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June’s LogJune 1, 2002 We are anchored behind Conchiquita Island in El Salvador. It was cloudy this morning but the sun came on and we washed and cleaned the boat. The neighborhood’s children were asking for candy before six AM. I launched the blowup kayak and picked up Volantis’s kids, Isis and Theo. They are twins. Lots of birthdays, Liz will be 46 tomorrow and the twins will be six on June 6th. I downloaded weather charts and emailed via the single side band radio. The eight of us went ashore and watched a soccer game and were amazed at the player’s abilities. We sat on a wall drinking cervezas and talking to the island’s kids. (See pictures). Liz fixed corn beef and cabbage. I went to bed as I have been having stomach problems.
June 2, 2002 Today Liz is forty-six and we are having a get together this evening on Mantra. I made her birthday card and two more for Volantis and Mantra. We are going to paddle around the island. We decided not go around the island as it is 6.5 miles and our blow up kayak is tough to control in the wind. We worked boat projects instead. We had a wonderful party on Mantra and Liz got several hand made presents. We enjoyed the evening
June 3, 2002 We have decided to leave on the out going tide. We are about 14 miles inside of the bay of Fonseca and there are numerous logs floating. We cleared the most northern point of Nicaragua and head down the coast. We are sailing at about 5 to 6 knots and that is wonderful. We catch 2 fish and both are Jack Carvelles and I through them back. At about 6 pm a storm is catching us from the stern. Much lightening, wind from North at 10 kts. All of sudden we had a lot of cold air all around us and this is convection. The wind veers 180 degrees and now from the South. Wind speed averages 23 kts beginning at 19:30 and a gust hitting us at 42 knots. Wind moderate at 21:30 and wind drop to 5 to 15 knots and diminishing. What a ride. Volantis was sailing with their spinnaker when the winds hit and tore it. Laurence and Christian are tough but new to the cruising scene. We continue to motor thru the night and staying close to Mantra and Volantis. The lightening has been incredible. Neither Liz nor I get any sleep.
June 4, 2002 We motor and are behind Mantra and Volantis about 5 to 10 miles. We continue to fish but no joy. We have decided to spend the night at No Name an anchorage in Nicaragua. This is just a bight and is open to the south. We anchor in 23 feet of water and set the hook real well. The anchorage is very rolly and Liz and I go to bed about 6 pm and are awaken by lightening at 11 pm. I had been sleeping on the floor of the boat, as it was too rough to sleep anywhere else. Liz is in the port berth and is ok. We are in an immense-lightening storm. At 1 am there are lightening strikes everywhere and our vision is messed-up due to the intense light from the lightning. This is similar to last night except we are closer to shore where the strikes are hitting ground. At 2 pm the wind is way up (over 35 knots and gusts well above that) and Liz and I have taken down our rain tarp and are inside the cabin waiting the storm out. Boom and I notice that the stove is sparking. I push Liz’s foot off of the stove and we have an electricity burn smell. We have been stuck by lightening. I put out the small wire fire and we watch the storm head off to the north. We try to reach Volantis and Mantra. Buzz on Mantra says that they are fine. We cannot raise Volantis and it is raining so hard we cannot see their boat lights. I assess our damage; it includes our GPS, the weather monitor, Single Side Band radio and tuner, the stereo, refrigeration unit, many of the panel’s circuit breakers, depth sounder, and radar and knot meter. Fuck!
Double fuck, Volantis is on the beach. Their anchor broke loose and they are pounding on the beach. Low tide is at 5-6 am according to our software. Buzz and I head over in Buzz’s dinghy. We cannot get to shore as the surf almost flips the dinghy. We hang out for about an hour watching the catamaran pound and pound. In the next hour we head back to our boats and Christian (from Volantis) walks a shore and their several people trying to help. Christian speaks Spanish and there is a lot of misdirection. About 5 am Buzz and I head back over to set an anchor to help kedge Volantis off, if it can be done. We watch as a panga is trying to pull the sailboat off. They are really trying to help but a motor doesn’t have the power to pull Volantis off the beach. There are 20-40 people in the water helping push and the surf just keeps pounding at the side of their hulls. At this time Volantis is parallel to the beach. Finally we talk the panga fellows into tying our line on to theirs (later when I untie the bowline knot it comes apart easily in spite of straining the knot for over 2 hours) and we plant the anchor we are carrying. The panga also has Volantis’s spare CQR (20 lb) and so we dig-in both anchors. I hop out of Buzz’s dinghy and swim to shore through the surf. Laurence and Christian are trying to wrap the line on the windlass. They are using the chain portion of the windlass and tell me the rope side doesn’t grip the line. I explain the chain side, wildcat, will not work. We get things working, Christian on the controls, Laurence tailing the line on a cleat and I am holding friction on the rope. Every time a wave lifts the bow we tighten the rope. Sometimes the line is very highly tuned, about a high G. Little by little the boat bumps forward. We pull in about 75 feet of line that takes us about an hour. Several times the line wraps over itself and a knot gives us trouble. The panga is also helping trying to get us into deeper water. They (the folks from the village) are great, several times a guy jumps into the water and swims us a line as the line has parted several times that were attached to the panga. We are off the beach and re-anchor. Volantis’s anchor is too small, it is a 20-pound CQR and Liz and I use a 60-pound CQR and they have much more windage.
It is incredible that Volantis is sailing and we believe in miracles. It is great that God helps those while they are learning. We have enjoyed their lives and hope that cruising will allow their dreams to be fulfilled. They don’t have nine lives but they have used two in the past two days.
I tell Buzz and Penny that we must leave this anchorage as it is a lee shore and we can make a safe anchorage in Costa Rica in the daylight. I do not want to spend another day here. We make an anchorage in CR and see Baggy Wrinkles and Elskan. Life is brighter and Liz and I are depressed.
June 5, 2002 I check several of the electrical systems and nothing works except the VHF (only within 400 feet) and our modem. Whoopee our modem works but the SSB doesn’t, so big deal. At least we don’t have to pay another 1,000 dollars to have a new one.
Tonight Volantis’s twins are having their 6th birthday. We meet and have a good birthday for them. Laurence makes beautiful pizzas and each boat give something to the kids. Baggy Winkles give us an antenna and maybe it will work to give us greater transmission coverage.
June 7, 2002 Liz and I sit with Randy on Elskan’s dinghy as we surf into a very small village in Costa Rica. We are after a telephone and some groceries. We make contact with Liz’s parents and tell them our situation. We ask them to call Tom Perham and explain our plight and call Sandy and my mom. We will contact them in several days with what we plan to do. Liz and I are depressed and are assessing our options. We need a depth sounder and GPS. The SSB would be great and allow us to email to our friends and talk to other cruiser via the nets. A stereo would be nice as Liz and I really like music. Well there are decisions to be made. I snorkel our hull and scrap the barnacles off and find some sponge on the bottom of the keel. Liz stows the food we bought. Penny from Mantra arrives and we share our challenges. Tomorrow several of us are going snorkeling to collect fish. Maybe a fish fry and a garbage burning party will develop. Have a great day.
June 8, 2002 Randy and I explore several bays where the water could be clearer to snorkel. With the rains in the past day much runoff has clouded most of the waters around us. We go back and everyone but Mantra goes snorkeling. We harvest several fish and I hit a large one and break my spear. The spear shouldn’t broke but our luck has been poor lately. We all have good fish dinners with Mantra coming over and we all relax. Buzz has been working on his alternator non-stop since the lightning storm. He hasn’t had much luck.
June 9, 2002 The morning I use John on Escapade’s SSB radio and contact Dream Weaver and Jacinda Rose in Barillas, a marina back in El Salvador about returning there and getting the marina to help us with El Salvadoran customs when we bring in repaired or new electronic parts. There several other boats that wishes us luck. That feels good to be cared for from this extended cruising family. Elskan and Baggy Wrinkles leave for better surf and I think to find a more jovial set of cruisers. It has been 4 days since the lightning and the three (Volantis, Mantra and ourselves) of us are not happy as we once were. I climb the mast and replace our VHF antenna with the one that Baggy Wrinkles gave us. We are hoping this new antenna will give us better transmission at least more than just a mile. We have John on Escapade over for dinner and he brought the fish.
June 10, 2002 Today we have been watching huge convection north of us. I have been hesitating to leave the boat as probably we will leave and the rain and lightning will hit the bay. Liz and I finally go snorkeling and have a nice picnic on the beach. We see hundreds of fish and I see a sea snake. We visit Volantis and make a call to Liz’s parents. Volantis has an Iridium phone and the reception was poor as Liz was disconnected from her dad twice in three calls. Volantis loans us two DVD movies and Liz and I try to relax. We open one of our last great bottles of wine, a David Lake 1994 Cabernet Sauvignon
June 11, 2002 We left Bahia Santa Elena this morning at 8am. Buzz had come over to borrow some disks and then returned with Penny to say goodbye. We all look forward to our next meeting either in Costa Rica or in Panama. That will require quiet a bit of work; going back to Washington State, get the electronics repaired or purchased and seeing folks from home that we have seen in 9 months. Expensive and emotional. We are catching a west wind that has us motor sailings with a broad reach pushing us at 5.5 knots. The trip back to Barillas is just 200 km and will take between 40 and 50 hours dependent upon our speed over ground. I am concerned it we will be hitting a head-on current. On the way down we had about a knot with us.
June 12, 2002 The trip thus far has been pretty uneventful, which is the way we had hoped. We are also making better time back to El Salvador than anticipated. Allan catches a Dorado that we think we will have for dinner, as it now looks like we will be at the Barillas waypoint in front of the bar about dark. We will anchor off shore in 35 feet of water and wait for the panga from the marina to take us over the bar and the 9 miles up the river.
June 13, 2002 We get up several times during the night to check our anchor and make sure we have not dragged. The anchor holds well, and except for a rainstorm about 1am, all is well. Allan awakes before me and the panga guide is talking to him at 6am. I get dressed, Allan pulls the anchor and we follow the panga for the next 2 and a half hours to the Barillas marina. Heriberto, the manager, gets us checked in with the port captain and immigration and we set about to list our damaged parts so that they can help us work with customs when we need to bring the equipment out and then back into El Salvador. This list may save us hundreds of dollars in importation fees. We are going to email family and let them know that all is well. Hopefully we will be able to leave in the next 2 weeks to head home for repairs and rest and relaxation. June 14, 2002 Liz and I have been in Barillas a day and we’re getting into the regime. On Friday’s and Tuesday the marina has a bus bring us into Usulutan and we can shop, Internet (for only a $1.25 per hour), find a hardware store and other maintenance shopping. We travel on this diesel Toyota bus with individual air conditioning units and we have a very well armed guard. The shopping is excellent especially at the Rabbit (Don Juan Wright) grocery store. The owner of Barillas Marina and the Rabbit store is the same person, Juan Wright. We have been told that their 14 families that control El Salvador in commerce, land ownership and politics. The President of El Salvador is a 39-year and he stays here at the marina regularly. We met Juan Wright with we drove here in a rental car with Wet Bar about 3 weeks ago.
Back to the comments describing that we are in the swing of this marina life. After shopping we head back everyone buys ice and takes their food back to the boats. We call for a Panga (they run 24 hours a day, part transportation and part security) and I do so more Interneting while seated around the pool under a palapa (round table with a grass roof) with an Internet connection. Liz’s is in the pool and 10 other cruisers are hiding from the no-see’ms. The talk is about all the breakdowns everyone has had to this point. Our boat is on top of the pile with a broken mast, separated forestay and a lightning strike. Most cannot top that or want to. I finish emailing and 401-K brings us back to their powerboat and we contact Greg and Meg on Wet Bar. They are still in Bahia del Sol and will be coming down to Barillas Monday the 17th. We finish cocktail hour and head back to the restaurant to watch “Jewel of the Nile (on loan from 401-K’s impressive movie collection),” and an IMAX on the fires in Kuwait after the Gulf War. Well that was a day and except for only shopping on two days of the week each day resembles the last. Liz and I would go goofy if that is what cruising is about; we need more variety and experiences. Tomorrow is cheap phone day in El Salvador to make telephone calls. We will be firming up our airline tickets and working with an electronics person. Hopefully the electronics person can find some of the equipment fixable and then we don’t have to take it back to the states.
June 15, 2002 Good morning. I am writing the log and hope Liz is getting great sleep. The demands have been extreme during the past 2 weeks and she is really looking forward to seeing family and friends. In addition to working on the equipment lost from the lightning Liz and I will be talking to our employer and hopefully extending our leave of absence.
Today we will call our families and working out the logistics on coming back to the Northwest.
June 16, 2002 Some swimming and a movie; Notting Hill with Julia Roberts and computer time. I had pancakes and sausage for breakfast and made a list to accomplish and sort once we get to the northwest.
June 17, 2002 We are striping Slainte of her electronics, the depth sounder, knot meter, SSB, Tuner, Stereo, GPS, Radar and scanner VHF and inverter. Most of it packs into our Tupperware container and our suitcases. Wet Bar has just arrived and we are planning a BQ. I have purchased a 3 lb red snapper for 1.71 and Liz has a pound of the jumbo shrimp for 6 dollars. Ahhhhh!
June 18, 2002 Today, Allan is staying behind on the boat to take down the radar dome, change the oil and get the boat ready to leave, while I go into town to get our last minute items for heading home. I return back to the boat to pack and get the inside of the boat ship shape for leaving for a month. Allan has injured his elbow in some way and it is very inflamed, with fluid and tenderness. Greg and Meg from Wet bar ask us to dinner so we can relax before heading out, and Greg comes over to help with the last minute boat chores. After we finish, Greg helps us schlep our bags to the marina to store for the next day so we don’t have to move it all in the morning. During the transfer, the heavens open up with rain, thunder and lightening. Great time to move the bags. They get soaked, as do we. We also need to do Internet to tell let our equipment manufacturers know to expect us on the 20th with the damaged items. We finish at 8PM and head to Wet Bar for a great dinner. Truly the best part of the day. By this time, Allan’s arm is causing him great discomfort.
June 19, 2002 The panga arrives at 5 AM to take us to the marina office, where Louise will drive us to the airport and help us with customs. We arrive at 8AM and wait an hour for the airlines to open up. Things go through like a breeze; we thank Lusie and tell him we will look forward to seeing him in July when we come back. He and his wife are expecting their first child in September and they are very excited to be parents. We shop in the duty free stores, as we have been told that the owner of the marina also owns these stores at the airport as well as around numerous Central and South America airports. The flight from San Salvador to Houston is uneventful and we meet a lovely gentleman who is a lawyer in Houston and El Salvador. He tells us that many El Salvadorians fled to Houston during the 70s and 80s. The plane is late and we have about a half hour to make customs in Houston and catch our flight to Seattle. We run the whole way. It is beautiful when we fly into Seattle, with clear skies and blue water. It is home. Once off the airplane we call Sandra who is so excited she can’t talk and is screaming into the phone. We clear the gate to the terminal at baggage and we are excited to see Tom and Laurie, who have come to get us in case we don’t have a car or a place to stay. We head to Sandra’s house for a lovely dinner. Laurie and Tom head north and we will see them in two days. We crash at Sandra’s neighbor, Bly who is on vacation.
June 20, 2002 Today, we begin the process of getting electronics to the manufacturers, visiting with our bosses and asking for our leaves to be extended. Also, we take back our rental car and Tom lends us his pick up truck. We both have good meetings with our respective organizations and all is well. We head back to Sandra’s for pizza, cocktails and Marnee bringing strawberry shortcake. A great day, but Allan’s arm has gotten worse and Marnee say she will check with the doctors at Virginia Mason where she works to see what he needs to do.
June 21, 2002 Allan takes the rest of the items back to be evaluated and I attend a Municipal League luncheon to see old friends and work peers. In the meantime, Marnee has called to say that she thinks from the doctor’s reaction to his symptoms and he needs to see a doctor as it is probably something called cellulites, which can develop into staff and be dangerous. The short version of the rest of this story is it is very hard to find urgent care. We are very lucky that Tom and Laurie do the legwork for us and find one in Stanwood, so we head there for a lovely dinner and evening at their house and doctor in the AM.
June 22, 2002 Today we are at Tom and Laurie’s. They are a bed and breakfast, chauffeur, wine connoisseur, counselors, cooks, car rental agencies TV and computer outlets and great friends. I went to the medical center to have my elbow looked at. I have either an infection, gout or?. The blood work will be completed tomorrow. Liz made many calls to find a urgent center and we got to laughing because of the responses when we told them we didn’t have health insurance but do have cash. We feel sorry for those that are really in need and don’t have the means to have medical help when needed. A very nice doctor sees Allan and he does blood work, and prescribes cortisone and antibiotics. He thinks Allan’s arm should respond by Monday or Tuesday. If not, to call back.
June 23, 2002 We have a lovely breakfast and lattes, the Sunday newspaper and head to movies. Star Wars for the guys, The Ya-Ya Sisters for Laurie and I. Good movie. We also talk with Sandy and Patricia in Portland and let them know our plans.
June 24, 2002 Liz’s parents, Leigh and Jean, pick up Liz and me. We make it to Cashmere so I can surprise my mom for her 75th birthday. Jeff my cousin has planned the party. I call my mom from the front of Jeff’s house and talk to my mom who is in the backyard. We walk out the house and mom cries. What’s a son for? It is a wonderful party and Jeff learns the 75 “can’t be blown out candles” will melt the cake. We have a great dinner in Leavenworth with Jeff, Nan, Leigh, Jean, Liz and I and mom.
June 25, 2002 We have a nice lunch at Barney’s in Cashmere and Leigh, Jean, Liz and I drive on to Spokane. We arrive and relax.
June 26, 2002, June 27, 2002 Leigh and Jean cocoon us and the time quickly goes by quickly. We catch Leigh and Jean up on the past month’s activities and relax.
June 28, 2002 We are at Liz’s parents enjoying the good life. Tom Perham will be showing up tonight. He is moving his sons from Bellingham back to Spokane where their friends are. Liz’s mom rented the movie, Beautiful Mind. Touching especially for an economist. Tom arrives and we have a snack and a nightcap.
June 29, 2002 Today Tom Perham and I are helping his son’s move into a apartment in Spokane, then buy a car for Andy and then commiserate. The car buying was successful and Tom gave Andy a quick refresher on clutch shifting. I helped Paul move the remainder of their items off the lawn and into their friend’s apartment. Tom was having a tough time watching his son’s have a go on their own. Tom is hoping that they find a job, work at minimum wage and then figure that college is a good career path. Liz and I helped Tom handle his thoughts through wine therapy.
June 30, 2002 Tom and I head off to Seattle. Marnee my bud is throwing out the first pitch at today’s Mariner’s game. We leave Spokane after getting a latte at Starbucks at 8am. We arrive at Seattle at 12:30 pick up the tickets at the Washington Athletic Club and arrive into the box seats at 1pm. Life is good and the food, beer and friends are here. The Mariner’s lose but the game was very good. Tomorrow I will be going back to the doctor for the elbow and then helping Marnee unpack in her new house. |