It’s Just a Little Lightning

It’s been an interesting few days to the start of our season. Upon returning to our boat we got into a conversation with our dock neighbours. One of the first things they told us was that their boat was struck by lightning in July while we were back in Vancouver. It wiped out all their electronics.

Lightning is an interesting phenomenon for a boater. Of course, there is the arc of extremely high voltage which on its own can be incredibly dangerous and damaging as it searches for its path to ground. The issue is that the path is rarely a straight line and it can often pass horizontally through the water or through the electrical system on the docks that many of the boats are connected to and thereby affect boats that did not suffer the direct hit.

The other devil hidden in the lightning is a thing called the electromagnetic pulse or EMP. This invisible “force field” has been known to screw up and or permanently shut down all kinds of electrical printed circuits.

In the off season we had disconnected most of our electronics and did not have the boat connected to the marina’s “shore power” in an effort to minimize the chances of being affected by any lightning.  As we recommissioned the boat at the dock we were relieved as it appeared none of our systems had been affected. We were overly optimistic. Once we were under way we had some electrical “gremlins” appear. Our AIS transponder is working but the targets are not presenting on our chart plotter screen, our radar unit on the mast has lost all network connection with the system and is not powering up even with voltage at the unit and a LED deck light right by the radar has quit working.

Regular trouble shooting is not coming up with any reasonable, understandable or fixable condition. We need to admit we have been invaded by lightning gremlins, and the only solution is going to be purchasing new parts. Availability where we currently are, nonexistent. So i guess its coming back with us next season. If we look on the bright side we didn’t loose everything like the neighbors did

 Our plan this season is to explore Belize, Roatan again and go back into the Rio Dulce all be it with out some of the electronic conveniences we have come to rely on.

We dropped the dock lines and headed downstream towards Buena Vista Bay, where we anchored, and went ashore to visit Dino and Maya. Their boat Vingathor was the one we were rafted to coming through the Panama Canal 3 years ago. They have sold their house in Slovenia, purchased property in the Rio Dulce and have built a little resort. They currently have 3 cabins, a pool, dining platform and bar area all overlooking their quiet bay. They are welcoming their first guests in February; we wish them well. Check them out https://buenavistabayresort.com/

The next morning, we continued on downstream towards Livingston to meet up with Raul, our ships agent, so we can have him check us out of Guatemala. We anchored off the town and headed into his office where he had all of our required paperwork ready. Our passports were taken to Customs while we waited in his office. In and out in 20 mins with a cost of 720 Q (600 his fee and 60 each for Immigration) or $130 Cdn. Very efficient and easy.

We headed over to the Tres Puntas anchorage to spend the night so we can get an early start to Punta Gorda, Belize the next morning.

We arrived at Punta Gorda just before 11. We were told they will “charge” you extra if they have to do your paperwork during their lunch hour. We made it just in time and while all the various officials, Customs, Immigration, Health, Agriculture, Port Authority are in the same building there sure was a lot of moving from one office to the next and back and then to the counter to pay then to the next official. We were out in just shy of an hour and paid 495 Belizean dollars or $346.50 Canadian. This is for 30 days. If we want to stay longer, we need to report to another Customs office and pay again for an extension.

We took 3 days and 3 different anchorages to get us to our current location, Placentia Belize. I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to sailing in the shallow waters that are common here. 50 feet is deep and we are often in only 8 to 15 feet. You keep one eye on the chart plotter and the other on the depth sounder.

Placentia is small but popular town with the cruising community and has a large, protected anchorage. We have been here a couple days and are enjoying checking it out. Along with the main street there is a mile long pedestrian side walk that accesses many shops, beach front hotels, restaurants and bars. There is also a number of coves, canals and a large lagoon that we took the dinghy in to explore. Looks like the weather is going to build up so we will be here for a couple more before we head out to explore the many Cayes and islands in the area.