again as soon as it warms up enough to be out in the wind.

Chillin' and chilly

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T14:40:00.000-05:00

Location: Vero Beach, FL

For the last month we have been tootling around the north and central coast of Florida. We have enjoyed being more laid back and not feeling rushed. The weather for the most part has been great, shorts & T shirts, and sunny. This time of year lots of boats are heading south to the Bahamas and beyond and we've managed to catch up with many friends and get caught up on each others news. We've anchored in new places, Fort George, Fort Frederica, and some old places revisited, St. Augustine, the oldest city in the US, and Stuart. We've just generally dawdled, doing boat jobs and exploring along the way.

Julie applied for US citizenship back on June 1^st and we finally got her interview notification for December 22^nd in Fairfax, VA. This was what prompted the laid back dawdling. We wanted to leave the boat in Vero Beach and drive north for the interview, almost 1,000 miles each way. The good news was that we got to stop and visit family along the way.

Julie has been studying for the civics and history test and spent lots of time getting all the required paperwork together that she needed to take with her. Finally the day came she was all dressed up and ready. The interview lasted about an hour and a half and the fact that we were cruising on a boat didn't bode too well. The interviewer told Julie he would have to go over all the information she had given him and that she would be notified of the outcome by mail. No indication as to how long that would take. A bit frustrating but we're keeping a good attitude and thinking positive thoughts.

We're now back in Vero Beach for Christmas and deciding where to get next until we get 'the decision'

We hope you all have a great Christmas and New Year with family and loved ones. Today is our 10^th wedding anniversary, we couldn't ask for 10 better years than these.

Cumberland Revisited

2011-11-25T08:32:00.000-05:00

Position: N 30 45.924 W 081 28.323

Location: Cumberland Island, GA

You may recall how we always have nice things to say about Cumberland Island. Ten days of R & R at one of our favorite places has really hit the spot giving us plenty of time to enjoy our stay.

We first anchored on the Brickhill River right in front of Plum Orchard, a mansion built by Lucy Carnegie for her son and his family. It was donated to the park service in the 70s, was recently renovated, and has been opened to the public. We had a great guide who really knew lots of interesting information about the house and it's inhabitants. Since it was just the two of us, we had the guide to ourselves and really got the royal treatment.

Wild horses

Live oaks intertwined

After a few more days of long hikes through the live oak forests and along the beaches, we moved down to the southern anchorage near the ruins of Dungeness. At this end of the island there are more trails, boardwalks, and mansions to wander around. What a great time! We saw lots of wild horses, wandered under the wild oak canopies draped with Spanish moss, hunted for (and found!!) shark's teeth on the Raccoon Flats, etc etc. We never tire of this place.

Beach walking with good friends old and new

Before we left the Chesapeake in September we arranged with friends from the Chesapeake to meet at Cumberland Island for Thanksgiving. Luckily they all made it, plus a few more. The weather was great and we enjoyed a big Thanksgiving day potluck at the picnic tables ashore. What fun!

Thanksgiving dinner

On this Thanksgiving we have a lot for which to be thankful. We notice how, over time, the differences between friends and loved ones become less apparent and for this we are immensely grateful.

Happy Thanksgiving

The Georgia Marshes

2011-11-15T17:06:00.000-05:00

Position: N 31 30.880 W 081 17.976

Location: Ridge River Mouth, Front River, north of Sapelo Sound

We have avoided traveling the ICW through South Carolina and Georgia since our first year out. Feeling harassed by morning fog, morning high tides, skinny water, and first year jitters, we found this section of the ICW to be beautiful but stressful. It's been easy to talk ourselves into giving it a miss and going south on the outside since then - until this year when we decided to give it another chance.

We've still had morning high tides, which can make it difficult to transit the numerous shallow spots later in the day, and some fog, but we also have much more experience and none of it seems nearly as scary to us as it was four years ago. And the scenery is still as wonderful as we remembered. Miles of golden marsh grasses with very few houses and lots of wildlife.

Yesterday is a good example. We had anchored the previous night behind Daufuskie Island, one of Georgia's outer islands, only accessible by boat or the ferry from Hilton Head. We were up early and hauled anchor at 6:30, barely daylight with just a hint of fog. High tide was at 11am and we wanted to get through a couple of potential problem areas before the tide got too low in the afternoon.

By 7:30 we'd already watched a spectacularly colorful sunrise and had dolphins playing around the boat, leaping completely out of the water right next to us. The sun was up and already warming the cockpit, and we knew we were in for a splendid day. After we'd been weaving our way through the marshes for a while, enjoying the colors and the wildlife, a huge bald eagle soared across in front of the boat just off the bow sprit! It was magnificent!

A bit later we turned a corner and were spat out into the Savannah River. This is the major shipping lane from the ocean up to the city of Savannah, GA, one of the busiest ports on the eastern seaboard. It's only about a quarter of a mile wide where the ICW crosses. Luckily, with our trusty new AIS equipment we already knew that a humongous container ship would be right there when we entered the river. We had a brief chat with the ship and made arrangements to pass each other safely. It's probably the closest we've been to a big ship that was under way, but no worries. We turned to starboard and paralleled the shipping lane until it was past, then scooted across the river and continued along our way.

The day was idyllic – warm, sunny, and calm. We saw a sea otter and many more dolphins, miles of grasses and trees, and loads of birds. Egrets, herons, wood storks, hawks, and kingfishers, among others. And the leaves on the trees were just starting to change color. Finally we dropped the hook just before sunset in a narrow, deep tongue just off the waterway. It had been a 10 hour day but we didn't feel stressed, nervous, or tired - just happy and relaxed. Times change as do we. But we're sure Georgia is just as beautiful as it was before the Spanish and English came here 100s of years ago. Great to know that some things remain the same.

Like our first trip down we continue to be intrigued and entertained by the names of places we pass. Places like Buttermilk Sound, Rockdedundy River, Wally's Leg, Dog Hammock Spit, Calibogue Sound, Runaway Negro Creek, Cat Head Creek, Cubbage Creek, Skidaway Narrows, and Burnt Pot Island. These names and many others give us insight into the places we're passing through and enrich our days as we transit the Georgia marshes.

Relaxed and enjoying ourselves “on the inside”.

Headin' Further South

2011-11-11T07:31:00.001-05:00

Position: N 34 02.974 W 077 53.330

Location: Brickyard Creek, north of Beaufort, SC

A lot has happened since we last wrote and we've made good, albeit slow, progress further south.

After running aground (see last Khronicle) we stopped for a couple of days at Great Bridge, VA to visit w/ friends, buy some groceries, and top up the fuel tank.

Then we continued south through the Currituck Sound, across the Albemarle Sound, up the Neuse River, and on to Beaufort (Bow-furt), North Carolina. On the way we tested our new whisker pole and absolutely love it. We now finally have some down wind mojo!!

Tiger Lily, our 8 year old granddaughter whom we did not get to see during our visit to VA this summer, joined us at Belhaven, NC for a week aboard. We had a wonderful time with her, despite some not so perfect weather and unfavorable seas. She was a great crew member and we enjoyed cooking together, wildlife watching from the bow, teaching her navigation, helmsmanship, knot tying, VHF radio etiquette, and generally 'connecting'. What a special time together. She traveled over 100 miles with us and was a great sport.

Tigerlily learning to play the conch horn at sunset

A couple of days in Beaufort waiting for favorable weather (that never appeared) were followed by a few more days “on the inside” to Little River, South Carolina. We picked up a friend who used to cruise and she accompanied us from Little River to Charleston, SC “on the outside”. Another great sail, also making good use of our new whisker pole. This has proven to be a great addition to our cruising equipment. Julie & Yvonne had a “slumber party”, yakking away their watch in the cockpit, great fun!!

Then after a couple of weeks on the dock visiting friends and doing various boat jobs including a couple of carpentry projects (thanks to the availability of a friend's table saw – thanks, Jim!!) we were ready to continue south. Once again we didn't see any favorable weather in the near future, so we set off “on the inside” and made our way down to Beaufort (Byew-furt), SC where we currently sit.

A big front with 30+ knot winds is scheduled to blow through here tonight followed by what sounds like a good opportunity to get down to Cumberland Island, one of our favorite places on the East Coast. Except for one thing – it's supposed to get down to 35 F (that's just under 2 C) tomorrow night. Brrr. We don't have the luxury of a full enclosure on our cockpit,. That means it's wooly jumpers, knit caps, mittens, foul weather gear, and blankets while we're on watch.

So we're sitting here trying to decide whether we want to brave near-freezing temperatures outside on the ocean overnight or continue on down the inside where we can anchor and snuggle up at night.

Trying to stay warm,

Headin' South

2011-10-04T10:57:00.000-04:00

(Note: We're running about a month behind on our Khronicles. We'll try and get caught back up in the next couple of days.)

Position: N 36 45.350 W 076 18.544
Location: Deep Creek Anchorage

We're anchored off Jackson Creek in Deltaville, VA, our old stomping grounds. We decide not to go into Jackson Creek – the weather's supposed to be benign tonight and it will make leaving early in the morning easier if we don't have to negotiate the tight turns and unlit marks of the narrow entrance channel.
We go to bed early and both find ourselves awake at midnight. We toss and turn and try to get back to sleep. Yeah, right! "Trying" to get back to sleep" is a bit of an oxymoron, isn't it? It may have worked some, but we finally decide to get up and make coffee at around 04:00.
Since we're up anyway, and outside the creek, we decide to leave in the dark. We turn on the navigation lights, haul anchor, and and head out into the bay at 06:00. There's a nice breeze behind us, so we get out the big head sail, turn off the engine, and have the best sail we've had so far this fall. The current is with us and we fly down the bay. We don't start the engine and put away the sail until we're well down the Elizabeth River in Norfolk, VA on our way down the Intracoastal Waterway.
We arrive 45 minutes early at the only opening bridge we have to negotiate today. Time to start the "idle into the current to stay in one place" drill while we wait for the scheduled opening. It's our lucky day – right after we head into the current, a barge coming up river calls for a commercial opening (note: bridges that open on a schedule will also generally open at unscheduled times to allow commercial traffic to pass). We call the bridge tender and she lets us slip through on this opening after the barge clears the channel, saving us a big chunk of time.
Since we are ahead of schedule, we decide to do some exploring. We turn off the main ICW channel toward the Dismal Swamp and, about a mile in, enter a small, man-made basin. We've passed this basin every time we've taken the Dismal Swamp route, but we've never stopped here. We feel our way in, seeing nothing less than 9 feet at the entrance and are happy to find 18 feet in the middle. We drop the anchor, back down to set it, and have a peaceful evening all to ourselves.
Days like today are what it's all about – beautiful weather, great sailing, a big dose of good luck, and a quiet place to spend the night.
Note: Of course days like today have to be balanced out by days like tomorrow. We run aground coming out of this idyllic anchorage at 6am the next morning trying to hurry out to make another bridge opening. We are not quite in the middle of the channel. It turns out OK, though. Mark flings himself from one side of the boat to the other to get a pendulum motion going while Julie at the helm is gunning the engine in reverse. Finally he has such a good swing going that the keel comes off the bottom and away we go, just barely making the bridge opening. Sorry no pictures of this hilarious sight you will just have to use your imagination.

Another Close Encounter

2011-10-02T18:08:00.000-04:00

Date: September 26, 2011
Position: N 38 W 076 17.0 (approximate)
Location: Mouth of the Potomac River, Chesapeake Bay, USA

We've been planning to visit friends in Deltaville and decide to do the trip in a single overnight leg, rather than in 3 day trips so we can spend more time with them. We haul anchor around 5pm just south of Annapolis for the 90 mile trip which should take around 16 hours. The low temperature is going to be in the mid 60s – not too cold - but it will be dark as pitch as there is no moon tonight.

We have just installed an AIS (Automatic Identification System) receiver, which we are thrilled to try out as we have been coveting this piece of equipment for 3 years. The AIS shows any big ships in the area, their name, what course they are on and the closest point of approach. When out in the ocean if a vessel looks like it will be passing very close to us we can hail them on the radio, make sure they know we are there and ask if we need to change course to avoid them. It is not essential equipment but it's VERY nice to have.

As we start to head down the bay there are several AIS targets and we pass the time looking them up and figuring out how this new equipment works, enjoying a new found sense of security from knowing how close they will come. We'll be paralleling the shipping lanes all night so we expect to be kept entertained. We're not too worried about an altercation as all the big ships will stay in the shipping lanes.

Around 11pm Julie goes below for a nap and around 2am we have a change of watch and Mark goes below. It's starting to get a little chilly now and we are approaching the mouth of the Potomac River. This river flows down from Washington DC and has quite a lot of current and more shipping traffic - it's always a bit of a problem area and we need to stay alert.

Julie notices an AIS target on it's way up the bay but it doesn't seem to be any problem. It's still pretty far away and the CPA (closest point of approach) is over ½ mile. She turns on the radar to track the vessel as it may start turning and heading up the Potomac. All the land masses and navigation aids show up on the radar making it difficult to ascertain which blip is the ship. Julie is pondering over the equipment when suddenly a flood light flashes on Rachel.

She jumps up and sees lots of lights closing in on her. Where the heck did that come from? She sees red AND green lights along with lots of white lights. Red and green at the same time is not good, it means the other vessel is coming right for you – head on!! And it was BIG!! Julie calls for Mark, jumps to the helm, and picks up the VHF. Mark is sound asleep, lulled by the steady throb of the engine – he doesn't hear her.

Julie: "Vessel at the mouth of the Potomac this is Rachel".
Other vessel: "This is <garbled>"
Julie: "Do I need to change my course to avoid you?"
Other vessel: "Yes - you need to head east."
Julie: "Roger That"

Quickly looking down at the compass realizes that she's heading SW. Feeling a little confused she gets back on the radio.

Julie: "I'm heading SW. Will you pass behind me?"
Other vessel: "No! I'm passing right in front of you and you need to head east NOW to avoid a collision!"
Julie: "OK."

She madly turns the wheel and slams the engine control to full throttle. The spotlight passes over Rachel again and the lights are REALLY close. Mark pops up from down below. Apparently the engine suddenly screaming at full RPM makes an effective alarm clock.

Mark: "What's going on?"
Julie: "I have no idea where we're heading!"
Mark: "Looks like north east."
Julie: "I know that! I mean I don't know if we're going to have a collision!"
Mark: "Looks like we're moving away – can we back off a few hundred RPM?"
Julie: "NO! Not until I know we are well away from this monster!"

Mark realizes that now would be a good time to just sit and be quiet for a few minutes. There's not much for him to do at this point, anyway, as we are obviously moving away from the other vessel and can only see the green starboard light indicating that the danger of collision is past.

Mark: "I'm going to throttle back a bit now. Are you okay?"
Julie: "Can you take the helm for a while? I'm pretty shaken up."
Mark: " Sure, Petal. What happened, anyway?"

Much discussion ensues about the nature of the other vessel, it's "sudden" appearance, it's lack of AIS transponder, the confusion w/ the radar and the lights, and what could have been done to avoid such a close call. This is interspersed with several comments from Julie similar to "Holy crap!", "I'm still shaking", "Wow! That was close!", and "He was just suddenly there!".

We still aren't sure what type of vessel it was (other than "big"). In retrospect, after referencing our light chart, Julie thinks the lights looked like a "trawler less than 50 meters". That sounds like a menhaden boat, but we're still not certain. Three things we are sure of are: we were having too much fun playing with the AIS; there was no AIS signal; and we totally misread the lights until the other vessel was way too close.

We decide we've been given the opportunity to relearn a lesson we've already learned well: instruments are incredibly helpful, but there is no substitute for an awake, alert, and active watch in busy waters.

AIS is cool, but not all vessels have a transponder. Radar is great, but it can be confusing to read in close quarters. A chart plotter is a big help in keeping track of your position but it can't tell you anything about other vessels in the area. We already know all this, but, once again, we are reminded of it with about as much subtlety as a frying pan upside the head. We decide to add a new ship's policy – from now on whenever we know or anticipate being in a "problem area" we will both be on watch. Four eyes are better than two, that's for sure.

Still a bit shaken,

The Great Escape

2011-09-26T09:07:00.001-04:00

Date: September 22, 2011
Position: N38 53.170 W076 31.675
Location: Rhode River, Maryland, USA

We were a bit worried about a visit from Mark's mum this month, about how would she manage on the boat,. After all, she's 84 and not as spry as she used to be. But we had a great 5 day visit - she was a real trooper, on and off the boat; up and down the companionway; learned how to use the head (toilet), etc, etc.

Unfortunately the first 3 days were pouring rain but then it cleared up and we managed to take her out for a cruise. We wanted to give her a small sample of our day to day life aboard Rachel and I think she got a good taste. We sailed all day playing slalom between debris that was covering the Chesapeake. After lots of rain a big dam on the Susquehanna River had opened all of it's flood gates and all kinds of trash was floating down into the Chesapeake. There was trash everywhere! We had to have a person on the bow pointing to avoid 'the big stuff'. It was a bit like being back in the San Blas negotiating the reefs, but with much browner water!

Amongst the usual whole trees, stumps and brush, we also saw things like hot water heaters, big plastic drums, propane tanks, water heaters, car tires, tractor tires, and loads of other junk. Picking our way through debris fields hundreds of yards wide made for a challenging trip but Rachel's crew was up to the task.

Determined to have a good day we slowly sailed south to the Magothy River and anchored out for the night along with our friends Mike & Roberta on Celilo. Mum got to enjoy happy hour on board, the gentle rocking of Rachel at night and the camaraderie of cruisers, among other things. We all had a great time together.

With all of our family visits complete (except one - we're still hoping to get together with our granddaughter Tigerlily along the way) and it starting to get cooler during the day and colder at night, we decided it was time to start heading south again. Marina life is OK but it's not why we choose to live aboard Rachel.

So after a frantic week of preparation getting Rachel ready to be seaworthy again, we cast off the dock lines and made 'The Great Escape', a big 30 mile trip to visit with friends at the Seven Seas Cruising Association get together on the Rhode River south of Annapolis. A big weight was lifted from us, we had our home back and our freedom. Now we just have to sift through all the last minute stuff we tossed aboard before we left, stow what we're keeping, and sell or give away the rest.

Staying ahead of the cold (we hope),

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

Hurricane Hijiinks

2011-09-03T10:55:00.003-04:00

Position: N39 08.735 W076 30.882
Location: Pasadena, Maryland, USA

While we are down in Virginia visiting family we are continually watching the weather. Julie's brother Tony is coming from England to visit for a week, flying into BWI (Baltimore Washington International airport) and catching the train down, as we did. As the day of his arrival approaches so does Hurricane Irene. She's scheduled to pass by the Chesapeake Bay, where Rachel is moored, the day after Tony arrives. We're in a quandary, glued to the Weather Channel, watching Irene's progress and hoping she'll turn out into the Atlantic, giving us a miss.

No such luck. On Thursday afternoon the models still show her tracking close and we make the decision to drive up and have her hauled. We need to change a through hull fitting anyway, so we'll be killing two birds with one stone. Charlotte graciously offers to loan us her car and we leave Radford at 2:30 Friday morning and make the 6 hour drive back to Oak Harbor Marina. There we strip all the sails and canvas off, stow everything that could get blown away in a hurricane and get Rachel up on land where hopefully she'll be safe and sound.

Then it's off to the airport to pick up Tony. He gets to spend his first night on Rachel on land, climbing up and down the ladder, experiencing all the “fun” that comes with living on the hard. The next morning the hurricane is supposed to hit the lower bay, working it's way north. Rachel's as safe as she's going to be, so we pile into the car and head back south to Radford. This is a tough decision for us – we really want to stay and make sure Rachel is OK, but Tony is only here for a week and we don't want to ruin his holiday!!

As it turns out Baltimore area only got winds in the 45-60 mph range and Rachel was pretty sheltered behind trees so she only saw 30-45 knots of wind and no damage was incurred. Our friends who remained at the boat yard kept a close eye on her for us. We spent four more lovely days in Radford with the family and then traveled back up to Baltimore on the train. The plan was to take Tony out on Rachel for a couple of days before he returned to England.

Mark was able to change the though hull fitting the day we arrived back on Rachel and the boat yard was able get her back in the water early the next morning. We spent the rest of the morning getting her partially back together and left the dock at noon. We had a wonderful day sail in the Bay and spent the night anchored out, giving Tony a small taste of our cruising life. The following morning we gave him a ride to the airport and he's been whisked away back to England while we slowly get Rachel back to herself. Phew what a week!!

...and guess what? Now hurricane Katia is working her way across the Atlantic and may well hit the US near us at the end of this week. Sigh.

Stay tuned,

Mark & Julie

Time passes....

2011-08-23T10:26:00.045-04:00

Location: Check, Floyd County, Virginia, USA

WAAAAAHHHH!!!! AAHuuh AAHuh AAhuuh AAHuuh!! WAAAAahhhh---.... uurp!

Babies. They're loud and wonderful and beautiful. And they're porous - they leak from everywhere. But he's so handsome and precious.

We're up in the mountains of Southwest Virginia visiting Mark's son Jeseph and his family, Emilee and baby Baylen. Emilee has left us to watch Baylen while she goes to the library to do some work. Baylen and Oma (Julie) are out on a quilt in the yard. Baylen's belly is full and he's sound asleep and Oma is happily reading Hemingway's “The Old Man and the Sea” for the first time. B'da (Mark, pronounced “BUH-dah”) is enjoying the cool quiet, the sounds of the countryside, and the slow coming and going of sun and cloud. He is also taking various random detours down memory lane from when he used to live in this area. Remembering living here with his family – Jeseph, his older brother Zac, and their mother; revisiting old regrets, some gentle and slow, some knife-sharp; tender moments with family and friends; wild and happy times making music, working, playing softball and volleyball, and just plain general carousal. All three of us are about as content and happy as it is possible to be.

Let's rewind to a couple of weeks ago...

Our oldest grandchild Alex comes up to visit us for a week on Rachel. He's 9 ½ years old and loves being on the boat with us. He's been going out on boats with us since he was a baby and always seems to enjoy his time aboard with Oma and B'da. We sail over to the Chester River and spend several days gunkholing, swimming, and exploring in the dinghy. Then it's time to head back to the dock so we can close up Rachel and go visit our three other grandchildren for 2½ weeks.

Time passes....

We decide to take the train from Baltimore, Md to Lynchburg, Va where Charlotte will pick us up. A friend drops us off at the train station about 10 minutes ahead of schedule and we get on the train. It's so much nicer than flying! No security checks, no arriving an hour or two before your scheduled departure time – it's actually quite pleasant. The conductor helps us find four facing seats so we can sit together and we're off. After the stop in Washington, DC we find a table in the cafe car and play games for much of the rest of the trip. The cafe car is closed about an hour before our arrival in Lynchburg and we return to regular seats where we read quietly until we arrive. As always, Alex is a great traveling companion!

“Look! There's Mommy!!” he cries as we prepare to disembark. Sure enough Charlotte's standing on the platform scanning the passengers as they exit the train, her head turning left, then right, like she's watching a tennis match from center court. We step down, she spots us, and there's a flurry of hugs, kisses, and “I'm so happy you're here!”s.

After a two hour drive we arrive at Charlotte's house in Radford, Va at 9pm. Alex is too excited about going home to fall asleep during the drive, although we doubt Emma, our 3 yr old granddaughter will still be up. Boy, are we wrong! We open the door and hear gleeful cries and are nearly bowled over as she runs to greet us - especially Alex, whom she has missed terribly for the past week. Kelly ushers us inside, welcomes us in his usual generous and genial fashion, and we settle in for a week of visiting, catching up, and playing with Alex and Emma.

Time passes....

We borrow a car from friends and drive up into the beautiful mountains to Floyd County, where Mark lived for 15 years, and his son Jeseph spent his first 6 years. Last fall Jeseph decided to return to his roots and bring his daughter, Tigerlily, and lovely, pregnant lady Emilee with him. Baby Baylen was born a month ago and this is the first time we've met both him and Emilee! Unfortunately, Tigerlily is away, visiting her Mom in Hawaii. We're really going to miss seeing her this visit. We discuss getting together with her somewhere on our way south later this fall with Jeseph, who'd also like to get in a couple of days of surfing.

Back to the present...

Little Baylen's tummy and bum are making lots of funny noises. Poor thing seems to be most comfortable lying face down on an arm, walking and gently bouncing around the garden looking at things and feeling the cool breeze. He especially seems to like having a running commentary on where we're going and what we're seeing. So Oma, B'da, and Baylen are playing tag-team, taking turns walking around, bouncing, talking, singing, Khronicling, making lunch, tidying up, and generally enjoying this precious, precious time together.

Missing large portions of our grandchildren's lives as they grow up is probably the most difficult part of our cruising lifestyle. As we age and they continue to change so quickly it's getting harder and harder to leave them and head out again. Their laughter, smiles, joys, and sorrows tug at our heart strings. They are such wonderful little people.

Time passes....

Mark & Julie

s/v Rachel

Log Canoes

2011-07-30T15:20:00.004-04:00

Position: N 29 08.735 W 076 30.882
Location: Pasadena, MD, USA

We finally got off the dock for a weekend and decided to go watch the log canoe races at St. Michaels, Maryland, about 35 miles away.

As usual, we had wind on the nose. And when we made the turn from West to Southwest, the wind followed us. We had a motor boat ride in light wind the whole way, arriving at anchor just before dark. But it was so nice to be back at anchor, we hardly minded.

The log canoe races were great! We'd never seen them before and were impressed. We understand that around the turn of the century, log canoes were the “pickup trucks” of the Chesapeake Bay. Captains would race each other back to port, purportedly because the first one in got the best price for their catch. Over time more sail was added. This required boards set to windward for the crew to counteract the heel caused by the sails. Now the boats carry more canvas than any other boat their size we've seen! Luckily for us the wind was light, allowing us to follow the boats around the course in our dinghy. We had a great time. Here's a link for more info on the log canoes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Log_canoe

Unfortunately on our way back on Sunday afternoon we had a bit of a “holy shit!!!” moment at Kent Narrows ridge. This is a narrow opening bridge which usually has quite a bit of current going through it but it saves a good 2-4 hours off the return trip. We usually try to time our passage for slack tide. We didn't want to get back too late, however, so we cut the corner on the tide by a couple of hours. At that time, we had about 3-4 knots of following current. This was exacerbated by the 15-25 knots of wind from behind us that was being kicked up by a nearby thunderstorm.

We were about 10 minutes early for the opening, so we turned into the wind and current and were able to hold our position using the throttle. The bridge finally opened and all the power boats that were in front of us went through, we got turned around and were making about 8 knots at idle speed as we approached the bridge.

For those of you who don't know, the marine “rules of the road” dictate that vessels going with the current have the right of way over those going against the current, especially at bridge openings. This being the case we we weren't too worried about oncoming traffic. All the same, Mark got on the radio and let all the opposing traffic know they should hold their positions because we and another sailboat were coming.

As we made the final turn to head through the bridge we saw a BIG fishing boat heading into the opening from the other side. And there's only room for one boat at a time! There was no way we could stop with the current behind us. The fishing boat slammed into reverse and did start to back up but he also “walked” a little to the side – our side. Julie braced herself to hit, she was sure there was no way to avoid it. Mark was at the helm and with quick thinking, full throttle, a bit of luck, and masterful maneuvering managed to squeeze between the fishing boat and the bridge with about a foot to spare on either side – and without catching the mast or rigging on the bridge before the hole closed.

Phew. It was the closest we've ever come to losing Rachel. The bridge tender was yelling at the fishing boat captain to turn on his radio and pay attention!! We were just shaking. Mark didn't even try to call the other captain to give him a piece of his mind, he was so shaken up. After the adrenaline wore off we agreed that we were just happy that neither us nor Rachel got damaged.

To get a feel for what it was like, take a look at this short video we found on the Internet. Imagine a boat nearly as wide as the bridge opening coming at you as you enter the bridge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItE_waN121w&feature=related – yikes!

Needless to say we'll not be trying Kent Narrows at other than slack tide again.

After that, the wind lightened up a bit and we had a wonderful beam reach back to the marina. All in all, a lovely end to a lovely (albeit a bit too exciting at times) weekend.

Mark & Julie

Afloat Again

2011-06-30T15:04:00.001-04:00

Position: N 29 08.735 W 076 30.882
Location: Pasadena, MD, USA

After 24 days of living on Rachel while she was on dry land we're finally back in the water. Wolohoo!! No more climbing down the ladder to use the head in the middle of the night! No more dust, sand, and grit everywhere!

Rachel's bottom is all clean and freshly painted with (hopefully!!) enough bottom paint to last a couple of years. We cleaned and inspected all the underwater fittings, replaced a couple of thru-hulls, raised the water line (due to all the 'stuff' we have on the boat), and waxed and polished all the topsides paint (much easier to get at with scaffolding rather than from the dinghy). She's looking all sparkly ready for the 4th of July.

Now we need to spend some time cleaning out the inside of the boat, get rid of stuff we're not using and do more boat jobs. Julie is working in the marina office and picking up some canvas sewing jobs while Mark is working on the boat. We're hoping to also get to do a little fun stuff like cruising on the Bay while we are here too. We haven't done much exploring up at this end of the Bay so now's our chance.

Happy July 4th

Mark & Julie

Back on the Bay

2011-06-03T17:37:00.001-04:00

Position: N 29 08.735 W 076 30.882
Location: Pasadena, MD, USA

Only 46 days and 1942 miles since we left Panama and we're back in our old stomping grounds, the Chesapeake Bay. We had a great trip up the east coast stopping in Isle of Palms, SC, Beaufort, NC, Deltaville, VA, and Annapolis, MD to visit friends for a few days each. This really helped to break up the trip and gave the crew some R & R time. It is always great to catch up with old friends – it always feels like we've never been apart. Now we need to do some inland trips to visit family.

Rachel is currently hauled out and we are giving her bottom some much-needed attention. Living “on the hard” is, as always, annoying. We have to climb up and down a step ladder to get on and off the boat, deal with sand and dust constantly, and the boat just doesn't move right . We're looking forward to getting back in the water.

Our current plan is to spend the summer here working in the area to put some of the money we're spending back in the “cruising kitty”, working on the boat, and visiting family.

More as it unfolds.

Fair winds.

Florida is a REALLY long state

2011-05-12T07:47:00.002-04:00

Location: Cumberland Island, Georgia
Position: N 30 43.009 W 081 18.184

We just spent 3 days and 3 nights traveling 483 miles along the coast of Florida. The passage was not one of our best but we got a lot of miles under our belt. The winds were fairly light and not strong enough to sail most of the time, other times they were dead on the nose and we still had to motor into them. The good thing is we are now at one of our all-time favorite spots - Cumberland Island. GA. We've spent the last couple of days walking the beaches and through the live oak forests. Great after being on the boat for so many days.

On our way into Cumberland Island a huge submarine passed us on it's way to the base upriver

Today we are leaving again for an overnight passage to Charleston, SC

Culture Shock

2011-05-01T12:15:00.007-04:00

Position: N 24 34.175 W 081 48.206
Location: Key West, Florida, USA

After crunching some numbers here are some interesting facts about our trip north:

Total miles traveled: 1,157 nautical miles (1,331 standard miles)
Total travel time: 7 days 20 hours
Average speed: 6.1 knots (7 standard miles per hour)

We feel compelled to give a huge thank you to our wind vane 'Helga'. She's been on the boat for almost three years now and we haven't really used her that much, but this trip was so long we decided to take the time to get to know her better. On the first day we learned the wonders of wind vane sailing. Not to get too technical, it's a self-steering system which uses the wind to steer the boat. No electricity, no battery power, no fuel...only wind. You set a paddle to point into the wind, adjust the sails so they are set perfectly (this is the hard part), then engage the lock to Rachel's steering wheel. That's it! Now sit back and watch Helga do her magic - silently and using no electricity!! She steered the boat almost the entire way back - we love her.

Why is she called Helga, you might ask? Well!! Our wind generator in called Wendy (windy), our electric auto pilot is called Otto (auto). As the wind vane was a close relative of Otto she also needed a Germanic name. After a few days of discussion underway, and with not much else to do, we decided on Helga, because she's a 'hell of a gal'. Can't help it if we're not all that creative...

We are finally getting caught up on our sleep and are starting to feel like our old selves again. Except that we're in Key West. Key West is a wild and crazy place, at the best of times, but after spending months in Central America and our most recent time in remote Kuna Yala, we are having culture and sensory shock. So many shops where we can buy anything, and we mean ANYTHING in Key West. So many people. So much noise. We've probably spent as much money in a week as we spent in Panama in 3 months - Yikes!!

Since we've been here we've seen a battle for the independence of the Conch Republic that involved among others biplanes, schooners, a Coast Guard fire boat. It was quite impressive.

Then yesterday we got to see the bed races. Yep. That's right. They shut down 6 or 7 blocks of Duval St. (one of the main streets in town) for a few hours and have a "parade of beds" and "bed races". Different groups (and we mean "different"!!) dress up and push a "bed" on wheels up the street in a parade, then race back against the clock. Hilarity and mayhem were the order of the day.

We're looking for a weather window to head East to Miami, then to points further north. It looks like next Wednesday will be the earliest we can leave, given the easterly winds we're expecting to have through next Tuesday.

It feels good to be back and we're looking forward to seeing all of you soon.

Fair winds.

Land Ho!

2011-04-28T10:41:00.003-04:00

Date: April 28, 2011
Position: N 24 34.175 W 081 48.206
Location: Key West, Florida, USA

Our last 2 days have been busy and tiring. We slogged along the north coast of Cuba for a day and 2 nights, into the wind, which is never fun. However, there were times of reprieve when the winds died down and made the ride a little more comfortable. Our plan was to head for Miami ahead of some bad weather this weekend, but after checking the weather this morning we saw the wind was expected to shift more easterly. This meant 2 more days of close hauled sailing into the wind and waves. Suddenly Key West was looking much more attractive!!

We turned Rachel toward Key West and immediately she rode the waves better, sailed faster and more easily, and we all felt much happier.

About 50 miles off Key West we got a call on the VHF radio from the Coast Guard. They asked for basic information about the boat and told us to stand by. About 5 minutes later they call back and say they'll be sending a boarding party to do a 'safety check'.

US Coast Guard cutter

A pretty good sized Coast Guard cutter suddenly comes into view, they lift a big inflatable into the water off the side deck, 4 officers get into it and they head toward Rachel. While we are still sailing 3 of them jumped aboard Rachel to do our safety check. Everything went really well, they were very professional but friendly and after about 30 minutes they were on their way. We told them it was so nice to talk to someone other than each other and they got a chuckle out of that!! Apparently the Coast Guard cutter had been 300 yards off our boat while we were sailing along the Cuban coast last night, we had never seen them (even using our radar!!), and neither did Osprey, our travel companions.

30 miles from Key West a pod of dolphins came to play with us. About 15 of them swam in front of the boat doing tricks and leaping out of the water. What a lovely welcome back!!

20 miles from Key West we started seeing a lot of port traffic and hearing LOTS of chatter on the radio. All vessels with a VHF radio are required to monitor channel 16. Unfortunately, there is so much yakking on that channel that we looked at each wondering why we came back. We couldn't even have a conversation with each other without interruption. The constant chatter really got on our "last nerve". We'll take a dolphin welcome, any day!!

Despite the constant interruptions we managed to communicate with each other and slowly work our way into Key West harbor in the dark. We anchored at 9:30 pm and are safe and well. Tomorrow we have to figure out how to check in to the US here. Until then it's a good nights sleep for Rachel's crew. And we get to sleep at the same time for the first time in 10 days!

It's good to be back. Good Night

More plan changes

2011-04-25T12:53:00.001-04:00

Position: N 20 13.427 W 85 58.843
Location: Heading for the Yucatan Channel

Yesterday was an uneventful day except the seas were rolly and not too comfortable. In the evening Julie was sitting in the cockpit on night watch looking up at the stars when she felt a flutter near her cheek. She turned on the flashlight and there was a dove sitting on the cockpit floor. We were 120 miles from land to the west and northwest, poor thing must be tired she thought. Not too happy about it pooping all over, she shooed it to the stern of the boat and it fluttered again landing underneath our solar panel. There it sat for most of the night and when we looked this morning it was gone!!

After downloading the weather this morning and talking to our weather guy we, along with Osprey, have decided to keep on going, heading to the Dry Tortugas off the Florida Keys (or perhaps further), if the weather holds. Our other 2 friends kept on going to Isla Mujeres so now we are a fleet of two!

Stay tuned.

Cayos Cajones

2011-04-22T16:30:00.002-04:00

Position: N 17 54.573 W 84 38.792
Location: Caribbean Sea

Well we just spent 1 1/2 lovely days at the Hobbies Cays (Cayos Cajones), tiny islands sitting behind a reef in the middle of nowhere. The small island next to which we were anchored had 2 young Honduran guys living on it. They said they were there for a month and as far as we could gather they were caretakers and guards for the hundreds of lobster pots piled all over the island. One of them, Federico, paddled out to our boat and asked if we had cigarettes and we had a nice chat in our pidgin Spanish.

The snorkeling and fishing around the reefs here is reportedly amazing, that's the main reason people stop here. We did manage a snorkel yesterday which was awesome and yesterday afternoon had a happy hour gathering on a tiny beach island by the reef, surprisingly there were 7 boats anchored here.

Baracuda caught on our way into the anchorage

Saturday, April 23, 2011

After listening to yesterday's forecast we all decided it was time to head further north before some stronger winds settle in on Tuesday, so this morning we hauled anchor at 06:15 and continued our journey to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. So far it's a bit rolly but the sun is shining and the fishing line is out. Today is our 4th anniversary living aboard Rachel, it keeps getting better. As the sun set we sat in the cockpit eating a special dinner with sparkling water!! We were rolling still pretty badly but the rolling allowed us to see 2 green flashes one after the other as Rachel rolled gunwale to gunwale. Good AND Bad
A quiet night, we saw no ship traffic.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

The four boats who set out together from the Hobbies for Isla Mujeres (Osprey, Tashmoo, Mentor, and Rachel) all seem to be fairly well matched - we're all still within about 8 miles of each other, making it possible to have nice chats on the VHF radio during night watches. It's nice to hear friend's voices during those dark hours. It's been very rolly with light winds and big waves - not one of our favorite 24 hours of passage making, that's for sure. Everyone has had trouble sleeping. We're hoping to get things a bit more stable during the day today and see if we can catch up on some sleep.
Adendum - since writing this the other 3 boats have sprinted ahead of us, we're still in VHF range with 2 of them though

Change of plans (go figure...)

2011-04-22T07:44:00.000-04:00

Location: Cayos Cajones, Honduras
Position: N 16 01.837 W 083 06.199

Wow! Talk about on the edge of nowhere! The Hobbies Cays (Cayos Cajones) is on the edge of nowhere!! Really! It's probably the most remote place we've ever been. We're sitting here looking out at the Caribbean Sea with nothing between us and all those waves but the reefs that surround these small, low cays. It's amazing.

Oh. We guess we should tell you that this morning we decided at the last minute to stop at the Hobbies to wait our some less-than-excellent weather that was expected over the next few days up near Isla Mujeres. Our friends on Osprey and Tashmoo, whom we are traveling with, stopped also. Funnily enough there are 3 other boats already here and we already know 2 of them from Honduras! Small world eh? We've heard there's great snorkeling here so that's what we'll be doing for the next couple of days.

It's amazing. We came in here at around 3pm today. It happened to be only a few miles out of our way, anyway - what could be better? When we dropped the anchor we were amazed to find an absolutely flat, calm, yet breezy anchorage on the edge of the shelf that extends all the way out here from Honduras. This after bouncing around for almost 4 days getting here! We're sitting here with only the barrier reef between us and the Atlantic Ocean and it's FLAT! This is so cool!

On the way here we hooked a 4' mahi mahi, but it got away as we were bringing it alongside the boat. DANG!! Images of delicious fish dinners reluctantly begin to fade ..

Then, just as we were turning in and had to haul in the fishing line, we hooked a 30" barracuda! Talk about teeth..man, these things are toothy! We'd never eaten barracuda before, but on the advice of friends anchored here decided to try it. WOW! It's delicious - a nice white meat without the fishy taste other fish sometimes have. We had a wonderful dinner and are now ready for some well deserved rest & relaxation. A glass of wine and a rum drink, sitting out on deck, just soaking it all in...

Wow. So. Awesome. We're taking an unexpected, albeit welcome "pit stop" on our way north. Sometimes the best things just sort of "happen". What a cool life we have!

All our best,

Mark & Julie

San Blas to Isla Mujeres - Day 3

2011-04-21T09:35:00.000-04:00

Position: N 15 34.252 W 082 36.641

We've had a great day 3 and got another 142 miles under our belts. We're currently 40 miles south of the Hobbies (Cayos Cojones), off the coast of Nicaragua - about half way through our trip to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. We had sun all day, winds on the beam at 8 to 10 knots, sailed almost all day, and only saw maybe one boat ALL day.

We're finally getting caught up on our sleep and starting to feel human again. It always seems to take until the second or third day for us to get acclimated to a passage. Not much happened during the day except for the 20 or so dolphins that came to play in our bow wake. As usual Julie ran up to the bow and spent a good 15 minutes watching them jump and play before they peeled off to play somewhere else. We had a lovely dinner in the cockpit, watched the sun disappear below the horizon, and were treated to a small green flash. The perfect end to a perfect day.

During the night we dodged a few squalls and enjoyed playing 'identify the cloud creatures' with the big black clouds in front of the majestic moon. "This one's a dragon with a lady on it's back." "That one is a man with a pointy nose and a big chin!"

We have to entertain ourselves as best we can!

Mark & Julie

Under way

2011-04-20T10:13:00.000-04:00

Location: Just East of Providencia, a Columbian island off the coast of Nicaragua
Position: N 13 39.624 W 81 14.394

We're starting day three of our passage. We've just got the weather from our SSB radio weather guy, have downloaded the latest GRIB (wind and wave forecast model) files, and it looks like we'll have great weather to make Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

Our first day we had winds on the nose and boisterous seas, 5 - 8 feet, causing us to be a little uncomfortable. But we made good progress and after the first 60 or so miles, we were on a nice, fast close reach.

Our first night we got to see the Big Dipper pointing at Polaris, the North Star, off our bow, the Southern Cross off our stern, and a full moon above us. A fantastic display of three of our favorite stellar bodies. While we are sad to be leaving one of our favorite cruising grounds, and happy to be on our way back to family and friends in the US, we are also excited - this will be our longest passage to date on Rachel.

We've seen lots of big ship traffic heading toward and away from the Panama Canal, making watch keeping a bit exciting at times. The wind shifted a little more east and the seas died down to only 3-6 feet making us more comfortable. We made 140 miles in our first 24 hours, good for us.

The winds and seas held through our 2nd day, this is always the hardest day as we could both use a bit more sleep, but sleep is coming easier as we get into the rhythms of making passage. The ship traffic was less today, lovely sunny skies and we saw 3 dolphins.

Through the night we again had great starlit sky and the full moon, just past, rose at 8:30 pm to help us through the night. We got more sleep so we're feeling a bit more human and the seas have died down to 3-5 ft. We made another 150 miles today, awesome.

All is well as we start on Day 3, we're happy and healthy, and are just passing Providencia, feeling nostalgic for the times we spent there over Christmas. Rachel is cranking along on a beam reach at over 6 knots in light winds. It doesn't get much better than this. The constant movement, the rush of Rachel's movement through the waves, the wind in the cockpit, the sounds of friends on the radios all begin to keep us awake less and less as we acclimate to being on passage.

Oops - it's 7:44 in the morning! Time for bed for one of us!

Adios San Blas!!

2011-04-17T09:48:00.000-04:00

Position: N 09 32.786 W 078 53.731
Location: West Lemmon Cays, San Blas, Panama

After 3 wonderful months in the San Blas the time has come for us to say “adios” and head back to the US. The weather looks good for a departure tomorrow (Monday, April 18th), so unless something changes we'll clear out in the morning and start our voyage North.

We've really enjoyed our stay here and are a bit reluctant to leave. We'll miss this beautiful place and our wonderful friends, but it'll be nice to get back to our friends and family in the good ol' US of A, too. How strange it will seem to not need to speak Spanish while shopping...

We've spent the last few weeks exploring places we had not yet seen and saying goodbye to friends before we will leave here. We realize how much we would like to return at some point, as there are still hundreds more scenic spots that will just have to wait.

We are hoping to make pretty fast progress. As long as the weather cooperates we'll try to keep on moving. Three or four other boats will be leaving with us. Even though we probably won't be able to keep up with them, it'll be nice to be in radio range and have someone to chat with during those long night watches.

We'll be sending daily position reports so check the 'Where is Rachel now' link on the blog as it will be updated daily. We'll also try to get out a few short Khronicle posting to the blog along the way, too.

Hasta la vista.

Seahorse Quest

2011-04-02T10:14:00.001-04:00

Date: March 26, 2011
Position: N 09 28.778 W 078 38.103
Location: Green Island, San Blas, Panama

We've just spent 2 glorious days snorkeling on the reef here in Green Island. The wind and seas have been down making the water crystal clear. The low wind and waves also allowed us to get around to the ocean side of the reef just north of the island. We had 2, 2 hour snorkels and the fish were abundant. We saw hundreds of fish including: a spotted eagle ray gracefully flowing by; a big turtle foraging on sea grass 10 feet below the surface; trumpetfish; cowfish; indigo hamlets; 3 varieties of angelfish; porcupinefish; trunkfish; and a 6 ft nurse shark. We've never seen so many fish in such a short amount of time, although we're still on a quest to find seahorses. What a great couple of days!

Paradise

2011-03-24T07:49:00.003-04:00

Date: March 17, 2011
Position: N 09 35.059 W 078 41.092
Location: Naguarchirdup, Lemmon Cays, San Blas, Panama

We have traveled almost 14,000 miles on Rachel and have finally made it to paradise. The San Blas , Kuna Yala to the locals - is the one of the most amazing places we have been to date. There are over 300 islands in this archipelago. Some are just a spit of sand with a palm tree or two, while others are almost half a mile long. And then there are the other hundreds that are in between. All are beautiful with swaying palm trees, white sand, warm breezes, and lots of beach treasures, a beach comber's paradise.

A beautiful island

One more beautiful island

Another island - are these getting boring?

OK maybe just one more lovely island

Most of the time we get to sail in clear blue waters behind coral reefs which means great wind for sailing without big ocean waves. With winds between 10 and 15 knots for the most part, it's not hard work, and everything is close enough together that we don't have to be in a hurry , we've been sailing a lot down here. After a few hours underway we pick a spot to anchor, sometimes amid a cluster of other boats, but more often away from the pack on our own. Some nights we are the only boat in the anchorage with our own private little island to explore. Nights have been mostly clear with millions of stars above, a sailor's paradise.

The waters between the islands usually run from 50 to 150 feet deep and are a beautiful dark blue. As we approach the islands the depth can go from 100 feet to 10 feet in an instant, requiring us to be alert and have good light so we can see the reefs and sand bars. We nuzzle up to a beach or sand bar, drop the anchor, and drift back into maybe 60 feet of water. This was a bit disconcerting at first but after a week or so we got used to it. Now Rachel is just a few hundred feet from the beach allowing us to easily swim ashore and walk around the islands. Sometimes we have to anchor a little further out but it's still easy to dinghy in, explore, and cool off with a relaxing dip in the water. Each island and chain of islands is surrounded by coral reefs, and also quite a lot of shipwrecks. This means exploring fish and coral heads to your hearts content, a swimmer's, snorkeler's, and diver's paradise.

Dinghy trip into the jungle up the Rio Diablo with our visiting friends Shep and Deb

Many of the islands have one or two Kuna families living on them. They seem to rotate families on the islands, all seeming to come from villages on the mainland. We're not sure if this is work related, collecting coconuts, retaining ownership by habitation, or vacation for them. Whatever it is, they seem happy to be out here. At any rate, we're in the third world for sure - the Kuna live in dirt floor huts made from bamboo and palm fronds, and have very few possessions. Hammocks to sleep in, cooking and eating utensils, a few clothes, a machete, and usually a dugout canoe, called an ulu with paddles carved from boards and a sailing rig. Some very well-to-do Kunas have outboard motors for their ulus. So far we have found the Kuna to be honest, gentle, happy, and open, an anthropologist's paradise.

Isla Gerti, a very traditional island

Kuna settlement on Canbombia displaying molas for sale

Another Kuna settlement on Canbombia

Kuna settlement on the island of Tiadup

An old man carving a nuchu, a good luck statue displayed in many kuna huts

The standard mode of transportation in Kuna Yala is the ulu or dugout canoe. Sometimes they are paddled and sometimes they have homemade sails, often patchworked with any fabric they come across.

The men go out fishing every day and will often come around the cruising boats every afternoon selling their catch. Looking out from the boat we see them standing in their ulu wearing only underwear (their version of swimming shorts) with big grins on their faces, holding up a crab or lobster or fish, as if to say 'Look what I caught!'. We usually troll a fishing line when we move around so if we haven't managed to catch a fish we gladly buy from the locals at very reasonable prices - a seafood lover's paradise.

The women tend to stay on shore. They cook fish, bake bread, make molas, and bead. (Note: Google 'Kuna Yala mola' to learn more about molas). Whenever we go ashore on an island that's inhabited we politely ask permission to walk around. Permission is always granted. As the women see us approaching they scurry to get their bucket full of molas and arrange them for us to see. Julie had one of the women make her a beaded anklet, made to measure. It's one long string of beads that they wrap around and around and the beads line up to make a kuna design. Most of the local kuna women wear molas and sport these beads around their arms and legs. The molas and beads also make great gifts, a shopper's paradise.

Julie with Venancio 'Master Mola Maker'

Mola makers will paddle up to the boat and without a lot of encouragement they are on board showing their molas

Julie and our visiting friend Deb shopping for molas

The children sometimes get to go out fishing with the men or go out with women paddling an ulu around the cruising boats to sell molas or bread or they just play on the islands and in the water always laughing and enjoying life. Wherever we go the children appear around us smiling and saying "Hola!" (pronounced OH-la - Spanish for hello), and laughing and grinning when we say "Hola!" back to them. They almost always ask our names and will repeat them several times, we do the same with them. Sometimes we learn Kuna words from them like 'morbep' and teach them that it's 'conch' in English. Being so far from our grandchildren, we always enjoy spending time with the kids, a grandparent's paradise.

Some little boys on Canbombia 'helping' to sell molas

Anyway, it's time for us to get back to doing whatever it is we do. Today's a bit breezy so the wind generator is cranking out the amps. Thanks to the wind generator, the water maker is running, producing gallons of clear, fresh water from the sea without using any fuel. So it looks like we may get some reading done today. After lunch we just may take a nap. Or we might go snorkeling. 'Time and tide wait for no man' - no need for us to wait, we hardly ever know the time or the tide - the tide always seems to be less than a foot, anyway. You can tell we're really enjoying ourselves by this snippet of conversation from earlier this morning:

Julie: "What day is it today?"
Mark: "I dunno, maybe Wednesday or Thursday?"
Julie: "I'll turn on the computer. Oh! It's Thursday March 17th."
Julie, looking at the calendar: "Oh, it's St Patrick's Day"
Mark: "Happy St. Patrick's Day, sweetheart!"

Happy St. Patrick's Day from paradise,

Isla Tigre

2011-03-03T07:04:00.001-05:00

Position: N 09 35.059 W 078 41.092
Location: Isla Tigre, Kuna Yala, Panama

The local indigenous people call themselves the Kuna. Their name for the San Blas Islands is Kuna Yala. Kuna Yala, while a part of Panama, is ruled independently by the Kuna general congresso. Recognized as an official reserve in 1938, Kuna Yala was granted full administrative and judicial autonomy in 1953.

No Kuna is allowed to marry a non-Kuna. If they do, they are expelled from Kuna Yala. While ensuring cultural integrity, it has also generated some genetic issues including albinos. They are a matrilineal society, the women control the money and the husband moves in with the wife and her family. Often, a woman will choose her husband rather than vice-versa.

Isla Tigre (pronounced EES-la TEE-gray) is an island, in Kuna Yala, a few miles off the Panamanian coast. On February 26, 1925, they, along with 6 other islands, rebelled against the Panamanian government. We are visiting the island to view and participate in their annual rebellion re-enactment and festival.

The first act takes place in the congresso (or town hall) with the Sailas (chiefs) swinging in their hammocks and chanting and the Argar (interpreter) translating the wisdom and putting it into perspective for the people who sit on hard wooden benches. Before the reenactment begins, we are given a brief history in English. In brief it goes like this:

The Kuna were happy living their traditional lives on Isla Tigre. One day a Panamanian school teacher approached them to ask about starting a school on the island. The sailas (chiefs) declined permission and the teacher was asked to leave. Some time later he returned with several Panamanian police. Using force, they imposed their will upon the people. They began a program to stamp out Kuna traditions that form the very heart of the people. Many traditions were outlawed and the participants were beaten and put in jail. They forced Kuna women to dance with them, this angered the men. They forced the children to go to their school.

The police celebrated carnival on February 25th. The rebellion was scheduled for the 25th because the police would be drunk making them easier to attack. During the rebellion two men were killed. One was a Panamanian police officer and one was a Kuna police officer who was viewed as having betrayed his people. After the rebellion the Panamanian government mounted a military campaign, and only intervention by the US Navy prevented bloody retaliation.

As the narration continues, the congresso slowly fills. The sailas lie in their hammocks, singing and greeting the people who arrive in ones and twos. Everyone is happy. Everyone is wearing traditional clothes. Then the school teacher arrives. There is discord in the congresso. The school teacher leaves, then returns with the police who start pushing people around and beating them. That's the end of act one. We are told there will be an intermission before the start of act two.

We go outside to the square. Several men in traditional dress begin to play a tune on bamboo pipes similar to Peruvian pipe music. The musicians and some women, also in traditional dress and playing calabash gourd rattles - begin to dance. The music is haunting, beautiful, and repetitive. Surprisingly the dance reminds us a bit of a New England contra dance - not so much the steps as the patterns the dancers make as they dance. One cruiser tells us some dances follow the same patterns as the traditional molas the women wear. Several minutes later the dancers finish and leave the square, now it's time for act two.

The police are on a rampage. They grab and beat the men who are involved in Kuna traditions ? the medicine man mixing his herbs, the young man accompanying the young woman during her puberty rite, the men who are brewing chicha for the chicha ceremony, the sailas. They have truncheons made of foam rubber and beat their victims mercilessly. Some have bags of red dye they squeeze at an opportune moment, spraying ?blood? everywhere. Women try to hang onto their men, wailing and crying, but the policemen shove them away roughly and continue to beat the men, finally putting them into the jail.

It all seems a bit on the brutal side to us, but, as we look around at the rapt audience we begin to see the sense of it. Young and old alike are enthralled by the action. What better way to keep the revolution alive than to impress upon everyone present what was escaped through rebellion? The sense of shock, sadness, and anger at the oppression is palpable.

Finally act two is over and the musicians and dancers return for another intermission. This time, however, during the traditional music and dancing, young men begin ?sneaking? around the perimeter of the square. Carrying paddles, a foam axe, a pole, they begin stalking one of the policemen. Whenever he stops and turns around, they are not paying attention to him, looking elsewhere, lying down for a nap, chatting, looking innocent. He resumes his patrol and they resume stalking him.

The dancers and pipers finish and exit the square. Suddenly it's Carnival night complete with loud music and dancing! Women, including visiting cruisers are pulled out of the audience onto the dance floor by off-duty policemen. Suddenly, away from the dancing, the policeman in uniform who is on duty is attacked. Beaten to the ground, he is poked, prodded, kicked, hacked, and eventually killed. A second policeman is also attacked and brutally killed. The music and dancing stop to close out the third act. One of the sailas makes several closing remarks we don't understand and the reenactment is finished.

We thank the people for allowing us to attend and for giving us free reign to take photographs, something not normally allowed.

The people of Isla Tigre welcomed us, asked our names (and actually remembered them!), and really seemed to appreciate and enjoy our presence at their festival. They and their reenactment remain a high point in our visit to Kuna Yala.

Problems In Paradise

2011-02-05T17:48:00.001-05:00

Position: N 09 35.059 W 078 41.092
Location: Naguarchirdup, Lemmon Cays, San Blas, Panama

We've been here for two weeks now, and have really been loving it. It's a tropical paradise. The wind has been mostly North or Northeast in the 10-20 knot range. Since we're behind a barrier reef most of the time, we've been doing a lot of easy, fun sailing in relatively calm water - a sailor's dream come true!

Downwind sailing

Life here is not all fun and games, however - we have problems to deal with, too. Some examples:

After you hook that 28 inch king mackerel you not only have to land it, you also have to fillet it, skin it, and then clean up the mess!! Sheesh!
Same with the giant crabs you buy down here for $3 each. They need to be cooked and cleaned. Then you still have to actually make the crab cakes and bisques and other yummy treats.

Most nights it rains around 3 am. This means you have to reach up and close the forward hatch, or the bed gets wet. Then, as soon as you close the hatch, it quits raining.
Every couple of weeks you have to do laundry. There is no laundromat so you have to do it by hand. Since you wear so few clothes down here this usually consists of a couple of pairs of shorts, a few tee shirts, and a couple of towels. Then you have to hang it all from the rigging to dry. And don't forget to take it back down before the 3am rain!

There's no curbside trash pickup here in paradise. When the trash builds up, you take it in to a beach on one of the islands and burn it, usually in conjunction with other cruisers, also usually involving beers and swimming. The actual trash burning takes less than an hour, but the "chore" usually requires at least a few hours of your time.

We give aluminum cans to the locals for recycling. But there are no facilities around that can handle glass bottle disposal. Because of this, you're unable to simply enjoy a wonderful sail. Whenever you're in deep water you have to haul up buckets of seawater and fill any empty bottles and non-aluminum cans with it so they will sink to the bottom when you drop them over the side.

There are very few grocery stores in the San Blas, so shopping here can be a real challenge, too. You have to sit on the boat all day reading, waiting for the veggie boat to come by. Then you have to decide which vegetables, fruit, fresh chicken, eggs, wine, beer, and other stuff you want.

Local dugout canoes called "ulus" come by all the time, too, with molas, limes, bananas, pineapples, fresh fish, lobster, crab, and other delicacies like octopus. Same thing - you have to pick what you want and lift it into the boat. Then you have to pay for it!

Out of over 300 islands there are only two that have Internet access. The one we have been to is a small bar and restaurant with three network cables connected to a painfully slow satellite system for $3 / hour. Going in to use the Internet usually involves having to consume more beers while waiting for an open cable. Once you have a connection, you then have the privilege of waiting most of the first hour for your email to download. The next hour is spent waiting for the online banking pages to load. More beer required. It seems like a pretty good business model. Sorry still no pictures on the blog yet - this connection is w a y t o o s l o w f o r t h a t.

As you can imagine, we've been very busy dealing with all these problems. But no need to feel sorry for us. We've also been working hard to keep our spirits up despite them. We walk around sandy palm tree covered islands almost every day.

We snorkel on reefs full of colorful fish and coral almost every day. We do happy hours on shore or on various friend's boats nearly every night. We read, talk, and nap.

Reunion with friends from the Bahamas - Better Days and Osprey

It's a tough row to hoe, but it's working - we're still happy.

Livin' the god life.....

A little island with a big heart

2011-01-16T09:48:00.003-05:00

Date: January 10, 2011
Position: N 13 22.717 W 081 22.420
Location: Providencia, Columbia

The island of Providencia is Columbian but it's located many miles away from Columbia in the middle of the SW Caribbean Sea. The island is only 4 miles long and 2 miles wide with a population of just a few thousand all living around the waters edge. The centre of the island is full of high peaks covered in jungle greenery.

The first thing we noticed here, when we went to check in, was that there was no necessity to lock the dinghy, or anything else for that matter. Mr. Bush, the agent we used to clear in, said there is no crime on this island, "Where would they hide if they committed a crime?" He asks. Good point we're about 100 miles from Nicaragua and 45 miles from San Andres, another Columbian island to the South.

The town on Providencia

The second thing we noticed was how friendly everyone was. We were greeted by smiles and "welcome to our island" wherever we went. Even the usually surly teenage boys standing around would break off their conversation and smile and say hello. We got a warm fuzzy feeling about this place from beginning to end.

Twice a week cargo boats arrived from San Andres bringing everything the islanders need. On these days there was much hustle and bustle as food, furniture, appliances, motor bikes, anything imaginable was removed from the ship and placed on the pier. The vehicle of choice here is the motor bike/scooter. Due to the small size of the island there are never great distances to travel, the vehicles have to be shipped in and gas is expensive. We saw families of 4 all riding on one scooter (no helmets or child seats). Therefore, on supply day you will see people carrying all manner of things home on their scooters. Just as a couple of examples: we saw 10 metal re-bar rods about 15 feet long being dragged behind, a mirror or picture probably 5 feet by 7 feet being held by a girl on the back of a scooter with her arms out as wide as she could - good job it wasn't a windy day she'd have been blown off.

View of El Pico from the anchorage

We met a lovely lady here on Providencia. Luceli is a high school science teacher here on the island. She liked to hike and took us on 2 wonderful walks during our visit, one up to El Pico (The Peak) the highest place on the island, about 1,000 ft elevation. The views from there were incredible we could see all the reefs around the island and the different shades of Caribbean waters.

Luceli and her cute niece before we hiked up El Pico

Luceli also invited us to a cultural event the 29th anniversary of the
Providencia Cultural Centre. This centre promotes the musical and cultural heritage of the island. We were treated to dances by adults and children, a local traditional band playing, amongst other instruments, a washtub bass and a jaw bone(the jaw of a horse played with a bone as percussion), and 2 young boys playing french horn and a coronet. During the evening food and drinks were also passed around for us to enjoy. What a lovely evening and we were welcomed by everyone.

The hikers at the top of El Pico

This island is our first stop in the Caribbean where we've encountered the lilting Caribbean accent. Musical and wondrous. The local language is both 'English' and Spanish, seemingly used about same amount. We say 'English' because we can only pick out maybe one word out of a sentence when listening to the locals talking amongst themselves. One of our favourite pastimes was to sit on a park bench listening, trying to retrieve some English words from the conversation. We decided it wasn't so much different words but the emphasis or stress is put in a different place in the words and the sentences are structured differently. Whatever it is, we loved to listen to the lilting cadence of local conversations.

We could be an ad for Presidente beer

One day several of us cruisers rented scooters for the day and toured the island. Being only 11 miles around the perimeter we had plenty of time to meander and stop and chat with people. The highlight of the day was our lunch stop at El Divino Nino (The Divine Child), a restaurant that Luceli had recommended to us, right on the beach at Southwest Bay. The fish mixed platter was their specialty and, although a little pricey for us, $20 for a platter for 2, it was well worth it. A huge platter emerged from the kitchen displaying a whole red snapper, a hog fish, 2 lobster tails, huge butterflied grilled shrimp, crab, conch, plantain cakes, rice and salad. Wow!!!

The 'bikers' outside El Divino Nino

We managed to devour the whole thing leaving only a scattering of bone and shell and needless to say we were not hungry again until the next day. What a feast and absolutely delicious!

Spotted Eagle Ray

Impromptu Regatta.

When asked how often they have a regatta, we were told "some guys start talking trash, pretty soon there's a regatta!!"

We spent almost 3 weeks in Providencia and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. We look forward to visiting this little island with a big heart again.

San Blas

2011-01-14T09:12:00.003-05:00

Position: N 09 35.059 W 078 41.092
Location: Ogoppiriadup, East Holandes, San Blas, Panama

We leave Providencia in company with our long time sailing buddies on Diva. Diva and Rachel are almost the same length, sail at about the same speed, and both crews have a similar (relatively low) tolerance for foul weather and boisterous seas, making us good traveling companions.

Rachel sails wonderfully. We have about 20 knots on the beam and are making 6, sometimes 7 knots through the water. We are relaxed and happy. Unfortunately, we also have a pretty strong current against us for much of the trip, slowing our progress to only 4 to 5 knots toward our destination. This lengthens our planned 48 hour trip just enough that we arrive off the San Blas after sunset.

Not wanting to enter these reef-strewn waters in the dark, we opt to spend the night "noodling around" about five miles off until the morning when we'll have sufficient daylight to enter safely. The seas build a bit and the wind dies a bit, there are a few showers, a lot of cloud-to-cloud lightening, and lots of big ships heading to or from the Panama Canal, so our night involves a lot of rolling and not much sleep. But our spirits are high as we look forward to the daylight and our first sight of land.

In the morning as we approach Porvenir (where we will "clear in" to Panama), our friends on Osprey (who have already been here for almost a month) hail us on the VHF radio to tell us they're going to meet us. They offer Mark a ride to immigration and the port captain's office, so we don't even have to take our dinghy off the deck!

After clearing in Diva opts to head for the nearby West Lemmons while Osprey and Rachel haul anchor and motor-sail into the wind heading straight for the East Hollandes, about 12 miles East. We drop anchor at 3:15 in the afternoon, tidy up, have a wonderful dinner on Osprey, get to bed early, and sleep hard.

We awake in paradise. Surrounded by small islands complete with sandy beaches and palm trees, crystal clear water, and protected from the ocean swells by the barrier reef, our anchorage is stunningly beautiful. Rachel sits calm and flat while we watch 10' seas crash and spew on the reefs. All the hatches and ports are open allowing the cool air to refresh our living space. We finally made it! Cruising the San Blas Islands has been a goal of ours for several years and we're thrilled to be here.

Christmas Wishes

2010-12-25T09:31:00.001-05:00

Dear Friends and Relatives,

There are some big differences between Christmas in Providencia and Christmas in the US or UK. For one thing, there's no snow and we're walking around in shorts and t-shirts! We've also not been able to find any Christmas pageants, Christmas plays, Christmas carolers, or Christmas bell choirs - that doesn't mean there aren't any - we just haven't found them yet. Palm trees replace pine trees, loud, thumping music replaces "Silent Night", fireworks replace the lighting of the community Christmas tree, and fresh wahoo stands in for turkey or ham at Christmas dinner. And needless to say, we miss the sounds of our grandchildren opening their presents with shrieks of delight.

There are also some big similarities. The people here are SO friendly. We've been met with nothing but smiles since we've been here. One new friend offered to let the cruisers use her house for a Christmas potluck. Random "Welcome to our island"s pop up in unexpected places. We've been wished "Merry Christmas" or "Happy New Year" everywhere we've gone, and the houses are all decorated.

Our Christmas traditions on Rachel remain the same, however. A lovely, romantic dinner at home on Christmas eve (our 9th wedding anniversary this year), decorations on the mast moose (or, as we call it at this time of year, the "Christmoose tree"), presents at the base of the mast, watching "Miracle on 34th St.", "White Christmas", "It's a Wonderful Life" and other Christmas favorites snuggled together on the settee, visiting and exchanging gifts with our friends on other boats, and many other little things too numerous to mention remind us of home, family, and all of you. You have enriched our lives and for that we are truly grateful.

Wishing you all a happy, peaceful, and fulfilling Christmas.

forgot

2010-12-21T12:13:00.003-05:00

Sheesh we forgot to tell you that on our first day we had a pod of about 25 dolphins come to play with us for about 30 minutes. They were swimming around the boat, leeping into the air and twirling around, and swimming in the bow wake. As usual we ran up onto the bow sprit, which sticks out in front of the boat about 6ft above the water, and looked down on sometimes 8 dolphins of varying sizes swimming right below us. One time 2 of them flipped over onto their backs and slapped their tails as they were swimming along as they were looking up at us. They wove in and out of each other crossing the bow. It was stupendous and the best dolphin displat we've seen yet.
We took this as a sign that we were going to have a good passage, and it was so.

Wahoo? Woohoo!!

2010-12-21T12:13:00.002-05:00

Date: 21 December, 2010
Location: Providencia, Columbia
Position: W13 22.785 N081 22.398

Hello all. We had a good passage and are now anchored in Providencia, a Columbian island in the middle of the western Caribbean, actually nowhere near Columbia.

We set off from Guanaja, Honduras with light winds and motored with the main sail up for almost 100 miles. This was the trickiest part of the trip, getting around Cabo Gracias a Dios (Cape Thanks be to God) named by Christopher Columbus after it took him 30 days to get around it. The prevailing winds and current are on the nose from the East so you have to basically wait until there's a light wind and then make a beeline to get around before the wind picks back up again. Thank goodness for today's modern diesel auxiliary engines - we bet Columbus would have loved to have one <g>.

We were lucky enough to have a light north westerly breeze and were able to motor-sail to make the turn to SE by the Vivorillo Cays. Then the light wind turned north, further assisting us in getting around the Cape, another 100 mile leg.

We had glorious weather and decided to get out a brand new fishing lure as we hadn't had any luck with our old one for over a year. 20 minutes after we put it out Julie came up from down below and said 'What's that?" We looked back and thought something was caught on the line. As we pulled it in we realized what we were seeing was a huge open fishes mouth with our new lure wedged sideways inside it. Sheesh! Wish we'd taken a picture of that!

Immediately we were busy clearing out the cockpit, getting the big gloves, the gaff, and the 'fish vodka'. As we pulled it in close enough to identify, we had to scurry below to get the fish book, we couldn't tell if it was a king mackerel or a wahoo. Mark did his usual great job of gaffing and landing the monster, this time without smearing blood all over the side of the boat, much to Julie's joy. Turns out we had a 45" Wahoo - woohoo! Now for the hard part. We wrestled him into the cockpit where Julie spent some quality time filleting and skinning it. She stripped down to her underwear, not wanting all that extra stinky washing to do, and set about it. An hour and a half later we had 4 huge ziploc bags full of boneless, skinless fillets, a scrubbed and sparkly cockpit, and Julie back in her clothes now that the excitement was over. No more fishing for us this trip since we have no more room in the fridge.

The rest of this 2nd day and night was spent crossing the shallower banks. Some of the 5 other boats we were traveling with also caught fish so we were all happy. We had got too far apart to chat on the VHF radio so we set up an hourly schedule to check in on the SSB and make sure everyone was OK. Towards morning on that 2nd night we started seeing a lot of blips on our radar but no lights. We were starting to get close to the deep ocean water again and decided they must be fishing boats. As daylight came we could see 10 or so boats all within 6-8 miles. This must be a great spot for fishing. These boats probably come from Honduras and Nicaragua, both about 90 miles away, to fish these abundant waters.

After we got into the deep water again we headed SSE for a 3 day run down to Panama. The wind was almost dead behind us and it was a pretty rolly ride. We did our usual morning routine listening to the weather and checked into the Caribbean Nets on the SSB. We called into our weather guru, Chris Parker, to get an update on our weather for the trip down to the San Blas. The first 2 days were going to be great but the last day the wind was shifting to dead behind and there would be numerous squalls, 35 knot gusty winds and a lot of rain. We really wanted to get down to Panama for Christmas but we also really didn't fancy getting all that bad weather on our last day after being at sea for 4 long days. We tossed it around, anguished, pondered and made the decision to head to Providencia.

We'd heard wonderful things about this island and were planning to visit it on our way back north, whenever that may be. Well, if we're going to get stuck somewhere for Christmas this seems a good place. As a bonus, the other five boats we set off with were all planning on stopping here so.....

We had a problem, however. We were going to arrive after dark into an unknown anchorage, no sailor's choice. We chatted with a few people on the SSB net and got waypoints from some friends for getting in. Everyone we spoke with told us it's a nice, wide, easy entry. We were able to get accurate, up-to-date waypoints for getting in, the weather was benign, and the moon was full, so we decided to take the chance and go for it rather than dawdle around overnight and wait to go in during daylight. So that's what we did!! We had plenty of light and dropped the anchor in a spot, for which a friend had sent us the position, at about 10pm. Then we got the first good night's sleep we'd had in three days <yawn>.

This morning we awoke to a drizzle and pretty gusty wind so we were glad we were already in and safe. The harbour is surrounded by mountains and what looks like a quaint little town. We're looking forward to going ashore, checking in, and going exploring. That is, after we get the boat in order and eat a full English breakfast.

Then it's wahoo for lunch and wahoo for dinner for us and all our friends in the anchorage. We wish we could serve up some of Julie's famous "Traditional Olde English Christmas Grilled Wahoo" with all of you too!

Happy Holidays, best wishes, and lots of love from The Rachels,

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

2010-12-15T14:33:00.003-05:00

Position: N 16 27.257 W 085 52.254

Location: Guanaja, Bay Islands, Honduras

The Good: we are still in Guanaja waiting for weather. It's been over two weeks since we arrived in Guanaja. This island is really beautiful. It's only 3 x 11 miles but mountainous with trails and waterfalls, surrounded by stunning reefs to snorkel and dive.

A bunch of us dinghied around to Michael Rock on the other side of the island to hike up to the falls

Michael Rock falls after an hour spent scrambling up a rocky trail

We have a resident dolphin in the anchorage who spends his day visiting all the boats and playing and fishing around us. The best part is that Guanaja is practically undiscovered by the tourists. No cruise ships, no big resorts, no crowds. We were here back in April and are glad that we've had the opportunity to come back and spend more time here, discovering more of the islands natural delights.

The Bad: we are still in Guanaja waiting for weather. This is one of the most frustrating aspects of cruising for us. Every day we get up and spend a couple of hours poring over the forecasts. Our passage will take 3 to 5 days. We start out heading east for a day, turn SE for a day and then just east of south for 1 to 3 days depending on where we decide to stop. This means we need a chunk of good weather, preferably with winds and waves that aren't too big. If possible, we'd also like to arrange for the wind to shift around as we change directions. So far, we haven't had enough pull with the weather gods.

We look ahead on the forecasts for 5 days and often see an opportunity to leave but as our departure day gets closer, the forecast changes, the weather window narrows or closes, and we decide not to leave. We're all provisioned up so it's necessary to go to town every few days to top up our stores and underway treats as we use them. We can't start any major boat jobs because we may have to leave at a moments notice. Back to 'Good', however, this means we have more time to explore and have fun.

Mark playing pool with the Osprey kids, Kaeo and Birdie, at Manati, German Restaurant in El Bight while we are waiting for weather

The Ugly: we are still in Guanaja waiting for weather. Ugly is what we are hoping not to encounter. Ugly would be to leave when the weather is not 'right' and come across 30+ mph winds and 10-15 foot seas. Rachel can handle those conditions, and we can handle them, too, but we really prefer not to have to - we do our best to avoid “Ugly”. Given the weather tools available to us, our flexible schedule, and our self-imposed caution, we've managed to do pretty well so far (knock on wood). But longer than about 2-3 days out, weather forecasts can become notoriously unreliable. So we'll choose our time carefully, and after we leave we'll continue to monitor the weather as we sail. If it looks good, we hope to continue on to Panama, but we won't make that decision until we approach our “3 day” destination.

El Bight, Guanaja

Once we leave here we will probably not have Internet access so we've set up our blog so that we can email postings to it from our ham radio email. There will be no pictures but we can send our position and text to keep you updated. When we get Internet access we'll post pictures. So please check the blog to stay up to date with our adventures for the next few months. If the current opportunity doesn't close up on us, we hope to start heading East and South this coming Saturday, 18 December.

Our “3 day” destination is either Providencia (N12 20.685 W081 22.763) or San Andres (12 32.746 W081 42.896), both Colombian owned islands off the coast of Nicaragua. Our “5 day” destination is either Portobelo (N9 33.209 W079 39.255) on the Panamian coast or Porvenir (N09 33.20 W78 57.00) in the San Blas Islands. We're hoping to spend the next few months exploring the beautiful and reportedly pristine San Blas archipelago. After that, who knows? We'll keep you posted.

Oh, by the way – a cold front just passed and it was downright chilly here last night. It got down to 78, but the wind chill made it feel like 70. We know you feel sorry for us....

Decisions, decisions

2010-12-06T08:39:00.002-05:00

Date: 6 December, 2010
Position: N 16 27.257 W 085 52.254
Location: Guanaja, Bay Islands, Honduras

We left Guanaja yesterday morning in unpredicted SE winds and snotty seas. After motorslogging for 2 1/2 hours, Diva and Rachel decided to return to port, and Osprey chose to keep going. We were pretty uncomfortable, and, since the wind wasn't as predicted we also began to lose confidence in the forecast. It was a tough decision and we both have mixed feelings about it. However, it is what it is and we'll deal with it and carry on.

We've been following Osprey on the weather and cruising nets - the wind is higher than predicted, but they're doing well and should be in Providencia sometime Tuesday or Wednesday. We'll continue following their progress and are still planning to meet up with them again in Providencia or the San Blas as soon as we can get there.

In the meantime, Rachel and Diva will clear back in to Honduras today, then sit here and wait for that elusive "perfect weather window" to show up. It looks like we might get an opportunity next weekend, but that's pretty far out for a forecast, so we'll just have to wait and see. After mid-December opportunities to head east and south diminish. The easterly trades known as the "Christmas winds" settle in and can blow nearly continuously until sometime in March.

As always, we'll do our best to keep you apprised of what we're doing and where we end up as soon as we know.

We'll be in touch again soon,

Mark & Julie
s/v “Rachel”

Catching up and moving on

2010-12-04T21:49:00.003-05:00

Date: 4 December, 2010
Position: N 16 27.257 W 085 52.254
Location: Guanaja, Bay Islands, Honduras

We left Guatemala a couple of weeks ago and headed back to last spring's old stomping grounds in the Bay Islands of Honduras. Thanksgiving with friends in West End, Roatan (where we visited w/ Julie's son Dan last spring) was followed by a flurry of provisioning and edging ourselves as far East as we can get before “jumping off”.

We're finally ready to make the big leap East and South from the Bay Islands in Honduras to the San Blas Islands in Panama. If we go nonstop it should take about 5 days. The weather seems to be cooperating although it's beginningto look like the seas will be higher than we're comfortable with. We're traveling with our friends Carl & Debbie on “Diva” and Johnny, Wendy, Kaeo, and Birdie on “Osprey”.

We've shopped 'till we dropped and filled every nook and cranny on Rachel with food, toilet paper, wine, rum, and other essentials. We leave Guanaja tomorrow morning and plan to make it to the island of Providencia off the East coast of Nicaragua before we have to make the decision to continue or stop for a while because of weather or high seas.

As always, we'll do our best to keep you apprised of what we're doing and where we end up as soon as we know.

Habla Espanol?

2010-10-15T16:48:00.030-04:00

Location: San Pedro la Laguna, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala
Position: N 14 41.589 W 091 16.195

We left the Rio Dulce fairly early in the morning, it was hot, humid and we were dripping in sweat. Luckily we traveled on an air conditioned bus, which even showed a movie. We didn't watch the film though, as we were too busy looking out of the windows. The entire 5 hour trip we were going up, up, up, sometimes a gentle incline, other times steep winding roads. At 1pm we got off the bus in Guatemala City, the capital of Guatemala, there was almost a chill in the air and NO humidity. Ahhh this is why we came!!

Our first destination was Panajachel another 90 miles higher into the mountains, over the Continental Divide. Because of the enormous amount of rain this year (the most since they began keeping records in the 1940s) the road had been closed off and on for a few months due to mud slides. We were amazed at the destruction caused by these slides, not only to the road but to villages and fields all along the way. This area is rich in crops now we see why we've been enjoying such a variety of vegetables and fruit since we arrived in Guatemala. We passed miles of fields being worked by hand. Men and women in traditional Guatemala dress were scraping away a living with hand tools and carrying the produce to the road in big baskets and bundles on their heads. These bundles are then piled high waiting for trucks to come and pick them up. It's like we stepped back in time.

Firewood being delivered

Panajachel

We finally left the main Pan American highway and started to head down a narrow winding road toward Lake Atitlan. For about 20 miles we slowly descended around hairpin bends, this road also with much evidence of land slides and lane closings. We finally reach Solola, which is an old cobbled town with a magnificent old church in the centre, again almost everyone is wearing traditional dress. This town is perched 1/3 mile above Lake Atitlan with amazing views of the lake and the surrounding volcanoes. We wished we could have stopped there and wandered around but the bus continued on and another steep 5 miles later we arrived at the edge of the lake at Panajachel. The road from Solola to Panahachel has since been closed for repairs due to damage from the mudslides. Apparently large rocks kept falling down the steep banks onto the road and crushing cars and people. So they're going to excavate all the way up the mountain to try and control it.

Earlier in the year we met an older couple who have a boat at our marina in Rio Dulce and are now living most of the year in Panajachel. They had kindly invited us to stay with them for a few days.
We spent 2 days exploring, Panajachel, fondly called “Pana” by the local ex-pats,. The town is not as old as Antigua, nor as quaint as Solola but it had lots of little back streets, a great market, including amazing local flowers, and transportation by tuk-tuk for Q5 ($0.65) per person to anywhere within the town. We really enjoyed getting to know our wonderful hosts Brian and Christine better. They showed us around the town and then left us to our own devices to wander around and do as we pleased. They were gracious and interesting hosts.

Lake Atitlan is a caldera, a collapsed volcanic cone, over 1,000 feet deep and the views are spectacular. Surrounding the lake are 3 volcanoes and several towns. Transportation between towns is by lancha from the public docks. This year's “gringo price” was Q25 ($3.20) one way to any of the other towns. Because of all the rain the lake is 7 feet higher than usual so the public docks are under water, making it a challenge to get passengers on and off. The drivers stand at the waters edge shouting their destination “Santiago”, “San Pedro” etc.

Note the many baskets that the women carry on their heads being transported on the top of the lancha

The standard way to carry things here is to have a band around your forehead which changes the distribution of weight from your back

Due to the high water in Lake Atitlan the docks are having to be rebuilt. Note the ladies with baskets on their heads on the dock.

Many of the ladies and girls embroider their own clothes

We saw this old man in traditional attire every day when we walked through San Pedro, he always smiled and said Hello

We were heading to San Pedro to attend Spanish school for a week so we climbed into the correct lancha. We were the only ones on the boat so we asked the driver when we would leave. He said, “When we have 12 passengers!!” We looked at each other, shrugged and sat and waited. Actually it only took about 30 minutes to fill up and we really enjoyed watching the hustle and bustle of the dock. Women carrying baskets on their heads, men carrying cases of heavy goods on their backs with a strap around their forehead to take the weight. Mark said “Now I see why Guatemalan's are so short!”

We arranged to take one-on-one Spanish lessons and live with a family including a private room and 3 meals a day in the nearby town of San Pedro la Laguna. We really need help with our Spanish. We have learned enough to be able to ask questions but not enough to understand the answers. We weren't expecting miracles in a week but we were hoping to improve. And we were really looking forward to living with a family and learning more about what life is like here.

San Pedro is 5282 ft or 1 mile above sea level. The Rio Dulce at 289 ft elevation is only 230 miles from San Pedro. San Pedro is unofficially split into 2 sections. Down by the water are the restaurants, hotels, and shops for the tourists. By following several steep cobbled roads (they seemed almost vertical when we first arrived) you come to the town centre with market, church, schools and local businesses.

We attended the Cooperativa school which was half way up the hill.

Mark studying, good job he has his back to the view

Our school had salsa lessons one night. We were really bad, but had lots of fun.

Our teachers, Ligia and Josefa

Dinner with our family

A fun visit to the ice cream shop with Helena, the kids and their 2 cousins

Classes are conducted in gardens with little palapas, containing a table and 2 chairs, dotted around so you have privacy and serenity. We had class every morning for 5 days from 8-12. The teachers find out how much you know and what you are hoping to learn and then take off from there. We had lots of conversations dotted with grammar and really felt that we made leaps of progress during the week. Concentration was difficult though with classes overlooking these wondrous views.

The family that we stayed with lived right below the school and they were wonderful. Lorenzo and Andrea had 3 kids, Francisco, 11, Elena, 9 and Lorenzo, 4. When we weren't in class we'd wander around town, do homework and hang out with the family. We had our own room, spartan but clean and comfortable, and shared the bathroom with the family. The kids helped us with our Spanish, and we watched kids TV with them too which was really helpful. Francisco showed us how to make a kite from sticks and tissue paper, Elena showed us how to embroider a traditional belt, and 4 year old Lorenzo was wild and crazy and of course loved his big new toy – Mark!! We ate all our meals with the family and practiced our Spanish on them. They were all very patient and helpful. Julie sometimes got Andrea to let her help with the cooking.

Andrea trying to teach Julie how to make tortillas

Most people here are Mayan and speak Maya as their first language and Spanish as a second. We learned so much during our visit that we're really glad we decided to take classes here in this small remote town rather than in Antigua which is much more touristy and much less traditional.

At the end of our week we caught a bus to Antigua. This was yet another amazing ride, up and over the volcanoes with outstanding views.

Beautiful view of San Pablo and Lake Atitlan

View of the volcanoes from above San Pedro

Antigua is only 20 miles away from Guatemala City but very different from 'the City'. This old colonial town founded in 1542, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It sports cobbled streets, old buildings, and is dripping with charm. The town has a definite Spanish influence, the houses are hidden off the street in courtyards surrounded by high walls with grand old wooden gates and some of the most impressive knockers we've ever seen.

Ooops!!

We spent 4 days here wandering around the back streets, hoping to find gates open so that we could nosey in at the elaborate courtyards, looking at ruins, climbing up to the Cero de la Cruz to enjoy views of the town with Volcano Agua in the background.

View from Cero de la Cruz, Antigua

La Merced church,Antigua

Fountain in Parque Central, Antigua

Marimba band playing outside the town hall on a Sunday night

Andean pipe band playing in Parque Central

We found a couple of great cheap local places to eat and a couple of good more expensive places. Our favourite hangout was the Central Park. Here we would sit and people watch. Usually there would be music or a mime to entertain and of course the shoe shine boys and women hawking Guatemalan 'stuff'. A fountain in the centre of the park was a big attraction - topless mermaids spouting water from their breasts! Needless to say, lots of tourist photos get taken here.

Volcano Fuego spews every 10 minutes.

Mark being artistic took this picture of the menu outside . It looks like they etched out a place in the wall so it would sit correctly

Primary transportation for locals around Guatemala is the “chicken bus”.

These are retired US school buses that have been purchased and driven down here, renovated, “blinged up” and put into service transporting people around the country. There are no regulations, no inspections, and no oversight. The faster they drive, the more passengers they can carry and the better wage they can make. It's a scary sight seeing them round mountainous corners on two wheels. The coolest thing about them is all the “bling”. Most of them have been really tricked out with chrome, fancy lights, great names, decals, and colorful paint.

Here's a link to an article about “camionetas” from a local Antiguan magazine: http://revuemag.com/2010/03/the-birth-of-camioneta/.

And here's a link to as many chicken bus photos as you could ever want: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=chicken+bus&psj=1&wrapid=tlif12914091680071&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1112&bih=801&uss=1

The Long, Long, Long Way Home

2010-09-05T10:49:00.005-04:00

Location: Hotel Catamaran Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Position: N 15 40.366 W 088 59.538

“Bee bee beep! Bee bee beep!”

Dang. It's the alarm. It's 4 am and time to get up.

We've had a lovely 6 week visit with family and friends and spent some quality time hugging and playing with the grand kids. We have a big day today. Have to drive with Mark's mom from West Hartford to New Haven and catch the 6 am commuter train to Grand Central Station in NYC. We're heading back to Guatemala. With three 50 pound bags, a long tube, a collapsible hand truck, and two backpacks. Yawn. Stretch. Well, let's get crackin'!

We arrive at the station, unload Mom's car, and send her off following another car that's headed back to I-91. Load up the two soft bags onto the hand truck. Tow the wheelie suitcase. We get to the doors at Union Station and find the two bags won't fit through on the hand truck. We turn them sideways, drag them though, and Julie's off to the ticket machine.

A lady security guard points out the elevator and we take it down to the hallway to the platforms. Plural. Which one goes to NYC? It doesn't say on our ticket and there are no signs. We ask a man and he says “10”. We find the entrance to track 10 and are greeted by about 25 or 30 steps up and we can see the train is at the platform. How are we going to do this and not miss the train? A nice young man stops and offers to help. He carries one, Mark carries two and the cart, and Julie carries the backpacks and the tube. We get on the train about 30 seconds before the doors close. Whew, that was a close one.

We look at each other! It's going to be a long long trip home to Rachel!

Thankfully, the train ride is uneventful. The number of people on the train and the platforms who are texting and talking on cell phones is incredible. Virtually nobody is reading a paper or talking. We watch the starched shirts and suits and shiny shoes heading to the city, thankful we aren't them. At each station the train gets more full until it's bursting at the seams.

Grand Central station, the end of the line. We get off the train along with everyone else. Being in no hurry, we decide to just stand on the platform with our bags and wait for the throng to dissipate. Blocking the platform doesn't seem to make us very popular but aside from almost getting pushed under the train by the thundering horde all is well. Now we just need to get to the bus to LaGuardia airport.

Mark stays with bags in the magnificent lobby of Grand Central while Julie goes on a fact finding mission. She verifies which exit we need to take, checks on the bus times and buys the tickets. Negotiating the ramps, more doors that aren't wide enough, we manage to exit the station and get across 42^nd Street at rush hour. Only a 10 minute wait for the bus and then we are whisked away to LaGuardia Airport and dropped fairly close to the American Airlines check-in.

The weight limit for checked bags is 50lb per bag with a $50 fee for overage. We've already weighed the bags at Mom's and we know it's going to be close. The first bag goes on the scale – Uh oh - it's 53 lbs. We look at the check-in guy who says “Put another one on”. Together they're exactly 100 lbs. The attendant says “Okay – no problem. Add the third bag.”

151 lbs. Oh man. We glance at each other with just knowing we're gonna have to move stuff between bags and add another pound to the backpacks. The attendant says “No problem. It's fine. Have a great day.” and we have our boarding passes. Whew! What a nice guy! Julie almost kisses him, “Thanks Earl”, she says.

We head to the gate and wait 4 hours for our flight to Miami. No problem. We actually planned our arrival early so the TSA folks would have plenty of time to go through our bags – we want to make sure they all make it on the same flight with us.

After another 2 hours in Miami and we board the plane and are on our way to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. Again, no problems.

At 8 pm we land in San Pedro Sula and pass through immigration. All our bags have made it – they're all here!! Awesome!! We have been nervous about the next part of the trip. Customs. Our bags are loaded with food stuff, vitamins to last a year, parts for the boat, fabric and glass to get a new dodger made and other general incidentals that we can't buy in Guatemala. From talking to other cruisers and the way we read the customs form we believe that we don't need to declare all of this stuff. But you never know if you'll get an official who's a bit of a 'stickler' or is looking to “grease his palm”.

We pass through customs with nothing to declare, put our luggage and backpacks on the x-ray machine and hold our breath. We're trying not to look obvious and anxious. If they decide to go through our bags it could be a LONG night. La la la la nothing nothing nothing. The x-ray operator is talking to a young lady and neither of them look concerned so we nonchalantly remove our bags and head for the door. Woohoo!!

We are spit out into the airport waiting area where there a lots of people waiting expectantly. Looking around we see Luis waiting for us. Luis and his wife own Guesthouse Dos Molinos. We stayed there on our way to the US and booked in again for the trip back. What a relief to see a smiling face waiting for us after a very long day. After a pleasant ride back to the B & B we flop into bed and drift off to sleep. Now we just have a 6 hour bus ride tomorrow and one more border to cross and we'll be home free.

“ Bee bee beep! Bee bee beep!”

Dang. It's the alarm. Again. It's 4 am and time to get up. Again.

We have to catch the bus to Rio Dulce. Thank goodness we only have to change buses once.

We stagger downstairs, rubbing sleep from our eyes, to find Luis up, waiting and ready to take us to the bus station. Dos Molinos has been great and de-stressed our trip immensely by willingly picking us up and delivering us to bus stations and airports at weird times of the day. We apologize to Luis for having him get up early again to deliver us. “No problem” he says.

All our heavy bags spent the night in his van so at least we didn't have to carry them up and down the stairs here. At the bus station, which is just opening at 5am, Luis disappears and returns with a porter with a huge cart. Thank goodness. We load up all the bags and are whisked away to the bus with big thanks to Luis. The bags are loaded on the bus and we just have time to buy a little something to eat before we board.

We've been told that we buy the tickets on the bus so we sit back in air conditioned comfort and enjoy the scenery, napping and reading. After about 3 hours we still are not seeing the ocean which is a bit strange because we're pretty sure that on the trip out we were by the ocean at this point.

There are only about 10 or 12 passengers and as far as we know nobody on the bus speaks English. And, of course, we don't speak enough Spanish to get any information so we just sit and enjoy the absolutely gorgeous mountain scenery. The road winds around and we pass through lots of interesting villages. We see many ranchers on their horses herding cows along the side of the roads. Also lots of mud and rock slides with the road closed down to one lane – or less!! We traverse a couple of almost washed out bridges that were down to one lane barely wider than the bus. Raging water rushing right below us, no guard rail .

After about 5 hours we are really starting to wonder what's going on. We are still in the mountains, which we should not be, and we haven't passed the border yet, which we should have. None of the places we pass through are familiar, but that's not surprising because we only know places along the coast. Luis had mentioned that Honduras had been having a lot of rain, but no mention of road closures.

The conductor comes around selling tickets.

“ Rio Dulce!” we say.

“ Rio Dulce?” the ticket taker asks.

“ Si.” we say.

“ Rio Dulce?” he says again. We think we may detect a bit of incredulity this time.

“ Si.” we say again.

He turns to the driver and says “Rio Dulce?”

“ Si.” says the driver, then he launches into a brief explanation we don't understand but assume contains his plan for getting us there.

The ticket taker writes out our tickets, hands them to us, and asks “Rio Dulce?” one last time.

“ Si” we say.

He shakes his head and moves on. We're really thinking something might be up now. About an hour later we pass Copan which we know is pretty far inland and SW of where we should be going. Finally we come to the border. There is probably half a mile of trucks full of produce and other goods parked along the road. Some have hammocks w/ sleeping drivers slung below them. This doesn't look good. We slowly wend our way through the traffic jam on this really narrow road. Our driver is amazing – he gets the bus through places we'd be nervous about driving a compact car.

We all get off the bus and go to Hut 4. This is the Honduran immigration, passports stamped, no problem. Now we are told to go to Hut 1, Guatemala immigration. After paying Q10 each ($2.50 total), our passports are stamped again, “Welcome to Guatemala”. The place is bustling: money changers; guys with big wads of Honduran Guatemalan and US currency; all the truck drivers trying to get through; tour groups who have been visiting the Mayan ruins at Copan; street vendors and comedors selling food and drink. We don't buy anything to eat because we're supposed to be back in Rio Dulce by lunch time. Even though we seem to be running a bit late.

No customs issues getting into Guatemala, either. Didn't even have to take our bags off the bus. Maybe today won't be so bad after all.

It's now about 11am and we're back on the bus again traveling along windy roads. At one point we drive through several hundred feet of muddy water – along the shoulder on the wrong side of the road – we hope the road's intact under it.

Finally we pass about another skillion or so parked trucks, grinding slowly forward, weaving our way around mud slides and huge boulders that block much of the road. And we stop. There's a lot of road working equipment here. Apparently the road ahead has washed out.

The workers have leveled one stretch, filling the gap with boulders covered with mud and gravel. It doesn't look good - it's about 6” wider than the bus and very wet. But they wave us forward so the driver slowly tries to cross. We're almost through it when we start to hear the mud and rock scraping the side of the bus. We're getting bogged down in the mud. Our driver expertly reverses and we back all the way back to where we started and park, waiting for the workers to add more gravel.

An hour, four dump trucks full of gravel and dirt, and a lot of standing around and talking later, we try again. We're not so sure that we like the idea of our bus being the first one to go over this stretch of road. Everyone is standing on the bus looking out of the front window as we slowly make our way through the mud. We bog down a bit, but manage to get through successfully. We all cheer and clap, shouts of “Bravo” are heard, and all the passengers express gratitude and respect to the driver.

It's about 12:30 pm now and we're starting to wish we'd bought some food at the border.

Finally we emerge onto a main road with both lanes open and no rocks or mud in evidence. Except now we start seeing signs that say we're heading to Guatemala City. This is not good. It's a long way in the wrong direction from Rio Dulce. After about 40 minutes the bus pulls over at the side of the road where another bus is waiting. The conductor says “Rio Dulce” and waves us off the bus. We hesitate, because we know this is NOT Rio Dulce. Finally we understand that we need to change buses to get to Rio Dulce. We get off, drag our bags across the gravel around to the other bus. “Rio Dulce?” we say. “Rio Dulce!” the new driver says. We get on the bus, this one is not air conditioned and has way more people on it. They all smile and say “Buenas tardes” and off we go.

This driver is a bit more aggressive that the first one. Roaring around corners, passing on curves and hills, and slamming on the brakes to avoid oncoming traffic we become a bit tense. After about an hour of this we stop again at the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. There are 2 buses waiting and everyone is told to get off our bus. We all remove our bags, a bus official says something to the crowd and they all start getting on the 2 buses.

We say to the official “Rio Dulce?”
He points to one of the buses “Rio Dulce! Si”
Again we drag our bags over to the new bus. We want to make certain we're doing the right thing, so we say “Rio Dulce?” to the new driver
“ Rio Dulce! Si!” the new driver says. We sit down and off we go.

As you can imagine we are now feeling totally inadequate with our Spanish. Julie has been studying our language tapes on the iPod but has not really learned enough to get information in this situation. We can ask questions but do not understand the replies – quite frustrating and demoralizing. But we're confident things will work out fine.

After about another hour the bus stops again at a cross road on the Rio Honda. There's yet another bus waiting. The driver looks at us and says “Rio Dulce” and points to the other bus
“ Rio Dulce?” we say
“ Rio Dulce! Si” he says.

We get off the bus and are surrounded by throngs of venders selling food, drinks, fruit, all yelling and shouting for our attention. We're hungry but we don't want to miss our bus so we AGAIN get our bags from the old bus ….drag them through the venders who are shoving scrumptious smelling food in our faces....get them on the new bus and haul ourselves into our seats. People on the bus are poking money through the 2” opening in the windows and the venders are cramming food and drinks back. Even as the bus is starting to leave these purchases are madly being made.

This driver must have gone to the same reckless driving school as our last one. Our lack of ease is exacerbated by the fact that the seat backs are broken and, as soon as you lean back, you're lying in the lap of the person behind you. We sit on the edge of our seats and grin and bear it.

Finally we see road signs for Morales, a name we recognize - and we know it's only about a 40 minute drive from there to Rio Dulce. The bus stops at a Fuente del Norte station outside of town, where we changed buses on our way to the US. People get off the bus. We ask the bus driver if this bus will go to Rio Dulce. “Si”, he says. We are starving and really need a bathroom, it's 3:00pm and we haven't eaten since 6am.

We ask the driver how long before we leave. Thank goodness we can at least ask these questions in our broken Spanish, although we often don't really understand the answers. At least we have time for a quick pee and something to eat. We hop back on the bus just as the driver begins backing it up to leave.

Off we go, now for the first time in hours feeling like we are really going to make it back to Rachel today.

Our marina has free lancha (boat) service back and forth from town several times a day and we think we can make it just in time to catch the 3:45. We have it all planned out. When we arrive Julie will jump off the bus with the back packs and run down the hill to make sure the lancha is there and will wait for us. Mark, in the meantime, will get the bags off the bus and start dragging them down to the dock.

Great plan, but the timing is a bit off. As Julie runs down the hill she sees the lancha about 100 yards off the dock heading back to the marina. It's not really a problem, though, as we just make a phone call and have them come back and pick us up for a nominal fee. While we're waiting, Julie nips up to the store to get enough food to last us until we can get back into town the next day.

Whew! Back to Rio Dulce (Fronteras) at 4 pm – only about 4 hours late. Not too bad, considering all the excitement.

It's nice to be back after our long, long, long way home.

As it turns out a bridge on the major highway from Honduras to Guatemala had been washed away and there were lots of other roads closed due to many mud slides and rock slides. Luckily they were still running buses to Rio Dulce although we were the only 2 traveling from San Pedro Sula to Rio Dulce. Once we learned this news we were so grateful that the driver had gone out of his way to hook us up with these other buses so that we could make it back to Rio Dulce. Our hats are off to all of the Fuente del Norte folk that helped make our trip successful. If we'd known what was going on we'd have been way more appreciative. Click here to read more about the bridge outage.

Is it the weekend yet?

2010-07-17T10:24:00.012-04:00

Location: Hotel Catamaran Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Position: N 15 40.366 W 088 59.538

It's hot here. They don't call it the tropics for nothing. The humidity is almost 100% this morning and it is NOT raining. We keep half gallon jugs of cold water in the fridge, often going through three or four a day. Handkerchiefs are worthless. We have several old hand towels we've designated as “sweat rags” and cycle through them during the day as we work, wringing them out, washing them and and hanging them up to dry when they become too saturated to absorb any more. Our brains often shut down from the heat and humidity. Sometimes they don't start back up until the next morning. Luckily, we have two fans down below that generally run 24/7 and a window air conditioner we usually run for 4-6 hours in the evening to cool Rachel down enough so we can sleep. However, we find some solace in the fact that it's not been as hot here as it's been on the East Coast of the US for the last few weeks.

A day in our lives: We get up, have coffee, breakfast, and check our email. We do a few hours of boat jobs. Some days we go to town to do some shopping. We have lunch. We do a bit more work on the boat or read for a while, then we go up to the pool. The pool is usually warm and only slightly more humid than the air, but it's nice to relax and even though it's warm, the water does eventually cool us down a bit. We hang out at the pool chatting with our friends until either “the afternoon thunderstorm” or dusk begins to fall, whichever comes first. We go back to the boat and, before the bugs come out, seal ourselves into our cocoon for the night. Since we'll be cooking we start the air conditioner. We eat dinner, do the dishes, and watch a borrowed movie, play a game, or read until it's time to go to bed – usually before 9:00 pm.

It's like we've entered a place where time stands still. Or perhaps runs backwards. Today is like yesterday which is like the day before. Days turn into weeks turn into months. One boater we know says “I came here 14 years ago for hurricane season and I'm still here.” Sometimes at the pool we have earnest discussions:

“When was it that we saw that in town?”
“I don't know...it could have been Monday!”
“I thought it was Saturday because it was fresh vegetable day.”
“Yes you could be right but I'm thinking it might have been Sunday.”
“Could it have been two weeks ago?”
“Well I KNOW it wasn't yesterday!!!”
Everyone agrees “Yes it was NOT yesterday.”

Obviously, the Khronicles have suffered. We've dropped the ball, come apart at the seams, blundered, floundered, hemmed and hawed, bobbled, lurched, staggered, stumbled, muddled, goofed, and generally screwed the pooch Khronicle-wise for the last couple of months.
The one big break we had in our daily routine was a road trip with friends from two other boats to see the Mayan ruins at Tikal and Yaxha (pronounced “yih-SHAH”). We've got a Khronicle about it in the works, but haven't managed to find time to work on it, what with our busy day-to-day sleeping, eating, working, sweating, resting, reading, swimming, and socializing schedule. But we're sure we'll get to it. One of these days. Yawn.

What day is it, again?

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel
pictures will eventually be posted ....

Mayan Ruins

2010-06-20T15:24:00.000-04:00

Date: June 20. 2010
Location: Tikal National Park, Guatemala
Position: N 17 13.330 W 089 37.416

We started this Khronicle back in June and are just now getting back to it. And we actually have some pictures this time, too!

Inland travel is one of the best perks when you're “on the Rio”. Guatemala is rich in Mayan culture and ruins and there are several well-developed sites within reach. Back in June we took a trip to the Mayan ruins at Tikal (“tih-cahl”) and Yaxha (“yah-shah”) in the northern part of Guatemala along with our friends on “Osprey” and “Diva”.

We made arrangements with a local tour company for a van and driver for four days for $50 each – a pretty good deal, considering he'd be available to take us wherever we wanted to go in the area. We met at Tienda Ingrid at 8 am and by 8:30 we were loaded up and on our way. With 7 adults and two kids the van was full but comfortable – just as well, since we had a four hour trip ahead of us. Our driver Enrique didn't speak English, so we all got to practice our pidgin Spanish on him, poor fellow.

This was the first trip inland for all of us and we enjoyed seeing the small towns, the rain forest, the mountains, the farms, and all the beautiful views.

Lots of Guatemalan stuff for sale

Our first stop was the town of Flores. This small town is on an island on Lake Petén Itzá and is connected to the mainland by a causeway It's a quaint tourist destination with steep winding streets, colorful buildings and really interesting architecture. We're not sure if tourism is down or if everyone heard we were coming, but the town was very quiet.

We had a great lunch at Restaurante Los Peches.
The food was cheap and delicious, but the big draw was the sign reading “5 beers for Q40” (that's just $1 each). It was a hot thirsty day and we made the best of it. The owner even brought his pet parrot over to visit with us while we waited for our lunch.

From Flores we drove to El Remate, a small town on the opposite end of the the lake. El Remate is not far from the Tikal park, making it a convenient location for us. We stayed at "Casa Don David" for three nights.

These are our rooms at Casa Don David

The gardens at Casa Don David, check out the topiary

Enrique connected us with a guide he knew who lives next door to the hotel and we arranged to all meet outside the hotel at 5:30 the next morning.

The next morning we all met as scheduled, although the adults in the crowd were a little subdued after celebrating Wendy from Osprey's birthday the night before.

We can't say enough good things about Tikal. Our guide Luis was amazing. He really brought the ruins to life through his stories of growing up there, explanations of Mayan culture and religion, and his love of nature.

The first thing Luis did was lure a tarantula out of it's hole!

He took us on back trails where we barely saw any other tourists giving us the chance to really get a feel for the site.

Luis is not only a student of anthropology, he's of Mayan descent, an avid birdwatcher with a degree in biology, and the second licensed archeological guide in Guatemala. As expected, we saw a lot of ruins.

We are sitting way up on top of Temple IV

....and here is the view
Temple I, II and III

But we also saw tarantulas, 21 species of birds, howler and spider monkeys, crocodiles, and loads of other wildlife during our 7 hour walking tour.

Wild turkey

Toucan

A ceiba tree, the national tree of Guatemala

Luis' enthusiasm was infectious. He'd periodically say “Look...a [insert animal or bird name here]. See it?” and go dashing off into the jungle trying to get a good photo of it for us. He coaxed a tarantula out of it's hole and let the kids hold it. He got the howler monkeys howling for us.

Spider Monkey

Huge grasshopper

Crocodile

He showed us a site where, if you stood in the right spot and clapped your hands you'd hear not only the echo of the clap but a loud, distinct squeak following it. No idea how the Mayans arranged that.

The 'squeak' was right here where Kaeo is being prepared for sacrifice

Jaguar Temple

Central Acropolis

The day was hot and muggy but luckily most of the time we were walking through the jungle in the shade. Then we'd suddenly burst out into an opening and be confronted by a huge pyramid or series of caves or a ball court, or the Plaza of the Lost World , finally ending up at the Great Plaza.

His explanations about the sun, solstices, construction, and sacrifices were amazing. He gave us just the information we needed to bring the ruins to life without overloading us with details. We were all so glad that we'd hired a guide and specifically Luis - he was great.

Wendy, Debbie and the kids obviously had not got enough exercise for the day (though, after walking around the ruins for 7 hours, the rest of us were ready for a break) so we stopped at a zip line on the way back to the hotel!! While they did the zip line a.k.a canopy tour, the “non-zippers” relaxed watching the World Cup with frosty beers in hand.

The next day we could identify every muscle in our legs, they all ached from climbing up and down those pyramids. We spent the morning loosening up by wandering around El Remate, then Luis went with us again to another archeological site named Yaxha.

The ball court at Yaxha

A stele , a stone slab inscribed and carved in relief

Temple from afar

Temple close up

Yaxha - North Acropolis where the TV show “Survivor Guatemala – The Mayan Empire” held their tribal councils. Does that make us special, or what?

Yaxha was about an hours drive away, smaller and less developed than Tikal, but still different and very interesting. Being less developed we were able to see many pyramids and buildings as the first explorers must have seen them – rather steep hills covered with trees. This gave us a much better feel for the vast amount of work that goes into excavating a site like this.

One of hundreds of unexcavated pyramids dotted around Guatemala
still waiting to be uncovered

We spent a couple of hours walking around the ruins and then Luis arranged special permission for us to stay late so we could watch the sunset over the jungle from the top of one of the pyramids – Wow!!!

A couple of other pictures we wanted to share

Carniceria = Butcher shop!!! Wouldn't want to be that cow!

Insulation - Guatemala style.
Plastic bottles framed and covered with stucco, recycling at work.

Blame It On “The Rio”

2010-05-01T17:18:00.005-04:00

Location: Hotel Catamaran Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Position: N 15 40.366 W 088 59.538

We last left you at Bahia de Graciosa as we were waiting to cross the shallow bar into Livingston, Guatemala to check in to the country on the morning of Thursday, April 27th.

We got an early start, raising anchor at 5 am to travel the 11 miles to the sea buoy off Livingston. We needed to be there no later than 7 am to catch the highest part of the tide before it started to fall. We made it in time and had no problems going in - we saw nothing less than 6.8 feet, exactly as planned.

After we had crossed the bar we saw a boat with a 7.3ft draft being prepared to leave Livingston. They obviously could not cross the bar as we had done so a smaller vessel had their main halyard and was pulling them over sideways, so their keel would kick over making their draft less. The sailboat was motoring at about a 15 degree heel. Wow, what a sight! They managed to navigate over the bar with no problem.

On the advice of friends, we decided to use an agent named Raul to facilitate clearing in. We anchored off the town of Livingston and waited for 8:00 when Raul's office opened. He arrived at our boat at about 8:30 with 6 officials: customs, immigration, sanitation (a doctor – in scrubs!), a military official, and the port captain all in their appropriate uniforms. That's a lot of people in Rachel's cockpit! If we had not used Raul we would have had to go to each of these people's offices and wait to see each of them, the whole process taking much longer.

Livingston

We're not really sure why they all needed to come because only the Customs and Immigration people filled out any paperwork and spoke to us. But when in Rome.... So they all sat there for a while and chatted, then they all went back ashore. We were instructed to wait an hour, then go in to the bank to exchange dollars for Quetzals (a US dollar is currently worth about 8 Quetzals) and to go to Raul's office to pay and pick up our visas and boat papers. Wow! That was easy!!

We had heard that Livingston is not a very safe place to anchor out for the night, so we were looking forward to leaving as soon as possible and begin making our way up the river. By 11am we were back on Rachel with our paperwork, after a lovely wander around the town. Soon we were headed up 'the Gorge'. During it's last 7 miles before exiting the coast, the Rio Dulce flows through an absolutely stunning gorge. Some early Johnny Weismueller Tarzan movies were filmed here - you know – the ones where he flings himself off a cliff hanging onto a vine or into the water – we saw his cliff!

Travelling up the gorge

The scenery was spectacular and to make the trip even better there were lots of local Guatemalans fishing from wooden dugout canoes, locally called “cayucos”. Some were casting nets, some setting traps with floats . This is obviously a major source of income and / or food in this area. It was like stepping back in time. We slowly meandered up the winding river wanting to make sure we took in all the sights. After a while we started seeing Mayan style “palapa” houses with a 'garage' of dugout canoes at the waters edge.

What a great trip. Kids, maybe 8 years old, wearing their school uniforms, paddling themselves to school in little dugout canoes. The paddles are cut from boards with a long hourglass shape to form the handle and the blade.

We could have spent all day traveling back and forth up and down this stretch of the river but we needed to get safely anchored before dark. At the top of the gorge the river opened out into La Golfete, a beautiful lake about 10 miles long and 4 miles wide. We were almost at our destination of Texan Bay just inside the lake. A small marina has been built here, by Texans no less. It is only accessible by water and is up a picturesque meandering creek. We anchored for the night off the marina and dinghied in to eat and check out the cold Guatemalan beer. We have not been in a freshwater anchorage with rushes and forest for such a long time we really enjoyed the evening and early morning – especially the sounds of birds, frogs and other wildlife not yet identified.

Rachel at anchor in Texan Bay, we really need those shade awnings down here.

Next morning we made the 15 mile trip through the lake and further up the river to Fronteras, the center of “The Rio” where all the cruisers come to escape hurricane season. We have promised ourselves that we will make a trip back to La Golfete and Texan Bay after we get our boat jobs done. We want to row our wee “Belle” up the little tributaries and see what we find.

At any rate, we are now tied to a dock. We were actually a bit surprised that we remembered how to dock Rachel. We moved into our slip yesterday after being anchored off the marina for three days waiting for other boats to leave, move, and otherwise make room for us. Rachel will be here for the next seven months while we knock several jobs off our “todo” list, do some inland travel, and make a visit back to the US.

Getting our boat jobs done might be a tough row to hoe, however. The resort has a pool, restaurant, bar and lounge with the biggest TVs in the area (not THAT big), lots of little cabins, tennis court, unlimited water and hot showers (aaahhhh!!), and free scheduled launch service into town. Marina guests also get happy hour prices at both bars all day long (cheap and very dangerous!), a 10% discount on meals, and a 20% discount on cabins for guests. All this for $168 / mo. Oh, there's also a book exchange in the main lounge, so it doesn't look like we'll run out of reading material any time soon. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it!

Obviously, it's taken us a good bit of time just to catch you all up with our current position. Now all we have to do is is catch you up on what we've been doing since we got here. Time moves slowly here. All we can say is ...

Blame it on the Rio ...

Contrasts

2010-04-26T19:50:00.060-04:00

Location: Bahia La Graciosa, Guatemala
Position: N15 51.400 W 088 33.406

We leave the island of Utila and begin to head further west. Our ultimate near-term goal is to is to arrive at Livingston, Guatemala by April 27th.

This date is significant to us because the high tide there at 7:00 am is 1.84' higher than mean low water. Rachel draws 6' and the entrance to the Rio Dulce is blocked by a wide sand bar that's 5' deep at mean low water. By waiting until the 27th, we should see 0.84' under our keel as we approach Livingston to clear in to Guatemala.

The fact that the high tide occurs during the morning is an added plus for us. Livingston has a terrible reputation for theft and boardings – everyone's advice is to clear in and get the heck out, heading up river to spend the night at one of the “safe” anchorages further up stream. Needless to say, this got our attention and we decide that the 27th fits our plans to a “T”.

Rachel in Puerto Escondido

We've planned our trip west in a series of day trips so we won't be doing any overnight sails. Not for any particular reason other than we feel like it. We need to clear out of Honduras on April 22nd because our 90 day visas expire on the 23rd. This will leave us in limbo for several days between clearing out of Honduras and clearing in to Guatemala after we cross the bar at Livingston, but everyone we've talked to about it tells us a week or more is fine – no one will mind – so we decide to not let it bother us, either.
Our first scheduled stop along the coast of Honduras is Puerto Escondido. We sail across the Bay of Honduras to Punta Sal and head south along the mountainous and rocky shore. As we approach, the anchorage opens to us and we see a beautiful beach surrounded by mountains and jungle. There are no other boats here, so we pick our spot, drop the anchor, and relax (position N 15 54.544 W 087 37.908 W). This little harbor lies within the bounds of the “Parque Nacional Jeanette Kawas”, a 782 sq. km. National park - and it's a total gem.
We see a couple of locals walking the beach with a dog. The dog runs into the woods and we hear what sounds a bit like a bunch of other dogs barking at it. We finally realize that the “barking” we're hearing is the resident howler monkeys hollering at the dog! We eat dinner in the cockpit listening to the varied sounds of the jungle and the howler monkeys. It's amazing and a little spooky. And we love it.

In the morning we enjoy another show from the howlers. They seem to be more vocal in the morning and at sunset. The whole troop participates in this morning's serenade.
Today is our 3rd year anniversary living aboard Rachel and cruising. We couldn't ask for a more perfect location for this milestone occasion.

The cruising guide says that there are trails in the park so we get ready to head in to shore for a hike. Julie looks over and sees a group of people on the beach. “Hurry” she says to Mark “we can ask that group about the trails”.
On our arrival at the beach we discover it's a group of Americans! They are in Honduras with a church group from Mystic, CT. The church built a school a few miles inland 20 years ago and each year a group comes down to add a new building or do upgrades and repairs. Today is their last day and they traveled here with a couple of guides for a day off before returning to the US.

We ask if we can tag along as the guides speak English and they say sure. We walk through the jungle trail and the guides point out the howler monkeys way up in the trees, gorgeous flowers in bloom, and a few different types of edible wild fruit. We walk with the group over to the next bay where they all get back in their boats and leave us to wander the trails and the miles of empty beaches alone again in this magical place. There are supposed to be jaguars here too but we are hoping we don't bump into one.

It's hard to tear ourselves away, but on Saturday morning we haul anchor and head for our next stop – Omoa. The anchorage at Omoa is protected from the south and east, but is exposed from every other direction. The wind is supposed to be light and from the SE, so we feel pretty good about being here.
That is until the “music” starts. Bump ba dump. Bump ba dump. Bump ba dump. Poor Rachel is shivering her timbers. We're being thrown about the cabin. Bump ba dump. Bump ba dump. Our brains turn to jelly. How can anyone possibly enjoy this? If Rachel were a wooden boat, the caulking would be vibrating out of its seams. Bump ba dump. We turn on the fans hoping for some acoustic masking. We turn on our own music hoping to drown it out. But the insistent bass continues to rumble through all our attempts to mitigate it. We scream and howl, we weep like children and beg for mercy, we cover our heads with our pillows. We drink. Exhausted, and a bit tipsy, we finally pass out and dream strange, rhythmic dreams.

The thumping finally stops at about 4:00 am. Hallelujah! Quality sleep! Until 7:30 – Bump ba dump. Bump ba dump. For crying out loud! It's Sunday morning and they've started it again! Aiiieee!! We'd hoped to spend the day here and check out the town and the nearby castle, but this is too much. We haul anchor and get the heck out of there a day ahead of schedule.

We arrive at Cabo Tres Puntas, Guatemala in late afternoon (position N 15 55.686 W 088 36.028). The anchorage is nice and calm, protected as it is from the 15 knot easterly trades we're seeing. We have a day to kill, so we plan to spend tomorrow relaxing and getting ourselves and Rachel ready to cross the bar to Livingston. It's calm, there's a light breeze and we sleep soundly, hearing only the sounds we're used to – each other breathing and Rachel's little creaks and gurgles.

We wake up in the morning and notice that we're bouncing a bit more than we think we should be. The wind, predicted to be light from the SE to E for the next several days has shifted to the West and is building. By 7:30 am it's blowing 20-25 knots and we're taking water over the bow!

We decide to haul anchor and head for Bahia De La Graciosa, a 5 mile trip south. Julie goes up on the bow to operate the windlass while Mark mans the helm, keeping Rachel's bow into the waves. Suddenly the chain piles up in the chain locker and the windlass jams. So here we are, bouncing around on a short rode, yanking at the anchor (which holds wonderfully), and wondering how long the windlass can take this abuse before it breaks loose. We trade places and after about 10 minutes of effort (and generous application of the “appropriate language toolbox”) Mark manages to free the chain and we finally get the anchor up and are under way.

The best part about our new destination is that getting there puts the wind and waves slightly aft of beam (that means coming at us from the side and slightly behind us) making the ride a lot more comfortable than is was when we were banging right into them. We feel our way through the entrance, tuck up behind Punta Manglar, and drop the anchor.

The difference is amazing. We still have the same wind we had at Cabo Tres Puntas, but there are no waves. It's like being in a lake! The breeze cools the boat above and below. And there are no bugs! We really like this place and wonder why more cruisers don't stop here.

What contrasts we've experienced over the past several days! Going from Puerto Escondido and it's howler monkeys to Omoa and it's howling basses. From being bounced around like a cork at Cabo Tres Puntas to this peaceful, quiet anchorage. We decide to spend the remainder of the day relaxing, reading, and generally winding down from all the excitement, looking forward to a new experience tomorrow when we enter the Rio Dulce.

PS - Real time update – 27 May, 2010

In case any of you heard about the volcano erupting in Guatemala City, don't worry it's 150 miles from us. Poor Rachel does have some black volcanic ash on her decks. And her canvas. And her awnings. And her dinghy. So we are obviously not quite far enough away. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/latin_america/10186112.stm.

Oh, and that potential tropical storm in the eastern Pacific? The one that may track right over us? Not to worry. http://www.wunderground.com/blog/Weather456/show.html

Then there's the weevil infestation that Julie just found in our beans and flour.

And the ants sneaking in via our docklines – ants, schmantz.

We're doing just fine. Thank goodness Weather Underground downgraded Monday's predicted heat index of 150 degrees F to a mere 120 degrees F or we might have had a problem!

Overcoming Obstacles

2010-04-15T09:54:00.005-04:00

Location: Jonesville, Roatan, Honduras
Position: N16 23.240 W086 22.568

All over the world people overcome obstacles, annoyances and inconveniences in their lives on a daily basis.

Here in the Bay Islands each island is largely surrounded by barrier reef. These calm the ocean waves before they hit land and therefore provide a safer place to build communities. The islands are covered in high hills covered with rain forest so transportation from one community to the next, before roads were built, was by water. The problem was that to travel from one bay to the next you had to go outside the reef into the ocean and sometimes big seas.

Calabash Bight Canal

The canal at Jonesville

Oak Ridge Canal. These names are not sounding very Central American are they? Remember the British owned this part of the world for a while.

Solution!! Cut through the coral and mangroves inside the reefs to make canals from one community to the next.

Result – delightful passages through mangrove swamps which create a canopy overhead to provide some shade. On the south side of Roatan you can travel between several bays and about 10 miles without even going out into the ocean. On Guanaja you can travel through the middle of the island from the town of Bonacca to the less populated western side.

Then there are the dories.

In Honduras, a dory is a double ended boat usually ranging from about 15-25' in length with a very narrow beam. Based on dug out canoes, the newer ones are made from wooden planks or fiberglass.

old dugout canoes ("cayucos") still in use in the Bay Islands

They have an external rudder which is steered using two pieces of line. The driver sits in the aft end of the boat and pulls one string or the other, depending on which way he wants to turn. Most are powered by a single cylinder gasoline engine, though some have modern high-power diesel engines. The gasoline ones don't seem to have a transmission. If the engine is on, the propeller is turning. Imagine starting your car and it immediately takes off in gear. You have no brakes, so you have to anticipate way ahead of time and turn off the engine to coast to a stop at exactly the right place. This of course takes lots of practice. It is also necessary to not pull in front of one of them when they are clipping along because they cannot stop - they will just run into you! The good part is that, since the un-muffled engines in most of the older dories make a putt putt putt sound, so you can always hear them coming.

The Lady Nell

All of the communities here are on the water and most people do not have land based transportation . Most of them either have some kind of boat, or they ride on water taxis. In the morning you'll see a dory full of kids in their school uniforms being dropped off at school. You'll see older ladies with their umbrellas, for shade, going to church or the store. All the stores have dinghy docks and some communities don't even have roads - they are completely water access only. We have really enjoyed exploring the canals and wandering though the communities by both dinghy and foot. Everyone is so friendly and will wave and shout hello.

Mark relaxing in Bonocca on an old cayuco converted to a swing

PS – it's really May 18th and we wanted to let you all know we're safe and sound in Guatemala, tied to a dock on the Rio Dulce for the next several months. We'll get caught back up with the Khronicles over the next few weeks.

Vacation Take 2

2010-03-31T16:29:00.069-04:00

Location: West End, Roatan, Honduras
Position: 16 17.570 N 086 35.841 W

Wow!! Two vacations in one month - this is awesome! Our son, Dan, from Redding, California was just here for a visit and we got to play again for a whole week. We could get used to this! We snorkeled, ate out, rented scooters, toured the island, visited a lovely botanical garden, sailed, fished, and every sunset we looked for the elusive green flash to no avail.

Even though we didn't have any luck in the fishing department we all had a great time together. Dan got a taste of our cruising lifestyle and enjoyed meeting and hanging out with some of our cruising friends. As an added bonus, he brought a waterproof camera (we have to get one of those) and likes taking pictures - so for a change we actually have some photos to post! As you know pictures tell a thousand words so check these out and see how much fun we had.

Lunch on the beach with friends

Mark & Dan on the rental scooters overlooking the reefs

Barracuda

Dan chillin' on the beach

underwater photos thanks to Dan

Carambola Botanical Gardens

Dan playing with the Monkeys at Gumbalimba Park

Queen Angelfish

Julie & Dan snorkeling

Another sunset with no green flash

Julie & Dan swinging in Gumbalimba park

Thanks for coming Dan - we had a blast!

On Vacation

2010-03-12T09:58:00.015-05:00

Location: West End, Roatan, Honduras
Position: 16 17.570 N 086 35.841 W

Our friends, Shep & Deb, from Blacksburg were coming for a one day stop on a cruise ship so we thought West End would be a good place to entertain them.
Here's a view of the beach and a resort from Rachel at anchor.

West End (surprisingly located at the west end of Roatan) is a small town that has one street which is just a dirt road. On one side is the Caribbean Sea and the other are a variety of bars, restaurants, little shops, street venders and dive operations.

Mark doing 'research' .

We got here a few days ahead of time so that we could check the place out. As we would only have a day together we wanted to make sure we showed them all the “best” stuff to make sure they’d have a really good time. Also, since Julie’s son Dan will be coming for a visit later this month, we had another valid reason for all our exhausting ‘research’. A tough job but someone has to do it!!

The main street in West End

See how close to the reef we are anchored

We sampled several bars, snorkeled inside and outside the reef to find the prettiest coral and fish, walked on the beach and up the hills. We had stocked up on rum, ice and lunch treats and were ready and excited about their visit.

On the morning of the scheduled visit we received a hail on our VHF radio – “We’re backing in to the cruise ship dock! We’ll be there soon.”

So we went ashore to wait for them. Nothing. So we walked through town, keeping a close eye on all the cabs and vans that went by. Back to the dinghy and still nothing. So we walked through town and back again. Still nothing. Just as we were getting ready to walk through town yet a third time, we received a hail on our handheld VHF from some friends on another boat in the anchorage. Shep and Deb had been trying to hail us, but our handheld wasn’t strong enough to reach the cruise ship. Apparently the winds were too strong and the captain too inexperienced to make the final docking, so they were cancelling the day stop in Roatan and heading to Belize! How disappointing!!

See the cruise ship sailing away with our friends. Note the mountains on the mainland, 26 miles away, in the background

Now we had a big decision to make - what were we going to do with all this food and ice and rum? Easy, invite other cruisers over and have party! We all drank a toast to the missing Shep & Deb.

We stayed a few more days, just to complete our “research” and are now ready for Dan’s visit. Hopefully he won’t get turned away too.
The last week has been like being on vacation. No boat jobs, no shopping, just fun and games and time with (and without :<) friends.

Chillin’

Warren

2010-03-03T12:33:00.012-05:00

Location: French Cay Harbour, Roatan, Honduras
Position: 16 21.255 N 086 26.646 W

We are anchored inside the bounds of a Honduran marine park – no fishing is allowed within the park boundaries. Knowing this, a local fellow comes around the anchorage in his skiff a couple of times a week selling freshly caught fish out of a cooler. Warren is very personable and witty and we look forward to his visits.

The first day he showed up it was pretty rolly (blowing about 25 knots in the anchorage) and he was bouncing around pretty good in his skiff. He had fresh grouper that day. We haggled over the price - that’s a fact of life here - you never pay the asking price. We picked one out and he said he’d fillet it at no extra charge. He had no knife or cutting board so we handed ours over to him and he deftly filleted the grouper while bouncing all over the place. He had fun calling Mark “Castro” and giving us a hard time about how dull the knife was. Needless to say, Mark had it all sharpened up for Warren’s next visit.

Recently, he’s started calling us “Mr. Mark” and “Mama”. When he came by yesterday he told us he had decided to start growing a beard “like Mr. Mark’s”. Sure enough, there was new stubble on his chin. He also said that, if he likes someone, after they’ve bought from him three or four times he gives them a better deal. Then he threw in two extra conchs with our purchase. So we’re pretty sure he likes us, too.

We don’t buy from him every time he comes by, but we always look forward to his visits as he is invariably cheerful and has time for a chat. His selection is always different and varies from lobster to shrimp to wahoo to grouper to snapper to conch. We never know what he’s going to bring other than his sunny disposition and wit.

16 degrees

2010-03-01T20:38:00.002-05:00

Location: French Cay Harbour, Roatan, Honduras
Position: 16 21.255 N 086 26.646 W

That’s our current latitude - 16 degrees 21 minutes north of the equator.

Our latitude last summer at Mt. Desert Island, Maine was 44 degrees 21 minutes north. Each minute of latitude equals one nautical mile, so that’s 1,380 nautical miles (or 1,588 statute miles) further south than we were just 6 months ago. If we travel seven degrees further south (420 more nautical miles) we’ll be south of the insurance companies “hurricane box”.

To date, we’ve traveled 12,270 nautical miles (or 14,120 statute miles) on Rachel since we’ve owned her - that’s a distance equal to more than half way around the world! Who’d have thought?

A friend recently emailed us. She and her family have been living aboard and cruising for almost 2 years. She freely admits that she’s always been afraid of sinking or smashing into stuff. The anticipation of thunderstorms, night watches, fog, and dragging anchor all have filled her with trepidation and given her many sleepless nights. She said they’ve suffered through several thunderstorms at anchor this year. Last year she used to stay up all night in the cockpit making sure the boat didn’t move. This year she goes up top, looks around, and when she sees everything’s okay, goes back down and sleeps. Julie wrote back to her and congratulated her on making the transition from “someone who is out cruising” to “someone who has become a cruiser”.

Looking back, we wonder when that happened for us. We remember with great clarity our first overnight sail on Rachel. How excited and nervous we both were, how beautiful the moon was that night. We think about how nervous we were the first time we talked on the ham radio and how naturally it comes to us now. And how embarrassing the first time we flew Rachel’s spinnaker ended up being. Then there was the time Rachel’s engine quit running right in front of the Spa Creek Bridge in Annapolis. And spending the night at anchor for our first gale. And the first fish we ever caught on Rachel. And, not so long ago, the first time we both got sea sick.

There have been so many “firsts” for us in this process. And it seems that all of them have slowly, over time, fitted together into a mosaic of experience from which we now draw strength and confidence. That seems to be pretty much how life works for all of us, doesn’t it? Like it or not, when we push ourselves (or are pushed) outside our comfort zone, we grow.

That’s pretty darned cool.

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

Sweating and Swimming

2010-02-22T15:18:00.021-05:00

Location: French Cay Harbour, Roatan, Honduras

Position: 16 21.255 N 086 26.646 W

We’ve spent two great weeks in Honduras. We are anchored between a reef and the island. The reef isn’t visible from the boat much of the time, so we sit aboard looking straight out to the ocean. It was a little disconcerting at first. It didn’t feel like we were protected, at least until we got used to it. The reef soaks up almost all the energy of the ocean waves and all we get are small waves from the short fetch inside the reef. And the sea breeze really cools things down nicely. All-in-all it’s a fine, safe place to sit while we explore.

Being so close to the reef it’s a short dinghy ride to some great snorkeling. There’s a wall dive nearby. The reef is close to the surface and there are lots of colorful fish. But as you swim along the reef drops off like a cliff edge going down as far as you can see. It was a bit disconcerting the first time we went out there - it made us dizzy, like stepping off the edge of a cliff, but now we are used to it. The days we don’t go snorkeling we just swim off the boat. The temperatures are pretty hot most of the time (in the 80s and 90s) and it’s a great way to cool off in the afternoon.

Coxen Hole is the capital of the Bay Islands and is about 10 miles west of here. A seeming rabbit warren of narrow bustling streets, it hosts a myriad of stalls and shops selling everything from backpacks to TVs to clothing to woven hammocks. Street venders selling fish out of plastic coolers, meat hanging from hooks in small butcher shops, and small cafes are all commonplace. It’s very much like any major city - there are lots of things to buy, you just have to find where the best prices are.

Cruise ships stop here a few times a week - you don’t want to be in town then as all the prices are higher. We can see them passing by the anchorage so we know when they are here. Much of the local economy revolves around the cruise ships. The disparity between local prices and “cruise ship” prices is really something. Being good cruisers, we always make sure to tell people we’re not from a cruise ship and get the price nailed down before we take a taxi ride or sit down for a beer or a meal.

French Harbour, the town nearest our anchorage, is not very touristy. Mainly locals live here so we get to really feel the flavor of the island. There are, however, a couple of dive resorts to the east of the anchorage that have happy hours a couple of times a week. Of course the $1.25 beers attract all the cruisers, so it gives us a great opportunity to socialize with the other boaters in the anchorage. During the last happy hour we noticed several people drinking what is apparently the local drink of choice. Named the “Monkey La La” (http://www.caribbeantravelmag.com/article/Recipe-Finder/Drink-of-the-Month---Monkey-La-La) it’s a concoction of ice cream, vodka, Kahlua, and ice, blended to the consistency of a milk shake. We’re certain they contain no calories and they looked really delicious – we haven’t tried one yet, but will let you know what we think after the next happy hour.

There are several open double-ender boats around that seem to be unique to these islands – at least in our limited experience. They’re around 25-30 feet long, only about 5 feet wide, and are powered by “single lunger” diesel engines. The nicest one is all prettied up with a center console and bimini and sometimes sits at the iguana farm dock about a hundred feet from us (we’ll tell you more about the iguana farm in another Khronicle). Our favorite one is bright yellow and has no steering wheel – the rudder just has a couple of lines led forward and when the driver wants to steer, he simply pulls on one line or the other. We really enjoy hearing them put-put-put through the anchorage.

As always we try to buy foods that the locals eat - they are usually cheaper and we enjoy trying new foods. We had some funny shaped wrinkly squash the other day that almost had the texture of a melon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chayote). It was very tasty, especially when stir fried with garlic. Yum!

Our hearts go out to all of you in the frozen North. Think warm thoughts and have a hot toddy on us. Just remember – the groundhog saw his shadow so there are only six more weeks of winter to go. That’s not so bad, eh?

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

Further South

2010-02-04T18:30:00.001-05:00

Location: French Cay Harbour, Roatan, Honduras
Position: 16 21.255 N 086 26.646 W

We had originally planned to slowly work our way down the coasts of Mexico and Belize, then head east to the Bay Islands of Honduras. After talking with other cruisers and studying the prevailing weather patterns we decided that this was not a good plan for us. The wind generally comes from the SE and currents are generally from the south so to coastal hop south is to work against these forces and can be “not very comfortable”.

Of additional concern is the reputation Belize has been gaining among cruisers lately. Much of the scuttlebutt these days consists of “The fees to clear in are arbitrary and the officials are surly and looking for bribes – they’re all a bunch of crooks.” and “Everything there is expensive – the beers are $5 each and it’s lousy beer.” and “The outer atolls are beautiful – well worth a visit, but don’t bother checking in – it’s not worth the hassle.” True or not, these stories had an effect on our decision to avoid Belize and we know several others who have decided likewise. Let’s hope for Belize’s sake they clean up their act – otherwise more cruisers will decide to bypass it for other, more friendly and predictable destinations.

At any rate, although we weren’t very thrilled about making another three day passage we decided to wait for a front to pass through and ride the northerly wind SE across the current in the Yucatan Channel. Once past the Yucatan Current, we’d be out of the confused “wind against current” seas and start heading directly south to the Bay Islands of Honduras. A 320 mile passage at our 5 knot planning speed the trip should take around 74 hours or just over three days.

We set off in the morning from Isla Mujeres with our buddy boat “Diva” – we’ve travelled with Carl & Debbie off and on for a few years now and have found that our personalities, our relatively cautious approach to weather and routing decisions, and our boat speeds are very compatible.

The first day we encountered several rain showers making it a wet day in Rachel’s cockpit (Mark: “Can we get a full enclosure now?”). Using the radar we were able to avoid several more squalls that day and night and by the 2nd day we had sunny skies and more comfortable seas.

One of Rachel’s most valuable pieces of equipment, especially on a long passage, is her autopilot (which we’ve named “Otto” – pretty original, huh?). Even an hour spent hand steering the boat in ocean waves can get tiring over a long period of time, preventing us from taking the longer 3-4 hour off-watch rest periods we prefer.

Unfortunately during the 2nd night Diva’s autopilot developed a problem, requiring them to hand steer for the next 36 hours. Diva has a tiller instead of a steering wheel, so they were able to hook up some bungee cords to the tiller to help hold her on course and make steering easier. At this point Rachel took the lead so Diva could use our masthead light as a beacon to steer to. Between the bungee cords, Rachel’s dancing masthead light, and hour on – hour off watches they made it the rest of the way to Roatan without any additional problems. We all arrived safely at French Cay Harbour at about 10 am Wednesday after 3 days and 3 hours. All in all, it was a good trip and we’re happy to finally be here.

Isla Mujeres

2010-01-31T06:48:00.013-05:00

Location: Isla Mujeres, Yucatan, Mexico
Position: 21 14.574 N 080 44.574 W

We have just spent 3 delightful weeks in Isla Mujeres, an island off the coast of Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula. The island is only 4 miles long and less than ½ mile wide. Ferries carrying tourists and locals going shopping run back and forth all day to Cancun on the mainland. It’s a very colorful town with lots of reds, blues, yellows, greens, and oranges.

The town is definitely set up for the tourist trade. There’s a pedestrian-only street full of vendors and restaurants. No idea how authentic any of the stuff is, and since neither of us is all that interested in tourist knickknacks, we don’t have much trouble bypassing the stalls. There are not many hotels here so tourists flock in every day from Cancun and then leave in the evening, making late afternoon and evening a lovely time to wander round the town, listen to music emanating from the many little restaurants and partaking of a margarita or two. We even found a club with a live salsa band!

Here's a lovely view from inside the Hemmingway bar. The beers were lovely too and really, really cold.

The locals are very friendly and VERY forgiving of our bad (barely existent, really) Spanish. We try not to talk in English and they try to understand. Often they will ask if anyone speaks English and a passerby will pop into the shop and translate.

We’ve spent many happy hours wandering round the back streets, discovering new places each time.

Prices are cheap here, once we figured out how to convert pesos per kilogram to dollars per pound, we were amazed. Oh and did we mention the $1 beers? Unfortunately with this warm weather and the price we tend to drink more than we normally would (yeah, right).

Launchas, local fishing boats moored up to the beach

The town has an open market every day, 2 grocery stores, and lots of little shops selling almost everything you need. And if you can’t find what you want you can get the ferry over to Cancun and shop at Wal-Mart, Home Depot, OfficeMax, Burger King, MacDonald’s, or any of several other familiar sounding retailers.

The local grocery has big fresh baked bread rolls for a peso (about 8 cents) and tenderloin steak for 74.95 pesos per kilogram ($2.65 / lb) plus lots of fresh vegetables and deliciously sweet local oranges. If you have a lot of groceries to carry the cab ride from downtown back to the marina, about a mile, is only 20 pesos ($1.58).

Colourful Isla Mujeres cemetery

We have taken advantage of the cheap prices and actually eaten out a few times; fresh fish in a beachside restaurant, sopes (pronounced “so-paiss”) at a roadside stand, the best guacamole on the island at a little restaurant on a side street downtown, lunch in the one room home of a small “mom & pop” eatery in the local residential part of town, etc. Life doesn’t get much better.

We spent a few days at a marina when we first got here, unusual for us but we needed to ‘clear in’ (go through the immigration and customs routine which is normally done at the airport). It’s usually a bit of headache when cruising and involves going between different offices (immigration, customs, health and sanitation, the port captain, etc.) in different locations in town and lots of waiting. The marina provided the service for us for a small fee so we took advantage of that. Being a bit off our best from sailing for three days to get here, the last thing we wanted was to try and negotiate a bureaucratic clearing in process – especially with our “limited” Spanish.

On a day trip to Cancun we were serenaded at the outdoor market (mercado municipal)

Marina Paraiso is great!! It’s more like a little community - everyone there is very friendly and helpful. The owner had been out fishing the day we arrived with some of the ’residents’ and they came back with a big sailfish. That night they hosted a happy hour and served sailfish sushi and everyone brought other side dishes. We had several of these sunset gatherings during our time here. They continued to invite us to these gatherings even after we left the marina and anchored out in the harbor. We thought that was nice. They have an honor bar, too! You just help yourself to a beer and mark it down on your card and at the end of the week, when it’s time for them to go and buy more beer, everyone pays their tab and the cooler is refilled. Are you getting the idea that we might have put on a few pounds, or kilos, these last 3 weeks?

We can see why people come here and spend a month or two or a season. It’s really grown on us and we look forward to returning here one of these days.

Now, however, it’s time for us to focus on finding a favorable weather window for the three day passage down through the Caribbean Sea to the Bay Islands of Honduras.

Hasta la vista!

Crossings

2010-01-08T11:10:00.003-05:00

Location: Isla Mujeres, Yucatan, Mexico

Position: 21 14.574 N 080 44.574 W

Right after we leave the harbor on our way from Marathon to Isla Mujeres several huge dolphins are leaping out of the water playing in our bow wave, bidding us Godspeed on our journey. We take this as a good omen and feel better about our last minute decision to leave.

That is until we get to the Marquesas. The wind has built to 20-25 knots and is forward of beam, making for an uncomfortable ride. We feel like a cork bouncing around in a washing machine in these 8-10 foot waves with a 7 second period. For those of you who don’t understand that, the “period” is the time between one wave top and the next. A longer period makes for a more comfortable ride. When the height of the waves in feet is more than the period in seconds, watch out! The ride gets really bouncy and the boat moves abruptly in every direction, twisting and turning like a bucking bronco. All we can do is wedge ourselves in somewhere and hang on. For the first time ever on Rachel we both get seasick and “call for Huey”.

After we crack off the wind a bit and head more southerly to cross the Gulf Stream the ride becomes more comfortable and we begin to feel better. In the deeper waters of the Florida Strait the waves are a bit further apart and we're on a more comfortable point of sail. We sail across the Gulf Stream toward the coast of Cuba. We skirt the Cuban coast about 20 miles out and continue westward. Some dolphins appear from nowhere and play in our bow wave for a few minutes.

In the afternoon of the third day we are visited by a whole pod of dolphins. These seem to be a much smaller Cuban variety – only about 3-5 feet long. They leap out of the water and frolic around us for an hour or so. So far dolphins have come to visit and play every day of this passage. We decide, again, to take this as a good omen.

The wind decreases as we approach the Yucatan Channel, the narrow passage between Cuba and Mexico. The Gulf Stream runs through here at a pretty good clip and conditions can deteriorate rapidly if the wind picks up. We motor from Cabo San Antonio, Cuba to Isla Mujeres, Mexico in light and variable winds and have a lovely, uneventful, and easy, albeit non-sailing end to our passage.

On arrival, we decide to take a slip at Marina Paraiso for several reasons. The first is that we’re pretty tired and a bit weak from not eating or sleeping much for the past 3 days – we can use a few days free of stress w/ easy access to shore and the marinas hot showers.

The second reason is the marina provides “full service” clearing in for a small fee. We’ve heard from other cruisers that this process can take a day or two of long waits when done without help and that it’s worth the minimal extra cost. Especially with our very limited Spanish.

And last but not least, gale force winds are predicted out of the northwest the next day at dawn. The northwest is the only point of wind from which the anchorage is unprotected and we hear on the local cruisers net that “the bottom is like 3 feet of soft ice cream on top of rock”, meaning that the holding could be better. We have a plan in place for secure anchoring in this sort of bottom, but are reluctant to put it to the test until we’re better rested and better prepared. So we go in to the dock.

Clearing in is uneventful, but from watching the process we’re glad we decided not to try it on our own. It is made readily apparent that we need to work on our language skills if we’re going to be spending time down here.

So here we are sitting on Rachel tied safely in our slip, awaiting the bad weather and looking forward to exploring the town. As we contemplate our crossing, we decide to title this Khronicle ‘Crossings’. We consider all the ‘crossings’ we’ve done to get here: so far we’ve crossed the Florida Straits, the Gulf Stream twice, the Yucatan Channel, a time zone from Eastern to Central time, our eyes while being sick, our fingers hoping we wouldn’t get sick again, our legs while we were on watch in boisterous conditions and needed a pee, our arms trying to keep warm, and our own personal Rubicon, reaching beyond our comfort level to sail here.

We're glad we did it and are looking forward to spending some time on this beautiful island.

Hurry Up And Wait

2010-01-05T10:58:00.002-05:00

Location: Marathon, Florida
Position: 24 42.371 N 081 05.706 W

When you live on a boat it’s ALWAYS all about the weather. We’ve spent the last two weeks listening to our weather guy tell us a window is opening. Then we’ve watched it carefully and decided it’s not quite long enough to allow us time to get to Mexico with any safety margin. Here’s how it’s been going:

Morning: Wake up early listen to our weather guy on SSB radio, check the weather on line to get our own take on the weather, chat with our travelling companions to see when we all think might be a good time to leave. This all takes 3 to 4 hours. Then we go shopping.

Note: Shopping definition - walk a mile each way up a LOUD busy road for groceries, hardware, pharmacy, general goods. Walk a mile in the other direction along the same LOUD busy road to the chandlery, dollar store, thrift shop, and book store. We have to make a lot of trips because we can only buy what we can comfortably carry the mile back to the boat. We need to keep our ships stores topped off as we eat and use things so we’re always ready to leave.

Afternoon: Do a few boat jobs, get together with friends, pick their brains about good places to visit in W Caribbean, do any “other direction” shopping we need to do, and check weather again to see how much it’s changed.

Most of the time we see a potential weather window open a few days ahead only to watch it get shorter or disappear altogether.

On Friday, Sun Jan 3rd was starting to look good. On Saturday it still looked good. Ok this is really it, we decided, we’re leaving tomorrow.

Hurry up and wait.

Saturday afternoon we went through the usual routine. We hauled the dinghy onto deck, stowed everything, and prepared meals to be warmed up under way. None of us slept much that night, always tense with the anticipation of an upcoming passage into the unknown, remembering last minute things that need to be done when we get up in the morning.

We were all up before dawn and listened one last time to the weather. Hmm. It was still a window but it had changed a little. We would have to leave and hurry south then dawdle for a day off the coast of Cuba waiting for the seas to die down in the Yucatan Channel. Then we’d have to quickly get across the Yucatan Channel before a really big front came through the Gulf of Mexico on Friday. We got on the radio with our friends. We were ALL ready!!! But after a discussion we decided to wait, it just didn’t feel right. All of us except one boat decided we’d wait for the next window. The one boat took off out of the harbour at 7am. We watched them go, wishing we were going, but glad we weren’t.

Hurry up and wait.

We got the dinghy back into the water and did a few jobs around the boat, feeling a bit glum and out of sorts. Julie decided since we weren’t going (and it was starting to look like another week before we could) she may as well start re-covering the cabin cushions. This project involved making a total mess of the cabin until it was completed, so she decided she might as well do it while we were sitting here waiting. By Monday evening she had all but 2 cushions complete. We got up on Tuesday morning. We were listening to the weather and one of the boats we are travelling with asked some questions about the big front that was scheduled to hit the Yucatan on Friday night right after we would have arrived. It had slowed down – now it wasn’t going to get there until Saturday morning. And the weather in the Florida Straits was looking milder, as well.

Hurry up and wait.

We knew there was going to be yet another discussion with the other boats so the Rachels were talking about it with each other when our new friend Dave called on the VHF at 7am. He and his wife have made the trip several times.

Dave: “You know, I was just looking at the weather and it looks like you have a window”.
Us: “Yeah, we were just discussing that.”
Dave: “You’d have to leave today, this morning”
Us: “Yeah. And we just paid for another week here yesterday, after we decided not to go on Sunday.”

So we chatted with our friends and all agreed we’d have 4 days before the big nasty front reached Isla Mujeres. If we left soon and didn’t dawdle we could make it. We called our weather guy on the SSB radio at his 9am broadcast and he agreed that it looked like a good opportunity. Ok, how long would we all need to be ready?

We were already pretty well stowed, we just needed to get the dinghies back on deck. So we decided to leave at 9:00am, just 45 minutes away! Holy smokes! We looked around the cabin. Sewing machine, fabric, foam, thread, needles, lots of other stuff that was stowed before but isn’t now…sheesh. Mark went on deck and prepared to haul the dinghy. Julie started putting everything away down below. Once everything was put away, out came the gear we’d need for the trip. It was still cold so we’d need foul weather jackets and pants, gloves and wooly caps, not to mention our life jackets and harnesses.

Hurry up and wait.

We set up the salon settee to be our off watch berth since it’s too lumpy to sleep up forward under way – you would spend half your time airborne up there. By 8:55 we were all ready to go. Wow, not enough time to even get nervous. We were really going. We led the way out of the harbour, only 3 of us now, off on the toughest crossing we’ve attempted so far in our Rachel.

So now we’ve got 3 days to hurry up and get there before the nasty front, and three days to wait until we get there to see what it’s like.

Connections

2009-12-27T18:19:00.011-05:00

Location: Marathon, Florida

Position: 24 42.371 N 081 05.706 W

Well, the decision’s been made. We’ll sail from the Florida Keys to Isla Mujeres, Mexico whenever we get a decent weather window. We’re excited and a bit nervous. Our route will take us around Key West, past the Marquesas and the Dry Tortugas, south across the Gulf Stream to within 20 miles of the Cuban coast, then around the western end of Cuba, across the Gulf Stream again (it’s named the Yucatan Current here) and over to the eastern tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Mujeres).

It’s a trickier trip than we usually do and we want to wait for fairly settled weather. We thought we may be leaving tomorrow but now it looks like maybe Sunday. Or next week. We are all provisioned and ready to go - we just have to stock back up on the foods we are eating and wait.

We left Miami just over a week ago in a flotilla of 5 boats. Four of us will travel together to Mexico and the fifth will spend the winter in Marathon. The trip took 2 full days travelling along the southern shore of the Florida Keys and was one of our best sailing trips yet. For both days we had 20-25 knot winds and because it was coming from the NW, the islands kept the seas from getting too high. For you non-sailors this is like having your cake and eating it too. We sailed, with no engine, for the entire 2 days. It was fun but COLD. I know you have no sympathy for us – you who are sitting there with snow on the ground thinking we are a pair or wimps. But!! Don’t forget even though the temperature was in the 50s F we were sitting outside all day with 20-25 knot winds blowing right on us. It’s not like sitting inside. We had our hats and gloves on, our jackets, foul weather trousers and …… our slippers. Still it was a great couple of days. It was very similar to sailing in Maine what with dodging the crab pots and the cold weather – except Maine was warmer!

At the end of December our cell phone will be disconnected and we’ll be back to staying in touch via ham radio. The radio is a godsend: using it we can send and receive small emails, download weather, and make calls around the world to friends that have ham radios. Occasionally we’ll have Internet access, so we’re able to use that to call our families, too.

Several of our boating friends have already headed over to the Bahamas and we’ve been staying in touch using our radio. There are a couple of “nets” in the mornings where we all check in and share our locations. During these nets we can hail friends and, after moving off the net frequency, we can have a nice chat. We have also set up some times and frequencies that we listen to and chat on in the evening, if we aren’t too busy socializing (and neither are they).

We are living a very simple life with few modern conveniences and our radio is our lifeline to civilization. Usually after dinner we turn on the radio and set it to our designated frequency. We either listen to see if any of our friends call, or we will initiate a call to them. Sometimes there’s a lot of crackling and interference and it’s hard to hear but other times it is as clear as day. We are reminded of our grandparents and parents sitting around the crackling ‘wireless’ listening to news and drama.

As we all are now heading in different directions this is our only way to stay in touch until we see each other again. This could be 6 months, a year or 2 years from now. However long it is, it’s already too long! We’re feeling a bit sad as we prepare to put more distance between us and our friends and families. We miss them, but we’re also looking forward to new experiences. We’re glad we’ll be traveling with some old friends and, as always, we’re sure we’ll be making new friends along the way. And we get to learn Spanish! “Ay caramba!!”

Khronicles – Keeping Kith & Kin Konnected!

Motivation

2009-12-12T10:03:00.002-05:00

Location: Miami Beach, Florida
Position: 25 47.244 N 080 09.384 W

For some reason we just haven’t been feeling particularly creative or motivated Khronicle-wise lately. We’ve been busy moving south and getting Rachel and ourselves ready to go. We decided about three weeks ago to head to the Western Caribbean this winter. We’ll be going from Miami down to Boot Key Harbor / Marathon, Florida. We’ll stick around there waiting for weather and, when the time seems right, cross the Gulf of Mexico westward to Isla Majeras (Mark says “That translates to ‘The Island of Women’!!”) off the Eastern tip of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.

The current plan is to hang out there a bit then work our way down the Mexican coast to Belize.

Our “week” in Vero Beach, Florida turned into eleven days. Our “few days" in Miami Beach, Florida has turned into a week so far with more to go. We have begged, borrowed and purchased cruising guides, charts and courtesy flags for all the countries we know, think, or there is even a possibility we may go to. We have worked on Rachel to prepare her for a long period away from spare parts. We’ve stocked her to the bursting point with food items that we may or may not be able to get. And then there’s the wine!!!

So it’s not that we haven’t been busy. Of course, along with making tracks down the east coast of the US we’ve also been visiting old friends and making new ones. We know we say this often but hanging out with friends is one of our favorite parts of the cruising lifestyle.

All that being said, Miami (spelled backwards it’s “I maim” – go figure) is a great place to sit at anchor. Easy shore access, easy provisioning and lots to do.

Mark: “Think ‘South Beach’”.

Julie: Whack!!

Mark: “Ow! Whaaat??”

And to top it off a friend just turned us on to this fantastic little Cuban restaurant over there that does breakfast for $3.65 – and that includes the coffee!

Miami is the farthest south on the east coast of the US we’ve been in Rachel, so we’re looking forward to seeing and experiencing new places and meeting new people. Once we get on our way again we’re sure we’ll be motivated to share our experiences with you all. Honest!

Mark & Julie
s/v Rachel

http://svRachel.blogspot.com

Snails on a Turtle

2009-11-01T15:17:00.002-05:00

Location: West Hartford, Connecticut
Position: N 41 47.06 W 072 45.66

Rachel is in a slip in Isle of Palms, South Carolina and we’re in a rental car driving up to Connecticut. Headed up the interstate highway at 70 mph we find ourselves reflecting on the differences between travelling by land and by sea. We just spent over two months getting Rachel from New England down to South Carolina, and now we’ll be making the return trip in 15 hours.

As we speed north in our rental car we recall looking out from Rachel’s cockpit at turtles sitting on rocks and logs, plopping into the water as we passed by along the Waccamaw and Pasquatank Rivers. From the car, even if there were turtles, we wouldn’t be able to see them at the speed we’re travelling. It’s all relative….

Q: What did the snail say when it was riding on the turtle?

As we cross the narrow, tame, and shallow upper Cape Fear River in North Carolina we remember the morning we sailed down its lower reaches. It’s turbulence and fast moving current created eddies and whirlpools as we sped along at 7.2 knots (just over 8 mph).

A: “Wheeeee!!”

Passing a sign that points the way to Wrightsville Beach we remember the huge dolphin that swam up to play in our bow wave as we sailed down from Beaufort, North Carolina (pronounced “bow-furt”). His nose reached out beyond Rachel’s bowsprit while his tail was right next to her hull, probably around 7 feet long. Julie spent the longest time standing on the bowsprit watching him. He kept looking up at her, too, as he swam and played.

We pass another sign telling us we’re entering the Pamlico Sound Watershed. It’s sunny, warm, and still here. Far different from the day we left Ocracoke Island bound for Oriental in the blowing rain. We had to clear the shallow Ocracoke entrance channel directly to windward, pounding into the waves and taking green Pamlico Sound water over the bow.

Driving over the upper reaches of the Potomac River, upstream from Washington, DC we see a river that, if navigable at all, would require a canoe or kayak to weave between the shallow rocks. We are reminded of one of our problem spots on the Chesapeake. The Potomac River flowing into the Bay causes a lot of turbulence and steep, choppy waves, especially when the wind opposes the ebbing tide. This is where the wooden dinghy we built in our basement first broke during a night passage to Mobjack Bay. Different, but just as scary as the political turbulence in the US Capital. Hmm. On second thought, maybe the Potomac isn’t so bad as all that ….

We cross the Delaware Bay Bridge (paying one of many annoying tolls along the way) and remember our glorious sail up the Delaware Bay and through the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal to the Sassafrass River on the Chesapeake Bay with the wind and tide in our favor all day.

Along the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Throughway our sightseeing is interrupted by toll booths, large trucks, and annoying drivers. How different it is rushing along in this semi-organized chaos than when we sailed past Atlantic City on that lovely moonlit night! Silently rocking along looking at the giant wind generators, all the lights from the tall buildings, and watching Harrah’s of Atlantic City become a building-sized video screen (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzkrbnByY-k&feature=related).

We pass New York City, looking at the tall buildings in the distance. From here in a car you can’t really even see the City – certainly not as intimately as we did from Rachel’s deck as we sailed the East and Hudson Rivers.

One thing we have been pleased to notice as we continue to travel north is the awesome colors of the autumn leaves. The leaves have turned since we left New England a couple of months ago. The reds, yellows, and oranges become ever more vibrant as we approach New England. Lately, most of the scenery we’ve seen from Rachel has been cypress swamps and marsh grass – different, and every bit as beautiful in their own ways – but these New England autumn colors … wow!

Woven throughout all of this are thoughts of old friends with whom we travelled, new friends we made along the way, and friends we haven’t seen in a while who are either behind or ahead of us in our travels. These friends, the ones we haven’t yet met, and the moments of solitude we enjoy - whether alone during a solitary night watch or together like we are most of the rest of the time - are the real highlights of our life aboard and are precious to us.

All in all we agree that we prefer travelling on Rachel over travelling by car. We have more time to think, to look, to consider, to relate. You know that whole “it’s not the destination, it’s the trip” thing? Well, it’s true. At least for us. Some may look on our life as slow and boring – “how can you stand to sail all day and only travel the same distance you can in less than an hour in a car?” We actually like – really, really like - being “snails on a turtle” and can’t wait to get back aboard Rachel to resume our slow passage further south.

“Wheeeee!!”

Catching Up With Friends

2009-10-19T08:42:00.005-04:00

Location: Broad Creek, near Oriental, NC
Position: N 35 05.446 W 076 37.960

Okay, we’re finally getting sick of being over a month behind in our Khronicles (“It’s about time!” you say). Therefore, we’re going to subject you to yet another round of playing “catch up” as we flounder our way back to the present.

We last left you in Port Jefferson, NY, following our hair-raising escape from “no show” hurricane Danny. After spending a couple of days in Port Jefferson it was time to head down through New York City. You may recall that on our way north in the spring we wished our friend Carter, who lives in New York City, could have been with us. We called and were happy to learn that she was available. She caught the train to Port Jefferson, spent the night on Rachel, and gave us a personal guided tour as we traversed the East and Hudson Rivers through the city the next day. She left us at Atlantic Highlands, NJ where she caught the high speed ferry back home. Thanks, Carter, it was a great day!

We spent a couple of days in Atlantic Highlands wandering round the back streets and old neighborhoods. Stocking up on groceries and diminishing the laundry pile were high priorities, both of which we managed to accomplish.

The weather forecasters said it was time to leave so we sailed and motor-sailed overnight down the New Jersey coast in light winds and caught the tide all the way up the Delaware Bay and through the Chesapeake & Delaware Canal into the Chesapeake Bay. We travelled a total of 200 miles in 32 hours, another great trip. We anchored in the Sassafras River in the northern part of the Chesapeake Bay for the night, then headed further down the Chesapeake.

We stopped to see friends who were near Baltimore repowering their boat (putting in a new engine for you landlubbers). We ended up staying there for 2 weeks thanks to the generosity of their friend who let us use a slip. Our time was spent busily sanding, epoxying, replacing the genoa tracks, painting and varnishing the shower, and generally improving our Rachel. Thanks, Ken!

During the third weekend in September we attended another SSCA gam, this one in the Rhode River near Annapolis. Following that we cruised a little with friends then visited our old stomping grounds in Deltaville, Virginia. As always, we were looking forward to seeing friends there in our old “home port”. We also picked up our mail and managed to get invited to a lovely dinner. Thanks, Jon and Anne!

Now it was getting colder - time to start heading south in earnest! We headed south via the Dismal Swamp, one of our favorite parts of our trip north in the spring. The only problem with traversing the Dismal Swamp is that sometimes it is not deep enough for our 6 foot draft. Some friends on another boat told us they’d seen depths of “nothing less than 7.5 feet” a week or so before, so we decided to give it a go. After several bumps and a bit of plowing, we made it through and headed down the Pasquotank River to Elizabeth City. We really liked this town on our way north and certainly enjoyed it again this trip. We got to see the local high school’s homecoming parade and attend the free “Rose Buddies” wine and cheese social our first night there. Thanks, Elizabeth City!

We left Elizabeth City and, in company with two other boats, had one of our best sails of the year (though it was a bit chilly and overcast) to the town of Manteo on Roanoke Island. We’d hoped to spend a couple of days there, but the weather forecasters gave us one good day followed by several lousy ones. We decided that passing through the shallow channels around Roanoke Island and Roanoke Inlet in fair weather was far preferable to doing it boisterous conditions, so we left at dawn the next morning. Sixty miles later we anchored in Silver Lake at Ocracoke Island in North Carolina’s beautiful Outer Banks.

We’d been hearing about how wonderful Ocracoke is for years, but this was our first chance to see and experience it in person. It’s a beautiful island that is mostly national seashore. The small town of Ocracoke on Silver Lake consists of many small lanes with a generous sprinkling of cottages and small shops. We spent many hours wandering around in town and on the beach, nature watching, window shopping, and generally enjoying ourselves in spite of the blustery, rainy weather. Though we’d only planned to spend a couple of days there, our stay was extended to four days by 20-25 knot winds – not that we minded! Thanks, Ocracoke!

Finally catching us up to the present (“And it’s about time!” you say), last Friday we sailed from Ocracoke in 15-20 knots. With the wind on the nose we fought our way out through the short steep waves in the entrance channel at Ocracoke, occasionally taking green water over the bow. After our turn to the west, however, we had a glorious reach across the Pamlico Sound and up the Neuse River toward Oriental (“Aha! I know what a “reach” is!” you say).

Thanks to the generosity of more new friends, we’re staying at a slip here while we wait for the cold weather and yet more strong northerly winds to pass. Even though there’s a frost warning tonight, we’re as snug as can be while our little electric space heater pumps out the BTUs. Thanks, Jerry and Donna!

And now we’re caught back up. We should let you know that we still retain the right to backtrack, tell a few tall tales, and fill in a few details in later Khronicles, but at least we can continue moving the Khronicles forward with clear consciences.

Last, but not least, we wanted to thank you for reading this. Your comments, observations, suggestions, corrections, etc., mean a lot to us. We appreciate you letting us occasionally interrupt your day with our natterings.

Thanks, friends!

Big Bad Bill

2009-08-28T20:28:00.002-04:00

Location: Port Jefferson, New York
Position: N 40 57.830 W 073 04.909

Hurricanes are a big deal wherever you live. But if you live on a boat, they can easily (and quite literally) become life changing experiences. We haven’t lived through one on Rachel and have no desire to do so.

So here we are sailing down to Harpswell in Casco Bay, Maine and keeping a close eye on the tropical storm system forming to the east of the Windward Islands in the Caribbean. There’s a family gathering scheduled at which Mark’s dad’s ashes will be sprinkled at his favorite fishing spot in Maine. The prediction is showing that Bill will skirt the coast of Maine within the next few days. Even if the storm passes 50 miles offshore we can look forward to high winds and huge waves. We study the charts and find a potential hurricane hole just inland from Harpswell where we think we can hide if necessary.

A good hurricane hole has all around protection, preferably with high sides (so the winds will skip over you), good water depth (in case huge waves come in and try to bonk you on the bottom), and most of all, good holding for your anchors. When we arrive at Harpswell the first thing we do is go a bit further inland to check out Long Cove. Apart from it not being as deep as we’d like we’re confident it’ll make a fine hurricane hole, so we head back to Harpswell Sound.

When we express our concerns to the locals we’re told “Hurricanes don’t usually hit Maine”. Oh. Okay. Well, our experience further south says that if a hurricane even so much as threatens landfall anywhere near, all the available hurricane holes get filled to (or most often beyond) capacity. When this happens, there’s “no room at the inn” and you could be caught out at the worst possible time. We want to be proactive and make sure Rachel is safe, so we check the updated weather at least twice a day, ready to make tracks for our chosen spot if the worst should appear imminent. So far, the forecasts still show Hurricane Bill skirting right by or over us.

We do not let our worries prevent us from having a great time at the spot in Maine where Mark spent some of the happiest times of his life. (Editors note: that would, of course, be before he met Julie!!). We enjoy many wonderful, happy hours with his family, chatting and reminiscing.

The scattering ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, but unfortunately Bill is scheduled to arrive early Sunday morning. The forecast is for high winds and building seas on Saturday - not the most conducive forecast for a family heading out to a rocky island on a small boat. Still we wait, hoping that, at the last minute, the storm will veer further out to sea and give us a miss.

The Friday forecast shows the storm weakening slightly and heading a little further offshore. Huge sighs of relief all round. After much discussion we decide that the hook of land behind which we lie, just off the old family cottage, will give us enough protection from the predicted 40 mph winds and 10 foot seas - so Rachel stays put.

On Saturday morning Bill slows down a little; enough so that we decide to go on out and say a last goodbye to Mark’s dad, Ken. The rain holds off long enough for us to have a lovely outside gathering and remembrance of Ken’s ‘pretty good life’. Our ride out to the island and back on Mark’s cousin’s son’s lobster boat (wow, that’s a mouthful) is another highlight for Mark – he hasn’t been on one since he was a teenager lobstering with his uncle Ned and the memories come flooding back. Thanks, Chip.

Finally, on Sunday, the rain comes. Fairly high winds and big seas pound the islands to the south and east of us, but Rachel is safe and secure in her anchorage seeing almost no storm-related weather other than the rain. By Tuesday the seas are down and we head further south into Casco Bay to meet our friends on Barefootin’ at Jewell Island, having decided to head back south together.

We have a lovely sail down to Kittery, Maine. When we arrive our friends tell us “Just in case you haven’t had enough excitement yet, another tropical storm named ‘Danny’ has formed and it’s also forecast to head our way.” Crikies.

Danny is predicted to increase to class 2 hurricane strength and clip Cape Cod a glancing blow. Like Bill before him, Danny will run up the coast of New England and also clip the coast of Maine. How close is anybody’s guess. We decide to get moving again to both get south and to minimize our exposure to the storm. Since we’re only 75 miles north of Cape Cod, we decide that if we leave immediately we can get down to Cape Cod, through the canal, and then as far west as we can into Long Island Sound before Danny makes landfall. The further the better, since further west is more out of Danny’s predicted path.

So we haul anchor at 4am and start heading south. We’ve been looking forward to enjoying a nice, relaxing trip south. Yea right!! Not so much. It ain’t gonna happen. Instead, feeling the stress to make good time and stay one step ahead of the storm, we forge ahead. It’s expected to hit Cape Cod head on in three days and we only travel at 6 mph. Yikes!

We get through the Cape Cod Canal in the late afternoon and are thinking we’ll stop and spend the night then continue on the next day.

Once again this will not be so. We check the storm track again and have a discussion with our friends. Danny’s still on track to smash into Cape Cod. It’s 75 miles down Buzzards Bay to the entrance of Long Island Sound and an additional 50 miles to Port Jefferson, New York. That’s 20 hours at 6 knots - and we only have 48 hours left. There’s no time to stop and sleep; we need to keep on moving. We travel through the night, now feeling good that we are making miles west and away from danger. We enter Long Island Sound at first light and make it to Port Jefferson by 5pm. An awesome run! We had the current in our favor the entire 214 mile trip except for the last 6 hours – 6.74 knots average speed for the entire trip! This is a record for us on Rachel. Now all we can do is set the anchor with a lot of chain and try to get some sleep before Danny arrives tomorrow.

As it turns out, Danny loses strength and heads a little further offshore than originally predicted and, once again, we only get some rain and not much wind. We could get frustrated that we’ve made all this effort and the storm has once again changed course, but we don’t. Instead, we’re grateful because it could easily have headed further west and hit us hard. We feel that we have made it to a safe haven and, as we all know, you don’t want to fool around with Mother Nature.

After spending a day resting up and waiting for the winds to die down we reflect on our passage. We‘ve had a lot of stress and a long, fast trip, but the good part is, we’ve also made lots of progress! Now it’s only a hop, skip, and a jump (a mere 250 miles) to get us back to the Chesapeake Bay!

As Mark’s Dad used to sing “Big Bad Bill is Sweet William now.”

Wishing Sweet Williams to us all,

A gem …. or three

2009-08-15T20:11:00.002-04:00

Location: Isle of Springs, Maine
Position: N 43 51.830 W 069 40.717

During our sailing about, we like to try and visit places that are a bit off the beaten path. Sometimes these are disappointing, but more often than not it’s been our experience that these spots often have something unique and wonderful to offer us. And every once in a while we come across a real gem. Or three.

We left the Penobscot Bay and headed toward East Boothbay to visit Mark’s cousin – she had lined up a free mooring for us for a few days. As we pulled in to pick up the mooring we noticed a pretty little wooden day sailor on the mooring next to us.

Mark’s cousin’s daughter’s boyfriend (Eben) rows out to welcome us. His dad, Nat Wilson, has loaned us the mooring. Nat is known world-wide as a traditional sail maker. He made the sails for the USS Constitution and many of the old Hereschoff boats (the 3 remaining Buzzards Bay 30s for example) among others. The little boat on the mooring next to us was a 1912 Hereschoff 12.5 they were working on.

Anyway, back to the story. Eben asked us if there was anything we needed and Julie sort of joked that we’d been thinking about putting a third reef in the main sail. He said “Oh. Let’s take a look.” So we raised the sail to the second reef. Then he said “Let’s take it off – I can take it up to the loft, cut the patches this afternoon and sew it up in the morning. It’ll be done tomorrow afternoon.” Wow! We were stunned! We finally found a sail loft that wasn’t going to make us wait three weeks or a month to do the job!

And he was true to his word – the next day we had a third reef in the main – and the quality of the work is top notch. When we went in to pick up the sail Nat showed us around the loft and told us “Feel free to pick up that mooring anytime if it’s open.” What gracious and helpful hosts, and what a gem the Wilson sail loft turned out to be.

After a wonderful visit with Mark’s cousin and family, we left East Boothbay and headed briefly north to the Muscungous Bay and spent the night at Harbor Island. This is yet another beautiful spot in the long string of beautiful spots we’ve discovered in Maine. Another lovely hike around the shore, across the cliffs, and through the woods followed by another delicious dinner on Rachel. We sat in the cockpit having a glass of wine and decided that Harbor Island qualified as another gem. These islands are very similar, pine trees, rocky shores to pick your way around hopping from rock to rock, they are also very different and each enchanting in it’s own way. We have only touched on a few but will save others for another trip.

While we watched the sun set and the sky begin to darken, we noticed two open boats rowing in. Four pairs of oars each, eight people rowing in synch (because there’s not a breath of wind), one on the tiller, one working the lead line, and a few more milling about, they came in and dropped their anchors near us. Upon questioning, we learned that they were Outward Bound boats out for the 4th night of a 12 day voyage. After they settled in they stretched a tarp over a boom and bedded down for the night. The big question we had was “how do they work the toilet issue?”, since there are both girls and boys on each boat, and there’s obviously no room for a proper head. Unfortunately, that question was left unasked, so we may never know.

We hauled anchor in the morning and started south for the Sheepscot River. Julie wanted to see puffins, and puffins we were going to see. As she told some friends “I’m going to make Mark circle Eastern Egg Rock until I see one! However long it takes.” Needless to say, Mark was less than thrilled with this idea. The cruising guide tells us there were 23 nesting pairs there in 2003. We get there and begin our first circle. Wow. Those nesting pairs must have been really busy because there are puffins everywhere! Mark got away with circling the island once, Julie got all puffined up, and we all got to start heading south.

The anchorage off the Sheepscott River at Isle of Springs is on the northeast side of the island, providing excellent protection from the usual southwesterly winds. On the spur of the moment we decided to stop there and go for a walk. What a treat. It was like going back in time.

There’s one truck on the island and it’s only used to pick people up at the dock when they arrive with their luggage and groceries and to take them back when they leave. Other than that it sits idle. The rest of the time everyone uses dock carts. There’s a small ferry provided by the homeowners association, who also owns a lot on a nearby island that’s accessible to the mainland via a bridge. Everyone parks their cars at the lot and catches the ferry to the island. Then they walk. And smile when they pass. They know you’re not from there, because they know everyone who is. But they smile and are gracious, anyway.

The island is crisscrossed with paved paths, wooden boardwalks, gravel walks and woodland trails. It’s not too big, but it’s stunningly beautiful. Smaller, turn of the century cottages are scattered about and there’s a big community hall called “The Casino” next to the tennis courts at the top of the hill.

There was a list on the Casino of who was going to do the Sunday service. The residents take turns – last Sunday the kids did it. We’re sorry we missed that one – bet it was great! There were two pianos there – one was labeled “For General Use” and the other was covered by a sheet. There’s also a phone tree list – if an emergency occurs, everyone is responsible for calling two or three others so everyone gets notified quickly. There are even a fire pond, piping, and fire hose stations scattered around the island. But no stores. If you want to spend money you have to go to the mainland. Cottages are handed down from one generation to the next and only rarely will one be offered for sale.

There’s an honor system library – it used to be the post office until the USPS closed it a few years ago. When you want a book you check it out yourself. Then you’re responsible for returning it in a timely fashion.

After spending an afternoon and the following morning walking around on all the trails, soaking up the sun and the smells and the sounds, we met a woman who was down at the dock with her daughter and her daughter’s friend. The kids were jumping off the dock (10 or 12 feet above the water!), swimming and having a ball. Our new friend told us that her parents own one of the cottages. Then she said something special. She said “My daughter’s experience here is almost identical to my mothers and to mine. It’s wonderful to have such continuity.” Time suddenly slowed. Mark was transported back to his childhood summers in Harpswell. What a wonderful place to be a kid!

Our new friend was intrigued that we live on Rachel and wanted to know all about it. We traded email addresses and she made us promise to come up to “The Farmhouse” for drinks next time we visit. We assured her we’d be back and are looking forward to returning the next time we come back to Maine. Having added this little gem to our collection, we take our leave, looking forward to discovering the next one.

Fair winds,

Reaching

2009-08-06T08:59:00.005-04:00

Location: Winter Harbor, Vinalhaven, Maine
Position: N 44 05.736 W 068 49.118

We love sailing. On Rachel we especially love reaching.

For you non-sailors: Imagine looking down at the boat from the top of the mast and thinking of it like a clock face. The bow is at 12 o’clock and the stern is at 6 o’clock. If the wind is coming from 2 o’clock (or 10 o’clock), it’s called a “close reach”. If it’s coming from 3 o’clock (or 9 o’clock) it’s called a “beam reach”, and if it’s coming from 4 o’clock (or 8 o’clock) it’s called a “broad reach”. These are Rachel’s fastest and most comfortable points of sail. We’ll sail on a reach every chance we get – even if it means going a bit out of our way.

There’s a well known channel between Deer Island and the mainland named the “Eggemoggin Reach”. It runs NW to SE and, since the prevailing winds are out of the SW, you are able to “reach” in either direction for a glorious sail. Mark has been wanting to sail the Eggemoggin Reach since we began sailing “just because”. It’s something we’ve really been looking forward to and we’re finally here!

Here are the log entries from our two trips (up west and down east) on the Eggemoggin Reach:

28 July – Finally on the Eggemoggin Reach. Unfortunately there’s no wind, so we’re motoring with just the main up.

3 August – No wind – motored the length of the Eggemogin Reach. Again.

Sigh…..

It hasn’t been all fog and no wind, however. We’re sitting here in Rachel’s cockpit after a wonderful sunny day of sailing (yes, sailing!!) through Merchants Row and East Penobscott Bay. We look out at the world around us. Two schooners – the “Nathaniel Bowditch” and the “Liberty Chimes” are sharing the anchorage with us. They’re gorgeous.

One thing about Maine – there are a whole lot of really beautiful boats up here. Old wooden sailing dinghies, schooners, ketches, yawls, sloops, runabouts, trawlers, lobster boats, you name it. We figure with only a few months of sailing season, the rest of the year can be used for doing stuff like varnishing. Whatever the reason, it’s always fun to look at all the boats

There’s absolutely nothing like a sunny day in Maine – crisp and clear as far as the eye can see. Blue skies with small, fluffy white clouds, evergreen covered cliffs, green water, and waves breaking on the rocks. The smells of balsam and the sea. Warm sunlight drying out the dampness in the boat and making us drowsy. It just doesn’t get any better than this, and the foggy, rainy, windless days make the sunny ones like this all the more precious and wonderful.

Happy to be here,

Mainly Maine

2009-08-04T13:13:00.003-04:00

Location: Frenchboro, Long Island, ME
Position: N 44 07.472 W 068 21.653

One of the wonderful things about Maine is you never know what to expect. When you wake up in the morning you could find a thick fog or, just as likely, a glorious sunny morning with the water twinkling and the trees backlit with the rising sun. You plan to travel and it could be thick fog, or it could be a glorious sunny day with perfect wind for sailing. You plan to go for a hike up a mountain and it could be such thick fog you can’t see the next tree or it could be a clear sunny day with miles of visibility overlooking small tree covered islands, mountains and seas covered with lobster buoys. That’s why people keep coming back because, like England, on a glorious summer day you just can’t beat it.

We have just spent three days in Long Island, only 6 miles around and 7 miles from the mainland. The only town on the island is named Frenchboro and it is purely a fishing village. People here are friendly, they really seem to like visitors but they do not cater to them. The harbour is small and full of moorings for lobster boats, with a few moorings for visiting cruisers. There was one left when we arrived but, since we prefer to anchor when we can, we left it for the friends we were traveling with. We anchored just outside the harbour in a protected but very currenty channel between two islands.

There is no grocery store. All the islanders must catch the ferry to the mainland for that. No quaint little shops. There is a fuel dock and deli where you can buy from a minimal sandwich selection, lobster, of course, drinks, and deserts. A lovely museum and library, a post office and a one room school with 13 students ranging from kindergarten to 7th grade (5-13 years old). Almost everyone here is a lobster fisherman and the year round population is 43 at last count.

This year another business opened in competition with the sandwich shop. I’m sure that is a big deal and probably caused a little stress in the community. The new café is called Offshore Store and More and is run by Tammy and her husband John, he’s also a lobsterman. The store also sells from a small menu but of course the popular items are the over-stuffed lobster roll (on a homemade roll) and lobster freshly cooked, which they will deliver to your boat, for $4 a pound. We can attest to the fact that both items are utterly delicious!

Frenchboro is like taking a step back in time, kids are all over the one street town playing on bikes, playing in the mud flats at low tide just generally having fun. The ferry only comes 3 times a week, Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. So if you want to go shopping you have to take the Tuesday ferry and stay overnight on the mainland, do all your shopping, and then return on the Wednesday ferry.

Tammy told us that when school is in the kids all come home for lunch. So whichever mom has not taken the trip to town is ‘the Mom for the Day’. All the kids come to her house for lunch, and again after school until the dads return from lobstering.

We have really enjoyed our time here, although it’s hard to imagine what life is like here in the winter. A few years ago they came up with an incentive programme to get more people to move here. A few families took the offer, but only one family has stayed. In recent years a large plot of land came up for sale and there was talk of subdividing and building houses. The town got together and managed to raise enough money to buy the land for a conservation programme and now over half of the island is in its natural state and covered with wonderful walking trails. The residents are happy with their small, sleepy village, they like tourists and cruisers to come over to visit and are happy to see them but they don’t want their island turned into a tourist mecca, they like it just the way it is…….and so do we!! We will definitely make another stop at Long Island next time we’re in Maine.