Our friends on Alecia Angelina are also on their way to the Panama Canal and off to cross the Pacific. Since we had no word on our anchor yet we decided to take a trip with them to the Bay Islands of Honduras. On our trip into Lago Izabel we met a young french man, Julienne, who was living in San Francisco till he decided to ride his bicycle from SF south. He obviously has made it as far as Guatemala, (yes riding all the way!) but ready to try something else. He heard about great SCUBA class prices in Utila and asked for a ride. (or we offered. I don’t remember which) We now had our first official crew for an Ocean Passage. Sorry Tim and Matthew, that little trip we took out into the Atlantic didn’t quite count.
On March 14th we loaded his bicycle, trailer and all his gear and headed back down the Rio Dulce. We picked up our sails in Cayo Quemaddo. (Stray Catz with sails again!) Another 24 hours later we were anchoring in Utila harbor Honduras.
Ah back in clear beautiful salt water.
Utila is a pretty cool town. SCUBA is obviously the main source of business. That and all the bars and discos the divers hang out in.
After a couple of nights in Utila harbor listening to the all night discos, we said good-bye to Julienne and in the company of Alecia Angelina headed around to a different part of the island where we found a nice little area that had a beach and some good snorkeling. Two nights there then we were off to West End, Roatan. This too was a cute little small town where SCUBA and bars and restaurants rule. I spotted a couple of sea turtles in the harbor and would have loved to stay longer, but due to some boat troubles, (our anchor dragged) we said good-bye for now to our friends on Alecia Angelina and took off early the next morning for Guatemala.
The trip back to the Rio Dulce was not uneventful. We sailed most of the day, but to do so we were about 30 degrees off course. All the time thinking the wind was going to come around the right direction and we would be back on course. This did not happen. As the evening wore on the winds built and before we knew it, it was blowing 30+ knots and the seas built to somewhere around 10 feet.
We ended up blowing out a seam on the main sail and had to motor the rest of the way. After dealing with the strong winds and heavy seas all night and into the morning we made the decision to change direction and head to Puerto Cortes, Honduras to duck out of the weather. After an afternoon and night in Puerto Cortes, we took off early the next morning to a beautiful blue sky, calm seas and no wind.
After another night at anchor in Livingston, Guatemala we dropped the main sail off at the sail repair shop again and continued on into the Fronteras area to find out that our anchor shaft was waiting for us in Guatemala City. We put Stray Catz back at Nana Juana Marina, made arrangements to get the prop and rudder repaired and a bus ticket for Anna and I to Guate City. Kylan thought he would have more fun with internet every night instead of a couple of 5 hour bus rides, so he stayed on Stray Catz.
In Guate City we met up with David and Arely who chauffeured us around for the next 24 hours.
Guatemala City is a large city about the size of San Francisco. It’s divided up into zones. Like any big city, some zones you don’t want to wander into. David and Arely were great hosts and did a great job of showing us around and some of the highlights of the city.
The next morning we went into the Postal Customs building where we were told how much we still had to pay to get our warranty item in our hands, and to find out that the other part we ordered wasn’t there, and that basically no one knew where it was. So it was back to the bus station for the 5 hour ride back to the boat.