WHITECAP's

SAILING

EXCURSION

Rio Dulce, Guatemala

Nov21, 2002 - April 6, 2003

 

Cindy. Would you please bring our Whitecap jackets or something similarily warm with you to Halifax. Do not want to land in a snowstorm wearing shorts and a tee shirt.
We are leaving the Rio by shuttle on Monday at 10:00 and going to GUATE City. We will be leaving there Wed at 07:00 for Mexico City then Chicago and will overnight in Toronto. We arrive in Halifax Thursday at 13:15 on flt #622. Dave arrives earlier at 11:40 on flt #6038 .He says he doesn't need a jacket.
Looking forward to seeing you and everyone and even the snow.
Here is a pic of nonchalant David, and a Guatemalan chica, and another of Dad, Lube and Nicolle in the jet boat with the new propane barbeque Dad bought for US$20 at the swap meet Saturday... he cleaned it up and it even works.
Mom
Saturday April 5
This morning at 07:30 we carried Shang's mast down to the dock and loaded it on the deck. Plans are tomorrow we will head over to "Cotton State's" dock and using Whitecap's spinnaker haillard and another boat with Shang in between, we will lift it in place.
Today we are going to Crowbar for lunch, LeRoy and Carolyn are celebrating 17 years, tomorrow we are having a barbeque on the deck in the afternoon. Monday the shuttle picks us up at 10:00.

WHITECAP
- Sunday, April 06, 2003 at 13:18:28 (EDT)

Sunday
Well it is winding down now, Nicolle and Rick are leaving for Belize City today, 3 hr taxi to Flores and fly from there, then two days there before they fly out. We are taking Lube's jet boat down to the "swap meet" and early breakfast this AM at Mario's Marina, then back to the hotel for the taxi.
Not bringing much home this year, except instruments and radios and our personal stuff. Got new 3 month papers for the boat when we came back through Livingston, good to 23 June, and we applied for 9 more months extension at the same time. The 9 month charge is US$90 or so and Lube will have to go down to Livingston for us to pick up the documents, then we will be OK until we return in the fall. Whitecap is in good shape, everything works, only the house batteries now to be replaced in the fall. Got to pick up some fibre washers to stop some small oil leaks, like under the acorn nuts on the valve cover, where the old ones have just got too old and dried up like us...

We hosed her down when we came back up river, got all the salt water off. Will have to pay for and pick up the outboard at the repair shop. We will store it in Lube's small shed and take home the errant parts for replacement. Hope she works next year because you just cannot get anywhere without a dink even here. We were lucky to have "Yankee Girl's" spare 4hp for the trip to Belize. Have to give them a bottle of wine or something.

Here is a pic of Tootie, our guard dog, and Diego taking their afternoon nap on the deck, and the view from Nicolle's hotel room deck, this is our small bay with the bridge in the background. Whitecap is just on the left in the corner of the bay where the bridge comes back down. The trees in the centre are islands in the river, the main river is just on the other side of these islands. And also one of Whitecap coming up the gorge just before the "grafitti wall". You can just imagine Tarzan swinging in the vines calling "Ja nnnnn eeee as he falls into the river!!! when the vine breaks....
Found the leak, it was the rudder packing nut!!! Gave her a turn and now no leak... and all this time we thought it was the coral we hit last year in Nicholas Cay!!! Stupido eh?

See you soon, will be home on the Thursday night with Cindy from HFX.
Mary and Dick

WHITECAP
- Thursday, April 02, 2003 at 03:31:32 (EST)

Dick, Sorry I didn't get these last two entries (below) on the site when they were received, but I was over at Le camp du Roger on the Nor'west Miramichi with the moto-neige crew. Didn't rain this year; was only 35 below celcius; warmed up at noon; (thought you might appreciate the difference in your "cold" weather and ours). David got frost bite on his cheeks at 75 miles an hour....didn't really say which cheeks, but his face was pretty red too. Don't forget, you can put these entries on the front page yourself and I can post the pictures later. Hope your gasket arrives soon, let us know. TTYL.
WebMaster
- Sunday, February 16, 2003 at 15:49:13 (EST)

Hola everyone
Been a busy week no time to keep a daily log this week, weather is changing for the better, less rain and sunny every morning, soon as the outboard is ready we can leave here. No sign of David's parcel or the gasket parcel yet.

They are organizing a "big" race tomorrow 14:00 Sunday, we are kind of thinking!!! Will start in front of Bruno's and head down river to Mario's Marina, turn back up river under the bridge and around the Castillo into the lake then return to Bruno's for the finish.

Nicolle please let us know your schedule, flying into Belize City would work out better for us, because it looks like we will be leaving Whitecap here with Lube again this year, there is just not enough time to enjoy the sail to Panama and the San Blas Islands this year. Next year we will come down 3 weeks earlier and stay 3 weeks later. So Belize is best, and we can sail the Cayes we missed last year on the way down.
There is a diver coming over to replace the zinc on the prop, it has completely disappeared, Dick found more of the special bolts, and we have a new anode here, I think we will hang another one over the side this year to help out. The stray electric is coming from the next dock, they only use two wires and no ground wire.

Got to go get our sails out of storage this morning.
Dick and Mary
WHITECAP
- Sunday, February 16, 2003 at 15:39:27 (EST)

Hola everyone
Monday Feb 8, Rain early morning, looks like that is the norm, rain during the night then around mid morning it clears up, the sun comes out and it gets hot as hell... picked up our windmill bracket from "The Shop" back to the House deck to put it all together, the relocated the mizzen light looks better here, too hot to work...
14:00 Dick says he feels like an egg roll, Mary and Carolyn each feel his arm, "Yes he feels like an egg roll" so we take Lube's launch to Dim Sum for egg rolls. End of day.
Tuesday, Feb 9. Work on mizzen bracket until it is too hot, decide since we are doing all this work might as well buy new blades to replace the ones we cut last year. Mar Marine has a set in stock for US$99, Dick smiles at the young lady and asks for a discount then bargains them down to $79, they have been there a long time... but want cash payment, launch to town looking for new propane regulator and bank. No Luck only Central American propane type around here, not compatible, stop off at Crowbar to pick up Mary's kitchen knives from Sunday and feed a hungry David. A lady comes in, looks at Dick's PEI Dirt Shirt and says: "you really from PEI?" "Yes, from Summerside". She says: "My brother Stephen Hunter owns the Victoria Village Inn and we are from Newfoundland"... well... LeRoy and Dick and David did not go directly home again. Carolyn calls on the VHF "are you guys still at Crowbar? we are walking over" Dick and LeRoy were grounded for the next day, but why not David???.
Wednesday Feb 10. As usual, rain in the morning, air temp 85F, pick up the new Air Marine blades, fabricate a new spacer from a lock washer which we filed down to fit the hex nut slot fitting on the windmill hub, by 15:00 we have the mizzen back up and all connected. Lucky we did this as we found corrosion in the VHF antenna connection and cleaned it up at the same time. Wind comes up late afternoon, the metre shows 6 amp+ out of the windmill... great and now she starts with less wind, probably like she should have in the first place... Stupido, what we did in the last few days should have been done when we originally installed the thing last year instead of cutting the blades... now the propane project is next.Here is a pic showing the re-installed windmill, we now clear the mizzen mast by 1 3/4" and the main backstay by about the same amount, you can see where we extended the bracket by 2 1/8" and moved the light down lower it was exactly where the blade turned before. This Pic shows Kookie using the community dock "ringer" (note not a ringer-washer), she uses a 5 gal bucket and a toilet plunger as a washer/agitator.
Thursday, Feb 11, Rained heavy this morning, air temp 85F, sorry about that everyone but it is a fact.... Rebelle went out to check their transmission, had to move three boats out of the way. Mike has his new fuel tanks installed finally, now he and Lube are making a fibreglass mold out out of his aluminum dinghy. Got our propane working again, don't know what was wrong but took it all apart and put it back together and it worked!!! Pat has 7 coats varnish on the mast starting on the eighth today, Las Vegas Bob's "Esmoralda" is sunk again at his dock this morning.... guess she is better off on the bottom anyway, less work for him!!! and he is gone to Peurto Barrios for a few days. No sign of David's glasses parts yet, he is on his third book since he came down. Hope the gasket comes soon.

WHITECAP
- Sunday, February 16, 2003 at 15:38:47 (EST)

Hola everyone.
Saturday Feb 8, Made three dinghy trips to "The Shop" to pick up our parts for the windmill, and they were closed, have to put that job off until Monday now. And no luck with the propane regulator.
Big excitement up our lane this afternoon, big fight out on the street, and many trying to break it up, women and children yelling and screaming. Wm. Alexander finally was able to restrain one guy with an arm lock but he got away, ran into the house and came back out with a machete, he was so drunk he could hardly walk and he threw it at the other guy. Wm. Alexander jumped on him again and held him down, and others hauled the second one away. Apparently, they were brothers, we were watching from the house deck. I wonder if they are now ex-brothers...
Sunday Feb 9. 08:30-Jose and Ceilia and a friend Layton from Texas arrive, "Whitecap" and "Shang" are going up into Lago Isabel for the day, destination "Denny's Beach" about 13 miles away. Guess we missed a big party at the Crowbar yesterday afternoon, "Dead Don" (who, by the way, is a great grandson of Stonewall Jackson) had his old Martin guitar, Siggy, the German guy we met last year anchored off AK'Tenimit down river, played banjo and others were taking turns doing country and western stuff. Jose says they had nothing left to sell by the time everyone went home.... hope they made some money.
Here are some pics, Ceilia watching Mary braid Carolyn's long hair, David getting tanned, the fleet anchored in 6 ft. You can see the flat calm lake with mountains in the distance. Lago Isabel is about 30 miles long and 10 miles wide and is surrounded by mountains, there are many beautiful rivers at the western end and many anchorages, but it is not safe for one boat alone. A flotilla would be fun.
LeRoy dove to free our knot meter transducer, it was stuck, and the zinc on the prop is gone also; we will have to fix that!!!. "Denny's Beach" is about 1/3 the way up the lake on the south side, and he has a bar/restaurant, rental cabanas and many places to string hammocks and pitch tents; there are no sand fleas!!! Denny is from Penticton BC and has been here for 13 years. We used their barbeque, using charcoal left from a recent beach bonfire, Jose brought hamburgers, Ceilia made a tasty seafood Ceviche with shrimp, octopus and conch, David passed that up for two burgers.
By 16:00 we were all burned and ready for home, the wind came up, on the nose of course, so we powered through 3 ft waves all the way back to the Castillo. It was already dark but after we rounded the Castillo, the river was flat calm. We were back at our dock at 19:00; "Yankee Girl" was waiting to catch our lines. Carolyn says put vinegar on the sunburn we tried it.
Monday Feb 10, Rained for a while early this AM. Temp 80 F.  Went to town, picked up the parts for the wind generator bracket, had the propane regulator checked, they thought that was not the problem, back home, walk to the outboard repair place they are closed, will have to come back; Ah well!!  Got two out of three... The vinegar must have worked burn now brown already, must be the "Injun".
Dinghied to Dim Sum for egg rolls at 14:00 that should keep us going for the day. worked on the windmill bracket until after dark, then the mosquitoes came out, had to run for shelter...
WHITECAP
- Tuesday, February 11, 2003 at 05:49:10 (EST)

Feb 4 Tuesday, Bright sunny day today air temp 83F, winds calm, going to be a hot one. David is sick today, has a cold, nose running, the whole shibang... and he is cranky besides. Dick borrows two palm sanders from Lou and Kookie, got to get that mast of Pat's finished. Sanded all morning, finally at 13:50 the power went out, a transformer blew out near the "Orange Crush" restaurant near Backpackers. Lou and Kookie were having lunch Mast almost finished, first coat thinned varnish. Hit the shower, just enough hot water to get soaped, power out, Dick puts on bathing suit and empties the hot water from two dock hoses over his head to get the soap off, to the cheering of the beer drinking crowd on the house deck.
Feb 5 Wednesday, Cloudy warm, temp 81 F looks like clearing. Pat starts the 2nd thin coat of varnish on the mast, Dick fibreglasses the mast "boot", just to strengthen the bottom where it fits into "Shang's" deck fitting. Roger comes with our tables, looking good, we mount the hinges and fit the leg for the front table. Dick decides to leave mounting the rear table until tomorrow while he thinks about how to make a bracket. All the parts and pieces come to Q 430, about CDN $100. the 1" x 12" teak materiel cost Q 30 (CDN$5) per foot, back home it would cost $25 + per foot. Dick spent the evening engraving two flying dolphins into the top surface.
"Grande Carrib" a small cruise ship from the American-Canadian-Caribbean Line comes into our bay, puts her nose ashore alongside the Shell station, we saw her last year in Belize City and also French Harbour, Roatan; looks like the passengers are all going up to the "French" hotel for dinner.
Feb 6, Thursday, Rained hard all last night, air temp 87 F by 07:30. This morning David complains about the drain from the African Queen, the water hits the deck just above his head, just like Chinese torture... Coffee on "Adios", Kookie brings apple turnovers, it is Lou's birthday today. Carolyn has Diego trained now, whenever he knows he does something wrong, he now says "oh! oh! Better call Maico".
Turn Whitecap around stern to the house deck, going to drop the mizzen mast to move and repair the deck light with a sealed beam halogen, by 11:00 it is just too hot to work, decide to wait until the sun goes down behind the house.
16:00 got mizzen down, removed and repaired the deck light by cutting out the old reflector and inserting a sealed beam halogen, tested it and it works!! Will re-install tomorrow, cannot do too much in one day... David slept all day, complaining about his glasses, the nose pieces are broken. Propane stove not working properly, no pressure, should not be out of gas it is a new tank.
Lou's birthday, fireworks on the public dock next door compliments of Lube, while we all had sweets on the house deck.
Feb 7, Friday. Got an early start removing the windmill and bracket, installed the repaired light fixture, more cockroaches in Lube's pop rivet gun, this time 4 inside the handle. Turned Pat's mast over, he now has 2 coats of thinned varnish on, hoping for two more today. Mike's new fuel tanks have the baffles installed.
15:00 removed the windmill bracket, have to go over to "The Shop" to use their drill press, we want to extend out approx 2 more inches from the mast, before we put it together again, next time we get new blades we will not have to shorten them, a real bummer. Stopped off at "Dim Sum" for a take out of egg rolls for supper, river pretty dark tonight.
Feb 8, Saturday. 08:00 Raining but sun trying to come out, rained really hard during the night, Dick thinks he found the source of the leak in his bunk ha! have fun Dick. Mary went with Pat on his dinghy to Mario's swap meet, there is a plastic surgeon there this AM giving a lecture on suturing using "crazy glue" in offshore emergencies, Dick stayed home to figure out the propane problem.
Mary and Dick
WHITECAP
- Saturday, February 08, 2003 at 12:45:58 (EST)

Hola everyone,
Sunday Feb 2, cloudy but starting to clear, temp 78F, as usual coffee on "Adios", spent the morning cleaning up and stowing things away, we are leaving the dock today for a trial run... hurrah departure time is 13:00, this is a big deal, we will be testing the transmission repair and our new cooling system and at the same time cleaning off all the crap that has grown on the bottom over the last 9 months.
13:00 we all clamor aboard, Pat, Carolyn, LeRoy, Jose, Ceilia, Mary and Dick, back out of the dock and head out to Dim Sum under the bridge, across the river, everything working great. There are almost 20 of us for dinner, good job Kookie warned them yesterday in advance. They were overwhelmed, and had 10 take-out orders besides. We ate and drank until 16:00, for a total of Q202 (CDN $40) for the five of us, and then did a turnaround motor run through Susanna'a Lagoona and around Castillo San Philipe then up into Lago Isabal. Engine temperature 150F a little cool should be 180F. Roger mooned us from the deck in front of Chiqui's store on the way back. Ceilia did the driving, she was pretty thrilled, first time on a boat and she got to drive...
Monday Feb 3 08:30 sunny warm air temp 82F, Dick was allowed to sleep in this AM, even missed the morning VHF net. During coffee, Roger came by with the tables, wants the pins for the table fiddles, Dick and Leroy launch to town looking for Stainless welding rod which we will cut up for pins. Picked up a welder's sparker to light our stove, the darn butane ones never work, Mary is impressed... Helped Pat for awhile in the afternoon, he is getting ready to do the final light sanding and start the varnish. Armored Toyota 4 x 4 drives up, it is our friend "Shad" from "Animo" with his wife and driver, just back from Costa Rica west coast, where he captains another Hatteras sportfisher for his boss.
16:00 Birthday party for Mike on "Neige d'Ete" the big 50, pic #569 Vickie even had fireworks arranged during the dinner on the house deck. Mike's new fuel tanks are shaping up, finally decided to do them in fiberglass.
Mary and Dick

WHITECAP
- Tuesday, February 04, 2003 at 12:57:48 (EST)

Jan 30, Thursday. Misty rain but clearing in the east. Help Pat in the morning, still sanding with 80 grit.
14:30 Lou and Kookie call. Let's do chinese for lunch, borrow Lube's launch and head across the river to "Dim Sum" a new restaurant just opened last week, Pic is from the deck, Lou & Kookie, LeRoy and Carolyn and Mary, Chiqui's Store is centre left, and the river Esso is across the river centre pic. A new couple came along, Harry and Mel (issa) they sail "Bigfoot" a Morgan OI 41. When you see the size of Harry's feet you can see why they picked that boatname!!
Too much food, egg rolls are three times the size of home.
16:30 continue on to town for veggies and bank; stop off at Crowbar just before they close, Mary and Carolyn walk across the bridge, LeRoy and Dick head out to get gas for the almost empty launch tank, everything closes here at 18:00.
Jan 31, Friday. Clear and sunny today, VHF net reports 3 new boats came upriver yesterday, one Canadian from Lake Superior, "Gypsy Rose" went down river to Livingston early today.
Walk to Backpackers for messages, David landed in Guate City last night and stayed at Poseda Belen, No gaskets available for outboard in Canada have to send to Japan!!!. Dick writes letter to the President of Suzuki USA, cannot imagine they had a production run and we were the only ones to buy that model, can he help???
Roger comes by, needs 48 x 3/4" #6 SS screws cannot find any anywhere around here. Dick says he will have them in 20 minutes. Roger kind of looks at Dick, like Dick is in another world, Roger does not know that David is arriving and those exact screws are on our "to bring list".
11:20 David arrives on shuttle, left the city at 05:30, check for screws, they turn out to be zinc plated, not Stainless, not much good on a boat they will disappear in a year. Well at least David brought horseradish, CD's, movies, mail, magazines and himself safely, but Dick is going to have to "eat crow" with Roger. The alternative is #8 x 1" flat head, we have a full box on board. Roger says too heavy.... yea, and the tables are 1" solid teak!!! but condesends to use them...
Spend the rest of the day cleaning fenders and green rope with clorox, walk to Chiqui's store, already an afternoon crowd gathered, just like Holman's back home "where old friends meet". They like drinking Q5 beer from the cooler, they save the cans and pay before they leave. Several remember David from last year, he is pretty proud, even Stu on "Mixto Listo" says "What you again???".
Saturday, Feb 1. Cloudy day again, air temp 78 F Coffee on Adios, Lube runs down dock, "Turn on TV", watch CNN news in Spanish, see Space shuttle Columbia crash near Dallas Tx. Wow what a tragedy, that takes up most of the AM. Mary and Carolyn walk over the bridge for fresh veggies, today is market day. They are back home by lunch time.
14:00 walk over the bridge, then all the way back under the bridge down to "The Shop", to get the dinghy sling re-nicopressed, she is lifting the dinghy bow down, have to shorten the front wire. Stop at Crowbar, for BLT and beer, walk back over the bridge again that's twice for Mary and Carolyn, lots of exercise today, no wonder clothes will not fit anymore.
Kookie makes plans for Chinese again Sunday for lunch, looks like there will be 15 or so. We sit around the house deck until the bugs come out, every evening white moth type bugs come out and are attracted to lights, the birds have a frenzie, an hour later it is all over, then Movie and bed it is only 19:30!!
Sunday, Feb 2, 07:40 Bright sunny day air temp 83 F, we let David sleep in. Fill water tank, Coffee on "Adios", they have an electric perk, The French boat we towed off the bar at Nicolas Caye comes in to the dock next door, she does the driving and shouts orders, poor husband...
Mike "Neige d'Ete" is torn between a fibreglass tank and a steel one, cannot make up his mind, Michel "Sonata" takes of with his backpack for a land trip by bus to Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, be back in 10 days.

WHITECAP
- Sunday, February 02, 2003 at 12:06:39 (EST)

Hi everyone
Jan 29 Wednesday. 05:15 Someone's birthday out there, first time for firecrackers in two weeks.
Sunny and warm this morning, looks like the front went through yesterday afternoon, rain stopped sun came out and everything is back to normal. VHF Net this AM "Breezen" has a Kenmore SSB for sale, Dick and LeRoy borrow Lube's launch, turns out to be the older version too big for what we are looking for but the price was right US$400, we did not buy. Here is a pic of our newly repaired "man overboard pole" compliments of Pepsi and 3 ounces of liquid foam. It kind of took a sausage shape in the process, Dick had Stu make a sock out of left over dodger materiel to cover it. Here is a pic of "Yankee Girl" Lou and Kookie's Mason 43 coming into Lube's dock, and the gismo we installed along the bottom of the African Queen to catch rain water to fill our tank, there will be one on the other side also. Roger got back to work on our tables yesterday, finally finished the roof on his new addition that more than doubles the size of his shop. Today or tomorrow we will go over there and get the rest of our stuff, 3 x 5 gal diesel containers and 3 bags of sails and some other things, then he will have more wall space.
Called home last night , the Suzuki head gaskets did not arrive yet for David to bring on Thursday, very disappointing, unless they arrive in PEI today, we will have to wait here for them to be shipped down, damn. Cannot go anywhere without a dinghy motor once we leave here we will be mostly anchored near islands.
10:30 Replaced the spinnaker haillard with the newly spliced one, the old one will replace the spinnaker sheet we snapped last year when we used it for a spring line at Moho Caye, and the broken one will become the anchor line for the dinghy. We hear an electric saw going in "Neige d' Ete" next door, Mike must have decided to cut the 100 gal aluminum fuel tank in two to get it out, Corbin Yachts did no one favors when they installed big oversize tanks... then installed the deck... Mike found the problem, there was a ground wire under the tank that was touching several places
13:30 Carolyn, LeRoy and Dick head over to Pat's mast under the bridge for a sanding bee, started with 36 grit
17:00 two sides are sanded down with 80 grit. Tomorrow we will go back to do the other 2 sides. Looks good but did not get pic. Back to Whitecap, Mary has David's bunk all made up, coffee table cleaned off, dish locker all scrubbed and the teak sole all scrubbed down, also even smells good. Mercedes started after 35 seconds of glow plug, getting better, but still plan to change the filter.
Jan 30, Thursday, 05:30 misty cloudy, Emi already in the river washing laundry, Lube still in bed, it is a man's world down here. Must have been two birthdays last night we had firecrackers at 03:10 and again at 05:00 a little further down under the bridge towards Chiqui's.
Coffee on Adios, walk to Backpackers for messages, David was supposed to leave from HFX this AM, wonder if he has our gasket????.
WHITECAP
- Thursday, January 30, 2003 at 11:30:15 (EST)

Jan 26, Sunday. Sunny and warm 78F. Dick works on the new spinnaker haillard snap shackle splice , hands are healed he can milk the rope again... , Dick has a bit of flu, Montezuma's revenge again, cramps and nausea, not a nice feeling... Jose and Celia come for a visit, they want us to go to to Superbowl at Catamaran. Kevin is sending the big diesel launch "Sledgehammer" to take everyone over and back safely, this is the big day. We decide to go, Dick, drinking Agua Quina, gets sick again, not very sociable, sits near the exit door closer to the bathroom.... chills arrange a panga to take us home at half time. In bed by 19:00. two blankets, two tees and sweat it out for the night. Wake up at 01:00 change into dry shirt, change again at 04:00 finally get some decent sleep. Mary has to change Dick's sheet in the AM, everything wet, more laundry for Mama...
Jan 27, Monday, Dick feeling better, but food is unthinkable, walk to Backpackers for E-Mail. Grandson David is arriving in Guate City at 20:30 Thursday night, send message to Posada Belen to pick him up at the airport, keep him for the night and put him on an Attitlan shuttle to the Rio in the morning. Attitlan uses 10 passenger Toyota vans and are the best way to travel around here. Dick feeling better, complete the splice finally, and then start a "rope to chain" one for the Danforth anchor which we use for a stern anchor. Cannot use all rope rode around here, rock and coral just chew it up, now we have 50' of chain on the stern anchor line. Up front we carry a 35 lb CQR and a 33 lb Bruce each with 227' of 5/16 galvanized BBB chain. We also carry a 30 lb folding grapnel on the stern with 20' chain and 100 ft rode as an extra.
15:30 Enough for the day, all the Canadians at our dock congregate on the house deck, for a beer and talk about the weather back home. We are better off here... no snow, no shovels. Just rain for two to three hours a day, and sometimes all night.
Neige d' Ete has more problems, the circuit board for his radar came, US$95 for shipping, but it does not solve his problem, now he has to go to the city 5 hours away to try and find the correct chip. Then... today he found his aluminum fuel tank is leaking, had to pump the fuel to another boat, then he cut two holes in the top and found 3 corrosion spots. He now has to cut the tank into two pieces to get it out of the boat, as it was installed by Corbin before the deck was put on. Mike is not a happy camper today.
Mary and Dick
WHITECAP
- Tuesday, January 28, 2003 at 11:19:01 (EST)

HI everyone,
Jan 24, Friday. Got a lot of things done today, e-mail at Backpackers, looks like David is arriving next Thursday, and hopefully Bill sourced 2 new gaskets for the outboard, David can bring them down here. Took off Bimini and Guillermo gave her a good shampoo, put grommets in the new dodger so we can lace it to the bimini pipes, that gets rid of the front bimini straps which chafed the old dodger.
10:30 Las Vegas Bob moved the old wooden "Magico" from the dock next door, and towed her over to the dock he rents near "Shang", she is tied up alongside "Esmoralda" the one that sank a few weeks ago, at least she will not sink over here. No one can understand what he wants with two old no longer sea worthy boats, that he spends all his time bailing.... Yesterday he had a young man cleaning "Magico", Dick asked Bob if he had a buyer? He answered "no, but I am thinking of going to Cuba next week..., just thinking..." Las Vegas Bob rents a room in a small house under the bridge and sleeps on 6 plastic chairs, he says bugs get into mattresses.... weird...
13:30 Mailman arrived with parcel Richard and Maureen sent with CD pics of Christmas back home, it was mailed Canada Post Jan 6, almost 3 weeks ago.
14:30 Walk across the bridge to Fronteres, then back under the bridge to the new location of "The Shop" just to take a look. Patrick and Chris two young brothers do small jobs for boaters and have a good supply of rigging parts. Stop at Carlos the welder, he was to weld up a new hold down bracket for our propane tank, not there today, over at the slip getting ready to haul another boat with his trailer.
Stop at Crowbar for a beer and sandwich, another day when we will not get supper. Make arrangements to take Jose over to Mario's swap meet with us in the morning. Meet Jessica, a young lady friend of Lube and Emi before they married, her mother Jennifer (the lady who makes the courtesy flags) lives down river in a house on Gringo Bay, Jessica grew up here on the river, fluent in Spanish, French and English, she and her French boyfriend do boat deliveries for a living.
16:30 raining hard, another front going through, too wet to walk home, taxi over the bridge.
Jan 25, Saturday. Rained hard during the night, air temp 68 F cleared around dawn. looks like a cloudy but warm day. Morning VHF net reports Jim on "Morgan Lynn" used his credit card at the river ESSO for fuel , they put his card through twice and he noticed an extra charge for US$180 on his bank statement. Jose does not show up, we head over in Lube's launch to Marios Swap meet, big crowd there today, three new CDN boats came up the river yesterday, 2 from Lotus land (British Columbia) and one from Georgian Bay, they are docked at Tortugal. Watch CNN news first time in 3 weeks, still talking about war in Iraq... nothing changes. Arrange with Stu "Mixto Listo" for some A and B expandable foam for our repaired man overboard pole.
11:30 Back home, Walk to Chiqui's for bread and stuff, Pat is ready to sand the mast with 80 grit paper, we already have gone over twice with 36 grit, plan a "sanding party" for Monday morning to get it finished. Blisters on right hand fingers just newly healed from rope splicing the other day. Roger is putting the roof on his shop expansion, almost flat, just enough slope for rain run off, Dick asks Roger if he calculated for "snow load"... here is a pic when Roger was pouring the new floor two weeks ago.
18:00 Pizza night, this time Mary will not let Dick put on hamburg, turned out not too bad. Sit back and watch "Sex in the City", not a favorite but the only English show on TV.
Jan 26, Sunday. Super Bowl day, but the game only starts at 17:00, river going to be dark.... Air temp 78 cloudy.

Mary and Dick

WHITECAP
- Sunday, January 26, 2003 at 11:09:50 (EST)

Hi everyone
Jan 23 Thursday. Woke up to light rain today, 78F the dodger is almost finished just have to put in the final eyelets along the lower sides and the grommets to tie the lacing to the bimini, the project for this AM when it stops raining.
Yesterday, we spent the morning doing e-mail and for the first time did not get kicked off halfway through, received all our mail in triplicate took 40 minutes, then went to Chiqui's store, bit the bullet on the SS piano hinge and bought 30", gave it to Roger who happened by, stopped at the outboard place picked up the old gasket and serial # on our engine and spent the afternoon going from one outboard dealer to another in town, no luck.
Jon and Onda "Gypsy Rose" are leaving today, out to anchor for a few days then to Livingston to wait weather. Robert and France on "Rebelle", the Kelt 9.0 from Montreal at our dock, arrived from Canada yesterday, here is thepresent group around the table at Lube's dock: Jon, Onda, Robert, Vicki and Mike. Back row left, Dick and Mary, LeRoy and Carolyn and France. Only one missing is Michel who was in town.
The weather outside the river is frightful, reports of anchored boats drifting ashore from dragging anchors and stuff, 10' + seas breaking over a reef that is barely a few inches above sea level, is not fun!!! Several boats have come up the river just for the Super Bowl game. Michel our neighbour, who did a land trip to Honduras last week, found a few harbours with yachts, and a good anchorage in Omoa off the Castilla there, that are not in the guidebooks, and also a deep river which goes 130 miles inland!!! This coast is still uncharted virgin territory.
Got to thinking one day last week about LeRoy's psoriasis, why not try the purple shampoo Dick uses to stop grey hair from going yellow. LeRoy has been putting it on a few spots and by damn it seems to be working...
There is a story circulating about a sailor here on the river, who claims he was was delivering a boat to Puerto Cortez for haul out, (no one knows why, there are two haul outs here), the elderly owner is in a US hospital. The sailor was seen on the beach in Omoa, Honduras, with a dinghy, claims he struck a half sunk container offshore, the boat sank and he says he was lucky to get off. He also tells some it was a power boat and others that it was a sailboat... but he did Zarpe out a sailboat from Livingston, so his story changes. Someone saw the boat in question away up a creek in the Golfete. Looks like the plan was to report it sunk, do some work on it and then sell it and keep the money. This same sailor bragged to Dick in December, that he had just married a 28 yr old Guatemalan virgin, everyone laughed, there is no such thing...
09:20 Raining really hard now, spent the morning watching TV movie "Smokey the Bandit" dubbed in Spanish. If it stops raining we can put the grommets in the dodger, fixed the man overboard pole using two pepsi bottles end to end, when we find some expandable foam we will fill it, the stuff Lube has is gone bad. Someone said Mixto Listo has some 2 part. Will cover it with a sock of red dodger materiel to prevent UV.
12:00 "Gypsy Rose" leaves dock to anchor in the bay, "Neige d'Ete" moves up to behind "Whitecap", Lube is bringing the 46 ft powerboat he takes care of from Mario's Marina over here for the weekend. "Yankee Girl" is moving in on Monday. Roger comes by to measure the console height, looks like we can get 26" length for the new table, and still fold it down.
16:00 lazy afternoon, too wet to do the grommets, so we read and sleep, walk to Chiqui's for a bottle of red wine for dinner, picked a Chilean red for Q36. Thought LeRoy and Carolyn were sleeping, turns out they were at Backpackers calling home, she keeps worrying about her boys.
19:00, visit with "Adios", rain starts, wind comes up, stray mizzen haillard wraps around our windmill blades, Lube comes running, have to tie these suckers down.... windmill was putting out 7 amps!!!

WHITECAP
- Friday, January 24, 2003 at 10:59:04 (EST)

Jan 19, Sunday, Warmer this AM, and flat calm air temp 71 F. Go over the new charts with Michel on "Sonata", he just returned form a land trip to Honduras, says there are two or three harbours before Puerto Cortez where there are a few yachts owned by people from San Pedro Sula, it is possible to get in in daylight. This means we can do "day hops" from Livingston when the winds are down in the mornings, definately a good option and not mentioned in the cruising guides.
Work on solving the main VHF problem, borrow Michel's soldering gun next door, new plug in ends on the radio + and - and also on the feed + and -, still does not work, jumper direct to battery OK. After 2 hours of frustration, ask Michel if he can come over and figure it out. Open the electric panel trace all the way to the circuit breaker, we have 12V all the way, then from the breaker to the terminal strip OK, but Dick accidentally touched the red wire from the strip to the radio and it pulled out!!! Set screw vibrated loose over the last 4 years, Tighten up ALL the set screws, now radio works. Next project is the external speaker, so we can hear from the cockpit when Mercedes is running, remove it completely, the wire runs behind the companionway trim, check the wire looking for a broken spot with OHM meter and a small needle into the wire, OK, wires on the plug OK, resolder plug terminals and shrink wrap just in case , still not working... then LeRoy noticed the small copper wire from the one magnet terminal to the diaphragm was off on one side, we gently solder it back on... eureka... the thing works again. Reinstalled the trim after spraying bug killer along the tunnel, great place for crawlies if we ever get them again...
12:30 Starting to warm up, time to put all the tools from the last week back in their proper places, Mary finally gets the cockpit cleaned up, run the Mercedes everything OK. Onda comes by, she is almost finished sewing the dodger pieces, ready for a fitting tomorrow AM, Jon is getting anxious to head "Gypsy Rose"out, think she wants to stay...
14:30 borrow Lube's launch, head out to the satellite football game at Catamaran, big crowd today, two big screens, the place is packed with about 40 gringos. Lou is looking for SS allen screws, Whitecap has a 12 dram pill vial full.
17:00 Mary getting anxious, football is not her primary sport, does not want to be on the river after dark, we get home just in time. Pack up computer, walk to Backpackers, . Took almost an hour to send and receive, really slow today. Looks like David might come down again, guess it is OK. Dick must get a picture of the outboard head gasket we need, and perhaps someone can locate an old laptop somewhere that he can bring for Lube . We split a small pizza 4 ways while we wait. Walk back home always "under the bridge", some kook may be up there and drop a bottle over the side.... Splice a snap shackle into the new 7/16" spinnaker haillard, Dick's hands are tender, "milking" the rope causes blisters... Diego keeps us entertained, "Howdy", "How are you today" "Good evening Dic" he keeps repeating with thumbs up.
Jan 20, Monday, 07:30 Rio Net Weather reporter, Brian from "Mustang" says going to clear by end of week, or he is going to quit. Had to re-solder the connection on the VHF remote speaker, yesterdays job did not hold, dismantled the teak combing again, pulled out the wire, repaired our broken soldering gun, and put it all together again, everything works, but for how long??.
09:00 Onda came by with the dodger, Dick and LeRoy try to install the eyelets on a sample piece, must need a special tool... we ruin one trying, only have 20 and we need 18... cannot waste any more, Lube drives us to "Rio Dulce Canvas" across the bridge, they have the special tool and will install them for Q2 each. Back to Whitecap, Lube takes new dodger back over bridge with parts and money.
13:30 Rainy misty, Drill and tap mizzen, install two new cleats which we had on board, install the new propane tank and spend 2 hours trying to get the shut off solenoid to work, no luck. We have propane, but cannot shut it off from the galley... . Peter T. from Holland Marines' e-mail specifically said "no jumper" , Dick is certain last yeay there was one and even marked it on the bulkhead... -, +, U+, U- with a jumper between the two + wires... will have to think this one over. Re-Install the belt on the wheel for the self steerer, we removed it last year so it would not get a "memory". Modify our 250 mm adjustable wrench by filing some off the wheel, now it will the Edson nut. LeRoy calls this wrench a "thumb" wrench, because you adjust it with the thumb... Electric power turned off, they have been installing new 125 ft towers on each side of the bridge for a new power line all the way to Peten Department (province, about 150 miles towards Belize). The workers built the new towers from scratch like a leggo set, climb up the towers, no helmets, flip flops on the feet, old rope for safety lines, but for real safety, they turn power off on the old lines a few feet away...
17:00 enough for today, had light breakfast, no lunch, check fridge, something smells not quite right. Turns out to be the cheese we thought was Mazorella. Steaks, ribs, shrimp and chicken are still all frozen. Decide on shrimp for tonight, Carolyn brings rice, Mary performs her usual culinary miracle, and we have candlelight and wine. Be nice if we had those cockpit tables!!! Warming up, air temp 76 F but raining. Run Mercedes to bump up batteries, took 30 minutes to go from 11.8V to 14. 25V. Last year we had to run engine for 4 hours or more to get that much voltage... Lube returns with the dodger.
Jan 21, Tuesday. Cloudy day again, 07:30 Rio VHF net reports an attempted robbery between Mario's and Hotel Catamaran, Randall from "Nightmare" was heading over to Catamaran to bring a friend home in his dinghy, and a local panga with a man and a woman tried to get him to stop, the guy brought out a pistol and fired two shots in the air, and circled the dinghy. Randall says he just ignored them, they followed for awhile then went away.... figures he had too much to drink and was looking for money to take his lady to dinner or something.
08:30, Jose from Crowbar comes by with a bunch of coconuts, going to Morales. Dick jumps in the jeep with he and Celia. Pick up two barbeque lighters and a new 200 watt soldering gun, no piano hinge anywhere, and forgot the spray foam... Should make a list! Jose and Celia shop for souvenir items they can sell. Dick wanders from shop to shop, one small place they were making "pinatas" the lady wanted to take a picture of Dick, says she can make one to his likeness. Dick refuses, does like the idea of anyone pounding sticks on him just to get candy. Pick up a hitch hiker on the way back, Mark from Belgium on a boat called "Quetsel" not hard to remember as it is the local currency, he lived in Thunder Bay at one time. Sun came out on the way back to the river finally after 4 days.
12:00 install dodger, had to move a few deck fasteners, looks good. Onda has to come by and measure for the back part which we left to the last. Jon says they plan to head to Roatan around the end of the week.
14:30 Onda comes back, we do the final measurements and a decide a few changes. We walk off to town across the bridge. Here are some pics: new dodger before we streached it out, looking south from the bridge, Hotel Backpackers , where we go for internet and sometimes a pizza, this village is called "El Relleno", Whitecap is the last mast on the right from the bridge peak facing north towards Tikal, LeRoy surveying the view, the town of Fronteres is at the bottom of the bridge, the marina on right is at Tijax Hacienda: is a not to scalepainting showing the layout of the river and the two lakes, the "gorge" runs from Golfete to Livingston at the mouth of the river, the finger like point on the right is "Cabos Tres Puntas", when we leave here, we will go around Tres Puntas and will be in Honduran waters.  The divers flag (red/white stripe) marks the south end of the Belize reefs. Guatemala only has a 65 mile face on the Caribbean. Puerto Barrios is in the lower bay on the right, all Guatemala shipping goes in and out from there.
Started Mercedes tonight, 30 secs glow plug and she went, battery V went up to 14.5V in ten minutes, that's good...
WHITECAP
- Wednesday, January 22, 2003 at 20:00:58 (EST)

Hi Everyone
Jan 16,Thursday got our e-mail in and out, spend an hour sanding on Pat's mast, check to see if Onda needs anything, then headed to town for our repaired thermostat, not ready yet, Carlos says "manana" again, which we now know here only means the "day after today" or "not today", he says braizing will not work, and wants to make us a straight through fitting in SS, we say OK, just get it done... we want to check out the instruments.
Mary and Carolyn went shopping, looking for the b'bque lighters, they were in Miriam's Tienda scanning the shelves, suddenly a cat jumped from one of the shelves, right onto Mary's chest and held on... Carolyn says Mary was so surprised she didn't even yell. Mary says she was more worried about the dog by her feet. No scratches, and no visible long term damage. Don't think they will be shopping at Miriam's too often...
Eventually, we meet at Crowbar for BLT sandwiches, no b'bque lighter, no thermostat and no hinges, not a good day. A new customer came in, looked around, asked where he could find a good helicopter pilot. Ron, (Clarity) the sailor who walks on two wooden stubs, only has one arm, and lost part of the side of his face in a copter crash in Vietnam, says he used to be a good helicopter pilot... and they both laugh... they knew each other from before, he left his boat at Mario's two years ago and just came back, hope someone aired it out...
Jan 17, Friday. Cloudy and cool today, air temp 70 F. Looks like rain but does not.
11:00 Borrow Lube's launch, LeRoy and Dick head for Carlos' welding shop, he is busy at the slip welding the cattle barge, when he sees us he feels guilty, puts down his equipment, and we walk to his shop for our project. He refuses to weld the old fitting, makes us a strait through with a "tee" out of SS pipe, Carlos says he can weld everything except a broken heart; 13:00 we pay him Q60, Carlos questions LeRoy about underwater welding, "dip the rods in varnish, do not get between the "ground" and the arc" and all that stuff. Carlos thinks he will be famous around here if he can do underwater work, wants LeRoy to come back over and teach him.
15:00 Stop at the dairy store we just heard about on the El Estor road, fresh cheese and butter but no yogurt. Time for a sandwich, head for Crowbar, Jose has just returned from Moreles, he has found a B'Bque lighter for Adios, we tell him Whitecap wanted a couple also. Carolyn and Mary show up, they walked over the bridge for fresh veggies. Everyone talking about the weather, the locals are wearing jackets, SSB reports outside the river the seas are 10 to 12 ft and winds are up to 40, not fun. We are better off here until these northers pass. Two boaters drop in, their boat has been at Mango's marina for the last 9 months, they just arrived from Isla Mujeres, Mexico by car, they say the anchorage up there is filling up with boats heading for Belize, Guatemala and Roatan, but no one is moving.
16:00 Stop at Bruno's for "Dinghy fee" back across the river before dark.
Jan 18, Saturday. 03:00 Someone's birthday, just up the lane, must be just a young child, firecrackers only last 10 minutes, Mary slept through. Cold tonight, 68 F, have to put on blanket!!
08:00 Install the new SS thermostat replacement fitting, broke two "tiny" rusty 3/8" clamps on a hose we did not know was even there, where are we going to find those???. Clean up the old thermostat to get a good look at it, there are two cracks, at least we can show it around for a proper replacement someday. Start up Mercedes, crack open the injectors, # 3 and #4 still have some air bubbles, check for leaks, small base oil leak from around #4 glow plug, do not have a wrench to fit.
09:30 Still running Mercedes, now have shore power unplugged, new engine alternator working, the new "boost" to give up to 100 amps also works, battery voltage up to 14.60 (shore power only gives us 13.45V). Inverter on, we are running TV and 75 watt lamp and refrigeration, shut down, want to see how long the batteries will carry the load. Re-install all the teak panels to close up the engine room, 6 screws and it is done. Looks like the temp gauge works but the new fitting makes her run cooler, amp gauge does not work but we do not need it, RPM is OK and the oil pressure beeper OK.
12:30 Now we can get back into the quarter berth to check the VHF radio again. Check wiring, we get 12 V all the way to the disconnect plug terminals but none after. Wire the radio direct to battery, it works!!! replace and solder in new terminals, still does not work... fuse OK, got to think this one out...
14:10 Onda comes with the new dodger for first fitting, looks good, and it fits good, now we can see out the windows again. We decide to leave sewing the side bottoms until last. Battery voltage still at 11.9V, that's good with the draw we have on.
Read until 15:30 and head for Chiqui's store, stop at outboard repair place, Oscar says still no gasket yet. Roger and King are at Chiqui's so we sit around and chat like in an old country store, LeRoy finds the tiny clamps we need in a bottle of parts, and in SS!!!, Dick finds 2" SS hinges on a shelf in a back room, Q32 /pair, we need 4 pair for the new tables, that comes to over CDN $20 for these hinges but cheaper than the piano hinge which was CDN $60, but piano hinge is much thinner, Roger says keep looking. Kookie and Lou arrive, we plan on football tomorrow afternoon, they are taking "Yankee Girl" over to Hotel Catamaran, and Monday will anchor further down near Rosita's so Mike on "Reah of Hope" can install the new 12V fridge compressor and not have to travel . We hear there has been a lot of shootings in the city, mostly political but a German tourist lady was killed in Panajcel, where we spent a week with David last spring.
17:00 Chiqui's closes, Sara blinks the lights, everyone heads home, "supper" tonight is Olive oil, Balsamic vinegar, diced coconut bread and a Mexican duster on TV. Battery voltage is now 11.25V, but the inverter 120 V automatically kicked out (error E-02) while we were gone, we plug in to shore power for the night. Here are a few pics, the Bread Lady, Lube, Diego and Emi, and the new by-pass part. Will get this out in the AM. It was cold here last night again 68 F had to use a blanket again, that is two nights in a row.
Mary and Dick

WHITECAP
- Monday, January 20, 2003 at 06:24:22 (EST)

Hi everyone
Jan 13 Monday.08:30 Misty rainy today. Someone had a birthday last night... again... Started late today, returned tools and booster pac we borrowed from Shang, Onda has all the new dodger parts cut out of the new material and will probably start sewing tomorrow or next day. Walked to Chiqui's store for fresh bread, milk and limes. Looked in on the outboard repair shop to see how our Suzuki repair is coming, the new head gasket came from the city, apparently the 9.9 hp sold in Guatemala is not the same as the Canadian 9.9 one, is ours perhaps a 15hp instead???, they are sending the old gasket up to the city for comparison, this is a 5 hour bus ride each way. Kind of difficult around here without a dinghy... Stopped at Mar Marine looking for 3 ft of 2" piano hinge for the cockpit tables, no luck. Rigged up some parachute cord on the African Queen, we now have a "trough" on both sides to collect rain water, we just have to pipe it to the main tank, and we have the technology (parts). Started the Mercedes, gave her 30 secs of glowplug and she started on the first kick, hard to imagine after three days of not starting... Removed the thermostat, there is a small crack, borrow Lube's launch, take it to Carlos the welder, says he can "braize" it, but manana... says he is suffering from "malaria" today. Dick asked if it came from a bottle and he laughed, Carlos spent 3 hours in the water yesterday trying to line up "Galetea" onto his haulout trailer. "Galatea" is the sinking steel hull German boat which came up the river from the Belize Cayes after plugging the crack with chewing gum. Stopped at Clem's used boat part place looking for hinge, but he was closed. Walked to the auto part place, picked up a rubber hose to replace the ones at the thermostat, just in case, the old hose is 30 years old now. Stopped at Crowbar for a sandwich, Big "John" is back from Mexico with his Mexican lady friend. We hear that the volcano "Fiero" in Antigua (one of three around the city) has erupted, and lava is running down the side, have not seen any TV news pictures yet, but it must be quite a sight at night, don't worry about us, Antigua is 6 hours away from here.
Jan 14, Tuesday Made a wine glass rack from some teak we had on board, gives us a little more room in the dish locker. Called over the Rio VHF net this AM asking if anyone had 3' of 2" wide piano hinge, Mike on "Rea of Hope" answered back, he thinks he has some, Dick to contact him this afternoon, his boat is away down river at Rosita's. LeRoy and Carolyn bought a used TV today for "Adios", they will be able to sell it when they leave. Picked up 4 SS hose clamps at Mar Marine Q137 ($27) wow!!! back home we can buy these for under $3 ea, and Mary wonders why Dick carries so many spare parts... Onda came by checking measurements, she has all the windows sewn in and is now putting the pieces together, the new dodger is going to look much better than the old one, will get a picture tomorrow. Dick scrubbed and hosed down the cabin top, found a new guest on board, a small green gecko, cute little thing, Dick wants to keep him for a pet, Mary wants him gone, she is afraid she will step on him, he must have took the hint.
15:00 borrow Lube's launch, head to town, no sign of Carlos and our thermostat, check again tomorrow. Pick up some fresh veggies, salami, hamburgesa, tonight is pizza night on Whitecap . Mary made the dough, Dick cut up the stuff and Carolyn put it all on, LeRoy served the beer.
Jan 15, Wednesday 06:15, clear sky already, looks like a hot one today, already 76 F . Still no sign of our Suzuki head gasket, also, no sign of the CD of pics Ben and Richard sent down here at Christmas. The float on our man overboard pole has deteriorated ir-repairably, took it off, decided to use two x 2 litre Pepsi bottles with the bottoms cut out, slide them over the pole end to end, now we have to find some spray in foam (in a country that does not need insulation!!!) Chiqui does not have any. "Yankee Girl" just called, they have the same problem, Lou suggests stuffing the bottles with some foam he has on board, closed cell cushion stuff... Dick suggests will not work, better with the "spray in" expandable kind, the search is on. They are moving in to Lube's dock when "Gypsy Rose" pulls out, Jon and Onda have guests coming from Holland meeting them at French Harbour, Roatan in Feb, leaving when the dodger is finished.
09:30 LeRoy and Dick dinghy to town, Carlos still has not fixed our thermostat, too busy welding patches on "Galetea", manana he says.... Search every shop in town for spray foam and barbeque lighters, no luck. Finding things around here is like a gigantic scavenger hunt, you sometimes find things in the most unlikely shops. Meet Mike on "Rea of Hope" on the road, his piano hinge is 1 1/2" also not 2" like we are looking for. "Neige d' ete" just ordered a new LCD screen for their radar from West Marine, US$105 for the part and US$95 for shipping to Puerto Barrios DHL office.... Today, he is looking for a simple 3/4" bronze "T" fitting for his new water maker, figures tomorrow he will have to go to Puerto Barrios to get one, a 90 minute bus ride each way... , then back again for his radar part, at home we just go to CDN Tire, or Callbecks
11:30 back to Whitecap, lunch and read. We have to check out the engine temperature and ampere gauges and the new alternator, but no thermostat no start. We already know the RPM gauge and oil pressure beeper work. Once that is done, we can close up the front of the engine room, and get into the quarter berth again.
14:00 Walk to Chiqui's store for bread, never know when he will have fresh, it seems there is no schedule, just buy it when you see it. Starting to gather supplies for when we leave here. No sign of the head gasket yet at the outboard shop, cannot imagine having to send back to Canada for one!! Stop off at Pat's new mast, have not had much time to help him lately and at Onda's temporary sewing shelter.
16:30 clouding over, turning cool, the forcasted cold front is moving in, have to change to long sleeves, air temp 68 F. Was going to splice in a snap shackle in the new spinnaker haillard today, but...
Supper, movie (in English tonight!!!) and bed.
Jan 16, Thursday. 04:10 Someone is having a birthday party out there, firecrackers again. Rained all night, the river level has dropped about 18" since last week, back to dry season level, Mary wants a step to get on the dock, asked for it last night, it is not there this AM she is not happy. Looks like we are safe here away up this river there are almost no winds, and the predicted low system outside is not good, 40 kt winds and 10 ft seas, a true "norther". When we leave here we want to be on the "tail" of one of those...
Mary and Dick
WHITECAP
- Thursday, January 16, 2003 at 12:53:08 (EST)

Hi everyone.
Jan 9 Thursday. Not much done again today, painted the spare/reserve transmission and new alternator, oh!! what a lovely green, the only green colour spray can we can get around here... Vickie and Mike motored Neige d' Ete to Puerto Barrios, today, they are trying to get their new water maker out of Customs, it is there "in bond", someone did not put "Yacht in transit" on the package and Guatemala customs want US $1000 to get it cleared, they have already spent almost (more???) that much trying to get it.... but Mike is determined...
A large fresh water turtle surfaced alongside Whitecap this morning, must have been 2 ft long, Lube says the biggest he has seen on the river.
Onda, the lady on "Gypsy Rose", arrived back from So. Africa today;  have not met her yet, we will give her a few days before we start the new dodger. Picked up the re-built starter this afternoon, Lube drove us out there again, cost was Q200, Julio says not to let it get wet again... back to the boat, decided not to install today, we are already cleaned up and showered.
Borrowed Lube's fibreglass dinghy, LeRoy and Dick went back to town for a new radiator cap, the stupid thing that caused all this trouble in the first place last spring when it popped off and she lost all her coolant. Could only find a 9 lb one and the old one was a 16 lb, don't quite understand what that means but some engineer must have something figured out, maybe the 9 lb is the right one!!! Stopped at Crowbar, Mary and Carolyn were already there, they walked over the bridge, another one of those days when we get a sandwich at 16:00 and no dinner that night....
20:00 sat around the deck watching Lube teach Diego how to fish, they were using tortilla bread for bait, damn didn't the little guy catch one!!!
Jan 10 06:30 air temp 68 F Brrrr, foggy over the small bay, but clear skies, the sun is up already, going to be a hot one today. Started on the engine at 09:00 Installed the starter, alternator did all the wiring stuff,  Made three trips to Mar marine and Chiqui's store (Tienda Reed) for hose clamps for the exhaust outlet, kept getting the wrong size!!! Got there the first time... Dick changed shorts no money in pockets ..., back to boat, and go back again... finally by 13:00 spun her over, but no start.... Bled the injectors, still no go, turned on the electric fuel pump for more pressure, no go... then the starter only clicked, no more turning!!!, was it the key switch?? batteries??, or starter??? Traced it through and decided it had to be the starter, but then was it the battery connection maybe??? The Link 2000 Battery indicator blinks an "E - 10" error message and the voltage bouncing around between 10.5V and 13.45V. What is going on... remove the starter take it back to Julio across the bridge, Julio is not home....
16:00 Lou and Kookie stop by on their way to the "Concrete bar", their name for the Chinese store up the lane with the new cement floor... there are a few plastic chairs and you can buy canned beer for Q5 each, they stay here and drink all ours instead!!! Mary whips up potato salad, sliced chicken and sliced roast beef, and we all have supper.
Jan 11, Saturday. cloudy 06:00 Lying in bunk thinking about that starter thing, wonder now if it may be the starter battery terminal connections.
08:00 Read today's paper over coffee, there were two murders yesterday at "Mansion del Rio" a fancy hotel the other side of the river, looks like two brothers 21 and 25 escaped from prison in the city, and someone did not want them around. The teak for our cockpit tables arrived at Roger's shop today, at long last, now I have to find 2" SS piano hinge some where, Pat says he thinks Chiqui's store has some .
11:00 picked up the starter again, re-installed, by now LeRoy and Dick are experts at installing this thing!!! cranked her over and over and over bleeding the injectors, we have air in #3 and #4, have to stop every few min to let the batteries catch up. Borrow Pat's booster pack, that helps.
16:30 still no start, this is not only tiring, but extremely frustrating...
Onda is going to start our new dodger tomorrow, Carolyn has not had a cigarette since New Years day. Hot dogs for supper and Hot shower, we are in bed before 20:00
Jan 12 Sunday 06:30 Walk down to Chiqui's store, Sara (Chuqui's 80 year old mother) is just opening the doors, yes she has SS piano hinge 1 1/2", Q90 per ft rather have 2 inch, not sure of the length we need will have to come back.
09:00 Work on mercedes again this AM, spin her over and bleed the injectors again and again, still getting air in #3 and #4, she will not start until she has 3 with good fuel, starter problems again take it off clean all the terminals, put it back on, LeRoy and Dick have cuts and scratches all over their hands. drain some fuel from the filter looks OK , take off the valve cover everything OK there. Finally at 12:03 she starts, we thumbs up and cheer. Find a broken hose clamp on the cooling, Gauges all seem to be working. we bleed all the injectors while she is running, she gets smoother and smoother, shut her down after 10 minutes.

WHITECAP
- Sunday, January 12, 2003 at 20:14:29 (EST)

Hi everyone
Jan 6 Monday, cloudy overcast air temp 78 F; walked down to Backpackers to do our e-mails first thing, then under the bridge to Chiqui's store even before the breadman got there, had to wait, there has been no fresh bread anywhere since last Friday, even the little bakery in Fronteres was out of buns, and they bake them. The Guate City crowd seem to have all gone back home, so maybe the hustle and bustle on the river is over until the next holiday.
LeRoy and Dick dinghyed over to Carlos the welder for the exhaust riser, Q140 (divide x 5 for CDN), he welded the crack and put a patch over the pinhole area, now we just have to get the starter parts and re-install everything.
Lube took Diego to the doctor in Morales during the night, we hear from mama that he is now in a clinica privada and on IV, last week they diagnosed him with amoebas, but he is very dehydrated from diarrhea and vomiting and crying. Looked like he was coming around, then he had a relapse. Mama's old hen hatched 10 chicks today, around here the survival rate is about 20% so she will have one or two, lucky maybe three, around Easter.
Jon from "Gypsy Rose" arrived back today from New Zealand, expects his wife Onda to arrive from So. Africa tomorrow, she is to sew our new dodger, they spent separate Christmas's, he refuses to return to So. Africa, police held a gun to his head one time. Roger is upset, the teak has not arrived, "Wasega" Bob has it in his van, and he is in the city trying to source a crankshaft for a Westerbeke 4-108 engine...

Jan 7, Tuesday, Chiqui's store closed today, that is how we know it is Tuesday!! Lots of work done again today, got the exhaust riser installed (it is a double walled tube where dry engine hot exhaust gasses enter at the bottom, and are surrounded by cooling water (the small hole), both are mixed after the turn at the top, then it is called called "wet" exhaust) after welding and before painting. Installed the new "stack tube" (in the heat exchanger) and connected the new rubber boots (end caps) we sourced at Bowman in England last summer, the alternator bracket is back on and there appears to be no leak from the hole Dick accidentally drilled in the water jacket . Lube picked up the new Bendix for the starter in Morales (Q475), when he drove there to pick up Diego and Emi at the clinica where the poor little fella has been on IV for the last 24 hours. They arrived home around 13:00. first thing Diego said to Mary was "Howdy". Removed the "zinc" in the heat exchanger, it was broken off and useless, wonder why... should be fresh water in there, hence no electrolysis, maybe the old stack tube was leaking???, looked for a new sacrificial zinc, walked over to Shang, Pat has one size too small and Mar Marine has one size too big, option is to buy one of those and get Carlos to turn it down on the lathe.
15:30, Change to proper gringo attire, (wrinkled tee shirt, shorts and flip flops, hair not combed), dinghy to Fronteres, have to pick up a few things..., cucumber, tomatoes, spare ribs and... last night Dick's rhum bottle spilled and Mary found it empty this AM.
Stop at Crowbar for chicken burgers, (2 all dressed with potato salad for Q20) LeRoy and Dick suddenly realize they have been had, that way the girls do not have to cook tonight!!!, showed our burnt out Zinc around , Don "Donnie Don" (not to be confused with "Dead Don") thinks he has some of those on his boat, could not figure what they were for, do not fit his engine, if we want one, we can pick it up tomorrow morning from his boat "Mongoose" a Valiant 40 at Tortugal Marina. Tomas "El Don Quixote" says he also has some just like ours on his boat also at Tortugal... back in PEI we have a six pack of the stupid things, but we are in Guatemala...
16:30 Stop at Bruno's, he has the local dinghy courtesy dock, everyone leaves their dinghy there in full view of the restaurant/bar, where they are safe while yachties do our thing in town, the voluntary dock fee is kind of like "buy a beer and lunch every now and then" at Bruno's, we call it "paying our dinghy dock fee" ... Like what would we all do if he suddenly put up "Privado soulemente" signs...
18:00 Munchies on Whitecap, balsamic and olive oil and coconut bread, repairman comes by with our spare Velvet Drive model 71C transmission, all fixed after giving it to him before we left for home last spring, 9 months ago !!!, charged Q600 for the labour, we supplied the parts (US$330, new stub shaft and gaskets) last March 2002. In Port Aransas, Texas, three years ago the same repair cost US$660. Now we only have to get our Honda generator and our starter back from repair , and our inventory will be complete again.
Jan 8 Wednesday. 02:30 Someone's birthday out there again, cannot be very important, firecrackers only lasted for 15 minutes, Mary did not wake up, but then the music started!!!.
08:00 LeRoy and Dick dinghy to Tortugal, pick up the new zinc from Donnie, and tour his beautiful boat, but it has osmosis blisters on the topsides. Dick told him how they can easily be repaired, but he says Valiant are going to fix them under warranty... the boat is a 1980 model and he is now 78 years old!!!, they told him not to worry, sail it around the world then bring it back... the factory is in Oklahoma. Must be just off the turnip truck!! Went back to dinghy to head home, motor refused to start, usually only one pull and we are off, John on "Odessey" offers us a tow to Chiqui's store across the river, at least we can walk home from there. We get Oscar, the mechanic under the bridge, he takes the motor off, changes plugs, black box, checks everything still no go. Dick has time to scrub the dinghy bottom while he waits news. Turns out we have a blown headgasket, Oscar tried to source one for a "4.2 hp", comes back and says there are none of these in Guatemala. Dick admits it is really a "9.9 hp". Oscar checks again, says he can have the part in 2 days... from the city, in the meantime we are grounded.
15:00 Lube drives us to get the starter, Julio is not at his shop, not a good day for us, had hoped to have the Mercedes going. Back in town to the market, and walk home across the bridge.
Here are pics of the new zinc and Mercedes at the latest stage, just have to put on the starter and alternator now. Easier to put on the starter first as the alternator is right out front.
Jan 9 Thursday air temp 72 F cool again today, overcast, Net weather report says another norther out there, at least it is comfortable working, and we have no high winds up this river.

Mary and Dick

WHITECAP
- Thursday, January 09, 2003 at 12:25:32 (EST)

Dick & Mary,
Here's a little bit of nostalgia that I just happened across. Thought you might enjoy it; a belated Merry Christmas, you might say( about 35 years belated)!!

Bill
- Monday, January 06, 2003 at 12:57:03 (EST)

Hi Everyone
Jan 3, 03
Wasted day today, Lube drove us out to get the starter, the bad news is the bendix is seized and has to be replaced, guess when I hosed down the engine last spring and gave her a shampoo, water must have gotten in and rusted over the summer. Lube drove us to Morales where we ordered the new part, from "Auto Totale" it is to arrive this coming Sunday from Guate City. We also stopped at the propane place, no aluminum tanks (he had some but they belong to other boats!!!), we drove up there with two old rusted tanks in the back seat, Dick had all the windows wide open in the rain, remembering Bill and Diane Crandall, blowing up their Lincoln in Moncton with Galatea's propane tanks in the trunk. We ended up buying a second hand tank in good shape and they removed the North American valves from both our old tanks, put one on the new tank and filled it for US$52. We will buy aluminum in Panama and have the spare valve on hand. Back home by 15:00 just before a big downpour started. Lube says "well, another day driving without a drivers license"

Jan 4 (Saturday).
Carlos the welder found a crack in the weld around the flange on our exhaust riser, and he would not weld it until he showed it to Dick, did not want us to think it was not cracked before he repaired it !!! there is also a small pin hole he is going to patch today. Got the new bolts for the exhaust riser cut to size, the old ones had the corners warn from constant removal. Wire brushed and painted the fire extinguishers today, look like new again. Dinghed to town, found Clamato Juice in a small shop, Mary got all excited, bought all they had, six bottles. Wonder if they will order more??.
Esmoralda, is half sunk again today, Las Vegas Bob says someone is doing it to him, no one is listening, no one cares anymore. Shang's mast is coming along, sorry we have not had time to help over there, Pat cut the hole for the mast top sheeves,, calls it "his 3 day hole" took him 3 days to do it!!! Notice the main haillard is lined up to centre. The mast is now 12 sided, Pat is now planeing (by hand) taking off the corners, shaping the sides.
Carolyn still not up to her usual self yet, but has her color back, has had no food since Jan 2 except crackers and toast. At least she got out and walked down to Chiqui's store today. Mary and Dick have been here 5 weeks today, sounds like a long time, but we are getting things done. Figured out what caused the crack in the exhaust riser, it was self inflicted!!! when we were trying to separate it from the exhaust manifold we gave it a good tap with a 2 x 4, to break it loose, good job Carlos noticed it would have caused multi problems later on...
Mary burned her hand on a hot pot doing pasta sauce tonight, the air was blue for a minute and our good Paderno pot ended in the sink, now she has a sore toe and a sore hand, but she is going to survive. Watched football in Spanish on our TV tonight, Green Bay lost ...
Jan 5 (Sunday)
Another good day today, sitting at the table on Lube's deck, borrowed his pop rivet tool, opened up the container and out popped 3 full grown cockroaches. They ran across the table towards Carolyn, Dick said: "Carolyn have you ever seen a cockroach?" She jumped away as they landed on the patio deck alongside her chair and disappeared. We all had a great laugh. LeRoy hauled/cranked Dick up the mast in the boson's chair to replace the broken eyelet on the stbd spreader, had to replace the courtesy flag haillard. Drilled the new holes, of course the new one is not the same size as the old, went to pop rivet the new fitting on and another cockroach jumped out of the tool handle, imagine... here is Dick dangling from the boson's chair 28 ft above deck and a cockroach jumps out... right into his tool bag, between his legs.... It took two hours to complete the job hanging from a string, a job which could have been done on the ground in 5 minutes... if we were on the ground. Then LeRoy and Dick screwed down and re-caulked the chainplate surround plates and fixed the leak in the wiring in the head (found it around the through bolts...). Enough for the day, walk down to Chiqui's store looking for a replacement 12V fluorescent bulb for our cockpit/trouble light... he had one, Q32. Could buy the whole fixture at home for that, but at least he had one!!! Now we have a cockpit light again, we also use it for an anchor light, only uses 0.75 amp, the masthead one uses 10 amps, does not sound like much but big deal when we are on batteries only. Tonight, supper on Adios, grilled cheese, egg and salami sandwiches', not gourmet, but filling, Carolyn is feeling better again, and no cigarettes for 5 days now, going to get cranky soon. Vicki and Mike "Neige d' Ete" came back from Guate City with the photocopies of our charts (we borrowed them from Shang) from here to Cartagena, Columbia, the quality is better than the originals!!! In bed with a new book before 20:00.

WHITECAP
- Monday, January 06, 2003 at 12:26:06 (EST)

Well it is now Jan 1, 2003 and it does not feel any different from Dec 31, 2002 yet.  Did not work on the engine today, did not think it was worthwhile getting dirty just to put the plate back on the transmission, and the starter will not be ready until Friday, so we all  just lazed around all day, Granola and yogurt breakfast and e-mail at Backpackers, healthy or what???, coffee on Adios and then a Faye Kellermann book. "Yankee Girl" called on the VHF, planning dinner at Chang Gri La for Chinese at 15:00. We decide to go, Pat, LeRoy and Carolyn, Mary and Dick, Roger volunteers to drive us over in the Jeep, stays while we eat and drives us back, then goes back for Lou and Kookie, Tomas (Don Quiote) and Stu (Mixto Listo). Roger would not take any money for gas. The street is a mess from all the paper from the firecrackers last night
There are three new boats in our bay, "YoYo" the C&C 30 hull that was at our dock last year has a new young owner, "South Winds III" a 40 ft cat from Plattsberg NY and "Giaconda" a 45' Swiss registered ketch . The weather is cooler today, air temp 78 F and blowing 20, our windmill is earning her keep today putting out 6+ amps. Unplugged from shore power for awhile just to see.
Jan 2. Young Diego was sick all night, we could hear him crying up in the house, this AM Emi appeared all dressed up, heading to Morales to the doctor. The poor kid is probably just overtired, two weeks of firecrackers going all night and all day, and not enough sleep. Lube says there will only be firecrackers for birthdays from now until Easter!!!.
Carolyn also not feeling well today, did not get off the Adios all day.
Statistics from today's local paper: There are 750,000 vehicles in Guate City, and only 100,000 drivers licenses!! Devil's Day Dec 8, during 24 hours, there were 158 vehicles stolen in Guate City. There are 7 firecracker factories in Guatemala.

Lots of work done today, transmission shift lever re-installed and it easily moves from fwd to neutral to reverse, only lost 1 lock washer to the bilge, not bad considering Dick was working upside down over the top of the Mercedes to reach. This is the shift that gave us all the grief last spring stuck in fwd, could not back down on our anchor to set it or charge batteries while anchored. Also dismantled the cockpit Morse control lever shift, cleaned it up re-greased and reinstalled. Dick climbed (wiggled) into the aft stbd cockpit locker (better not put on any weight!!) LeRoy passed the tools and advice... hooked up the cables.. it all works... our transmission problems seem to be solved and we did not have to lift the engine. Mary says then why did we buy and carry down that 25 lb 3/4 ton chainfall, that we just had to have!!!!. We could have brought a barbeque instead... LeRoy says "insurance, just in case". Tomorrow we will get Lube to take us to pick up the starter, about two miles past the other side of the bridge towards Flores. Then we can re-install the exhaust and start her up!!!
Diego is on antibiotics and cranky as hell, poor Emi, he is sleeping now at 14:00, but certain he will be awake all night...

Jan 3. Well Lube fibbed to me; at exactly 04:29 the firecrackers started and went for 20 minutes, and... Diego was already up, just as we suspected. This AM he tells me it was someone's birthday...
Raining and light winds today, Rio VHF Net "forcaster" (Stu, Mixto Listo) says it is going to burn off. He tells everyone on the Net to stay away from that Backpackers crowd, they kept him up dancing and drinking all night, this morning he is looking for aspirin...
Roger is moving over to the same dock as Shang, place to park his jeep inside the fence and it is a few steps closer to his shop. The teak for our cockpit tables is supposed to arrive today, after all these years without one, we are building not one but two, with removable fiddles yet!!! decadent eh?? Roger will not use the teak corners and trim we brought down because of the hinge problem (empty space) so is using solid 4 quarters stock, he found in Guate city.
Guess we will get this out this AM early. Sorry no pics today, well... just one, the wiring in the head, water was dripping from the blue bundle, centre right, these are the ones for all the main mast lights, guess I will have to remove and re-caulk the horn on the deck where they feed in.
Mary and Dick

WHITECAP
- Friday, January 03, 2003 at 12:40:15 (EST)

 Dec 31.  Well guess what, after drilling for three days, and wearing out/breaking a dozen or more drill bits;  damn that broken easy out is hard!!!   Started today at 08:00  on the errant stud and by 12:00 we had the broken easy out and all the pieces of the old stud out by finally drilling 1/4" holes on each corner of the broken stud  which left us enough thread that we could still screw in the new stud using what was left of the old original threads.  Only problem, Dick drilled into the water jacket of the block!!! (the hole on the right).  We mixed up some of the new technology "hardens like steel" epoxy putty, (with the broken easy out and pieces of old stud) filled the hole, screwed in the new stud using what was left of the old threads, the excess putty was pushed out the new side holes, cleaned it up and are presently praying that it will work.  So far so good, we will see when we fill up the exhaust cooler.  Then we painted the engine, flushed out the bilge a half dozen times with lots of soap and a gallon of Javex;  at least now it smells good down there.  By 15:00 cleaned up our mess, put away the tools;  that is enough for the day, time for a shower.  Emi had Diego all dressed up in the Roots sweater we brought him last year.

Whitecap
- Tuesday, December 31, 2002 at 12:47:33 (EST)

Dec 28. Rain all night and all day, straight down and heavy, new leak in the strangest place, the electric connection panel under the mast in the head... never leaked there before!!! wonder why???. Removed the furniture (teak paneling) and the galley sink behind the cockpit ladder, this opens the whole front of the engine, only 6 screws and the whole thing comes apart , if only factory boats could be so easy... removed the starter and the alternator, bracket and all, everything going smooth, too smooth... Drilled a small hole in the broken stud in the block behind the alternator bracket then a bigger one and a bigger one, put in the "easy out" and it promptly broke, flush with the engine..., now we have a bigger problem!!! Drilled another hole alongside the old one and sprayed WD-40 Dinghied to town got a new set of "easy outs" found some at the hardware store, imagine in a third world country all the way from China they came... decided to keep spraying to try to free the errant stud before we try again. We brought new metric replacement studs from home just in case. Passed by Cro