2022 SEASON, RAM MARINA, RIO DULCE, GUATEMALA

MID TO END FEBRUARY 2022

Hard to believe we’ve been here nearly a month, and done so much, yet there’s so much to do. We aim to set off on 7th March, today is 26th February, a week to go. We still have sails to put on and mast work to do. Of course not all the jobs will be ticked off, we can leave the nice to do jobs when we anchor somewhere.

In between jobs we met and became firm friends with a Swiss family who are travelling for a year with their two children. Michael, Annick, Ethan 8, and Annais 6 are adventuring through Europe and the Americas in their Bimobil mobile home nicknamed Rhino. We have the torrential downpours here in Fronteras to thank for our meeting. They Woods family had a leak in the roof of Rhino, Terry offered tools, materials and advice so they could find the source of the leak fix it themselves. Climbing up on the campers roof, Michael and Annick were thrilled to bits to fix the leak themselves, it’s not only their children who are learning new skills! We showed each other our homes, I was impressed with the sheer amount of space in Rhino, they can also cook without having to brace themselves against waves like we have to! Ethan and Annais are bright, confident and curious children, they loved exploring our boat and every day is a learning experience. They have a good knowledge of Spanish, English and a couple of words in Manx, Slainte! We gave them some pencils from the Isle of Man to remember us by. Terry and I were moved when, on the final evening with the Woods, Ethan and Annais coloured in pictures for us, they will be safely kept on Sisu and travel with seas whilst Ethan and Annais travel the roads. By happy co incidence when talking about pets, we discovered we both have black cats!! They have a fascinating blog https://thewoods.ch/ if you wish to follow these adventurous friends. Some people you meet along the way you really connect with, good luck Woods family!

Terry has mast work to do, we seem to be having regular scorching days, followed by a couple of wet days. This morning, 27th February, it’s wet, but optimistically Terry preps all his mast climbing gear and tools in case we get a gap in the rain. We do, so up he goes. The cross trees and mast are filthy from 19 months of sitting around, we also had a kiskadee bird nest in the radar fitting, it’s still there, what a feat of nest building, but it has to go. Then the rain started again, it helped loosen the crap that’s built up under the cross trees. All looks good though for another climb up the mast to fit the new VHF, mast light and wind index. Not today though!

Other jobs on the go, installing and wiring up the new beefed up autopilot.

Boat yoga!

Installing wiring for the windex, boat’s usually in a state of upheaval during the day, I’ve got used to it…

At some point, we’ll get to a lovely anchorage!

2022 SEASON RAM MARINA, RIO DULCE, GUATEMALA

MID – END FEBRUARY 2022

We’re working hard every day to prepare to splash, this word doesn’t necessarily mean sailing! For those of us on the hard, the question of “when do you think you’re going to splash?” as timescales can change from day to day depending on how a job is progressing, or not, this is a regular question we ask of each other! Many cruisers have work carried out by the Ram Marina team of Guatemalan guys, many, like us do the work ourselves. The Ram Guatemalan yard workers have a huge range of boat repair and paint skills, arriving on their motorbikes at 8am, like a flock of starlings, they greet each other, greet us and spread out to work in various parts of the yard. Music is switched on, they whistle loudly to attract each other’s attention above the noise of the boat lift, hull sand blasting, power drills, power washing, and their own loud music! Then… around 1pm, the yard falls silent as the workers have their lunch break, they shelter from the sun, or rain, everything stops, it can be frustrating for cruisers having work done! Then, they re emerge, joking and laughing with each other. Their natural cheerfulness lifts us when we’re slogging away. I particularly like their scaffolding!

We are a few days away from our splash, we’ve just about done all the out of water work, we will need to be on a pontoon as we need power and water. Pontoon spaces are always taken up so we keep an eye on boats leaving, crossing our fingers. In the meantime, we work…. we’ve had our anchor chain regalvinised here, as the chain is dipped in zinc, some links stick together. A job for Terry and his hammer.

Then we measured out 20, 40 & 60 metres, I sewed tape onto the links marking the distances out. I’m not a sewing person, but don’t mind this, kind of extreme sewing!

The big day comes, we’re meant to splash at 11am, Guatemalan time, this could mean anytime, hopefully today. I’m like a meercat, upright and staring down the yard as soon as the boat lift alarm starts, searching for the big blue monster of engineering that will take Sisu to the water. I can’t relax, we’ve prepared all we can, fenders on the starboard side, bow, stern and spring lines ready. I feel sick to be honest, will everything go well? Time ticks on…. mid day comes and goes. We have an early lunch, then the guys operating the boat lift go for lunch. Argh! The wind is getting up, Sisu’s not a lady for reversing and the only spot on the pontoon is tight, very tight….

Finally, at 2pm, the boat lift slowly makes it’s way up the yard, our way!! Terry climbs down the ladder after a final check, we know the engine is ok, well it was a few days ago, when we had a dry run. We stand back, the boat lift surrounds her, straps positioned underneath and the guys remove the stands….. Sisu takes the imposition well, I sense her retention of dignity as her nether regions are manhandled.

She’s in the air, and off down the yard. It’s so emotional, we invest our energy, sweat and literally our blood and tears over our girl, it’s like watching a wild creature or mammal returning back to her natural environment. I try not to cry, but there may indeed have been something in my eye as we watch her proceed down the yard.

Whenever a boat splashes, it attracts an audience… as if we weren’t tense enough. The wind has picked up a bit, and on checking out our pontoon space, our friend, Tom, s/v Honey Ryder tied up on the other side of the pontoon, walked the gap, measuring approx 45 feet, room yes, but snug, we are 38 feet, and need comfort room either end of Sisu.

Sisu’s lowered in, the lift stops, it’s work done. A gangplank is stretched from the side onto Sisu and we climb aboard. Our audience awaits… god, why are so many people here! It’s always interesting to watch a boat splash, even more so if something goes wrong!!! Sisu is set loose and we motor out into the river, turn a couple of circles getting a feel for the length of our berth. Then, we go for it, I stand at the bow with a line ready to throw. Our friends, Tom, Sabrina & Bev stand at the pontoon, we gently ease towards them, I throw the line to Tom, Terry throws a stern line to Bev, a quick shimmy and somehow, good judgement maybe, we are shoehorned into the berth with a foot to spare bow and stern! And breathe…… then we get beers out of the fridge for our line handlers and us! Phew…… “See” said Sabrina, “Easy!”

View from the bridge, the arrow points where Sisu is berthed.

2022 SEASON, GUATEMALA, RIO DULCE, RAM MARINA MID FEBRUARY 2022

After Casey Brooks’s survey on the 11th February, we gave ourselves a morning off boat work! We jumped in the dinghy and went to town. We treated ourselves to a late breakfast on house style heuvos, with a selection of bbq’d beef, at the side was a green pepper. Wonder if it’s a hot one? Try a bit off the end. Oh yes!!! We actually broke into a sweat!

Nevertheless, breakfast was delicious!

Then off to the veg and fruit stall, a joy and a chance to try out rusty (very) basic Spanish. £8 got us a huge bag of tomatoes, big radishes, spuds, creamy avocados, bananas and some other bits. It filled the big bucket (essential purchase for doing laundry whilst at anchor)!

We also paid a call to Aroldo, our battery man. They were due to arrive during the week and he would deliver them to us. All we had to do was pay him online. Simple you think. Not so. Wifi can be unstable here, especially during or after bad weather, which we were having…. After many unsuccessful attempts to pay online, however the range of swearing was very successful….

In the end we decided to pay cash, on checking my purse I had enough! Problem solved. Ah, no. Currency conversion Quetzales to Sterling is easy, approx Q10 = £1. In our glee in finding enough cash, we didn’t move the decimal place in working out the total of 6 batteries. We didn’t have enough and the batteries were supposed to be delivered the following day. We had Q1,750, in fact we needed Q17,150!! Oh bugger. We quickly loaded our bank accounts with cash, and with a fine hand of debit cards, dinghied over to the bank and it’s cashpoint machine hoping it had enough cash. Q17,150 is a whole lot of cash, we felt we’d robbed a bank after our successful withdrawals! Well, we wearing masks……

We let Oraldo we had the cash, and the batteries arrived by tuk tuk, wish I had a photo to show you. Each 12V Trojan battery weighs 30kg, the tuk tuk driver had 7! 6 for us and 1 for our friends Dave and Alex. I don’t know how the tuk tuk didn’t plough a furrow on its way through Frontera, across the bridge and through the marina!

Oraldo carried off his swag and we had the job of getting them in Sisu. Terry manfully carried each one up the ladder, firstly tying a safety line, I held the other end at the top of the ladder, we didn’t want a battery falling to the ground, possibly taking Terry with it! 6 climbs later we did it. Cue beer. Today is Valentines Day, our power of love was 6 x 12 volts!!

The weather has continued to be wet, though not to the extent of a few days ago. Our home, the Isle of Man is currently having a spate of stormy weather, at least here the rain is warm!

View from the casa, the car’s not ours!

It’s a good opportunity to go through our first aid bags, after 19 months, some of the medicines will be out of date. We carry a fair old selection, one bag contains the “if you need this, it’s serious” 1st aid, the second bag contains the “headache,mozzy bites, blisters, burns, vital Voltarol, stuff for stopping tum upsets and stuff to get you going again…. ” type of thing. Indeed, a lot of the antibiotics were way out of date, and some unctions had oozed in the prolonged heat. My recce of the 1st aid revealed we had several tubes of Voltarol, honestly with such a long layoff from the bendy, muscle building sailing prior to covid, we’ve been using, possibly abusing Voltarol till our bodies remember what hoisting gear is all about. I’m fit, but this type of activity, up and down ladders, coiling ropes, carrying cumbersome gear, getting in and out of the boat etc etc really changes body shape and even in just a fortnight of work on the yard, we’re more streamlined, and that’s with beer and the excellent local food!!

2022 SEASON GUATEMALA, RAM MARINA, RIO DULCE EARLY FEBRUARY 2022

Work continues on Sisu. We aim to be out of the Rio Dulce by end of February, after having been laid up since June 2020 Sisu looks ok from the outside, but inside, her batteries are shot, the gas bottle unsurprisingly is corroded beyond safe use and there’s other bit & pieces. which Terry is going through.

One big project is our autopilot. We travelled out from home in the Isle of Man this January with a new auto pilot steering arm – in our suitcase! – beautifully made by our friend Steve Moynihan, owner of Moynihan Precision Engineering.

Terry cleared out the stern locker and began to fit the initial part of the new beefed up autopilot!

Terry offered up this arm, held his breath, it fitted perfectly! My turn next to paint the locker.

Now Terry just needs to finish off the connections and we’re good to go!

Next on our list, sourcing a new gas bottle. We can’t get UK small bottles here. Fortunately we obtained a USA small aluminium (alooominum as our American cruising friends say!) bottle which could be fitted sideways in our gas locker. Terry changed the gas connections to suit. I painted the locker, make it ship shape. Another big job done!

Work in process, before locker painting.

During this time our very good friend Ken Good arrived to check on his boat Pisces. We spent an excellent few days catching up on his news, enjoying dinners at Ana’s Kitchen and beers. One evening we cooked dinner at our casa for us, Ken and Bev, our room mate, great fun, and such a welcome break from our routine. But all to soon it was back to our work regime!

The weather changed dramatically, after a few days of intense heat, we could feel the air changing, charging. Clouds began to gather, and the sky darkened. We stood up on deck, we had outside work to do, should we continue or gather our tools in? The wind picked up, the bird life quietened. We know the signs! Quickly we packed up, and sprinted back to the Casa just in time. The torrential rain began and continued through the night. The noise on our corrugated iron roof was incredible, we literally had to shout to make ourselves heard! Next day we discovered that a tornado has passed through nearby Morales town causing damage to homes, thankfully no one was harmed.

Catching up on the blog whilst Terry works away in the rain inside Sisu!

Casey Brooks, our surveyor was due on the 11th February. We were up to date with all the important jobs, batteries were on the way, Casey would be able to see where they’d be going, the electrics, engine and systems were checked, anything worn, replaced. We replaced the out of date fire extinquishers and flares. Our new liferaft was in the marina office and waiting for us when we were ready.

On the 10th February we blitzed Sisu’s cockpit, deck and coachroof and tidied up in the saloon. A solid day of cleaning, the cockpit and lockers took 4 hours!

Before.

After.

We will have to give her a big clean up again before we splash but our endeavours broke the back of the dirt, and nearly broke our backs too. We had a celebratory ice cream in our flake out zone under the hull where I had kept some old pillows. Thank god for Voltarol, it keeps us going some days!

The survey went well on the 11th February and Casey was happy with everything. Cue beers!

It was quite a week. We also fired up Sisu’s engine, giving her a dry run, literally, before splashing. The last thing you want is to launch and your engine doesn’t turnover! How do we do this? Well, as water is required to the engine’s cooling system, you can’t just put a hose in the inlet, if you force too much pressure in the cooling system, it could fill the exhaust and destroy the engine. So, we created our own little “sea” in a bucket held under Sisu’s keel! This way the cooling system only takes the water it needs. Bit Heath Robinson, but it works, huzzah!! Cue Beers.