Guatemala has a few rules; the ones most pertinent to us right now are about the length of time a boat is allowed to visit. Visit being the operative word! Currently, a boat may visit for 3 months and then allowed a 1-year extension. The previous ruling allowed an additional 1 year to be added on to that, therefore a visit of two years was possible and we were ’grandfathered’ in by way of the previous ruling to do just that.
The problem is that the government can’t or won’t process the paperwork in a timely manner, and that brings us up to our current dilemma. We can stay and wait for our extension to come thru (we applied over 6 months ago) and in effect get an additional year for a total of 3 years! On the other hand, leave, paying a small fine and returning as a brand new boat under the new rules? What to do?
On the one hand, Mario’s is offering very cheap rent for cruisers who stay there through the season. On the other, we have secluded anchorages nude swimming off our almost brand new back deck and watching all the fresh water growth die and fall of our bottom as soon as we hit salt water. We choose the skinny-dipping!
We left Dec 1 and enjoyed great ‘motor’ down the river. Unhooking from the power was not too traumatic for Jeanie as the weather in the morning was cool and we left our slip around 10 AM and headed to the fuel dock where we took on 100 gallons of diesel. That, with the 40 gallons of old fuel we had, should be plenty enough to get us to Honduras. I really want to use the ‘old’ fuel up first.
So far, our only mechanical holdout is the newest depth sounder we just installed along with our back deck last January. At least we have not forgotten how to turn ‘on’ the old one as you might remember was the issue last time we took off. The autopilot was very hard to get started as we had been trying since leaving the marina to “wake up” our third crew-thing. Awakening it involves a lot of un-plugging and re-plugging it into power. In fact, it is somewhat like waking a teenager up on Sat morning, we must have restarted it a hundred times when it finally began staying on for longer and longer and by the Gulfete, was full time, but watched warily. Our other ‘untried in real life’ piece of equipment is our newly repaired anchor windless. We had the motor rebuilt when we put the 66 lb Bruce type anchor on last year. I did drop the anchor in the slip and pull it up, but that is not quite the same thing. I am sure there will be more repairs along th
e way, but for now, life is sweet.
The dawn of our first day away from the dock finds us anchored off Tex’n Bay Marina, waiting for Mike to open for breakfast. He promised to make his famous “Texas style” biscuits & gravy! What a treat! There was talk last night that he might be doing a Tex-Mex dinner tonight. However, a last look on-line at our weather sites convinced us to stick to our plan.
Chris Parker, a Single Side-band radio weather Guru has predicted a bad bit of weather from the low, which has stalled over Mexico for the last couple of days.
Our plan is to go to Livingston this afternoon to check out with the authorities. Raul, our ships agent, had the papers ready and waiting. After paying a small fine for staying past our supposed exit date and getting our passports stamped, we were clear to leave Guatemala. The next ‘leg’ was to spend a day or so waiting for our perfect window of fine weather. When the window appeared, we would sail round the point and it would be a down wind ride to Roatan!?
We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in a sidewalk café that would haunt us the rest of the trip! Back on Oasis, we pulled the outboard motor off the inflatable and secured both items for the duration. We had bone everything that we could think of in preparation, Now all we gotta do is get across the dreaded Livingston Bar!
Livingston Bar, the easy way!
Don’t start thinking I’m wimpling out, but the trip across the Livingston Bar is always a high anxiety threshold to the laid back style of living that lies just beyond. We are on the way out right now to discover the joys of cruising the Honduran Bay Islands and specifically French Harbor and Fantasy Island. It has been 2 years since we have had salt water under our keel and we find ourselves facing the dreaded bar going out!
Now we have done the transit both ways unassisted, but the third time was not the charm! Last night was a real show, or would have been if anybody were around to watch. A storm, remember that low over Mexico, was predicted and most of the fleet was going later. Since we were only going as far as Tres Puntas to hang out the decision seemed prudent. There always seems to be a small problem that sets things off and this was no different. A slipping fan belt demanded immediate attention! I was hoping it would hold until we got to Tres Puntas that would allow us to let the engine cool down over night, but no luck! We got a late start and could not seem to get to any of our marks without hitting bottom! We spent about a half hour leaving keel prints all over the Bar before the fear of being aground on a falling tide over came our need to be in Tres Puntas a day early.
We got back to deep water, 8 feet, and anchored. There was another reason we wanted to escape Livingston and it had nothing to do with egos and “beating the Bar” or even missing Tex-Mex! It’s called security! Almost everyone will tell you, “Do not spend the night in Livingston, it’s not safe”! Indeed, the next day, I noticed that the ‘thieves’ got us for a couple junk fenders! They were the pair that ’marked’ the boat by leaving blue crap that had to be taken off with a razor blade. Good riddance! I should have thrown them away long ago, but they still held air and the thought of making a cover for them had some merit.
The next morning, tails between our legs, we again called Raul, our ships agent and asked him to set us up with a “tow boat” to possibly tip us over and guide us across the Bar. Enter Ernesto! He showed up around 3:30 PM and we agreed on a price and a time 5:00! A full 3 hours before High Tide! We thought it was a bit early, but he assured us that as a fisherman, he knew his Bar! He Did! He got us to with-in 50 feet of the deep water before we hit bottom and it only took him a minute or two to relocate the groove. We were in deep water and ready to go a full 3 hours ahead of the fleet! We did not even have to be “tipped”! The whole thing was over so quickly that
I did not even have a chance to get my camera out! Between pulling the anchor and following Ernesto, I was very busy!
Experiencing very light winds and no wave action, we set course to by-pass Tres Puntas. Utila here we come! Our plan was to peek around Tres Puntas to see how rough it was before committing to an over-niter. The Oasis crew was blessed once again as the breeze, while on our nose most of the way, never got over 5 or 10 MPH! The seas remained calm at mostly one or 2 footers! Moreover, these conditions continued clear to Utila! This is what we used to call a ‘Pemex’ crossing in B
aja! We dropped the hook in East Harbor, Utila just after dark.
By early morning, a breeze had built out of the south-west and the anchorage got real lumpy, so after a cup of coffee, I changed a fuel filter and pulled the anchor we got right out in it! We got a nice push from a rainstorm between islands, which we quickly out ran. We even turned off the motor and sailed for a while! It was not long before we were sitting on our “mark” off French Harbor and by 2:55 PM, we had the hook down and were hanging behind the boat riding
“noodles” and thinking how nice it is to be us.
Just to recap our problems: 1) that hamburger gave us upset digestive tract problems all the way to Utila! 2) the ‘fine’ or secondary diesel fuel filter filled up and at 1900 RPM, the engine was starting to act starved for fuel. We changed over to the fresh diesel tank and kept promising we would change the damn filter once we got to Utila! It did indeed wait until then! 3) the good news is that at 66 years of age, I can pull a 66 lb bruce type anchor out of 25 feet of water and with a rock cradled in it’s ‘crook’ ( anyone remember Angle Island 1985?) 4) our new depth sounder never would read the bottom, and 5) I need to replace the bearings in our Wind-Bugger wind generator.
We’ll try to fix things as we go along, but that will be for another blog………
The problem is that the government can’t or won’t process the paperwork in a timely manner, and that brings us up to our current dilemma. We can stay and wait for our extension to come thru (we applied over 6 months ago) and in effect get an additional year for a total of 3 years! On the other hand, leave, paying a small fine and returning as a brand new boat under the new rules? What to do?
On the one hand, Mario’s is offering very cheap rent for cruisers who stay there through the season. On the other, we have secluded anchorages nude swimming off our almost brand new back deck and watching all the fresh water growth die and fall of our bottom as soon as we hit salt water. We choose the skinny-dipping!
We left Dec 1 and enjoyed great ‘motor’ down the river. Unhooking from the power was not too traumatic for Jeanie as the weather in the morning was cool and we left our slip around 10 AM and headed to the fuel dock where we took on 100 gallons of diesel. That, with the 40 gallons of old fuel we had, should be plenty enough to get us to Honduras. I really want to use the ‘old’ fuel up first.
So far, our only mechanical holdout is the newest depth sounder we just installed along with our back deck last January. At least we have not forgotten how to turn ‘on’ the old one as you might remember was the issue last time we took off. The autopilot was very hard to get started as we had been trying since leaving the marina to “wake up” our third crew-thing. Awakening it involves a lot of un-plugging and re-plugging it into power. In fact, it is somewhat like waking a teenager up on Sat morning, we must have restarted it a hundred times when it finally began staying on for longer and longer and by the Gulfete, was full time, but watched warily. Our other ‘untried in real life’ piece of equipment is our newly repaired anchor windless. We had the motor rebuilt when we put the 66 lb Bruce type anchor on last year. I did drop the anchor in the slip and pull it up, but that is not quite the same thing. I am sure there will be more repairs along th
e way, but for now, life is sweet.The dawn of our first day away from the dock finds us anchored off Tex’n Bay Marina, waiting for Mike to open for breakfast. He promised to make his famous “Texas style” biscuits & gravy! What a treat! There was talk last night that he might be doing a Tex-Mex dinner tonight. However, a last look on-line at our weather sites convinced us to stick to our plan.
Chris Parker, a Single Side-band radio weather Guru has predicted a bad bit of weather from the low, which has stalled over Mexico for the last couple of days.
Our plan is to go to Livingston this afternoon to check out with the authorities. Raul, our ships agent, had the papers ready and waiting. After paying a small fine for staying past our supposed exit date and getting our passports stamped, we were clear to leave Guatemala. The next ‘leg’ was to spend a day or so waiting for our perfect window of fine weather. When the window appeared, we would sail round the point and it would be a down wind ride to Roatan!?
We enjoyed a leisurely lunch in a sidewalk café that would haunt us the rest of the trip! Back on Oasis, we pulled the outboard motor off the inflatable and secured both items for the duration. We had bone everything that we could think of in preparation, Now all we gotta do is get across the dreaded Livingston Bar!
Livingston Bar, the easy way!
Don’t start thinking I’m wimpling out, but the trip across the Livingston Bar is always a high anxiety threshold to the laid back style of living that lies just beyond. We are on the way out right now to discover the joys of cruising the Honduran Bay Islands and specifically French Harbor and Fantasy Island. It has been 2 years since we have had salt water under our keel and we find ourselves facing the dreaded bar going out!
Now we have done the transit both ways unassisted, but the third time was not the charm! Last night was a real show, or would have been if anybody were around to watch. A storm, remember that low over Mexico, was predicted and most of the fleet was going later. Since we were only going as far as Tres Puntas to hang out the decision seemed prudent. There always seems to be a small problem that sets things off and this was no different. A slipping fan belt demanded immediate attention! I was hoping it would hold until we got to Tres Puntas that would allow us to let the engine cool down over night, but no luck! We got a late start and could not seem to get to any of our marks without hitting bottom! We spent about a half hour leaving keel prints all over the Bar before the fear of being aground on a falling tide over came our need to be in Tres Puntas a day early.
We got back to deep water, 8 feet, and anchored. There was another reason we wanted to escape Livingston and it had nothing to do with egos and “beating the Bar” or even missing Tex-Mex! It’s called security! Almost everyone will tell you, “Do not spend the night in Livingston, it’s not safe”! Indeed, the next day, I noticed that the ‘thieves’ got us for a couple junk fenders! They were the pair that ’marked’ the boat by leaving blue crap that had to be taken off with a razor blade. Good riddance! I should have thrown them away long ago, but they still held air and the thought of making a cover for them had some merit.
The next morning, tails between our legs, we again called Raul, our ships agent and asked him to set us up with a “tow boat” to possibly tip us over and guide us across the Bar. Enter Ernesto! He showed up around 3:30 PM and we agreed on a price and a time 5:00! A full 3 hours before High Tide! We thought it was a bit early, but he assured us that as a fisherman, he knew his Bar! He Did! He got us to with-in 50 feet of the deep water before we hit bottom and it only took him a minute or two to relocate the groove. We were in deep water and ready to go a full 3 hours ahead of the fleet! We did not even have to be “tipped”! The whole thing was over so quickly that
I did not even have a chance to get my camera out! Between pulling the anchor and following Ernesto, I was very busy!Experiencing very light winds and no wave action, we set course to by-pass Tres Puntas. Utila here we come! Our plan was to peek around Tres Puntas to see how rough it was before committing to an over-niter. The Oasis crew was blessed once again as the breeze, while on our nose most of the way, never got over 5 or 10 MPH! The seas remained calm at mostly one or 2 footers! Moreover, these conditions continued clear to Utila! This is what we used to call a ‘Pemex’ crossing in B
aja! We dropped the hook in East Harbor, Utila just after dark.By early morning, a breeze had built out of the south-west and the anchorage got real lumpy, so after a cup of coffee, I changed a fuel filter and pulled the anchor we got right out in it! We got a nice push from a rainstorm between islands, which we quickly out ran. We even turned off the motor and sailed for a while! It was not long before we were sitting on our “mark” off French Harbor and by 2:55 PM, we had the hook down and were hanging behind the boat riding
“noodles” and thinking how nice it is to be us.Just to recap our problems: 1) that hamburger gave us upset digestive tract problems all the way to Utila! 2) the ‘fine’ or secondary diesel fuel filter filled up and at 1900 RPM, the engine was starting to act starved for fuel. We changed over to the fresh diesel tank and kept promising we would change the damn filter once we got to Utila! It did indeed wait until then! 3) the good news is that at 66 years of age, I can pull a 66 lb bruce type anchor out of 25 feet of water and with a rock cradled in it’s ‘crook’ ( anyone remember Angle Island 1985?) 4) our new depth sounder never would read the bottom, and 5) I need to replace the bearings in our Wind-Bugger wind generator.
We’ll try to fix things as we go along, but that will be for another blog………
