WHITECAP's

SAILING

EXCURSION

Rio Dulce, Guatemala

April 6, 2003 - March 21, 2004

Sunday, March 21, 2004. 07:00. Anchor off the Texaco dock in front of town, make two dinghy trips to take everyone ashore. Leave the dink in the capable care of Luis, a young garifuna lad who always seems to be there ready to collect a tip. Walk up the hill to the Customs office, not open yet, back to the "Happy Fish" for breakfast. Walk back to the Customs office, Raoul the Customs officer and the (not quite so happy) Port Captain are just arriving, they have just come back from Whitecap and we were not on board, technically, only the captain is allowed ashore until the paperwork is finished. Raoul types up our "cruising permit" papers. Since we have legally been out of the country, we decide to apply for our three month permit and start all over again, and also apply for a 9 month extension at the same time. Then if need be, Luvi can easily arrange another 12 months, effectively giving "Whitecap" two more legal years in Guatemala, just in case, for some reason, one of us gets sick or we cannot come back here next year .
09:45 Power up river, through the gorge, Maureen takes lots of pictures, here is the graffiti wall; there are some dated as far back as the 1700's; the water is 56ft deep along the wall. Lots of big power boat traffic also coming up river, they have only one speed and all leave big wakes. Dick has made this river trip about 15 times and each time there are more things to see....
10:15 We make the "just have to" stop at the hot springs, so Richard and family can experience it; Maureen finds the river current really strong when she jumps in and tries to swim to shore, much easier to lower the dink and power over...
14:00 We have been able to sail through the Golfete, wind 15 kt on the beam, in the pouring rain which stops just as we enter the upper river. Motor starts to surge, must have picked up some dirt from the tank bottom, time to replace the fuel filters..., we are down to 2 gallons in the main tank. Stop at the Esso near the bridge, took on 20 gallons diesel.
We get back to our dock and everyone "walks to Backpackers" for e-mail and stuff and then walk over to Chiqui's "sunset bar" for happy hour.
Monday, March 22, 2004 This is the day to walk over the bridge so everyone can get the feel of the river, see the market, meet at Bruno's for lunch and make arrangements for a van to travel to San Pedro Sula Honduras early tomorrow. Diego teaches Alix how to fish, and joins us for breakfast.
Tuesday, March 23, 2004. 06:30 get everything packed, Richard can take some of the things we are sending home for repair or forever, less load for Mary to carry when we fly home....
09:45 Our van driver arrives, US$25 each total US$150 for the 5 hr trip, he has to deadhead home empty, if he finds a passenger he has some pocket cash.
10:45 Near Puerto Barrios there are transport trucks stopped on the roadside for 5 miles, these guys are used to traffic delays, most just sling hammocks under their trailers and wait, we pass on the incoming lane and turn off for the Honduran frontier. Clear Guatemalan Migration, beautiful road to the border, then we do Honduran Customs and Migration.. (we just did all this the other way just a few days ago) then the road changes to dirt road... with puddles... and then ponds... and then lakes. Over the next 45 miles all the way to Omoa Honduras, we cross 8 Baillie bridges and do 6 detours, in 1995 hurricane Mitch really did a job on this place. When we close in on Omoa, there is much highway construction, new bridges being built and a new boulevard highway all the way to Puerto Cortes, someone is spending big bucks !!!.
From Cortes to San Pedro Sula we travel on the "Autopisto", a new toll road.
13:30 San Pedro Sula, we have the name of a hotel but have to find it... after half hour when we do, it is full, we let our driver go, he has to be back to the border before 18:00 when it shuts down for the night. Six of us pile into a taxi... Ug!! and end up at the Hotel Reale, not bad, US$16 per room and hot water showers, the owner rounds up the knobs for the air conditioner and a remote control for the TV (guess some guests steal this stuff), but does not take Visa, have to find a bank to get Limpiras. Hope our driver makes it back to the border in time.
Wednesday, March 24, 2004. 06:30 Richard and family taxi to the airport for their 08:20 flight, Mary and Dick tour Sula on foot looking for the Market, when we finally find it most of the products are made of wood... a no no to bring back to Canada. Mary and Dick decide to bus to Tela, a seaside resort we have sailed by several times but there's no place for a small boat as it is "a lee shore" with no protection.
13:00 Chicken bus to Tela, find a waterfront hotel, US$15, supposed to have hot showers, but we only find out later there is no hot water.... Nice town, trying to be like an Old Orchard Beach that has not found it out yet... We walk everywhere looking for Vodka, bought the last one in town.. US$8 for a 750ml, now try and find something to mix with it!!!
Thursday, March 25, 2004. 10:00 catch a chicken bus back to San Pedro Sula, taxi to the "Hedman Atlas" bus depot, get first class tickets to Copan, bus only leaves at 14:50, we have three hours to wait. The Holiday Inn is 2 blocks away, we sit in the lounge for lunch and watch the CNN news on TV, we are the only customers.
14:50 "Hedman Atlas" bus leaves, each passenger is searched with a wand before boarding, all luggage is checked and stowed underneath, they are into real security for their passengers... these guys are serious... We get to watch a Harry Potter movie in Spanish for the three hour ride to Copan, wow!! this is no chicken bus.
17:50 The small town of "Copan Ruinas" is on a hill in the Copan Valley about 1 km walk from the actual ruins. We walk up the hill, looking for a "bueno hotel". There are many street hawkers promoting their friends hotels, after looking at several we pick the "Las Brisas" (US$16) at the top of the hill a block from Centro (park).
We do the regular walk about, very clean, many small touristy shops, cobblestone streets lots of choices for resturants, this town is like a small Antigua, but without the hassles from the textile sellers.
Friday, March 26, 2004 Walk 1 km to the ruins, there are three ticket options, Museum, Ruins and Tunnel, we buy all three and head for the Museum first. We decide to stay a second night, we like this little town it just feels right. We found a nice resturant for "dinner", note the live iguana on the wall...
Saturday, March 27, 2004 After breakfast, we taxi (100 Limps, about US$5) the 12km to the Guatemalan border with "our driver Adoul", and have to do all the Migration passport stamping and paperwork again, walk across the border catch the 10:00 chicken bus to Chiquimula, a large agricultural centre towards the main "western" (Guate City to Puerto Barrios) highway. Any passengers boarding with a machete have to leave it stowed under the driver's seat!!!
12:20 we catch another chicken bus, well maybe one step up, for the 3 hour ride to Morales. Meet an interesting young man across the aisle, lives in San Francisco, he is here visiting his dad and brothers, his mother moved to the US when he was only 4 years old, and they eventually were able to get US citizenship, he is now in his last year of engineering at SFU.
In Morales, we catch a crowded 10 passenger van/combi with 17 passengers for the 25 minute ride to "Whitecap".
Need a few things from the market, launch the dinghy, putt putt over to town, get our veggies and make the big 56th birthday party (free chili & fixins) for Tomas on "Don Quixote" at Jeff's Gringo Bar and Grill. Now that's a full day!!!

WHITECAP
- Wednesday, March 31, 2004 at 05:36:58 (EST)

Monday, March 1, 2004 Getting ready to leave the river, stock up on Bottled water for drinking and coffee etc..., we carry 2 x 5 gallon bottles + 5 x 1 gallon bottles, and also fill our main water tank with 40 gallons of village water, which we use for washing, showers etc...
Tuesday, March 2, 2004. Fuel up at Esso, topped up with 26.6 gallons diesel, we will fill our deck cans in Honduras, diesel is much cheaper there. Powered through the Golfete, anchored behind Isla Grande for lunch before entering the canyon. Not much traffic today, winds were on the nose and 28Kts in the gorge. Arrived La Marina 15:30, dropped stern anchor and 100 ft rope/chain and powered up to the dock. Decided to stay the night, too windy outside, will do the Port Captain for our new Zarpe (official document which includes crew list, proof of ownership, where the yacht is travelling from etc...), Immigration and Customs early tomorrow. Dock fee here now is Q50, the same price as supper. Paul on "Three Lions" from Berlin and Tim on "Southwind" from Galveston are here heading up river in the morning. "Three Lions" also has a OM636 Mercedes diesel . "Diva" a 46 ft wooden 1956 yawl, Richard and Kathleen, out of Rhode Island, came out the gorge behind us and chose to anchor in the stream.
Wednesday, March 3, 2004. 07:30 leave dock and power out the river to anchor over next to the Texaco dock off Livingston town. Every stop we make, Richard and Kathleen are ahead of us. Raoul at the Customs office is his usual happy self even this early in the morning, he types up all our Zarpe papers for the Port Captain. There is a new Port Captain and he plays by the rules now (for awhile). There are also two new female Immigration Officers now dressed spiffy in uniforms with shoulder patches and name tags... things are improving. Breakfast at the "Happy Fish" .
10:30 "Belly up to the bar", there is a French flagged Beneteau aground in the channel, the local "Vulture Towing Co" is rushing out to tow him off... Their tow fee is US$100, but you can negotiate them down to $50. We power right through heading for Cabo Tres Puntas, no wind but swells left over from last night's high winds on the nose.
13:45 Start out around the cape, winds have picked up to 25kts on the nose, decide to turn around and anchor 3 miles back in the small cove near the Guate Navy pier.
Thursday, March 4, 2004. 05:30, Still dark, we head for Tres Puntas. Flat calm, several pangas speeding along the shoreline delivering children to the local school.
10:15 We can see the Belize Sappodilla Cayes to port, full jib and motor, 6.5 kts. Water depth here is 1345 metres.
12:00 Wind picks up to 20+ on the nose, roll in the jib, seems to do this every day, calm except for the swells, in the morning and wind picks up around noon, we decide to push on.
16:00 Abeam Puerto Cortez to stbd, should we head in, or try for Punta Sol 23 more miles??? We keep going...
18:30 Clear the breaking rocks on each side of the 65 ft cut at Puerto Escondita, a small lagoon on the west side of Punta Sol. We made it in just before dark after pushing the peddle to the metal for the last hour spewing black smoke. Three boats already anchored, "Sea Trekker", "Poco Loco" (a Morgan 42) and >"Voyageur XIV" a Corbin 39 out of Toronto, they have been sitting here for three days waiting weather, and us out there pounding away in our little Morgan 34????, something wrong with this picture....
Friday, March 5, 2004. 04:30 The three boats head out through the cut, full moon, easy to see the breakers on each side. They are headed to Utila, 42 miles away. "Whitecap" opted to have a relax day and stay put. We went back to our bunks, and spent an hour or more shortening the lives of hundreds of "not quite no-seeums" that suddenly appeared.
07:00 Coffee time, the three boats are back at anchor, they decided Sunday's weather forecast sounder better.
09:30 A dozen or so eco-hikers appear on the beach, this is the first time we have ever seen anyone on the shore here. Punta Sol is a national park area, a native family has built some palapas with hammocks and a small "restaurant" on the point on the beach. To get there, you simply walk along a trail, climb 680 steps up the mountain and 692 down the other side to the shore, where you can get a drink of water and maybe something to eat. Just remember, you have to climb back those same 1372 steps to get back to your boat!!!
Saturday, March 6, 2004. 06:30 Haul anchor, and head for La Ceiba 48 miles away, again no wind but still yesterday's 8 ft swells.
12:30, We have covered only 15 miles in 5 hours. Punta Izopo is to stbd at 2 o'clock, looks like there may be a small cove in behind, decide to take a look.
13:30 Drop 33 lb Bruce and 90 ft chain in 17 ft sand bottom, beautiful white beach shoreline. The swells are rolling around the point, the wind is opposite, both fighting for our attention, the wind wins, we roll. We spent the night sleeping in the fetal position so we would not roll out of our bunks.
Sunday, March 7, 2004. Motor sailed towards La Cieba all morning, winds picked up in the afternoon again on the nose. We try sailing, speed 6.5kts, but in the wrong direction, Utila would be an easy sail from here, but the showers at Laguna Marina are calling....
15:10, we clear the La Cieba breakwaters , and power up the creek to the marina. We were greeted by Michelle on "Breezin" who we knew from last year on the Rio. Don on "Keana" asked "are you really frop PEI?" (he sees Summerside, P.E.I. on the stern), "I am from Halifax...." he says. Dick took a nice chunk out of the instep of his foot, , jumping back into the cockpit to re-start the stalled engine backing in. Now how does one take a picture of one's own foot?? First you have to learn to stand on your head...
Monday, March 8, 2004. 08:00 Oliver the Marina taxi driver/errand boy picks us and the crew of "Anka" up for the drive to town, we get as far as the bridge, there is a taxi strike and they have blocked all traffic, we have to walk a mile and then catch a chicken bus to Centro. Oliver keeps our propane tank and 3 x 5 gallon diesel cans for filling.
Port Captain tells us he cannot give cruising permit, does not have any paper, "come back at 3 PM, everything ready", he says. This means we will be in town all day waiting, cannot buy anything heavy because we will have to carry it all day. We stumble into the "Grand Hotel de Paris", nice courtyard with pool and bar and cold beer and.... shrimp cocktails. This seems to be the hangout for many Bay Island people when they come to La Ceiba for supplies; we met the owner of Plantation Island Resort on Cayos Cochinos during lunch.
15:00 We get our cruising permit, hire a taxi, stop at Casa Colorado the wholesale liquor store, 2 x 1.75L Flor de Cana 6yr old rum sells for 325Limps (about US$15 for the two) and some French wines and some Vodka. Back to the boat, the marina is 5 miles out of town. Take down our yellow "Quarantine flag" and raise the 5 star Honduran flag.
Fuel up, 15 gallons diesel from our cans apparently hold 26 US gallons, Oliver's bill for the fuel was 990 limpira. Install the propane tank, find a small leak, will have to repair this before we can leave.
Tuesday, March 9, 2004. Back to town with Oliver, he takes Dick to a hydraulic repair place, they do not have the fitting we need, clerk says he will make one, ready in 10 minutes. Sure enough, he did and for the grand sum of 33 limps... about $1.50!! Oliver says "hecho (made) en Honduras", and has a great laugh.
Wednesday, March 11, 2004. 10:00 Pouring rain, air temp 80F. We head off to Cayos Cochinos, 23 miles away after another Laguna Marina shower, just have to remember the Hot is on the right. It is worth the US$17 per night dock fee just to look at these showers!!! they are the cleanest we have seen in 6 years of cruising.
14:35 Pick up mooring in the cove behind Cochino Grande, this is a no anchor area, you have to use their free moors and add your own scope, there are 4 boats already in the cove. Rain has stopped, Air temp 90F nice breeze. Anchorage is rolly.
Derrick and Beryl the English couple on "Katuma" dinghy over. This is the same couple Dick towed from Backpackers to Mario's Marina two years ago, when their outboard would not start. We all go ashore for happy hour at the Resort prices are "American" here.
Wednesday, March 10, 2004 09:00 drop the moor, and head towards Roatan. Pass "Bay Islands Agressor" a live-aboard dive boat. Today's destination is Calabash Bight where we wish to meet some people and spend a few days. We use Nigel Calders waypoints on the GPS, computer nav program still not working, the mouse has control of the computer, it opens and closes desktop programs at will... Half way across, Dick notices smoke from the engine, looks like we may have blew the exhaust gasket. Change course for French Harbour, hope we can get gasket materiel there. Calder's waypoints are away off, we are able to fall off and run along the shoreline for 5 miles with jib only.
14:20 Yacht Club does not answer the VHF radio, so we just pull up to the only empty dock, walk up the 53 steps to the clubhouse and register. There is only one liv-aboard boat, Vern and Kathy on "Andante III". Two others are in the anchorage, Alan on "Starsong" with his chocolate lab called Morgan, and Gill on "Sans Froid". We all meet at the Yacht Club club bar for 2 for 1 happy hour .
Thursday, March 11, 2004 Figured out the computer problem, we have a com1 conflict. When we boot up with the GPS plugged into the 9 pin serial port, we have a problem. When we boot up without the 9 pin wire plugged in , no problem. If we do a regular boot up, then start the nav program, then plug in the 9 pin cable everything is OK. So now we know....
Friday, March 12, 2004. Rained in the morning, walked all through town looking for new gasket materiel for the exhaust manifold repair, found some at Hyber Hardware, 101 Limps. Back at dock and cut out new ones. Using the ballpeen hammer Dick gently tapped out two 900F degree asbestos gaskets, and salvaged the metal centre part of the old one.
Dinghied through the anchorage to Paradise Island in the rain for buffet lunch, US$14/per, well worthwhile. There are no boats in the outer anchorage.
Saturday, March 13, 2004. Rained hard all night and all morning, air temp 79F, cool but not cold. Dick spent the morning on the quarter berth with his head in the engine room re-installing the manifold and while he was already dirty, removed and cleaned the valve cover gasket, we had a small oil leak there, he solved it by replacing the old thin copper washers with thicker ones we brought for this purpose. Also tightened the alternator belt, it will have to be replaced soon, stretched almost to the limit... Shower felt good, but it will take at least two to get all the soot/oil/grease off. Tackled the electrical panel, changed the house bank to #1 and the start bank to #2, hope this solves our charging problems. The Pathmaker combiner charges bank #1 up to 13.75V before starting to charge bank #2.
Spent the afternoon turning a two person boat into a 6 person boat and "traded" movies from "Andante III"'s collection.
Sunday, March 14, 2004. Rained all morning, but it is a warm rain. Today at 13:00 we are going to "Hole in the Wall" in "Jonesville" for steak and lobster b'bque. Talk to Larry about the aluminum mast lying on the dock, says it is free for the taking and is suitable for "Mixto Listo". Larry volunteers to deliver it to French Harbour on the deck of "Cayo Rose" his diesel Honduran longboat if Dick can make shipping arrangements from there.
18:30 Arrived back to the Yacht Club, where we meet "Richard and family " an hour later than scheduled, they flew Moncton/Montreal/Miami/San Pedro Sula/Roatan in one day.
Monday, March 15, 2004. Maureen has arranged a morning and afternoon dives for today, and a morning only dive for tomorrow.
Tuesday, March 16, 2004. We rent a 4 wheel drive 4 door truck , to tour the island. Dick arranges for the motor vessel " MV Monica" to bring "Mixto Listo's" mast from Brick Bay, Roatan to Puerto Cortez on the mainland on one of her weekly trips for supplies. Now we just have to organize Stu to pick it up at Peurto Cortez....
We visit West Bay which is the "beachy touristy" part of Roatan. "Poco Loco" is anchored there. We drive to West End, a few miles further on, and follow a dirt road to "Flowers Bay", a mostly native village. They are constructing a new highway along the shore all the way to "Coxen's Hole" the capital of Roatan, it has been planned for 15 years. "Coxen's Hole" is a dirty little town where they have all the narrow streets dug up installing a sewer system financed by the World Bank, the sewer lagoon is up the hill near the airport (yes that is "up" the hill), but maybe this will clean up the harbour.
Wednesday, March 17, 2004. St Patrick's day. We get away from the YC dock at 08:10. Jib and engine idle 5.60 kts. Nice to have the wind and waves with us for a change....
09:40 abeam of "Coxen's Hole", we head closer to the island to avoid Banco Cordelia just a mile offshore. There is a cruise ship entering the harbour,
10:50, abeam West End. We can see the second cruise ship behind us. Cruise ships are new to Roatan, they only discovered this destination 5 years ago.
12:30 We can see Pumpkin Hill, Utila in the distance.
14:30 We round the shoal at the entrance, and head directly for the large Dive school building on the shore. Drop Bruce and 60 ft chain in 7ft. It is almost impossible to drag anchor here, there are many brain coral heads on the bottom, and your chain just weaves itself around them, Bruce only acts as a weight at the end!!! There are 17 yachts in the anchorage. "Extasea" is one of them, John is alone Sharon went back to the US. Broke the air vent fitting on the outboard tank... that is today's repair job. Rained hard during the night.
Thursday, March 18, 2004. 06:30 Maureen, Ben and Alix wake everyone, they need taxi service to the dive shop. Every one else goes back to bed. We have to do the Port Captain's Zarpe and our passports Immigration stamped, here this is the last Honduran port where we can get papers. Takes Dick until 14:30 to finally get all the stamps and papers in order, these people close their offices at 11:00 and go home for siesta.
Friday, March 19, 2004. 06:00, overcast air temp 80F, rained during then night. Check engine oil and water.
06:30 lift outboard motor on board deck, haul anchor and head out for Punta Sol 42 miles away. Immediate downpour, lasted for three hours. Vis 1 mile, speed 5.6kts under power at 1600 RPM. We have to clear Roca Salmedina, which has a stilt house on top, after that there are no more shoals or off-lying dangers.
10:30 air clear, vis improves to 3 miles cannot see the mainland mountains or Utila, nav system working using our "plug in after trick". 32 miles to Punta Sol.
12:45 Wind picks up, we sail with jib and motor at 7Kts, sky clear, Punta Izopo to port at 9 o'clock.
14:10 Abeam Punta Sol, change course to 065M and surf 6 miles along the west side of the mountain shore in 40 ft.
15:20 Clear the breaking rocks on each side, and drop Bruce in our usual spot . There is only one other boat at anchor she has a US flag, no one on deck.
16:30 A Brit ketch powers in just before dark and anchors. Maureen and Alix are snorkling, the newcomer offers them a barracuda which he caught today, they graciously decline the offer...
Saturday, March 20, 2004. 06:00, long day today, we plan to make Cabo Tres Puntas 57 miles away, alternate plan is, if it is still light, Livingston another 10 miles. Power out the cut between the breaking rocks the channel is 62 ft wide, and there are breaking rocks like this on both sides... we have ti hug the port ones as the stbd ones are almost hidden....
09:00 Puerto Cortes abeam, we are averaging 7+ kts.
12:30 Belize Sappodilla Cayes are abeam, but we cannot see them in the haze.
12:50 Container ship passes 2 miles to stbd, call on VHF, ask how good a radar target we are. First mate says we show up well on his radar, guess the tinfoil we installed under the cedar ceiling is working.
18:00 We "belly up to the bar", still daylight. Call Port Captain on VHF, ask permission to anchor in the river and do our paper work tomorrow. "Si... manana, ocho heure, no problema ", he says. "Mucho Gracias, manana, ocho heure" we answer, and proceed up river to La Marina where we drop the stern anchor 150 ft back and power forward bow to the dock, "technically anchored" but able to go ashore.....

WHITECAP
- Monday, March 29, 2004 at 17:34:36 (EST)

Wednesday, February 25, 2004 - Finished the Rattan repair, and started on the finishing the laterals of the other two uncompleted ones behind the dinette, just something else that never got finished before we left home and forgotten about. Changed the roller furling line this morning, the old one was not long enough; it will now replace the old mizzen haillard.
Luvi's family all left yesterday and were gone last night and all day today, the funeral was in Mama's home village on the road to Copan near the Honduran border, about three hours away. There was only "Drakar" Mike, "Majico" Roger and us on the dock. Poor Tootie was at wits end wandering around wondering where everyone was.
No word on our batteries yet. We want to be out the river early next week, spend some time in Roatan before Richard and family arrive.
Cindy and Evan are off to Saskatoon for the Briar, Cindy's 4th time there, and her parents have never been yet. Sorry to hear about all the snow back home, and the loss of our fish when the furnace oil ran out... guess we should have alerted the oil Co. that we were not burning wood anymore.....
Lots of traffic on the public dock alongside of us, there were 4 big 40 passenger fancy Mercedes busses unloading and picking up passengers. The Catamaran Hotel has a deal with a cruise ship line that stops in Puerto Barrios (Santo Tomas), launcheros pick up passengers and bring them to Livingston then up the gorge as far as Catamaran Hotel, at the same time the busses from Barrios bring another group of passengers here, where they are launcheroed to Catamaran for lunch, they then switch places back to the cruise ship. Catamaran makes money by feeding dinner to the whole group at US prices, and 320 new people got to see the gorge today.
Thursday, February 26, 2004 - Rained all night last night. Air temp 75F, "The Shop" called after the VHF Net this morning, our new start batteries have arrived. Dick dinghied over to pick them up, the price was as quoted except for a US$8 delivery charge from the city. Had to replace the battery hold down bracket, the old one was damaged when the batteries boiled dry. Another dinghy trip to "The Shop", Patrick had new 5/16" SS threaded rod which we cut and bent exactly like the old one. Walk to "Mar Marine" for new terminal ends and 6" of 2 AWG wire. By 16:00 all was installed except for the hold down cover threaded rod which turned out to be 1/4" too short, the new batteries are physically larger than the old ones.
Friday, February 27, 2004. Cloudy again today, great to work on deck. Air temp at 09:00 76F. Was able to retrofit the battery cover by removing the wing nut battery terminal posts and using others that were lower, and cutting 3/8" off the cover riser. It worked. Turned on the electric fuel pump, bled the injectors, spun Mercedes over a few times, gave her 1 minute of glow plug spun her again a few times, repeated the proceedure one more time, and voila, Mercedes was up and running again, not bad after 10 months!!!. Everything is working except for some reason Battery bank "1" is now the start bank, and house bank is "#2", Only makes a difference when we read the battery voltage on the Nexus instruments from the cockpit, Nexus reads only from the house bank. Can be easily changed, just have to switch a wire in the electrical panel, but which one???, DC voltage went up to 14.7 when Mercedes was running, so the alternator is working.
11:00 Waiting on Leitta, the lady with the sewing machine up the lane, she is supposed to come today to modify the "African Queen". Waited until 15:40 she did not show up, Walk to Chiqui's, have to stock up on supplies, plan to leave here Sunday afternoon or Monday morning for Livingston. Chiqui's new batteries arrived today, too late, we have our new ones already installed and they are 850 CCA as opposed to his at 670 CCA.
Dinner tonight was the 2nd half of the B'bque chicken from yesterday, and enough left for fricot tomorrow, not bad, 3 meals out of a Q40 (US$5) chicken. Dick had a great chat with Charlie, who sat chirping on the VCR, near Dick's shoulder, watching dinner in progress, he seems to be getting more used to us. Dick thinks he said "dumb bastard, you forgot the wine" but not sure....
Saturday, February 28, 2004 - Another cloudy day, air temp 78F, Diego has his winter sweater on. Big excitement on the dock, Roger was coming from the shower, noticed "Adios" had a list to port. Turned out she was half full of water, big rush to get a gas pump over at Ranchon Mary's and get it started up, an hour later Luvi and the brothers had "Adios" pumped out , and all the through hulls blocked off.
Going to putt putt over to Suzanna's Marina, arranged to meet Stu on Mixto Listo at his sewing shop to sew the webbing on the African Queen and repair our sailcovers.
17:00 Arrived back to our dock, checked on the VHF with Danielle on JPDan to make sure dinner was still on at Casa Parico, the launcha will be picking us up at our dock at 17:30. Here are some pictures, Mary and Dick, we wear long sleeves and long pants, Parico is deep in the jungle and there are mucho mosquitos in the early evening, Mike from Ottawa on "Celebration Morning", with Ed from "Oneda" in the background. The two young Swiss owners , and Danielle and JP on "JPdan". The b'bque was Q40 (about CDN$8) per person, and they provided free transportation
Sunday, March 01, 2004, Partly cloudy, air temp 80F. Today will be provisioning day, hope to head out the river tomorrow or Tuesday latest. Big news on the VHF this AM, Kent on "October" was boarded and robbed during the night. He has been anchored just in front of Tjax Marina while Jennifer is in Mexico, they usually stay at their house in Gringo Bay in the Golfete. Kent was with us at dinner last night and he was the last person dropped off the launcha before us. The robbers were armed, took money, watch, dinghy and left him tied up on the cabin floor. There were shots fired, as it seems someone at Tjax noticed something going on. Everyone thinks these are the same guys who robbed the other two anchored yachts in December.

WHITECAP
- Monday, March 01, 2004 at 05:45:13 (EST)

Monday, February 23, 2004 - Dick towed "Fleur des Isles" with the dinghy, she was docked directly behind us over to "Shang's" old dock. Ray decided to move to a cheaper dock, and his engine is not working. Now we have a lot more fresh air and a large empty space between "Whitecap" and "Yankee Girl".  Walked half mile up to the Shell station on the highway, carried back 4 gallons of Shell Rimula, motor oil. Still cannot get Rotella T around here, this is the next best... maybe it is better.
Sorry for all the snow back home, but we are thinking of you all sitting by the wood stove.....
Tuesday, February 24, 2004. Lou and Kookie, LeRoy and Carolyn are off to Mexico early this morning, they hope to make it in one 10 hour day, but may overnight in Chetamul on the Mexican border. Dick spent the morning repairing the food locker door, something was on board last summer that seemed to like "rattan". It had better not be Charlie or he's a gone Gecko. It is more difficult to repair than weave from new. Luvi's grandmother passed away this morning, the family are all gone to Morales. Air temp today reached 98F and no wind, had to go for a dinghy ride to cool off. Stopped off at "The Shop" (the grey building, on the point, under the bridge), Chris can get us two series 31 Exide US made start batteries for US$116 each, shipped today from the city so they may be here tomorrow, done deal.

WHITECAP
- Wednesday, February 25, 2004 at 19:44:56 (EST)

Friday, February 20, 2004 - Mostly cloudy today, air temp 86F. Worked on the shelf a bit today, pretty primitive tools... a carpet knife, drill, rasp and sandpaper, back home you just walk into the workshop and everything is there just like you left it the last time.
Walked to Chiqui's, he says he is having trouble getting Trojan batteries but promises Exide ones next week. King on ADL says he saw Trojan 27's at the Agromar store, must take a look there.
Here is a pic of John and Karen with "Xtasea" anchored off Chiqui's store. They are headed down to Livingston tomorrow and then to Lighthouse reef, John has some new gas mixtures for his scuba tank and he wants to try for 480 ft., the bottom of the "Blue Hole". From there they are going to Roatan for a month. Lou and Kookie, LeRoy and Carolyn are driving "Xtasea's" van to Xcalak (ish-kaa-lak) Mexico.
Saturday, February 21, 2004 - A beautiful morning and it looks like another hot one today, but the breeze is still from the north quarter. Something must have stirred the howler monkeys this morning, they woke Dick at 04:00 even Tootie was barking.
Assembled the new shelf this AM just have to plug the screw holes, but have to go to town to get carpenters glue.
Looks like our outboard gas tank is kaput, the repair is not working and she is sucking air somewhere stalling the motor. Dick took the hose off the fitting, held it in the fill hole and it worked ok. Luvi had an old tank with good fittings so we switched, there was a crack in the handle that weaped gasoline so we melted around the crack with the soldering iron welding the leak. Seems to work now.
Dinghied to town, fresh veggies day at the market, stopped at Jeff's second level Bar, there are some new Canadians on the Rio, JP and Danielle from Montreal on a "JPDAN" Formosa 42 and Mike from Ottawa on "Celebration Morning" a Bayfield 29. Notice everyone around here has the same middle name "on". Heard about a new restaurant called "Casa Perico" down the river, apparently Saturday is all you can eat B'bque things for Q40, (about CDN$8) reservations required. We dinghied down for a look-see and were able to find it off the bay between Catamaran Hotel and "Animo's" dock about half mile up a small creek through the jungle. The two young Swiss men have quite a setup here, several cabanas for rent and "dorm" type accommodation above the bar, grande problema, the mosquitoes are bad, we will come back when we are better prepared. We dinghied back home before dark and made do with smoked pork chops on our own b'bque.
Sunday, February 22, 2004 - Looks like another fine day in paradise, not a cloud in the sky at 09:00, air temp already 90F.
Work today is defrost the fridge, replace the hose for the fridge bilge drain and .... change the engine oil, the dirtiest job on the boat. Finished the fridge thing before 10:00, then borrowed Lou's electric pump for the oil change. Worked like a charm except during the process a cockroach jumped out from under the motor bracket, Dick was able to stomp him before he got away, we have none, don't want to start a new breed over again. Day's work finished before 12:00, man it is hot out there today. Air temp hit 102F this afternoon, and not a breeze.
VHF radio reports someone looking for info on a Rio boat out in Amatique Bay. Seems the skipper, who was alone, fell from his mast to the deck and broke his leg trying to retrieve a halliard. He was able to cel phone for help, last we heard someone got to him and he was on his way to hospital in Puerto Barrios.

WHITECAP
- Monday, February 23, 2004 at 10:37:37 (EST)

Tuesday, February 17, 2004 06:00 - Woke up, dinghy rubbing against the hull, noise magnifies inside the boat. Dinghy is half full of rain water, Dick puts on bathing suit and goes out to bail and move her. Luvi is already up, asks if we heard shots last night, Dick says he heard something, but was watching "Lethal Weapon 2", just thought it was the movie. Luvi said someone up the lane fired shots during the night.
Wednesday, February 18, 2004. Misty rainey again today. Air temp outside 68F everyone wearing long sleeves and sweaters. Dick started a new shelf on the stbd side bulkhead above the VHF radio, we had the pieces of teak on board, and Roger cut us a 17" x 4" x 1/2" plywood piece for the bottom.
Walked the bridge both ways in the rain, (misty rainy turned into rain downpour). Had to get some Q's at the bank and get some things to build a pizza tonight. Looked like two drowned rats when we came home, here is a picture of the blue rat. Drowned rats were in vogue everywhere on the Rio today. The pizza turned out to be the worst we ever made. Temperature went down to 68F this afternoon, looks like the norther is passing through, this is the same one that dumped 3" of snow in Dallas. Closed the hatches and watched the movie "Scarface" on the laptop DVD/CD, not the best movie we ever saw.
Thursday, February 19, 2004. Cloudy, but a lot warmer this morning, air temp 80F, looks like the sun will come out and the river is down to 9.4 ft at our dock. Morning VHF net announced that the "Crow Bar" is closed for good, it seems Jose raised his food and beer prices last summer and the gringos just stopped supporting him even after he dropped them.
Working on the shelf again, almost finished, just have a few last cuts and then assemble and install. Here is the bulkhead before. Every time Dick needs something cut it means a climb out of the boat and back each time and a walk to Roger's shop and back, not far but... Roger is busy building a teak cockpit in his shop for a 45' aluminum "Striker" sportfisher over at Suzanna's Marina, going to cost someone a pile of money.....
Still no "start" batteries at Chiqui's, he promised the new Trojan order would be here this week, want to get this engine going...

WHITECAP
- Monday, February 23, 2004 at 10:32:24 (EST)

Hi everyone
Sunday, February 15, 2004 - Rained all night last night, and cloudy today, can get things done without getting burned. Air temp 80F, light breeze.
LeRoy and Carolyn walked over for coffee so we all relaxed on "Yankee Girl" and watched a comedy movie. Laughed until our bellies were sore, not fun when you are full of coffee.
Soaped and cleaned the bilges, even got to scrub the cabin sole during the process. Returned Ray's sewing machine today, our new main hatch screen is finished, effective, but not really pretty ... only the first attempt.
Kookie is driving "Ectasea"'s Chevy van to Xcalak, Mexico (the last town at the end of the road) on the 29th sometime soon, Lou's eyes are getting worse, he can barely see to drive the dinghy. John and Karen have property in Xcalak and are moving the boat, dogs, cat and daughter Gypsy up there for a few months. They were not happy with the care Tortual Marina took of the boat, the hatches were left open during the fall rain season and the boat was a mess of mould inside when they came back. The marina staff were only supposed to open the hatches to air her out, and they also suspect someone had been using their boat for other purposes, as they found clothing that did not belong to them. We are lucky "Whitecap" has the care Luvi and Emi give here, at half the price.
16:00 Dinghied to Crow Bar for a hamburger, Jose has not been around for the last 5 days, a new couple from "Balou" over at Bruno's marina have kept it open for him???. Wonder what is going on there.
Monday, Febuary 16, 2004 Rained again all night, air temp 82F cloudy and it is misty/rainy today. River level is up, we have 9.8 ft. at our dock this AM.
Dick
- Monday, February 16, 2004 at 19:49:56 (EST)

Wednesday, February 11, 2004. Well what can we say another hot day in the jungle, at 08:00 it was already 85F and it just getting hotter from there. Did the internet cafe thing at Backpackers forgot to properly close off the last update, sorry about that... Everyone on the dock is lining up for the shower by noon, air temp 98F. Too hot to walk the bridge. Dick still busy with the sewing thing, almost finished the screen for the hatch... 5 days now... becoming a work of art... Ray on "Fleur des Isles" just behind "Whitecap", is moving to "Shang's" old dock over at Fred's property between us and Ranchon Mary's restaurant. That will give us more of a breeze in this corner of the dock hopefully. Had the windmill going all day today, she put out 4 amps at one point which is good. We now think solar panels are probably the better solution, at least the sun shines every day.
Our laptop Cd player is really a DVD player, not really hard to tell, it is imprinted right on the front, just never looked before. Over lunch today we watched an old John Wayne movie from the 40's, "The Lucky Texan", on DVD, the movie industry really has come a long way in our lifetime!!!
B'Bque chicken fillets tonight, wine in the cockpit again. Dick is loosing weight every day on this chicken/fish/salad diet, without the fish..., but not near like Doug on "Kristiana", he says he lost an "Emy".. , in other words he lost about 75 lbs or just about what Emy on "ADL" weighs...
Thursday, February 12, 2004 - Dinghied to town early this AM, but took the long way by going all the way down river to Mario's Marina then slowly back upriver in the west side following the shoreline and venturing into every creek and bay. There are many beautiful traditional expensive homes, that cannot be seen from the river. Back in Fronteres, Agromar finally has our propane tanks in stock, bought two, have to replace the borrowed one to "ADL". Stopped at Jeff's for a hamburger, the first red meat we have eaten since we left home. Picked up 2 Coleman propane tanks at the Agromar now we can return the borrowed one to "ADL". Back to the dinghy, beautiful day for a dinghy ride so we followed the shoreline and creeks on the north-west side of the bridge past Dim Sum, Tortugal Marina, Mansion del Rio and over towards Castillo San Fillipe where we crossed the river to head home. Then... the outboard quit, seemed to be fuel starved. A kindly fisherman gave us a tow to Chiqui's where we had to wait until 15:00 for Oscar to come back from lunch. They removed the carburator, everything was OK, Turned out to be a clogged filter in the pick up tube in the tank, which Dick has now securely epoxied together because of the cracked fitting. They cleared it by blowing backwards through the line... and it seems to be working fine again.
Friday, February 13, 2004 04:30 - Woke up to Charlie's chirping, he is somewhere behind the TV/VCR. He calmed down when Dick turned on a light, but now the howler monkeys are up for the day, they make such a racket it is hard to sleep. The monkeys have moved into the trees closer to our dock after their land was cleared for the new dry boat storage. At least they left a wide strip of trees along the shoreline. We could hear big machines working in there this morning.
Diego had an accident yesterday, he was running, tripped and fell face down on a stone, looks like it will leave a scar on his lip, his first of many, at least his teeth were not hurt.
New business started up in town Yellow Cab, they are little three wheel Japanese things that will take you across the bridge for Q2 per person, the regular taxis charge Q10. When we first came to the river 3 years ago, there was only one taxi, yesterday we counted 20 at the bus stop and we have two little yellow cabs.
14:00 Air temp 96F and hardly a breeze, and this is a norther??? This is the hottest since we came back to the boat.
Picked up LeRoy and Carolyn at the park on the Fronteres side and dinghed to Dim Sum for dinner. Dim Sum is on Xalaja Island and is only about 100 feet from shore, the restaurant has been re-modeled, new floor, new cane roof and of course prices are up, today it cost us Q124 about CDN$20 for two including drinks, last year 4 could eat for the same price, and of course there was too much food. Iliana was glad to see us, she is re-doing one of the bungalows on her island for her new spanish school. She says her husband is busy with the coffee harvest just outside of Antigua
Saturday, Febuary 14, 2004 - Happy Valentines Day everyone. At 09:00 the temp is 87F and not a breeze yet, will walk down to Backpackers to do our e-mails instead of Swap meet. Today would be a good day to soap up the bilge, there is a bit of oil on the surface. This afternoon there is free chili at Jeff's, it is his birthday, imagine his poor mother saddled with Jeff and on St.Valentines day too.

WHITECAP
- Saturday, February 14, 2004 at 13:28:16 (EST)

Monday, February 9, 2004 Cloudy misty rainy this morning, air temp 76F, everyone wandering around with long sleeved sweaters, long pants and sneakers!!! Usually, we wear shorts and flip-flops around here. Oscar delivered the outboard yesterday, charged Q325 for the rebuild, Dick repaired the broken fitting on the fuel tank, with the "steel reinforced epoxy putty" stuff, hope it works.... will let it set overnight before we put gas in the tank.
Loaned Robert and France more movies last night, France was all excited after watching "Seabiscuit", she could not imagine sitting in her cockpit watching such a recent movie. Now Luvi wants to borrow some also.
09:30 suddenly the sun came out and the temp is now up to 85F, just like that....
11:00 Launcha'd over to the Shell Station with Luvi to fill the gas tank... hurrah.. no leak around the repaired fitting!! Fitted the motor on the Dink and she started on the first pull. Good old 1995 Suzuki 4.2, Oscar said to mix oil with the gas until we are sure the oil injection works properly, so we get some smoke, no problema.

Mentioned to Luvi this morning Dick wanted one of the brothers to scrub the bottom of the boat, within minutes Avion is already going at it, he was at it for about three hours and he charged Q100.
Tuesday, February 10, 2004 Another nice day in paradise air temp at 09:28 is 85F partly cloudy. Dick still out there trying to sew the new screen, looks like he is getting some frustrated... it is all because of the "tension". Tension on the bobbin, tension on the needle, tension on the foot and tension on his nerves and... tension on Mary. How do you fix this? Real close inspection of the bobbin holder Dick finds a small piece of the thread tensioner plate is broken and it is catching the thread each time it goes around. Filing it down does not work. A trip to town in the dinghy (still looking for Coleman Propane tanks), a visit to a small sewing shop, a few words by Dick in his best pseudo norte americano Spanish vernacular and the young man says: "I will get you a new one from my casa in 10 minutes, it will cost Q30", in plain perfect English... Well... even here, near the end of the world they have Singer sewing machines and parts.
Stopped at Bruno's to pay our "dinghy dock fee", and our friend Andy Rioux (the Canadian Navy Flier friend of Noel Murphy) was there, seems his wife Maria was on the morning chicken bus to Puerto Barrios, when it was stopped and everyone was robbed, she lost all her jewellery, purse and money. Andy was pretty upset but Maria is OK. We dinghied home in the dark after Bruno's hot chicken wings, Mary (with dinghy butt), says never again without a flashlight.
WHITECAP
- Wednesday, February 11, 2004 at 12:11:42 (EST)

Thursday February 5, 2004 Had the b'bque going last night, worked OK with the propane tank from our torch as Chiqui does not have any of the proper Coleman ones. Bought 320 minutes on the net at Backpackers for Q100 about CDN $20, they had a deal on and we just happened to notice. Carolyn came over the bridge for coffee, she goes to the new gym in town early morning, the charge is only Q10 (US$1.25) per day.
Air temp 88F at noon today. Borrowed "Fleur des Isles" sewing machine today, Dick is trying to sew a new screen for the main hatch.... not working so well and everyone is laughing, Luvi asked the lady up the lane to come down to Whitecap and give Dick some sewing lessons after lunch !!! We thought she would be too busy as her daughter is getting married next week to one of the French sailors in the anchorage. He was supposed to marry a Cuban lady, but when he went back to Cuba for her, she had already married someone else, so he came here to the Rio and found this one.... awful easy, or awful fickle!!
Walked the bridge late afternoon, looking for the b'bque propane, everyone says manana, Dick wants one hoi. The battery charger we took to the repair shop last week is kaput, the young man says "no bueno", so we left it with him as there may be some parts he can use. Casa Guatemala store had some good frozen spareribs today, around here if you see something you will want later, buy it because later it might/will not be there.
Friday, February 6, 2004. 80F at 07:00 and the sun has not come over the jungle yet, going to be a hot one. Have a visitor on board, saw some signs over the last few days, last night Dick got up for a drink of water, and there looking out of the can cupboard was a tiny green gecko, Roger says leave him alone he will take care of any bugs on board, so I will not tell Mary, she chased the last one off the boat in Belize City... just wait until some day she reaches in for a can of chicken!!! This guy must have been around for awhile, there is not a sign of any bugs on board.
Lou's 62nd birthday today, Kookie is doing a party at Jeff's second level "street view, bano view, whorehouse view, leave your liver on the river" Bar. The party crowd . Damn... we thought she would do it at Dim Sum the Chinese restaurant, we have not been there yet this year.
Checked around for the Coleman propane canister, this time Dick carried the empty one to show, manana is now Mardes (Tuesday). King on "ADL" calls on the VHF, tells us he has a spare one, will leave it in Roger's shop for us tomorrow.
18:00 Walked back home over the bridge, traffic was stopped on the east lane all the way across, turns out the lumber police stopped a truck with illegal logs and he parked his truck across the highway stopping traffic both ways before they hauled him out of the cab and started to beat on him. The driver was able to run away with the keys, and the lumber police were stuck with traffic piling up both ways for three hours. It was great business for all the little tiendas and cantinas along the road. In Guatemala, any logs or cut lumber has to have proper documentation and the lumber police have a station on the east side (our side) of the bridge where they stop all trucks carrying any kind of wood to enforce the regulations.
Saturday, February 6, 2004 00:52 Yep, "Charlie" the gecko is still with us, tonight he was chirping/clicking away on top of the books in the quarter berth.
The French guy on the large boat was run into again last night after dark, while rowing from "Rebelle" (Robert and France from Montreal) a distance of about 100 ft. It seems the launcheros have taken "a thing" against him since he took up space on the community pier to load concrete ballast into his bilge, they seem to think it is their private dock. Someone also ran over his Walker Bay dinghy which was left at anchor in daytime while he was loading the concrete. He is the same guy who was boarded by two armed intruders in December. He must have a private "Schmoo" over his head!!!.
Morning Rio VHF net says we are getting a norther and rain later today, so it will cool off a bit. Six new boats came up the river yesterday, started from Marathon Florida in mid January, they are all at Tortugal Marina.
09:30 Borrowed Luvi's launcha to go to the swap meet at Mario's, the guy on the big French boat hailed us looking for a ride, he is looking to buy a new outboard motor to replace the stolen one. His name is Oliver, and it turns out he is a landed Canadian Immigrant, he came to Halifax in 1990 from France and settled in Lunenberg where he started a mussel and lobster business which he sold when he moved to North Carolina, where he designed and built this boat so it is not really a French boat at all. He says he does not know why they are picking on him, he does not bother their women or little girls, Dick thinks the boat is so large it just "looks rich" to these people. He also admitted he should have taken Dick's advice when he was loading the concrete. Dick had told him if he puts too much in the bilge at one time it will overheat while it cures, apparently it did overheat, and filled the boat with steam, Oliver says he thought the bottom was going to drop off.
13:50 The predicted rain came, filled a bucket in three minutes, and the temperature suddenly dropped to 76F. Dick kept right on sewing....
15:00 walked to Chiqui's, there were two nice Trojan 27 "start batteries", rated at 850 CCA, sitting on his shelf, just what we need for the Mercedes, today they are gone, should have known!!! now we will have to wait for the next shipment...
Oscar has the 4.2 up and running says manana we can pick her up... Hurrah after a whole year... now we have to fix the cracked outboard fuel tank "out" fitting. Bought a bottle of Bacardi 8 year old Reserva Superior to celebrate Chiqui had it for Q75 about US$9. wonder how much Evan and Cindy paid back home....

WHITECAP
- Sunday, February 08, 2004 at 12:25:52 (EST)

Tuesday, February 3, 2004 Had an interesting meeting with the new Mayor yesterday afternoon. He was newly elected in December; he is the first person in this position of Myan Q'eqchi (pronounce qui chi) indian decent, even though those tribes make up over 75% of the population of his large district. He seems to be a very young knowledgeable person, has the traditional gold rimmed front tooth, and will probably go further in this country if someone more powerful does not get jealous and kill him off. "Mayor" seems to be a misnomer for his position which takes in and includes Livingston, all the Rio Dulce, Fronteres/El Relleno and half of Lago Isabal up to El Estor and then all the way to Postun (towards the Peten Department and Flores), it includes 310 villages, so he is really the Mayor of the county. About 25 yachters from all over the river met at Ranchon Mary's restaurant (only 100 ft away from us) and had an hour long chance to hear him out and, in light of the two armed boardings in our small bay in December, express our concerns about safety on the river. His plans are open but he says he wants to clean the Towns up, initiate a group of young English speaking "tourist police", and if and when funds come available start a river patrol, the goal is to increase tourism and visiting yachters are tourists. So far, he has opened an office in town to serve the Fronteres/El Relleno and the river area (no phone yet). He wants the yachters to appoint a representative to his working committee (Dick did not volunteer!!!). He says he has only 15 National Police at his disposal, three of which act as his bodyguards.... and they change every 30 days, so there is a limited police presence. Mr. Saga (assistant), the Mayor and Carole a German lady who owns a teak finca on the El Estor road, and who heads the local office here.
Rained all night last night, cooled off to "cotton sheet comfortable", during the night. Air temp at 12:00 88F and cloudy. Spent the morning cutting the plywood electrical panel to install the remote Pathmaker switch, which we can use to by-pass the Pathmaker if we ever have to connect both battery banks together for some reason or another, and finally got the stuck drawer in the coffee table opened, don't know what caused it but it works now, finally. Got a fender soaking in a 5 gal bucket with a solution of Clorox, it takes all day imersing each one, but it cleaned off all the black mould that grew on them over the summer.
Tried the newly mounted b'bque for chicken dinner tonight, had a new can of gas in a locker, seemed awful light, of course it was empty, have to pick another at Chiqui's, but his price here is US$7 each, at home we can buy 3 cans for CDN$9.
Wednesday, February 4, 2004 "Adios" Bob left for Guate City at 07:00 this morning, his flight back to Denver leaves tomorrow. He left his cache of fishing lures and told Dick to help himself.
The large (ugly) French sailboat that was robbed at gunpoint in December came in to the public dock this AM, they are loading the bilge with concrete to bring her down to her waterline.
LeRoy, Carolyn, Lou, Kookie and Tomas from "Don Quixote" caught the 10:30 chicken bus for Morales for a shopping trip, they will be good and thirsty when they get back....

Dick
- Thursday, February 05, 2004 at 06:43:57 (EST)

Saturday, January 31, 2004. Day started cloudy, air temp 78F, Mary and Dick launched down to Marios' Marina with Luve, Emi, Diego and "Adois" Bob. Bob is selling some things off "Adios", 2 kayaks, hand held radios and 300' of three strand anchor rode. Was able to sell everything and got his asking price too. The kayaks were bought by a lady from Roatan who is here promoting her new Marina on Barefoot Caye between Brick Bay and French Harbour, Doug on "Kristiana" bought the rode for US$100.
Doug and Rayeen, just came back into the river from sailing Belize, they mentioned that they stopped and anchored in the Mangrove Cayes before checking out at Punta Gorda. Dick said Whitecap was in there two years ago and found a boat named "Wanderer" abandoned there , Rayeen nentioned they were in that anchorage two years ago also, and saw a boat named "Wanderer" out of Vero Beach, Fl. and they talked to the owner that evening. When "Kristiana" pulled anchor the next morning, Rayeen said "Wanderer's" motor was running and the boat was going in circles around her anchor line. Doug and Rayeen wondered what he was doing, and continued on their way to Punta Gorda. It was several days later when Whitecap happened to come into the same anchorage and found the abandoned boat. The "going in circles" also explains the stick of wood that the anchor line was wrapped around like a kite string. "Wanderer" probably went in circles until she ran out of fuel. Mr O'Neill probaly fell overboard some time during the night Doug and Rayeen had talked to him, and with the boat moving in circles just could not get back on board. The body was subsequently found in the mangroves several weeks after "Whitecap" found the empty boat. "Wanderer" is still anchored in Punta Gorda two years later.
19:30 Just finished nice dinner with B'bque chicken (Q40) and wine in the cockpit. Diego with his big brown button eyes comes to visit. Emergency alert comes on VHF ch 68, young boy is bitten by a "Fer-de-Lance" snake, VHF call goes out for anti-venom serum, Monkey Bay Marina has some and "Camryka" at Mario's down the river is sending over a fast boat to deliver it to Bruno's dinghy dock in town, Another radio has message says there is a car and driver waiting at Bruno's Marina to rush her to hospital in Morales. The "Jungle Medic" guy, Brian, just happened to be handy and rushed over. The "Fer-de-Lance" snake which is common in this country is nicknamed "the three step snake" because after it bites you, you take three steps and you die... nice thought....
19:57 They have the anti-venom and are on the way to Puerto Barrios by ambulance with the young boy, everyone breathes a sigh of relief. The ambulance was a recent donation from the US. Another day is done... and the river still flows.
Sunday, Febuary 1, 2004 Beautiful sunny day, 08:00 already 88F, coffee on "Yankee Girl" this morning, Lou is cooking up a big pot of chili to take to Catamaran Hotel for the Superbowl game half time, several yachters are doing the same, Whitecap is bringing their's in a can!!! Kookie is also making up a salmon pate and Carolyn is arranging tacos, if everyone going to the game does this there will be lots of food for sure. Another emergency on the VHF, Brian the Jungle medic talking to Iliana at Dim Sum (who is also a non-practicing pediatrician) giving info on treating a baby with severe diarrhoea, they put a call out for electrolytes, someone has Pedialyte on hand and are sending it over to Bruno's by boat. Everyone shares what they have on this river!!! never know when you will need something yourself....
15:00 head out for our walk across the bridge, we are meeting at Jeff's second level, street view, bano view, whorehouse view leave your liver on the river view bar for pay for beer and free hot dogs before the Superbowl game.
16:00 everyone walks down to the Las Brisas dock, near the Crow Bar for the ride down river on "Sledgehammer" the old converted workboat the Catamaran Hotel bought and fixed up as a ferry for their guests, she looks like the old "African Queen" in the movies. The large palapa lounge is already crowded when we get there, seems like every gringo on the river wants to see this game. Kevin has set up three large TVs and some yachters even brought their own fold up chairs . Here are some pictures LeRoy, Carolyn, Mary and Sharon , and two nurses from Denmark that tagged along with us and of course a happy Stu the ultimate New England Patriots fan after the game.
"Sledgehammer" delivers everyone back to town and even takes us to our own dock to save us the walk across the bridge.
Monday, Febuary 2, 2004. 08:00 we hear on the VHF morning net some talk about a "security" meeting, this afternoon at 15:00 Ranchon Mary's resturant just a few docks from Luvi's. The newly elected Mayor wants to meet with the cruisers to hear any concerns. This is a good first step in making the river safer especially after the rash of boardings and thefts lately.
We have been hearing chainsaws and machines each morning and the birds and monkeys making lots of noise, they are not happy about being displaced... turns out someone has purchased about 2000 acres of the "Simpson" lands from the highway all the way down to the Marimonte Hotel (where Nicolle and Rick stayed last year), apparently there are big plans for a new marina, boat storage area and complete with travel lift. Roumor has it that the ex-husband of the lady that owns Mar-Marine and his buddies who are all executives at West Marine are behind the project.

Dick
- Monday, February 02, 2004 at 10:52:40 (EST)

Latest news from Whitecap
Well, we left home a week ago already, and on the Rio Dulce already for 4 days now. Weather here is in the mid 80'sF in the daytime but goes down to about "flannelette blanket comfortable" at night. Arrived in Guate City last Friday night at 22:30 on schedule, customs at the airport was a breeze at that time of night, we just walked through!!! stayed at the Spring Hotel in Zona 1 (Centro) just a few blocks from the large market behind the Cathederal. The market and flower stall there is in three levels, the top floor is one level down from the street as there is a plaza on top. This year we found the quality of the native crafts vastly improved, many of the young sales girls in the stalls are fluent in English and ....they don't chase you around any more pressure selling. One young lady tells us she went to a special school where they learned to speak english and went to grade 12, (regular Guatemalan schools only take young girls up to grade 8). There were no demonstrations around the Centro Park so all is calmed down after the elections.
There were no shuttle buses (US$40p/p) from the city to the Rio Dulce on Saturday or Sunday, tourism is down (only 4 other guests at the Spring), but we were ably to reserve seats Mary guarding bags on the LiTegua for Q40 p/p (about US $5) a saving of US$70, but with many many stops along the way and no air conditioning. At El Relleno, the bus drove right by Whitecap's dock, and over the bridge to the bus stop in town so we had to taxi back. Luvi's young brother Guillermo was waiting to carry our bags, we dropped off our stuff changed into shorts, said hello to Emy in her wet tee shirt, (Luvi and "Adios" Bob were away sailing in Belize ) got a big "Howdy" from 3 yr old Diego (wearing his Roots CANADA sweater) . Big changes around the house and dock, they ceramic tilled the shower, extended the roof over the walkway and now have some comfortable couches and new dining table on the deck, which they now use as a living room (the main house only has a kitchen and bedroom). Mama and the brother's living space is in the back in another small lean to. We were impressed. There have been many improvements, all for the better, since we first "found" this dock 3 years ago. For a young man, Luvi, only 26 years old, who has been supporting his mother and three brothers since he was 15 years old, he has done quite well!! The father abandoned the family during the Guatemalan "troubled times" when the ex-president Rios Montt's gangs/goons were killing people off. The boats at our dock are "Yankee Girl" Lou and Kookie, Ray on "Fleur des Isles" a Corbin from Montreal, and Whitecap on the east side, on the other side is Mike (the ex cop) on "Drakar" a Morgan OI 42 out of Cleveland, with his Guatemalan wife and 2 yr old daughter, Roger on "Majico" and "Adios" when she comes back.

We walked back over the bridge to Fronteres again (crossed 3 times in less than 1 hour!!) , Wow! the improvements under the bridge on both sides of the river are almost unbelievable. They should have an elections here more often... on our side of the river the road is paved to Backpackers Hotel then under the bridge to Chiqui's store and all the way back both sides of the bridge, no more muddy trips to the Backpacker Internet Cafe. Under the bridge they are paving/building fenced in parking (wonder where the cars will come from???) and down by the river is a new park with brick b'bque pits and palapas. They tell us the other side of the bridge there is pavement and the park is even bigger and better.
We found the regular crowd (Lou & Kookie, LeRoy & Carolyn, King & ME, Stu from "Mixto Listo", Don Don and Dead Don and some new arrivals at Jeff's new second level "street view, bano view (and we hear "Cocalita's whore house across the street view)" Bar.
Sunday, Jan 25, 2004 Whitecap is in great shape clean clean clean... Installed the Nexus instruments on the hatch, everything works but we left "wind speed" at home, the river level is down we have only 9 ft of water at our dock, started looking into our electric problems, LeRoy and Carolyn were running with extension cord and no lights. Walked to Chiqui's store for some supplies and had a beer with the crowd at Chiqui's "sunset bar" (Chiqui put a picnic table on the dockside deck and a tarpaulin roof over top and the yachties named it). Chiqui's bar is "self serve honour system " you just go to the beer cooler, pick up your choice whenever you want, and when you leave you just take your empties to the cash and pay. Beer at Chiqui's is Q6 (about US$.75) about Q4 saving from a regular bars which sell beer for Q10, the exchange rate now is Q7.75 to US$1 A "Q" by the way stands for a Quetzal the country currency and also the Guatemalan national bird.

Monday, Jan 26, 2004. Replaced the Heart Pathmaker battery combiner with the new one we brought down, the old one blew out the solenoid and when the smoke comes out things will no longer work. Had to replace some the wiring and all the terminal ends, got a chance to use up some of that heat shrink stuff we keep bringing down!!! Cleaned up some of the other wiring at the same time, LeRoy came over from the Hotel to help. We cleaned all the battery terminal ends and hooked up to the new deep cycle house batteries LeRoy previously had purchased and Voila!!! we now have lights and refrigeration again!!! but still no way to charge the batteries yet. That is enough for today.... Dinghied over to Suzanna's lagoona Marina with Lou and Kookie for free chili and sing along, got back to Whitecap after dark, not usually safe on the river after dark as most boats run without lights and accidents do happen. There are about ten boats anchored just off our dock, they have all moved in closer after one of the French yachts was boarded and robbed by two masked guys with guns, he was anchored in front of the hotel where Nicolle and Rick stayed last year. They stole everything they could find of value including the laptop. We think we know who they were, as a few days later a young local was overheard asking someone how to turn on a laptop, we are now all keeping a "river watch" lookout for that boy. Not all the thievery/stealing is done by locals however, several yachts had missing items over a period of time, and last week four sailors went into another sailor's storage shed (which just happens to be the same lower level of a house our friend Pat used for storage last year) and they found several items they had been missing from their boats, they went to the police. Big problem, the police are here to protect the country not the people!!! Talk around is everyone will be "river watching" that boy also (sorry to add he is a Canadian), we understand Fred the dock owner has asked him to leave but his excuse is his motor will not start. Think this boy's time has come for this river everyone shuns him. Whitecap is safe as we have a guard dog and another Tootie... "Adios" returned from Livingston this afternoon, they had 25 lbs of fresh shrimp, so the season is on.
Tuesday, Jan 27, 2004. Checked all the electrical wires connected to the inverter and the Heart Link 2000, no sign of escaped smoke but still not charging the batteries. Starting to think maybe this means a trip to San Pedro Sula, Honduras, and a quick flight to Miami and back with a replacement inverter UG!!! about US$2,000. Not a likable solution, have a beer Dick, think some more.... Walk over the bridge, (takes almost half hour) we have to get Quetzales at the bank, hurrah, Mary's credit card works this year!!! considering she forgot her US$ at home when we left .... Pick up fresh veggies at the market, then up to Jeff's Bar for a hamburger. Talked to Richard "the Indian", the local electrical guru around the river, explained our problem, he says he will dinghy over tomorrow around 09:30 and take a look Richard in blue shirt. We dinghy home with Lou and Kookie, but have stop and pay the "dinghy dock fee" at Bruno's . Bruno's provides "free dinghy dock" but you are expected to buy at least one beer each before you leave and that is considered your dock fee payment!!!
Wednesday, Jan 28, 2004. Richard shows up around 10:45 (there is no real schedule on the Rio), takes a look, feels around the top of the inverter, asks for a mirror, (the inverter is just two inches from the deck and you cannot see the top), takes a good look and reaches in and resets the two circuit breakers.... we plug into shore power and eureka we now have 110V AC power again, just like majic!!!. and Whoopie... we just saved a trip to Miami. Richard apologizes says he has to charge us for one hour at US$20. we gladly pay.... Now everything seems to be working, even the link 2000 LED's are lit up the way they should be, the batteries are in charge mode, we will know better when they get to "float" mode (fully charged). Richard says the inverter switch has to be turned to the "off" position as it is controlled internally by the Link 2000 panel, never knew that before, hard to imagine something has to be turned "off" to work, just like the Nexus wind instrument Peter Nelson set (program wind to "off" to work) for us on "Cajun Spirit" last summer.
Thursday, Jan 29, 2004. It is one week since we left home, no tan yet but started. Rained all night last night, cooler, air temp 68F, used blankets last night. Today is boat moving day, some of the sailors over at Tortugal Marina are not happy, and they are moving out, Lou has gone over to help Tomas move "Don Quixote". Seems like Daphne, the owner is trying to turn Tortugal into a private club, no one is welcome to drop in for lunch any more, you have to be invited. Tomas says we would not want go anyway, as the quality is gone down. To bad, it used to be one of the better places to go for lunch on the Rio. Today's duties are to set up our barbeque on the stern rail, put the belt back in the self steerer, install the wheel and look for new start batteries.
Dick & Mary
- Friday, January 30, 2004 at 12:52:49 (EST)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Wedge/Whitecap family.

Mary and Dick are still on Prince Edward Island for the 2003 Holidays. We had 25 family for Christmas dinner, it was a busy day, but fun considering we missed it last year.

Things beyond our control may keep us here on PEI for a while longer. In the meantime Whitecap will remain safely at her dock for another year on the Rio Dulce. Ah! well, hopefully Panama will still be there next year.

Many e-mails have come asking for information about Guatemala and the Rio Dulce. Here is a satellite photo/map of the general area Mexico to Honduras. Cuba is on the upper right, Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula is the coastline to the left of the white cloud, the Island of Cozumel is visible just offshore. Belize starts just below Bahai Chetumal, the large bay centre left in the map. The Belize Cayes and reef are not well shown on this map. Guatemala is the land in the lower left corner, and only has a 75 mile face on the Carribean Sea, you can see the Rio Dulce and Lago Isabel 30 miles inland. The land at the bottom of the picture is Honduras, you can make out the “Bay Islands”, Utila, Roatan and Guanaja just offshore, above the mainland.

We will have more updates in the next month. Thanks for visiting our site.
Dick
- Sunday, December 28, 2003 at 22:07:27 (EST)

Hola everyone.
Just an update as of Oct 20, 2003.
Time is getting short, we are slowly piling up all the things we plan to take back to the Rio Dulce with us in a box. Does not seem to be near as much as other years, but then we still have 3 weeks or so, no firm date or tickets yet but looking at possibilities and alternatives.

Here in Summerside, the boats are all out for the winter, and as of last weekend the docks are parked on the breakwater, so the place looks pretty bleak.
As you may read on the Whitecap guest book, LeRoy and Carolyn are already aboard Whitecap, and we expect that when we arrive the boat will be spotless as usual, just give Carolyn 2 cups of coffee in the AM and she suddenly becomes “Mrs Clean”. We have some problems with the 12V system but we are bringing a new "Pathmaker" battery combiner to replace the burnt out one, hopefully which may be able to be repaired someday. All 5 batteries (3 house & 2 start), and some wiring, will have to be replaced; in retrospect, we should have un-plugged the shore power for the summer and not had this problem. This fall should see the engine start easily and no work to do to the windmill we hope!!! This winters plans are to leave the Rio and head to the Bay Islands of Utila, Roatan, Guanja, Islas Providencia and San Andres off the Nicaraguan coast, then Panama's Boca del Toro and the San Blas islands and eventually Cartagena Columbia where we will leave Whitecap next summer.

Sailing Friends are on the move, the Corbin 39 “Arjuna” is in Annapolis Maryland, and survived hurricane Isabel there on a mooring, you can visit Hillary and Jenny Shea at: http://www.peisle.com/arjuna/ They expect to start south from there early November.
Paul Melanson and Christine on the Corbin 39 “Quintana” are still in Halifax where they safely rode out hurricane Juan at anchor on the Northwest Arm with two anchors and the engine running to relieve the pressure. They ended up with transmission problems and are presently getting that repaired. You can follow them at: http://www.peisle.com/quintana/ They are probably getting a bit antsy for a weather window. Kudos to Bill Fullerton for setting them up with their own sites.

Larry Peck on Meriah, a 50 foot Herreshoff ketch built in Victoria BC in 1969, with his wife Nicky and 5 year old daughter Victoria Christina as crew, left Summerside on Oct 11 heading to Florida and the Bahamas for the winter. You can follow them at: http://www.meriah.com/ When they get time to update their site.
John Benson, a sailing friend and one time a Whitecap crew member, when he lived here in Summerside, but now out of Trenton Ont, with his friend Martine, are presently in Annapolis, and are heading towards Florida and Cuba on “Zigzag” their 35 ft sailboat.
Dick
- Monday, October 20, 2003 at 09:49:50 (EDT)