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February 2006 |
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24 February - Back in Utila
06 February - Still in the Boatyard
24 February - Back in Utila
The boat was eventually put back into the water on 8th February all fixed and finished. We went out to do a sea trial with a couple of guys from the boatyard a day later to make sure all was ok. When we got to the break water at the mouth of the harbour we had to wait for the ferry to come through and after watching that wobbeling like a weebol we decided that a harbour trial was more appropriate than a sea one! The ferry looked like it was going to capsize! All seemed fine with the new shaft (fingers crossed) so that is the end to that episode.
There has been a lot of cold fronts coming through so this has kept the weather either pretty windy or very rainy and kept us in the shipyard for another week or so. We managed to get a load of supplies in and eventually set back to Utila on 16th. The sail over was ok, the wind picked up again so we made it over doing 6 -7 Knots all the way. It was a bit lumpy bumpy and the cat was not very pleased with being taken away from his land of glory to be put back on a small wobbley boat again. He spent the entire journey in the little rope tidy pretending not to be too scared. It looks as though that is going to be the best spot for him.
We heard when we had got back into Utila that the ferry was handing out sick bags before they even left the harbour that day, also a number of boaters that tried to leave Utila turned around and came back in as it was too rough. So I am very proud of us for makeing it acrosss without any fuss!
We made it to Utila in a few hours and anchored over on the East side of the harbour where the holding is much better than it was where we were before. Stuart went down with the snorkel to check the anchor and it was completely wedged into the sand, so we can sleep easy at nights this time. The only thing being that it is further away for us to dingy into town, we still haven't got a new engine so this can somethimes be a bit of a problem with the Seagull.
We are now waiting for the weather to change so we can make it down to Roatan, since we have been here the wind has been constantly blowing from the direction we want to head to and with the current being against us too there isn't much point in trying to set off until the wind changes. Again we are stuck here for longer than we had anticipated!
We have met up with a couple of friends from the Rio, JPDAN and Sirena are here so it was nice to catch back up with them.
There have been a few robberies of late on the boats at anchor which is a real shame. Our friend Tony on Andiamo had his boat broken into and had 2 laptops stolen. Then last week whilst they were out with us and JPDAN on the raz, Jack and Suzie from Serina had theirs broken into as well. Its very odd what they take though, all the boats electrical equipment was not touched but all the fishing rods went, the spear gun was left, the camera was taken. They went through their fridge and took a couple of steaks a bag of prawns, the cheese and the rum, but they left the beer! Looks like they were going on a fishing party!
Due to this we make sure we are back on the boat before dark each night. We have found lots of good hiding spots for our important things and if they did break in I think they would be very disappointed with the contents of the fridge (which isn't refrigerated). A lump of month old sweaty cheese and some dried pasta is all they would find there, not much of a feast!
Hopefully the next time I write we will be in Roatan, maybe even Guanaja!! But more than likely still in Utila!!
06 February - Still in the Boatyard
So much for a quick job! We are still here after 21 days. The work the machine shop did making the coupling was terrible, they also never straightened the shaft which was requested. This work was all wrongly excepted by the shipyards welder. We were put back in the water after about a week and after paying our £2000 bill (which was very painful!). We took the boat out for a test and the engine was vibrating worse than it was before, so Stuart checked all the work that was done and called them back in to look at it, at which point they decided it was all wrong and they would have to take the boat back out again to fix it. The only bonus with this is they are doing it at their expense and not ours. All the bits have been remade now by a different machine shop and is looking more promising, they are currently being refitted so hopefully we should be back in the water shortly.
In the mean time there really hasn't been much to report. I had my birthday which was a bit of a non event. We had a wine tasting night the night before so felt a bit ropey the next day. We spent the whole day watching the entire series of 'Lost' on DVD!! How exciting are we! Mind you it was very good, we need the next series to watch now!
The cat has been having a great time climbing down the stairs at night and getting chased up trees by the dogs and bringing us gifts of huge flying cockroaches and grasshoppers. He's been coming back covered in paint and has now turned a dirty shade of brown, rather than his natural white colour!
We have been able to get a bit of shopping done, new bikinis and tops for me and lots of boat stuff for Stuart. We should be able to get a good stock of food here for the journey down to Cartagena and I need to do some more clothes shopping before we leave!