1 December 1995 Spanish Water, Curacao
We had a bit of a hangover after the excesses of happy hour last night. It was fairly windy so I put the windsurfer up. The wind, of course, then dropped below the magic 20 knots to 15 knots, which is just not enough to get me planning with a 5.5m² sail. My kingdom for a 6.2m² sail! Glenys tidied up and mooched about. Paul, Chris and Inga from “Soccoro” came for a beer.
2 December 1995 Spanish Water, Curacao
Glenys did school work in the morning, while I got on with a few jobs getting ready to sail to Honduras. In the afternoon, Glenys did the laundry and a couple of water runs. I reprogrammed my pocket computer with an Astro navigation programme, so that we can do some astro-navigation with the sextant on our passage. The laundry wasn’t finished at half past five, so we all went to the bar for a beer and ended up staying and having Vienna Schnizel for dinner.
3 December 1995 Spanish Water, Curacao
School work in the morning for Glenys. I spent the morning writing letters and printing them out to send to people for Christmas – only 22 shopping days to go! In the afternoon, we addressed 30+ envelopes. A bit of windsurfing, clarinet and that was that.
4 December 1995 Spanish Water, Curacao
We all went into town. I cleared out and Glenys did some last minute shopping. We then spent the afternoon tidying up and doing our last jobs. We’re planning to leave on Wednesday 6th. We went to the bar to watch “Water World” on video. The boys and I thought it was great!
5 December 1995 Spanish Water, Curacao
The computer display hinge mechanism broke, so I spent the morning repairing it. I filled 3 tanks. We continued doing jobs and tidying up. We filled up with fuel.
Everything was looking good to leave the next day, when at four o’clock, I found out that the fuse on the fridge controller had blown. I put in a new fuse – it blew. I took the controller to bits and found that the PCB was badly corroded. I cleaned it up and tested the output transistor – shorted.
I took the unit over to a German guy called “Vim” (short for William!), who is reported to be a whiz with electronics. I left it with him and returned to Glencora to drown my sorrows – we won’t be leaving tomorrow. Kay and Bob from “Big Toy” came for a beer. They are crewing on a big 72ft yacht for their food and accommodation and are looking to buy a 40ft yacht – we showed them ours!
6 December 1995 Spanish Water, Curacao
I dropped off my other (dead) fridge controller to Vim and then went into town to buy some fuses. Glenys did school work.
My excursion to buy the fuses was a typical one – start at Napa – no! They suggest the Phillips centre – no. They suggest Baba’s – no. They suggest Casa Pablo’s – no. Dead end. Back to Baba’s, they suggest Electronics Service Centre – success but they only have 7A instead of 8A – they’ll do!
I picked up the fridge controller from Vim and it worked – we’ll go tomorrow if it survives the night. It was frustrating to see “Kalida” and “Soccoro” leave for Honduras without us. I’m convinced that we’ll leave tomorrow so I screwed the computer down to the chart table, so that we can use it on passage.
7 December 1995 Curacao to Guanaja, Honduras (Day 1)
Looks like good weather, so we did a final tidy up, topped up with water and put the dinghy on deck. We motored out of Spanish Water and then I rigged up the twin foresails and off we went! (Our way points are Aruba 12°47’N 70°00’W; Newban 16°08’N 078°23’W, Rosalyn 17°06’N 080° 50’W, Guana 16°23’N 55°00’W. )
We had a pleasant sail until mid afternoon, when we came out of the lee of the island – the wind backed to the NE and we had to change to main and genoa. We slopped along at 3-4 knots and we started to feel a bit seasick – Spanish Water was obviously too calm an anchorage! At dusk, we caught a nice little tuna (4lb) which was an unexpected bonus.
Glenys is learning astro-navigation and we took our first sun shots today. Unfortunately, we don’t have an almanac, so we have to rely on my pocket computer. We also have a program called “PC Navigator” on our notebook PC which is a back-up. We had a very pleasant night.
8 December 1995 Curacao to Guanaja, Honduras (Day 2)
I woke up in the morning with a headache and feeling queasy. I’ve got a bit of a runny nose, so I suspect I’ve got a cold combined with mild seasickness – I’ve felt better. I did a star shot at dawn which was very accurate with a small cocked hat and only about 2 miles to the east of our GPS position. Our 26 hour run up to midday was 140 miles over the ground, which was good considering that we have had a few slow patches. Our log reading was only 107 miles, so I suspect that we’ve got a 1 knot current with us as well as the log under reading.
The boys have been great up to now. They have entertained themselves playing their gameboys and reading. I had a 90 minute nap in the morning and Glenys had one in the afternoon. We seem to be settling into a routine – I just wish I didn’t feel ill! The blasted bilge was full of water at midday; the stern gland must need tightening up again. I’ll leave that job until tomorrow – hopefully I’ll feel less tender. Craig was physically sick (in a bucket) today, he and Brett had been down below playing “Commander Keen” on the computer and it was too much for him!
9 December 1995 Curacao to Guanaja, Honduras (Day 3)
We had an awful night. The wind was 20-25 knots with squalls going through, so the wind kept dying and the poor hydrovane didn’t know whether it was coming or going. At ten o’clock, Glenys was dodging a huge black squall and I had to get up and reef the Genoa. At midnight I was cold, tired and queasy. I was sick of sailing and wanted to go back to England. I wallowed in self pity all night.
In the morning, when the sun came out, life looked a great deal more pleasant. I dropped the main and put up two running jibs and we rolled downwind. We were still taking on a lot of water and the bilge pump jammed. I cleared the bilge pump filter of the pieces of Lego and tightened the stern gland half a turn. I think I’ll have to repack it when we get there. My seasickness is getting a bit better, but the smallest job exhausts me. The continuous motion is very annoying too!
At five pm, I took down the awning and we went back to broad reaching with a main and genoa. I expect another hard night. The boys have entertained themselves all day and have been treasures. Glenys is a pillar of strength down in the galley, even though the boys want their own meals! Brett in particular is very fussy. We had a bit of a scare in the evening because the GPS decided to play up. It kept saying “external power lost” and then switched off and back on again. I decided that the problem occurred because of the display light and if left dark it seems to work OK.
10 December 1995 Curacao to Guanaja, Honduras (Day 4)
We had a fairly pleasant night, the wind stayed constant at 20-25 knots and no big squalls. It was hard to relax though, because every 20 minutes we would get a big wave, which would come roaring up like an express train. These big waves cause Glencora to yaw to starboard by about 20°, which puts the wind ahead of the beam causing a big increase in apparent wind which overpowers the hydrovane. The only solution is to turn Glencora downwind every time that I heard the rushing, roaring sound of a big wave. We got caught out a couple of times and big dollops of water came into the cockpit and straight down into the lounge. One sprayed the computer with salt water so I had to unscrew it from the chart table and put it away.
By daybreak, the wind was settling down and we had a nice sail in 15-20 knot winds. We caught a 10lb tuna – we still haven’t eaten the other one yet, so I’ve pulled in the fishing line. I feel a great deal better today and caught up on plotting my astro-navigation. I’ve decided that our log under reads by 15% and using that correction and assuming a 1 knot tide, my Astro fixes are only a couple of miles out. That’s nice to know in case the GPS fails on us.
I spent 30 minutes with my head under the sink cleaning out the filter for the fridge – I seem to have had lots of water problems so far. There’s a cold front coming down from the States which is expected to give us squalls and thunder showers on the 12th – lovely!
At five o’clock, the wind was from NNE and we sailed 60° upwind for most of the night. At nine o’clock, Glenys got me out of bed to shorten sail. We ended up with two reefs in the main and half of the genoa rolled away and we still did 5 knots into the 20-25 knot winds. Thankfully the seas were fairly calm, so it wasn’t too rough a ride. It was a little worrying because we didn’t know why the wind had backed by 45° so rapidly – was the front going to hit us early? I should have been logging barometer readings and wind directions which would give me a log of trends.
11 December 1995 Curacao to Guanaja, Honduras (Day 5)
Strange night. The wind settled back to 20 knots and stayed pretty steady – but we still left the reefs in the main sail - just in case.
Typical day, star shots at dawn, listen to “Mistine” for the weather, (The front’s still expected on Tuesday 12th), I have a two hour kip in the morning, Glenys has a two hour kip in the afternoon, plot the Astro position, Glenys makes dinner and we prepare for the night. The boys entertain themselves with Lego, books and the Game Boy – they act just like they are spending the day on the boat in an anchorage. Craig and I have acclimatised to the motion and are OK down below now. Brett has a cast iron stomach and Glenys is somewhere in the middle!
We have had fairly steady 15 knot NE winds all day, with 4 foot seas, so it has been very pleasant today. We have a good routine during the day, but the nights are tedious. It’s getting harder and harder to keep awake on my night watches – I need more than 6 hours sleep per night! It’s fairly cold at night and full oilskins are the preferred apparel. We don’t need jumpers or socks and shoes yet, but the socks are being considered! I spend the night huddled in the corner, reading a book or staring into space, when my eyes hurt too much.
12 December 1995 Curacao to Guanaja, Honduras (Day 6)
The log packed up at about ten pm and I didn’t get it working until nine o’clock in the morning. We had a fairly quiet night with a light 10-15 knot wind from the north east. At two o’clock in the morning, I put on the engine and we motored for 3 hours. At five o’clock, the wind had picked up enough to sail again. We have been to the north of Rocalyn Bank and have been getting some strange currents – sometimes south going, sometimes north going and quite strong as well, giving us up to 30° leeway!
We saw a pod of Atlantic spotted dolphins at breakfast. Then we had a quiet morning and I put up the mizzen sail to give us that little bit extra speed. By midday the clouds had built up. I expect that this is the leading edge of the predicted cold front, which is now forecast to stall and dissipate to the north of us – I hope David on “Mistine” is right! By two o’clock, it was raining and we then had 30 minutes of nil wind with 3 metre waves. I decided to motor for a while.
Glenys and I spent the afternoon “brain storming” what our new company is going to do. We’ve now decided that, if we get non-resident status, we will go straight back to the UK from the Azores. That way we can put Glencora on the market and get on with the rest of our lives.
Before dark, we were getting the occasional 4 metre wave and could see squalls upwind, so I dropped the mizzen and off we went.
13 December 1995 Curacao to Guanaja, Honduras (Day 7)
A very varied night with 20+ knots in some squalls and nothing in some places. Just before midday, we started our last leg towards Guanaja. At two o’clock, we poled the jib out to starboard and ran downwind. We managed to dodge some squalls and got soaked in others!
Morning greeted us with a heavy rain squall and we all sat having our breakfast in oilskins. The rest of the day remained dry with a low layer of stratus and the occasional squall lines which kindly avoided us. The wind stayed light and we rocked and rolled. At five pm, we had only 200 miles to go, but I’m frustrated by our slow progress - I expect to spend another 3 nights at sea and arrive first thing on Saturday morning.
We were getting low on our supply of tuna, so I put out the fishing line and was rewarded by a 5lb Dorado – I put the fishing line away again! It would be nice if we could always catch a fish on demand, we’ve been eating tuna for 7 days now – I would love a bit of chicken. The constant rolling is wearing me out (1 every 5 seconds!) Everything takes 2-3 times as long as it should and it will be nice to stand on solid ground again. Having said that, we are fairly content in our little microcosm and could keep going for a few more weeks without any problems. It’s nice to be able to sit at the chart table and write this without feeling sick. The GPS continues to work, but I’m handling it with kid gloves and we have left it switched on since the problem.
14 December 1995 Curacao to Guanaja, Honduras (Day 8)
A quiet night last night. We started off with the jib poled out to starboard, but at dawn, I gybed the jib to port because we were 6 miles to the left of the Rhumb line. Glenys is finding it increasingly difficult to wake me up for my watches – last night, she actually had to come down and shake me. She also has to keep an eye on me because I say “OK” and then go back to sleep!
The wind has finally veered to the ENE, so we were able to pole the genoa out to starboard. I haven’t bothered to rig up the twin running sails because it’s a hassle de-rigging it all if the wind shifts and there are still loads of ominous looking clouds around. We had a quiet uneventful day.
By the afternoon it was totally overcast with high and low level cloud layers. I just managed to get a sextant shot of the sun in a small break in the lower clouds, albeit a very fuzzy one! The fix came out pretty good though. It amazes me that I can get a good fix with a rushed sextant shot in bad conditions. At dinner time, we had 75 miles to go, so we should arrive first thing in the morning which will be great. I’m looking forward to a bottle of champagne and a tootle on the old clarinet. I’ve not been motivated enough to get my clarinet out, besides the fact that Glenys sleeps in the afternoon and I sleep in the mornings.
15 December 1995 Curacao to Guanaja, Honduras (Day 9)
At about nine o’clock, we ran out of wind and had to start motoring. By midnight, it had started to rain but still no wind. It was very eerie motoring along in the pitch black with rain hammering down. We were travelling too fast and had to reduce the engine revs down to 1000 rpm.
By dawn, we were about 10 miles from our way point. Fortunately, it had stopped raining and I could concentrate on our landfall. I used the radar to double check the GPS. At six o’clock, I could just make out the shape of the island and started to see the odd light. We arrived just as dawn came and slowly made our way into the anchorage. I must admit to feelings of euphoria that the journey was safely over. I think it all went well and we proved that we will be able to cross the Atlantic by ourselves.
We put up the dinghy, had bacon and eggs and went to clear in. It cost us $30US for customs and $40US for immigration – I’m sure that the immigration guy ripped us off, but what can you do?
The main town is a curious place, being built on a small island. The whole town is on stilts with open ditches running everywhere. I assume that these ditches flood at high tide. The average height of the locals is about 5’3”, so I feel like a giant! The houses are very close together and the ditches act as a sewer – I can’t imagine that it’s a very nice place to live.
We motored over to El Bight and had a quiet afternoon. Glenys dozed while Brett and I went for a snorkel. “Kalida” turned up and came for a beer or two (they arrived yesterday). We cracked open a bottle of champagne to celebrate our safe landfall.
16 December 1995 El Bight, Guanaja
There’s a two hour time difference here – we had to put the clocks back two hours. We all slept like logs, but the boys were up and about at six o’clock - their internal clocks haven’t adjusted.
There are lots of annoying “no-see-ums” here, which bite from dawn to dusk at which time the mosquitoes take over. The “no-see-ums” bite is sharp and hurts, but no swelling. We have resigned ourselves to wearing insect repellent all day. It’s very peculiar the way the locals build houses over water. By the anchorage, there is a bar built about 50 metres from a spit of land that could quite easily have been cleared to build a bar. There is also a house that has a pigsty built over the water! Is it the easy sanitation, the price of land or the no-see-ums that cause this strange phenomenon?
I’m amazed by the speed that Craig has improved his reading. Suddenly he’s reading “proper” books by himself. We went for a dive with Derek and Alison from “Kalida”. We took Glencora out to the east of South West Cay and picked up a dive mooring. Good wreck dive with lots of big Grouper. We went back to El Bight and had a quiet afternoon.
In the evening, we went to the bar and had a few beers with the other cruisers. Craig and Brett were having races along the dock, Brett came in for a drink and Craig stayed outside “practising.” One of the local ladies came running in and said that Craig had fallen in the water. I rushed out and found him in the water at the end of the dock, screaming for Brett and trying to climb up a dinghy painter. I dragged him out and found out that he had been running so fast that he couldn’t stop and had run straight off the end of the dock! He was a bit scared but OK.
17 December 1995 El Bight to Northwest Cay, Guanaja
A bit of a hangover this morning. We decided to motor 3 miles to an isolated cay. What a beautiful little spot! We are anchored about 30 metres from the shore with a reef ahead of us. Nice and breezy – hopefully we won’t be troubled by bugs here. Glenys and I went for a dive and caught a small 1lb lobster.
We went for a walk on the island and circumnavigated it in 20 minutes. Brett and Craig insisted on taking a rope to make a swing. We couldn’t find a suitable tree, so Glenys ended up lugging the rope around the island for nothing. Brett found a small octopus in very shallow water and I managed to scoop it out onto the beach. It squirted ink at us and hid under a log. They can’t half move fast on land! There was a salt water lagoon in the middle of the island and millions of sand flies on the seaweed at the water’s edge. As dark came, the wind picked up to 20 knots and we were veering about. I put out a bit more chain but couldn’t relax – it was pitch black and difficult to see where we were in relation to the island. There was nothing we could do so we went to bed. We are still tired from the passage from Curacao, so it wasn’t difficult to sleep.
18 December 1995 Northwest Cay to El Bight, Guanaja
I woke up at dawn and watched a spectacular sunrise through the coconut palms on the island. I spent the time before breakfast, working out our timetable up to the end of March, when we want to be in Key West. It looks like a fairly hectic 3 months! We are going to spend Christmas somewhere in Roatan, so we need to leave soon.
We did school work and then motored back to El Bight. I’d been told that we could get water from a tap on a dock, so I did four runs with jerry cans and filled up with water. Glenys took the opportunity of a free tap and did some washing by hand. We upped anchor and went round to the settlement to clear out of Guanaja, send a fax to Gareth and fill up with fuel. We then went to El Bight, tidied up and went to the bar for a few beers. There are about 8 boats in the anchorage, so it was a pleasant evening.
We retired to Glencora for dinner. I wouldn’t say that we are getting blasé about lobster, but we had lobster pizza tonight, and very nice it was too! Glenys is on a campaign to improve our diction; every time we drop a “T” she pounces on us. I must admit that she’s right – we use too many “gonna” and “wanna’s”.
A couple of people have said that the reason the locals build out on the water is because of the sand flies, and I can believe it! The initial bites are annoying, but the itching that results three days later is awful. The bites end up as bumps with small red scabs on top. I don’t know if the scabs are caused by further attacks by the little bastards or whether I’ve scratched them – but it’s excruciating!
19 December 1995 El Bight to Isla Barbareta, Guanaja
I got up early and found out that there’s a front due in the area tomorrow. Today is a beautiful day so we got ourselves ready to sail. We motored out, past the settlement, on a heading of 125°M to avoid a reef that is about a mile offshore. When we arrived at deep water, we turned SW and crept around the outside of the reef and headed for Barbareta. We caught a 5lb Dorado on the way.
We anchored behind a small reef off a scruffy beach. The wind is from the SW, so there’s a bit of a chop coming into the anchorage, but that should swing to the NW as the front approaches. After lunch, Brett and I went snorkelling on the reef – a bit boring apart from the fun we had chasing a tiny lobster and we spotted a large-eyed toadfish, which I thought was very exciting! We had a beautiful sunset with a very clear sky.
20 December 1995 Isla Barbareta, Guanaja
It was a miserable, overcast day with intermittent rain. We did school work in the morning and in the afternoon made a Christmas tree, some paper chains and started a Christmas frieze. I did some clarinet practice today, as opposed to just playing tunes, and I felt so much better for doing it. Recently I’ve just been practicing tunes and my technique has deteriorated. I must do proper practice with long notes, scales and exercises.
The sand fly bites on my legs were even worse today. I was driven mad and ended up putting long trousers on with the bottoms tucked into socks – I haven’t worn socks for years!
21 December 1995 Isla Barbareta to Port Royale, Guanaja
Only four more sleeps to Christmas. As usual, I haven’t bought Glenys anything. I don’t know what to get her, but I’ll be panicking when we get to French Harbour! Grey, overcast day but it stopped raining and started to brighten up at ten o’clock. We did school work in the morning and then motored down the coast. It was still overcast, making it difficult to see the reefs in the flat light.
We went into Port Royal through a channel in the reef by Fort Quay and picked a spot by a scrubby beach – it would appear that there are no nice beaches in the Bay Islands. The harbour is massive, being about 2 miles long and ½ mile wide protected by a reef to seaward. There are only 3 other boats in here, but this is apparently the place to spend Christmas, with about 20 boats expected.
Glenys and I went for a dive on the south side of Fort Cay. We picked up one of the “Bay Island Aggressor” buoys, which is a live-aboard dive boat. It was a fantastic dive with vertical walls. Barry and Carol from “Pipe Dream” came over to say hello. We had a quiet night.
22 December 1995 Port Royale to French Harbour, Guanaja
We motored down to French Harbour. It was a beautiful clear day. As we went along the coast, we kept half a mile offshore so that we would be well clear of the fringing reef, but able to check out all the small harbours on the way. Most of the “Bights” are crowded with fleets of shrimp boats and houses on stilts. Unfortunately, it’s not the right season and there are no shrimp about. A couple of the harbours are unpopulated, so we might visit them.
We anchored in the lagoon to the east of French Harbour and dinghied into the Yacht Club. I’m glad we didn’t go into the Yacht Club Harbour – it’s a toilet! We checked out the supermarket and then walked into “town”. A strange place, very spread out. Dirt road, small shops selling dubious food, and not much else. We wanted to eat outfor lunch, but couldn’t find anywhere suitable – the places that looked like restaurants/cafes were either too small or too grubby. There weren’t any signs to say which were restaurants, so it was a bit unnerving.
We ended up back at the Yacht Club having burgers – I had pastrami on rye – is this a Honduran delicacy? We had 3 beers each, so I was exhausted in the afternoon when we went to the supermarket. We had a quiet evening, punctuated by the huge explosions from the fireworks that the locals keep setting off.
23 December 1995 French Harbour to Port Royale, Guanaja
Squally night with big gusts of wind. One boat dragged and ended up on a mud bank. I’m amazed that he dragged because the sea bed appears to be sand and silt and good holding. No damage to him (except his pride!)
We motor-sailed up to Port Royal and anchored among the other 17 boats. It was fairly windy so I put up the windsurfer and had a blast. There was another guy out – Rupert (and Judy) from “Khaya“. He has a BIC Electric Rock and a 6.5M² sail and he flies along compared to me on my hulking 3.2 Calypso and 5.5M² sail. He very kindly gave me a go on his board – awesome. I’m being held back by crap equipment, but Glenys says “it’s not worth bothering to get a new sail now.” Sigh!
After lunch, the boys and I went “exploring” in the dinghy while Glenys wrapped the presents. We went back to Glencora after an hour, but we were shoed away. We went to visit “Kalida”. I took Brett wind surfing which he enjoyed, then a bit of clarinet practice. Only two sleeps to go!
24 December 1995 Port Royale, Guanaja
I went over to “Kalida” at nine o’clock and spent the morning going through OW theory and the final exam. I was doing a “compressed” Open Water course – absolutely against PADI standards of course! Derek has been teaching Alison to dive and wanted me to do a quick check out and award her an OW certification. I agreed to do one Confined Water followed by a short dive. She did well, so I gave her an OW certification. On our way back from the dive, my outboard packed up – overheated because there was no water cooling again. We had to get rescued.
Glenys was a bit grumpy with me for leaving her alone on Christmas Eve, but cheered up after she had been out to a carol singing “Raft-Up” that had been organised at four o’clock. I stayed behind on Glencora with Craig. At half past seven, after dinner, Terry from “Winter Hawk” came over and asked us if we wanted to go over and watch a video. Is the Pope a Catholic? The boys settled down to watch “Home Alone”, while Glenys and I polished off another bottle of wine with Terry and Susan.
25 December 1995 Port Royale, Guanaja
Christmas day at last! I was awake at seven o’clock, but everyone else was asleep until eight o’clock when I started to rattle the kettle and say “Ooh, it’s Christmas day” in a loud voice. The boys did well and had enough toys. Mum and Dad had a thin Christmas. Glenys got me a tea mug and a tee shirt. I got her a pretty hammock which I had bought in desperation a few days ago in French Harbour. It cost $20US –it will be interesting to see how much hammocks are in Guatemala.
At about eleven o’clock, I started to look at the outboard. As I suspected, it turned out to be a corroded key on the impellor. The problem was that I had a hell of a job getting the gearbox unit off the outboard. When I did get if off I realised that I couldn’t get it back on. I ended up splitting the bottom of the engine apart and scraping out a tube that had become furred up. We were due at the Christmas dinner at three o’clock and at quarter to three, I finished assembling the engine. Thankfully, it worked and we arrived just in time (with filthy finger nails). What a way to spend Christmas morning.
The Christmas dinner was very good with loads of meat, vegetables and sweets. One of the boats organised a “Mystery Present” game which was fun. Each boat was asked to bring a “treasure of the bilge” wrapped up. Everyone was given a playing card and they then called out the names of playing cards. The person who had that card went up to claim a gift. There was a bit of a sting in the tail, in that not only could the “winner” claim a prize from the centre, but they could elect to swap their present with someone who had already taken a present. There was much light hearted stealing of presents from friends - in particular, a Bay Leaf plant was very popular and changed hands several times.
Brett had his eye on a very large surfboard-shaped present wrapped in sail bags. Everyone knew that he wanted it, so they all started to pick it up as though to try to feel what it could be. They then chose something else, but every time Brett’s heart was in his mouth. Eventually it was his turn and he went up and played the game by looking at some of the other presents before grabbing the surfboard. It was great to see his face as he dragged it back.
My pleasure was slightly tainted by some American bitch who said “they send the kids up so that no-one will take the present off them!” I was very tempted to give her a piece of my mind, but decided that she wasn’t worth the effort. We had a good day and I was in bed at eight o’clock!
Brett received a pen knife from Santa and he’s so thrilled with it. He has it on a cord around his neck and even wore it to bed! Craig took his battery operated, walking, roaring elephant to bed with him.
26 December 1995 Port Royale, Guanaja
Slow start to the day. I did some maintenance on our regulators and then took Brett water skiing on his new surfboard – he has incredible, natural balance and impressed everyone in the anchorage. After lunch we went and did a dive, which was good. I was relieved that the outboard got us out to the dive mooring and back again. I filled 4 tanks. A pleasant Boxing Day.
27 December 1995 Port Royale to Caribbean Bight, Guanaja
We took our time tidying up, putting the windsurfer away, etc. We then motored around to Caribbean Bight which is pleasant and deserted, apart from a few houses. It was an overcast day with intermittent drizzle. We haven’t been getting beautiful sunshine like we had in the West Indies but at least it’s cool at night – a bit more hugging in bed (if we manage to get Brett to sleep before we do!)
We had the ubiquitous tuna mayonnaise sandwiches for lunch – tinned tuna of course – none of that horrible fresh fish for Brett!
After lunch, we went for a dinghy ride along a canal which took us to Bodden Bight. Not much of interest in the bay, but the canal is very picturesque – about 8ft wide and goes along a tunnel of mangrove trees. Occasionally, there is a dock set out on a spur to the odd dwelling. The houses are built on stilts either over the water or next to the shore. Everybody moves about on the island in dugout canoes by paddle or 3ft wide, 20ft long boats powered by 15hp Yamahas.
It is very difficult to get ashore other than onto someone’s property, and with the dearth of beaches, we feel like we’re trapped on the boat sometimes. It was too cold to go swimming when we got back to the boat, so we read and did our own thing. Glenys now spends ½ -1 hour a day working on her cookbook. I try to spend an hour on the clarinet each day. I filled 4 tanks.
28 December 1995 Caribbean Bight to French Harbour, Guanaja
Beautiful sunny day for a change. Glenys and I went for a dive and managed to catch a 2½lb lobster. After lunch, we motored around to French Harbour and anchored among eight other yachts that have come down from Port Royal. I went into the yacht club and sent a fax to our accountant to find out about our non resident status.
I filled up 4 jerry cans of water. Glenys went off to look at the Fantasy Island Resort – OK she said. On the way back the outboard started to smoke – I’m going to have to look at it again – I hate outboards!
29 December 1995 French Harbour, Guanaja
I started to work on the outboard at eight o’clock. Water was coming out of the telltale when I ran the engine at high revs, but it started to overheat on tick over. I deduced that there must be a leak in the power head gasket between the exhaust chamber and the water cooling chamber. I checked the pump impellor first and that looked to be in good condition and not slipping. The pump body liner looked OK too, so I stripped the power head off. It took me five hours to remove the gasket with a razor blade, clean up both mating surfaces and reassemble it with gasket sealant. It was still the same – oh miser!
It was pouring down with rain and we had to go to the shops, so we risked a trip to the yacht club. We made it! I discussed my problem with “Kalida” and “Khaya” and the consensus was that it was either a waterway blocked in the cylinder head or the pump. I borrowed a variable speed drill and used it to turn the prop shaft – surprise, surprise the pump didn’t work! I put another impellor in and it worked fine. The other impellor looks OK, so it’s a mystery. I probably needn’t have taken the power head off, but at least I know it’s done properly now.
30 December 1995 French Harbour, Guanaja
Another miserable morning. There’s a weak trough over the area bringing unsettled weather and westerly winds. There’s a cold front expected in Belize on the 3rd January. We’re depressed and sick of this weather. We were going to go to Cochinos, but will wait until tomorrow because the anchorages are exposed to west winds.
I changed the engine oil and filters and Glenys did school work. We discussed our plans and we both agree that the Bay Islands are a bit boring, no beaches and we never get off the boat. We decided that we will cut short our stay here and go to Guatemala about the 7th January. After lunch, Glenys and I did a dive, which we aborted after an hour because a very persistent Remora kept trying to suck onto us - it really freaked Glenys out. I filled 6 tanks.
Glenys dropped our laundry off at the Yacht Club and bought some fireworks for tomorrow night. The GPS has started to play up again. I suspected that it was the power supply and swapped the DC/DC converters with the VHF radio. The GPS still won’t hold its Almanac data but at least it finds its position OK – after a 20 minute satellite search.
31 December 1995 French Harbour to Isla Cochinos, Guanaja
The strong cold front is still due in Belize on the 3rd. It’s expected to carry on to Nicaragua before stalling, so that will be different from the ones that we’ve had so far – they have been stalling and dissipating over Honduras. We decided to scoot over to Cochinos and spend a couple of days there.
The bloody GPS wouldn’t work – it kept resetting and crashing. I took it apart and found that the lithium battery that I replaced (at great expense) in St Lucia, in June, was totally flat. I removed it and the GPS finds its position again but won’t hold the Almanac data. I’ll get a new battery in Florida and sort it out ready for the trip back to Europe.
We motored over to Cochinos. On the way over, we tried to find a dive mooring on a sea mount about 5 miles north of Cochinos Grande. We couldn’t see anything even though the sea was glassy calm. I found out later that the mooring buoy is 30ft underwater!
Isla Cochinos Grande is beautiful. Verdant vegetation and palm trees on the beaches. There is a small dive resort with very friendly managers, Holly and Lewis, who have been working in the Caribbean for 10 years and living on their boat “Our House”. We went for a dive, which was OK, but poor visibility. I filled 4 tanks. We went to the hotel for a beer before dinner and set off some fireworks for the boys. A miserable American complained about the boys setting off bangers outside the restaurant while they were trying to eat dinner – Happy New Year!!! We retired back to the boat for our dinner!