Sunday, April 29, 2007

Six Months in a Leaky Boat

How does it happen? You have work done on the boat, you rebed every portlight and window and nothing leaks in Belize when it rains. Then you return to the Rio and have a torrential downpour of Biblical proportions and the thing leaks like a sieve!

I am serious... water was running down a portlight like someone turned on the faucet. An entire settee was soaked and of course it went into the storage locker so that all cans can begin rusting.

Michael and I have the place drying out and he is rebedding the portlights.

Hey it's a boat. That didn't help at 2:30 in the morning when we were running around with towels, diapers and a serious case of the ass. Now the sun is shining and we are drying out so put on a happy face and get on with it.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Escape from the Marina

There we were feeling sorry for ourselves when we got an offer to go to Guatemala City for two days and may-be even get our needed boat parts.

Some of you know that I can pack a back-pack quicker than most people can say the word...so off we went with Mac and Ron to the big city.

It was wonderful to eat a real steak with all the trimmings and then the next night to have real Italian with wine. OK we ate too much and our stomachs hurt for part of the night but boy was it good!

No luck on the boat parts and can you believe we found the grill for the boat at the amazing cost of $583.49 USD. Once we got our hearts started we decided to wait on that purchase. Transmission, batteries and electronics come first for Dragonheart.

We settled on a great shopping spree at PriceSmart and picked up those few precious items you can't find on the Rio Dulce...cheese, real lunch meat, chocolate, and of course oxy-clean.

What more could a girl want?

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Transmissions and Motor Mounts

We have just had the mechanic on the boat and we need more parts for the transmission. It appears that it would be best if we got a new transmission. We know where to order one and we are working on a price...then we just have to figure out how to get it to Guatemala.

While he was in the engine room he noticed that we also have a loose motor mount. That does explain the strange new vibration that we noticed while coming up the river.

It is hard not to be frustrated and disappointed to have our cruising season cut short and then you remember that there are cruisers out there who lost their boats! So we are grateful for our little problems and we will continue on. The season may be over for us but hey, now we have time to get some other projects completed and may-be a little more inland travel.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Cruising is fixing your boat in exotic places

We have made our way back to Mario's Marina on the Rio Dulce. Why are we there at this time of year?

Well we have a list of failed or failing boat systems. Let's see...the wind generator, the SSB tuner, the radar, the batteries and the transmission is leaking.

With heavy hearts we pulled the anchor and headed back to the Rio so that we can get repairs made and hopefully get back out there before hurricane season.

There are many changes at Mario's. A new owner, Jim Ellis, as Mac & Ron have sold the marina because of health issues. We have high hopes for the new owner and like what we are seeing around the place. There are plans in the works for more docks and other improvements. We are excited.

Time to go get some deck work done. More later.....