Going Places Where Most People Don't

Because of the weather we, including our crew Martina and Dimitri, have stayed anchored in Guanaja, Honduras The only disappointment is because of the weather, we have been limited to what we could do. The first day and the best weather day we went through the canal to the north side of the island to snorkel at a place called Micheal Rock. This was a great snorkel. We spotted many small turtles an octopus a nurse shark and spooked a ray. The rock is surrounded by lots of beautiful corals and sponges so there were lots of the colorful reef fish as well. By the time we were on our way back the winds were filling in and the ride was getting bumpy.
Two of the other boats that left Roatan with us headed for Panama didn’t want to wait for the next weather window and had taken off that morning leaving Sylvester and Stray Catz to travel together.
The following day it was blowing 20 knots all day, but it was fresh vegetable delivery day for the island, so we had to venture into the main cay to load up on provisions. It’s only about a mile downwind dinghy ride from where we were anchored, but by the time we got back to Stray Catz, with the wind waves building in the harbor, all of us and all of the groceries were drenched in salt water.
We’ve visited most of the places at this end of the anchorage. A reopening resort invited us to check them out, so we went there where Anna found another monkey friend. A very young Capuchin who it looks like may have been taken from its mother a little soon. Anna’s maternal instincts kicked in and she has visited the monkey many times since bringing stuffed animals, a rope to swing on, and fruits to eat.
Delayed an extra day by an engine issue on Sylvester, we took Stray Catz out to visit our new friends that we made on Clarks Cay. We spent most of a wonderful day, swimming, snorkeling, and chopping up coconuts to be used for rum drinks. Just before sunset and the rise of the full moon, nine of us took off on four kayaks for the resort two islands over, Grimm’s Place. It was quite a challenge paddling against the wind on the overcrowded kayaks, and I was already looking forward to the downwind, moonlit cruise back. Just as we were loading the kayaks (or should I say, overloading?) for the return trip, heavily armed military personnel swarmed the property and docks giving us orders to return to the bar. Normally I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but it was getting late and I had an early departure time scheduled the next morning.
After nearly a four-hour delay during which we watched an alleged thug dragged out of sight, we finally begged them enough and they let us go. At midnight we made the moonlit trek back down to Stray Catz still planning a 4 am cast off of which we made.
The almost 60 hour trip to Providencia was one of our better multi-day passages. With five able bodies on board, we could do two-hour watches with eight-hour breaks in between. I haven’t had it that easy since I left the FAA. The first 130 miles are usually the hardest because the normal trade winds are directly on the nose, however the winds were out of the NE and before too long we had the sails up and we were doing what sail boats are supposed to do. We played leap-frog with Sylvester the whole trip and pulled into the harbor at the Colombian island early Saturday afternoon under a beautiful blue sky.

Monday March 24^th back on Stray Catz, it looks like everything will be ready for a Wednesday departure for Honduras. That is everything but the weather.  According to the forecasts it will be Monday March 31^st (Kylan’s birthday) before there will be good weather. Five extra days to wait. We hadn’t seen Tikal yet so…. Thursday morning we were on a bus to Flores, Guatemala. In the interest of saving money we didn’t spend the extra $20 for the luxury bus and ended up having to stand in the overcrowded isle of a bus for 3 of the 4.5 hour trip. Not fun. But we got to Flores found a hotel and made arrangements for a sunset tour of Tikal the next day. Flores is this neat little town on an island in Lago Peten Itza.  Like Lake Atitlan, Lago Peten Itza too has risen several feet in the last few years and most of the outside road that circles the island is under water. The town is a little touristy, but all the locals seem very nice and friendly.  Just to give you an idea of the size, you can walk around the outside of the island in about 30 minutes.

Tikal was impressive. The shear size and number of the ruins alone was incredible. We climbed most of the Temples. We saw two kinds of Toucans, spider monkeys, coatimundies, tarantulas, parrots, toads, and many other types of birds. We climbed to the top of the tallest temple to watch the sunset, then gazed at the stars from the main plaza. After that we hiked back to the van in the dark. A wonderful trip except for the fact I left the camera on the van and somehow the next day no one could find it. Kylan had some great shots of one of the toucans, and some of the shots from the top of the temples were good too, but we can’t prove it. I was bad enough about putting pictures on the blog before, now who knows what will happen.

We took the luxury bus back to the Rio Dulce, which enabled us to watch and listen to some Latin singer who by the looks of it, is as popular as Elvis Presley once was for 3.5 hours. But at least we had air conditioning and a seat.

We left Sunday morning the 30th  so we could pick up our main sail. This enabled us to hike up to an underground river just off of the Rio Dulce.

On Kylan’s birthday, we checked out of Guatemala and headed out to sea.

It seems that the weather has it in for us every time we try an ocean passage. It was beautiful when we left, but by night fall the winds had picked up, and the seas which were directly head on, kept pounding us, so we headed for Puerto Cortes again. This time we checked into Honduras and looked around the town some. I don’t believe they get a lot of tourists there. We were looked at a lot, and many people spoke to us for no reason. If only we knew more Spanish.

Two nights there and it looked like the weather would be good to go the last 70 miles to Utilla, but alas we were wrong again.

The last 20 miles the wind had shifted to straight on the nose and the seas had risen to 10 feet, so Stray Catz was taking a beating. Up every wave and slamming down in the next one. Moving along at about 2.5knots. We pulled into Utilla Harbour at 8:30 at night in total darkness.

Praise God we had been there before and were able to follow our previous track through the reef, and praise God when we dropped our now repaired anchor, it grabbed and held the first time and we were set for the night.