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January 2006 |
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Happy New Year!
18 January - Boat hauled out in La Ceiba
2 January - Happy New Year!
18 January - Boat hauled out in La Ceiba
After trying everyday since we got to Utila we eventually managed to sign in with the Immigration on 10th January, 17 days after we arrived here! We spent the time on the Island walking around during the day and discovering parts of the Island, the majority of it is based at the harbour as the rest of the Island is all swampy mangroves. The town is really nice and the people are very friendly. Lots of time has also be spent in the Tranquila bar, where we have also met a lot of nice people.
The anchoring in the harbour is terrible, the floor is a layer of sand on top of dead coral, so it is really difficult to get the anchor to set. After we had been here about a week we had a pretty rough night one night with wind and rain, so we didn't get much sleep worrying about drifting. Morning came and we were fine, so set about the normal morning duties. Whilst making the coffee I thought I could hear someone calling to us and asked Stuart if he could hear it too. He took a peek out of the window, then jumped up like a hot poker had been shoved up his bum, shouting "we're drifting" then spent 5 minutes trying to find his pants! We were heading straight towards a motor boat that was anchored up behind us and the owner was patiently standing at his bow trying to get our attention. Luckily the anchor caught before we hit him and we managed to get the engine on and go back and re-anchor (after Stuart had found his pants that is!) We have decided that the poor man would rather have seen Stuart naked and have an intact boat, than have a crashed boat, but be happy in the knowledge that Stuart was properly dressed!
We had 2 anchors set but the one that was really holding us had snapped its line. It must have been sawing on a rock all night and finally snapped. We didn't move off the boat for the rest of the day after that through fear of it happening again. We eventually ended up setting 3 anchors a little over the top but we felt a bit safer that way! (We could have been worse, we have five anchors including a 50lb fisherman's anchor, we could have set them all!)
I managed to pick up some web work whilst I was on the Island for Deep Blue, the dive shop that Stuart had used, which was good stuff
After finally managing to sign into the country we left Utila and headed off to La Ceiba to get the boat hauled. We left on Friday 13th (we didn't know that until we got here!) and had a nice 4 hour journey over here, not much in the way of wind so motor sailing all the way. Even the cat quite enjoyed it and spent the whole day outside with us. We made it to the harbour just before it closed for the the weekend and managed to get docked up with out a problem. On the Monday we got hauled out, it was soo much less stressful than the time before. We were taken out via a travel lift, lovely and smooth, the cat didn't even wake and was quite surprised when we woke up later to find all the water had disappeared!
The guys from the shipyard have been working on the boat since it has been out of the water. The P Bracket has been taken out and the rudder has been removed. The old engine mounts have been replaced with new ones and the hull is having a few blisters drilled out. They are going to make us a new P Bracket and a new bearing for the rudder. We should be back in the water after all this has been completed and the bottom given another quick coating of antifouling.
The Shipyard is a little way out of town, a long walk or a short taxi ride away. We took a walk to the Mall the other day, it was quite exciting to see proper shops again. We will be able to stock up properly on food and there are loads of other little bits that we haven't been able to get hold of else where, so I am looking forward to a day of shopping! I'm not too sure that Stuart feels the same way!
We have bumped back into Tony and Sjelle who are also moored up hear getting some work done. They are popping back to Guatemala today, Sjelle has a boat of her own back there which she needs to crack on with. We are now keeping an eye on Tony's boat and looking after his 3 cats! Cats seem to have become a bit of a theme to our traveling!
2 January - Happy New Year
Well since Christmas not a lot has really happened but I needed to put an entry as it is a New Year!! and to say Happy New Year to everyone.
Stuart has done a number of dives which he has enjoyed very much, with good visability and lots of sealife. 6 dives for $120 which is a pretty good price, especially considering they spotted and swam with Whale Sharks on one of the dives which is amazing. Its not the season for them at the moment and some people come here and spend weeks hoping to see one and never do.
The dingy engine is being more naughty than ever, Stuart currently has it in bits again although I am not too convinced that will help. I don't think it is a mechanical problem, I think it is a personality one, the engine is just being stubborn. We have had to row more times than I care to mention, we know all the boats in the harbour now as they have all given us a tow at one point or another and we have become a spectator sport with the locals. The rowing wouldn't be such a problem until the wind gets up and then you can find yourself drifting further and further away from the boat so it is not too safe. Fingers crossed though even Stuart is getting a bit an anoyed with his beautiful engine and is talking of buying a newer zippier engine in La Ceiba (fingers crossed!)
The cooker looks like it may be heading toward the graveyard too, its becoming a bit hazardous to light the oven now, I don't know whether my eyebrows can take much more!
New years was spent for the first part on Tony's lovely 50ft boat, Stuart was scared to let me go over there incase I wanted one! Its huge and the inside is lovely, no secret bits that pull out to make beds and tables, 4 proper cabins all with their own bathroom, its like a hotel! Had a pot luck over there with a couple of the other guys we know from the river and a number of his Guatemalan friends. It was a really nice evening, then off into town to the Tranquila to see the new year in. We appear to no longer be the last at the party, we made it to 3am but some of the others went through until 9am! We must be out of practice!
We finally managed to sign in with the Port Captain this morning after doing absolutly nothing yesterday, just lying in the recovery position all day! We now have to wait until Wednesday to see the Immigration. By the time we have all the paper work done we will have to leave again!