Season 7 – Let The Fun Begin

Here we are beginning Season 7 aboard Stray Cat.

We left Vancouver just after Christmas. The flight plan took us through Dallas before heading to Guatemala City. The scheduled 7-hour layover in Dallas became 10 hours. The scheduled midnight arrival in Guatemala City became 2 AM. We landed in Guatemala City with our 4 checked bags full of boat gear all accounted for, yeah! But they were almost the last ones off the plane. Fortunately, Customs didn’t even look twice at us, no questions at all. Our pre-arranged driver from the hotel, was there to pick us up. It was 4am local time when we got to the hotel. Our driver, to take us to the Rio Dulce, picked us up at 8am. So needless to say we didn’t get much sleep, maybe we should have booked a hotel by the hour, lol.

The drive to the Rio went smoothly, no traffic issues at all. We had our driver stop so we could get a bite to eat and then we picked up a few groceries as well. Total time from pickup to the boat was 6 hours. It had been 8 months since we left the boat in the water at Happy Iguana Marina. We had hired Angel, from the marina, to look after her in our absence. We left a dehumidifier and several fans going to prevent any mould from growing. Angel did a great job, checking on everything and airing the boat out a couple of times a week. He would send pictures monthly and was easily reached through WhatsApp, albeit in Spanish. We had him wash and wax the boat before we arrived too. She was in good shape upon our arrival.

Recommissioning the boat for a new season involves putting back all the things you took off when you “put the boat to bed” at the end of last season. First item on the list is to put up the cockpit enclosure so that we have a bit more  “dry” real estate to work with. Then you take all the outside stuff that you put inside several months ago back outside. At the base of the mast are several turning blocks for the sheets and halyards (lines that control the sails). Every year they come off so that they are not damaged in the UV light from the sun. I’m not sure I have put them back in the same configuration in two consecutive years, but it all seems to work.

We use a series of pullies and ropes to move and lower the outboard engine back onto the dinghy. It’s amazing how long you can hold your breath while this engine hangs over the water and is lowered into its place on the back of the dinghy. We got it all in place and changed the fuel water separator filter only to have the engine quit after a short period. Pulled the filter off and it was empty and the gasket was kind of messed up. New filter, full of fuel. Died again. Filter empty. A bit of trouble shooting later it turns out that the fuel pickup tube in fuel tank decided to fall off. Take the tank apart and reattach the tube and engine runs much better with a constant supply of fuel. Why did it fall off in 8 months of doing nothing? Your guess is as good as mine.

Slowly things are coming together. We are scratching off more items on the “to do” list than we are adding and that’s a good thing. We have made time to join cruisers for Margarita Mondays. A weekly gathering at different restaurants to enjoy dinner specials, a beverage and comradery with fellow cruisers. The other day we met up with a group of cruisers and took the local collectivo bus to El Estor, a town about an hour away. We all had a very enjoyable day wondering around and met up at a local restaurant for lunch before the trip back.

Collectivos are a unique transportation experience. They are smallish vans; In North America we would refer to them as 12 passenger vans. In Mexico and Central America, the maximum capacity is always one more. At one point there were 21 of us in the van. They are the way most locals get around. There is a driver and a “conductor” or door man. He’s the one who collects the payment and tells you where or upon who’s lap you are going to sit.

There is a very active cruisers community here in the Rio. Just like La Paz in Mexico, lots of boats stay for years. There are fruit and veggie boats that come around to the marinas. We got some bread from the bread lady delivered right to the boat. There is even a pie lady (haven’t ordered from her yet). Gaby will come to pick up and get your propane tanks refilled, she also picks up laundry. Chloe picked up our sail for a small repair. We are having Nery recover our helm seat and Cesar is making us some stainless-steel air intakes for our engines. There is a morning VHF net at 7:30, 6 days a week to answer questions about where to get things/and or help with anything, upcoming events etc. They also have swap meets every 2 weeks so we can trade our stuff for someone else’s. There are several local charities that cruisers are involved in here too. There are many other regular events to join in when you need a break from boat work.

The boat docked beside us was hit by lightening this past summer, here in the marina. They had damage to their mast and lost all of their electronics. We have been going through our systems and so far, it seems like everything is working. We are thankful for that. We were not plugged into shore power, maybe that helped?

The weather has been pretty nice actually, temps from 20-30 C , comfortable for sleeping at night. We’ve had some rain but not very much, the rainy season is technically over now. Barb has been enjoying the pool here at the marina.

We didn’t have too many projects this year, not like last season, thank goodness. Our autopilot died at the end of last season, we took the electric motor home with us and had it rebuilt. Its reinstalled now and seems to work while we are at the dock, fingers crossed it will work underway. Our wind instruments at the top of the mast died last year too. The new ones we brought back are installed and yeah we have working wind instruments once again! The other 20 items on the list are almost done and we hope to be underway, heading for Belize, in a few days.