Brief update..

 Believe it or not, we have been busy.  We have made some new lifelong friends, been visited by old friends and for Matt’s 45th birthday we are headed to islands where we hope to be the only boat at the anchorage.

By way of pictures we will share a bit of the last 2 months…

Sunset View Restaurant in Blackpoint Settlement, Great Guana Cay, Exumas with crews from S/V Voyager & M/V Sandial

Man-O-War Cay sandbar-bucket list goal-check!

Ha!!! No funny face-just a beautiful smile

Escondida, Voyager & Sandial with visitors from Canada

Our people from Texas on windward side of Stocking Island, Exumas

Just WOW!

Chat-n-Chill sign post

Just a tiny taste of the stunning colors that exist here

Buried at Man-O-War sandbar

Exposed at Man-O-War sandbar

Finally made it to the Bahamas-thanks COVID!

 

January 7, 2022

1204 EST

24⁰ 11.126’N

076⁰ 27.479’W

Big Majors Anchorage, near Staniel Cay, Exumas, The Bahamas

 

Happy New Year All!  We are afloat and happy.  We wish you all had a festive holiday and this post finds everyone happy and healthy.

There is more to come, but I have to grease the wheels, so to speak, since it’s been so long since I’ve posted anything.

 

Timeline up to now:

11/20/21 Venice FL for Charlotte Harbor Boat Storage & Yard to paint boat

12/02/21 Charlotte Harbor FL with shiny new boat and heading East

12/19/21 Crossing from No Name Harbor, Key Biscayne, FL to Bimini Bahamas: anchor up at 0445, arrived at Brown’s Marina, North Bimini at 1530

12/23/21 Bimini to Chub Cay, The Berrys: threw lines at 0512, anchor down at Chub Cay at 2146

12/24/21 Chub Cay to Nassau, New Providence Cay: anchor up at 0945, anchor down in Nassau Harbour at 1640

12/25/21 CHRISTMAS DAY in Nassau with 40,000 of our closest pals

 

 

 

12/27/21 Nassau to Allen’s & Leaf Cays, Exumas: anchor up at 0815, anchor down between Allen’s and Leaf Cays at 1550

12/31/21 New Year’s Eve with our 40 closest pals

 

 

 

1/1/22  HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Allen’s Cay anchorage to Highbourne Cay West anchorage; anchor up at1034, anchor down Highbourne Cay West 1330

1/2/22 Highbourne Cay West to Highbourne Cay North: anchor up at 0700, anchor down at 1300 HC North anchorage. Those of you watching the tracker noticed we took the long route…

1/3/22 HCN to Norman’s Cay: anchor up at 0845, anchor down at Normans Cay anchorage south 1315

1/4/22 Norman’s Cay to Big Majors: anchor up 0950, down 1700

There will be lots more words and stories to come!

Leg 1-Galveston Bay to Tampa Bay Dec 1, 2019-Dec 8, 2019

Boat:  S/V Escondida

Location: Galveston Yacht Harbor

Time: 7:30 A,M. CST

Wind: North 22 knots, 28 knot gusts

Waves: Choppy 4-6, building to 8

Skies: Clear

Temperature:  57

Destination: Florida-Ft. Myers area, or somewhere close

  

    Run with the North wind he says!!!!!!!!

    The first two and a half days were quite an adventure until we turned south of the safety fairway and started heading east.  We got broadsided with a few walls of water that doused whoever was on watch and we got those opportunities to appreciate our foul weather gear and those easy to grab snacks that we always keep for that kind of weather.  About halfway through the third day our waves turned to glass.

   All in all, we motored 420ish miles over glassy seas, with an occasional 2-4 knot wind on the nose.  Several attempts 

were made to sail in any direction; we were vacillating between Carabelle and Key West.  Ultimately our fuel onboard and the lack of wind decided that we were going to Tampa.  After running the engine for 95 hours we pulled into Tampa with roughly 7 gallons of diesel left in the tank, total consumed for the trip was 33 gallons.

   Good thing we ended up in Tampa/Palmetto, arriving at the dock found us in the company of friends and acquaintances from Kemah!  There was a pretty sizeable list of things to fix while here that didn’t really fail on the trip, but needed a trip to knock the bugs out of them.  For starters, the watermaker that had worked flawlessly while testing in Kemah using a bucket of artificial ocean, leaked in several spots while processing actual ocean.  The aft stays on the mizzen mast needed to be tightened, the jib halyard let go of the headsail just before sunset on the third night (my fault for screwing up the termination and leaving it as good enough).  But most of all, the fuel injectors on the engine were at the age that Kubota recommends servicing them, after running for almost a hundred hours at near idle speeds, they were in need of attention.  Hopefully the engine purrs when I put the rebuilt injectors back in it!! Update: engine is purring.

   If all goes well, we’re going to continue heading south to Fort Myers Saturday the 14^th or Sunday the 15^th.   Update:  we are readying to leave today, Saturday Dec. 14th.  We'll try to post again when we have internet.

We’ll have more pictures as we get along.  For now all we have are some of the amazing sunsets that are worth the 30 knot winds and 8 foot seas.  We will miss our friends here as we miss our friends in Texas and look forward to making new ones.

Its been a while, but we’re ready to go again!

We’ll be leaving the dock almost 8 years from when we returned.  Our current plan is to head to Florida December 1st, then make our way as far east as Puerto Rico, head south to the Panama Canal then continue in a westerly direction.

More posts will be coming soon, mostly boring boat repair stuff, but the pretty pictures will be following after that!

We're home!!

For anyone wondering, we're home, the boat is in Mexico.  We left the boat in Isla Mujeres to wait for better weather to cross the gulf.

On our way

The weather is right, We're low on cash(2 transmissions, dinghy, autopilot)............Homeward Bound.

Here's the link to the spot

http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0a4cNAoHyGP95UDtTJKZGBQCULqaZKdNq

Wish us luck!!

Carla's Transmission Rant- who'd-uh-thunk???

Grab a cup of coffee this one has quite of bit of text...but, to start off with the star of the show...

Dr Beef in the cockpit window of the s/v MY PEACE






OK, so I have to start with the email Matt got yesterday from the transmission distributor... 

20 October

Mr Parker,

Have you received your XXX1 (XXX2)? It appears that when we shipped this unit, we shipped you an XXX2 instead of and XXX1. Power wise, this would be to your advantage. As the XXX2 has a higher power rating. However, the XXX1 and XXX2 are not dimensionally the same. We want to make sure you are going to be able use the XXX2 in your application. Please contact me if you have any questions about this matter.

It's ok, go ahead, read it again!  Yes, they said they've shipped the wrong transmission.  Instead of Matt's normal expletives, this time all I heard was "No,no,no-Argggggggg!!"  

Now for the rest of the story-

27 September

We topped off our water tank, checked the engine, untied the lines and then said our tearful goodbyes to our new friends at Moko Point Marina.  Who knew you could become so connected to so many people in just a few weeks!  We were sad to leave, but so looking forward to getting back to Placencia to meet with our friend Lynn for a long weekend of sailing, snorkeling, island hopping, and rum drinking.  As we up anchor, I felt the excitement that comes from knowing we are going back to the salt water, the beautiful, clear, endlessly blue, healing sea!  We are about 1/4 mile from our mooring when I hear "We just lost forward".   Now, it's not the first time I've heard that, but it was certainly not what expected to hear this morning- less than 150 hours after we installed this new transmission in Venice, Louisiana!  Matt continues to shift and throttle and shift and the transmission is slipping enough that we decided to turn back and return to Moko Point.  Miguel Rodriguez, co-manager of Moko Point and new best friend, pulled alongside in his lancha and asked if we were ok.  We told him what was up and he went back to our end of the dock and prepared to help us tie up.  As we backed in dropping anchor everyone was sad to hear we have a problem, but all are sincerely happy we aren't leaving yet!  Silver lining--- we are at the best marina in Central America!

Anyhow, the transmission that has failed us 4 times will NOT do it again.  Matt already had a replacement in mind for when this one crapped out--- now, how to get it to us.

Getting things in Central America and Mexico is a pain in the ***!  But of all the places to be, I'm glad we're in Guatemala, they have systems in place and in the Rio Dulce there are people who specialize in marine items because of the amount of boaters here.  There are two large haul out facilities that are busy all year long, parts are relatively easy to find (especially, if you have a good friend like Lanny to take you to Puerto Barrios to get such things), and the internet is always a click away.  We found a way to get it hear, it's a forwarding company that ships from Miami to Guatemala City and then to it's outlets in Guatemala.  One outlet is here at Bruno's Marina- very close to us.  

It was such a pain in Belize and Mexico to ship things (and expensive) that we were lucky to have friends that wanted to vacation, visit us and bring us things we needed.  In fact, Lynn was going to bring two items to Belize.  So, as soon as we could, we called her on Skype and let her know that we would not be meeting her in two days and to leave the packages for my brother to ship to us.  Robert and Lynn--THANK YOU!!!

3 October
After almost a week of research and measuring and discussion, we ordered our new transmission- different manufacture, different size, better design:)  Yay.  After getting signed up with the shipping company (Thanks you John, Nancy, Lanny & Peggy)and having it hand delivered to the shipper in Miami we figure it will be about a week to 10 days for it to be in our hands.  Oh Dorothy, you are sooooooo NOT in Kansas anymore!

13 October
We get notice that our transmission is being held in customs.  Apparently, any items valued at $1000 (after taxes) require the recipient to have a Guatemalan tax ID number, a NIT #.  (Remember we are saying NIT in Spanish, so it's pronounced "neet").  Of course we didn't have one of those, but Lanny does, he had to get one when Guatemala TOLD him he was importing his truck!  So, he offers his and goes to the shipping company's representative and offers it.  "Well, that would be fine" says Jim (shipping company's representative), "but where's your inscription?".  "My what?" says Lanny.  WELL... the NIT# form comes in two pieces, one has a summary of information and the other part that no one has ever seen before is the inscription.  Anyhow, without the inscription, customs, or the shipping company, or Guatemala... won't release the transmission!

14 October (happy birthday-TLT)
Matt and I went to talk to Jim to see what we needed to do- he said find Lanny's inscription, someone that has their inscription, or get our own and to let him know before 3:00 that day, because it was Friday!  We traveled around Fronteras asking strangers for their NITs or if they knew anyone with a NIT.  No luck- NITs are hard to come by!  We return to Moko Point deflated, we wanted to see Guatemala City, just not this way.  Then Matt mentions it to Miguel (my hero, again) and he says that Raul, the agent in Livingston, can probably help us.  Miguel calls Raul.  Raul says "No promblema, I'll get NIT # for both your friends"!  Awesome!  This means we can relax, have fun at the Poker Run that will be stopping by at the marina and get our NITs next week!!!  THANK YOU MIGUEL!  Brilliant:)

17 October
NIT #s are filed and they will arrive by messenger on a boat from Livingston later this week.  There's light at the end of the tunnel...

19 October
Just another beautiful day in Rio Dulce, Guatemala!  Just two people and their schnauzer going hiking with their friends from  s/v MY PEACE through the rubber tree plantation.  Nothing to do but enjoy life until our NITs arrive on their boat:)

Matt, Beef, Rose, Geff and Mia (in the grass to the left of Geff) on the way to the rubber tree plantion

Hola!  According to the GPS we are at 278 feet, is that all!

Crew of s/v ESCONDIDA on top of the tower, anxiously awaiting their NIT

20 October
It's a beautiful day!  The cold front has blown through and we were actually cold in the morning when we woke!!  Cold, that's a good sign, it's gonna be a great day!  We have plans for pork chops and cocktails with the Moko Point crew this evening.  Now, if our NITs would just get here...

We made coffee, I started making dal and a pumpkin pie and then, Matt checked his email... yes, just in case, you didn't read it right the first time....

Mr Parker,

Have you received your XXX1 (XXX2)? It appears that when we shipped this unit, we shipped you an XXX2 instead of and XXX1. Power wise, this would be to your advantage. As the XXX2 has a higher power rating. However, the XXX1 and XXX2 are not dimensionally the same. We want to make sure you are going to be able use the XXX2 in your application. Please contact me if you have any questions about this matter.

Ok, I haven't even mentioned the fact that we haven't been shipping this in our name, someone was nice enough to let us use his account.  This has caused it's owns set of problems and they have been sooooo patient.  Thank you!   Can you imagine?  Ok, so they are holding the WRONG transmission in customs.  Holy crap, what happens if they realize that what's in the box is not what the invoice says, or what we said?  If it's been this hard to get it here, what will it be like to get it back?

Will it fit?  What if it does fit?  What if it doesn't fit?  Good Lord!!!!!!!!


The day passes, we laugh, we measure, Matt empties the cockpit lockers, converts metric to inches...
Finally, we have word, the NITs will be here on the 4:00 boat!  Happy, Happy!!! Joy,Joy!!!  Matt goes to meet the boat and retrieve the NITs while John, Nancy, Miguel and I enjoy an adult beverage in the cockpit of s/v DIXSEA-- it's still a beautiful day, until Matt arrives.
The NITs were there, he had to chase down the messenger at the restaurant where he was having dinner to get them, but get them he did.  BUT, they did not come with the inscription part!


21 October
We should find out this afternoon if our NITs are approved without inscription.  We are thinking, since the package is in our name and the NIT# is in our name we may be okay, maybe.  Well, we'll know this afternoon.  Maybe:)


For all of you who care about transmission specifics, Matt will elaborate on another date:-)  


As always, thanks for reading and keeping up with us.  Love, Carla

Just another one of the beautiful flowers we get to enjoy everyday we are here!