In the Tomb

In my last blog, I indicated I would trade places with no one else regardless the discomfort. I may regret saying that. We harvested very little enjoyment on sail from Roatan to Isla Providencia. The wind was in our face and there was lots of it. Rain swayed sideways with the wind and found it’s way into every contour of our dodger/bimini. When I stayed on the boat in Gulfport and went through some heavy rains, I bragged on how dry the boat was. I feel we are in the other side of a Sea World exhibit.

That is behind us and we are now at the beautiful Island of Isla Providencia, about 250 miles north of the Panama Canal. Mr. Bush at customs was helpful and pleasant. The Columbian Coast Guard goes around to every boat in the anchorage and offers a welcome and a promise that they will aid us in any way should we require help. A fifteen-minute taxi ride cost me $20. I forgot the rule that you ask the price before you get in the cab. The people are very nice.

The island is a photographer’s dream. The scenery is what you imagine a South Pacific island to look like. The buildings and houses are colorfully painted. There is a Spanish fort (I believe it is Spanish. I will research) on the island. The island’s history includes stays by Captain Henry Morgan, the pirate.

We now look to the two day (hopefully) trip to Colon, Panama. With luck, it will be downwind or at least more free that what we have experienced. The forecast promises more rain but we expect that. This will be the last passage of the Caribbean for this trip. I am looking forward to getting into the Pacific Ocean. The ocean I consider my home ocean after living in Costa Rica the past five years. I would like to explore Drake’s Bay in south Costa Rica. It is named after Sir Francis Drake. It is difficult to get there by land as the road is long and brutal. Reliant will swing up in there with ease.

I will report as soon as we get to the canal and share with you the experience we have getting through. We sail Wed, Dec 18.

　

17 Deciembre, 2013

Isla Providencia

Columbia

Reliant/Relianto

　

 In between rain squalls

 Shop at LL Bean

The Graduate

Good at the start

 How does this go?

 Merideth next to the liferaft

 Off watch, for now.

 On watch.

 Cleared in with our Grande3 Honduras courtesy flag. The small ones cost 3X what the large ones were.

French Harbor-not a bad place.

My last entry had us leaving Isla Mujeres with a promising weather report. Hah! Didn’t happen. We are now in the unexpected port-of-call of Roatan, Honduras. We had not planned to visit this beautiful place. The water is gin-clear and the landscape is exotic. We are in a place called French Harbor Yacht Club. A great place with really nice and helpful owners. We are at a dock because I need electricity to effect repairs.

It was another hard sail out of Mexico. The wind was on the nose the entire time. Southeast winds are rare in this part of the world. It was not as strong as the hit we took in the Yucatan but it blew hard. It rained just as much as in the Yucatan if not more. The boat was soaked. All our clothes were soaked. To cap off the situation, we had developed another serious leak. The bilge would fill to floorboards in a couple of hours if we didn’t pump. The boat was trying it’s best to sink. We also had the pressure water system fail and we lost two of our three tanks of water. I found it ironic to have too much water coming down on us, water coming in from the sea, and too little in the tanks.

We decided to yield to the forces and go to the closest place to patch up. We had no detailed charts and we knew nothing about Roatan. We arrived at the island Friday night and tried to ease in under GPS. There was no moon as it was raining. We got close but in the dark, we felt paranoid to enter the harbor. The harbor choice was based on the knowledge there was an airport there. We figured there would be customs there. Therefore, Friday night was spent hove-to offshore, in a rolling seaway and rain. Saturday morning, our luck changed. We got into harbor and easily cleared through customs. I had to go to the airport to clear in. While waiting for Customs to finish their paperwork, I fully expected to see Hunter and Meredith in the ticket line buying plane tickets home.

Once settled in, I discovered a depth sounder through hull that leaked badly. The centerboard pin contributed an equal amount of water. I will fix those. Meredith scoped the town for repair materials. She found a fully founded hardware store but it was closed on Saturday. She also scoped the internet for marine forecast. I found it no surprise that rain was predicted for most all of next week. Hunter and I are going to scope for foul weather gear. We didn’t think we would need any since we were heading for the tropics.

We feel great after a good meal and hot showers. Except for the inordinate amount of cuts and bruises, I feel normal again. We are fairing better on the details. Everyone has come up with ideas that make on-board life easier. Meredith re-organized the stowage. Hunter re-appropriated a laundry bin for a water jug-carrying device and discovered other bi-uses of equipment. We can get to stuff now and life is becoming easier except for the ingress of water. Can’t wait to get back out there.

More tomorrow on Roatan. It seems to be a neat place. It is very inexpensive here.

::: This is tomorrow. I let Hunter use my computer and after, I couldn’t get a inet connection to post the entry. That is OK. He stands watch like a junkyard dog. Couldn’t do without him. Anyway, I spent today kissing the bilge, trying to stop my centerboard pin leak with underwater epoxy. I am making progress. I would like to tell you about Roatan but I have been doing nothing but work on the boat. Ask me right now if I would change places with anyone in the world; not a frickin chance!

　

09 Deciembre, 2013

Roatan

Honduras

Reliant/Relianto

 Close to the dock

　From the dock.

Relianto is full of fuel, water, and us. We are waiting on customs to clear us out so we can sail to Isla Providencia. If we get weird winds, we will go to an easier place to get to, say Boca del Toro, Panama.

We had the unbelievable opportunity to visit Chichen-Itza, the famous Mayan temple. It makes you feel insignificant when you witness the grandness of an entire civilization that has disappeared. It is interesting to note that, the cause of the decline of the Mayans was the fact that the royalty class grew larger while the productive working class grew smaller. It grew top-heavy and crumbled. I can’t help but compare that to the US right now. The things like congress voting in different health care for them and helping themselves to the spoils of the land, like the Mayans. I suppose we can’t learn from history.

The architects used shadow and light in ingenious ways that change and appear at different times of the year to indicate harvest, planting, time to play games...



The weather forecast promises good sailing. We have had fun here and we have the boat again in ocean-going condition. We are ready to sail on!

 Our new Friends

 Meredith in Ruins

 
The Main Temple

.The Royalty Stand at the Sports Field
02 Deciembre, 2013

Isla Mujeres

Quintana Roo

Mexico

Reliant/Relianto

　

 In the mix of Yucatan punishment

 In Mexico

Whew!

We awoke this morning with some serious boat work to do. We tore stuff up in the named storm that hit us in the Yucatan. I feel better now, that I have learned this was a major meteorological event. Check this; http://www.weather.com/news/weather-winter/winter-storm-boreas-recap-southwest-south-northeast-20131126";


In the thick of it, this was our staus. We had a major leak coming from the no-drip propeller shaft seal. We had an all-out gusher coming in. What happened was an adjustment that needed to happen to stop the water from filling the boat. Understand; I am not a panic sailor. Fortunately, Meredith and Hunter are not either. Whilst sailing in that storm the weather people named Boreas, we were being required to pump like mad to keep the boat afloat. The boat was driving down the faces of waves requiring steering manually. Neither of our three auto-pilots had the snuff to keep the boat going straight. Waves were breaking over the boat. I am a surfer that rides big waves in Costa Rica all the time. I live there. I attest; the waves breaking over out boat are going to form up on some shore in Mexico and will rival the waves we surf at home.

All that was difficult but okay, the storm the leak, all manageable problems. What happened next began to tip the edge of my composure. The shrouds, the wires that hold the upper section of the mast in the air, had slipped from the spreader tips. The mast above the spreaders was whipping about like a noodle. Imagine, being in the Yucatan Channel taking a butt-whippin’, being dead beat tired, and now you have to go up the mast and keep it from beating itself to death. That would be if I could gather my tools and mast climbing gear together before the mast came down. I had to do this instantly. I don’t like going up a mast when at a dock, much less in twelve-foot seas. At that point, I admitted to myself, I had some problems.

I have to go now. We are going in for our Mexican Thanksgiving. I have plenty more to tell you about. I have plenty to be thankful for. I will continue this manana. You will then begin to understand why I am so thankful.

November 28, 2013

Isla Mujeres

Quintana Roo

Mexico

 

Gulfport Florida to Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Holy Cow, Mr. Toads Wild Ride! I don’t know where to start. I suppose I will start from this very moment. We are in a restaurant, Ballyhoo. It is near the Customs office in Isla Mujeres, Mexico and we are glad to be here. November 21, we sailed from Gulfport, Florida, near St. Petersburg on a very pretty November day.

The weather was perfect with post-cold front stable north east winds. It was exactly what we wanted. Our now tried and true sloop, the Reliant (Relianto), excels in. We rolled off the miles for three days. The Magnificent Meridith, Joe (the statue) and myself, set into the rigors of an offshore passage. We divided the duties and life aboard Reliant had become systematic in an enjoyable away. The trip was becoming all we had hoped it would be. But then….


I will put it this way, it is colder here at this moment in tropical Mexico that it was in Gulfport, Florida when we left. How that happened was because a massive cold front busted through the Yucatan Peninsula like a bullet through cheese. We got caught. I don’t have time now to tell you how the mast came so close, so close to coming down and how there was gallons and gallons of water coming in the boat, more than we could bail and a host of other incidences that happened on this short trip. I will do that tomorrow as we dry out the boat and get ourselves back into the human race. I have sailed many passages and this on was for the books.

Note: Do not depend on paper-mache rain gear.

Isla Mujeres
Quintana Roo, Mexico

November 20th, 2013



With luck, we sail for Cozumel in less than twenty-four hours. There seems to be an endless litany of things on the “things to do list”, all to be done in 24 hours. That is the good thing about list, they can be trashed.



We hope to set out tomorrow. First stop anticipated is Cozumel, Mexico. My fine and able crew, “Marvelous Meredith” and “Hunter Joe-the Duck Dynasty snook fisher’, rejected my plan of sailing straight to Isla Providencia, about 950 miles. I like their plan better. Though I am looking forward to getting home to our house in Costa Rica, I don’t want to get in a hurry. Sailboats don’t hurry very well.

So, Relianto is set to got except for the un-glamorous job of pumping out the waste tank. Can’t wait to do that.

I will have a tracking device so friends and family can follow us on internet. I will post instructions later on how to keep in touch online and follow us.

-Captain Glenn

Lindsey was very honest and sincere and told me she would never go offshore in the boat. She was uneasy going across Lake Okeechobee. There is one segment on that leg that you can barely see land. You would have though we were in the middle of the Pacific the way she reacted. Our new plan worked out well, one for me to get the boat out of the waterway and get offshore and two, to get the boat out of the waterway. It is easier sailing offshore. Just put the boat on autopilot and just insure you don’t hit another boat. The waterway requires as much attention as driving on the interstate. Reason three and the best, I rallied two of my best friends and old sailing buddies to sail offshore with me from Ft. Myers to Gulfport, Florida. John and Terry met us in Ft. Myers and Lindsey drove Terry’s car up to St. Petersburg, her promise fulfilled, she was not going offshore.



We set sail out into the Gulf and it was great. Sailing conditions were perfect. We caught a mackerel right away, my first fish on the boat. We sailed all night on an easy broad reach and told old stories the entire time. I have some new material for my next book. The next morning, we motored into Boca Ciega Bay and into Gulfport Marina. The shakedown sail from Brunswick Georgia to here has been compIeted. Stage1 is done. However, if I counted all the stages left to go, it would look like the national debt.




Gulfport is different than Costa Rica. There is a sign that prohibits everything from fishing to having dogs on the dog to staying on the boat. I like living in a country where you can take your dog to a restaurant.