Roatan, Honduras

We finally made it to Roatan in April and have been enjoying this beautiful island.  We are very behind in our posting so will go back a bit and post some highlights.  The internet where we are currently is not very good, so may take some time. We will stay here in Roatan for the season and head to Panama in the new year.

We are expecting our first grandchild in August, and we couldn't be more excited.  A new crew member.

Here is a video Mike put together of our sail from Guatemala to Placencia, Belize on New Years Eve.  We hope you enjoy it.

https://youtu.be/k1YS7-qXnjw

Cheers for now,

Kim, Mike and Zoey

Ranguana Cay

We were able to get away from Placencia for a few days before a strong cold front arrived and sail to Ranguana Cay. A little island near the outer reef of Belize, we had sunshine and clear waters. The snorkeling was nice and the island had some nice beaches. We were in heaven. The only downfall is they charge you $10 per person to step foot on land.  It is good for the entire time your there, but we felt it was a bit much.  We had planned on eating in the restaurant and having a couple beers but after forking out $20 bucks we decided not to. 

Looks like Gilligan's Island.

Lots of palm trees and coconuts.

Nice beaches.

Ka'imi

More nice beaches.

Lots of crabs on the island.

Yep, Ka'imi again.

A content Pelican.

One of the cabins they rent. They also allow you to camp.

Showers, urinals and bathrooms.

Another cabin.

A sandy path through the island.

Sea Birds.

Booby's

Pelican

Nice sunset.

Cheers Kim and Mike

Road Trip to Spanish Lookout

When we sailed into Placencia Harbour a few weeks ago our raw water pump failed AGAIN! We were in 30 ft. of water so we threw the anchor down and Mike fixed it AGAIN! We were determined to fix this problem once and for all. The problem is the set screw in the coupler that attaches the raw water pump to the injection pump, it just kept slipping.  The old coupler had a hole in it as did the shaft from the injection pump and a bolt went through it.  When we had a new coupler fabricated in Marathon, FL we did not put the hole in it, thinking we did not need it.  After all these failures we decided we did need it.  So now we needed to find a machinist, no easy task in a small Belizean town.  We asked around for a few days and got various suggestions. We woke up one day no closer to a solution and decided to hit the shore and not come back until we figured it out. We first tried to find a guy behind Paradise Restaurant, we tracked down his dad who said he could probably do it if we bought a special drill bit. We looked at his rusty drill press and decided against that option. Someone at Yoli's told us there was a guy in the next block over that had a drill press, but we were never able to find him. Next up, Steve, he is married to a fire fighter and is a welder. We found out where he lived and went to his house but he wasn't there. We then went to the fire department but they didn't know his whereabouts either.  We had a phone number but no phone and no Internet to Skype :(. We wandered over to the Barefoot Bar and Grill for a beer and free Internet when we ran into a charter captain that we had met before. He made some calls for us and we finally determined that we would have to rent a car and drive 124 miles one way to Spanish Lookout. We needed to try to track down a guy called Abe who was the closest machinist. We headed into the Office Supply store, where they had the best Internet, to try to Skype Abe. Hmmm...their Internet was down...arrgh. The guy behind us at the Office Supply store overheard us saying we needed to make an important Skype call and he told us that One World rents phones. We were so excited, we were at the right place at the right time, it's funny how things work out like that. We rented to phone for a couple of days and called Abe. He said he could do it if we got there tomorrow so we rented a car and drove 248 miles roundtrip to have a hole drilled into a Stainless Steel coupler.  LOL...it is not always an easy life, but certainly an interesting one.

We left Placencia at 5:30 am, it was still dark and very rainy. The only road out of the Placencia Peninsula had huge speed bumps about every 500 yards. They had signs for most of them, but some were very hard to see in the dark and rainy morning. We would speed up to 40 and get into third gear (the car we rented was a manual transmission) and then come to a stop to cross this bump in the road. We called it third gear alley. Once we got off the peninsula we took several roads to get to Spanish Lookout and they all looked like this. There were tons of pot holes but it was a beautiful drive.  I took lots of pictures but they are mostly blurry because we were going 50 mph. The picture below shows one of many one lane crossings over rivers.

This horse was just hanging out at the side of the road when we got to Main Street in Spanish Lookout.

Abe had given us directions to his place but no street address and he said there wasn't a sign on the building but we should be able to find it. The directions were as follows: Once you get to Spanish Lookout get to Main Street, go about 2 miles and pass Caribbean Tire. Take Center Street to Route 50 and go approximately 1 mile. Take the second drive way past the radio station and you can see it on a hill to your left.  Main Street and Center Street were the only paved roads in Spanish Lookout.  The picture below is the radio station.

We found it!  There is his house at the top of the hill and his shop below it.

 

We met Abe, who was very nice, and his three young sons who also worked in the shop.  He said he could have the work done by 1:00 PM and he suggested we take a look around town.  We had 3 hours to wonder through the small, small town of Spanish Lookout.  We asked Abe if there was a good restaurant for breakfast and he said that Midway Cafe had the best coffee in the town.  We're not sure what they consider good coffee, but this was NOT it...I drink mine black and almost had to put sugar and cream in it to get it down. After breakfast we just starting driving down roads, and everything was very picturesque.  Abe and most of the residents of Spanish Lookout are Mennonites.  It is mostly a farming town with some light industry.  The Mennonites practice their religion to varying degrees in Spanish Lookout. Some are still horse and buggy but there are the progressives, like Abe, who use a little more technology.   We found a very well stocked hardware store and actually went back 3 times, it was almost as good as Home Depot. You just don't find that out here and we were sure there was something else we needed at that store.

Below is a picture of the non progressive Mennonites.

The raw water pump is working great!  We were able to get out of Placencia and sail to Ranguana Cay for a few days with some beautiful weather.  We are now back in Placencia waiting out a cold front and looking for a weather window to head to Roatan.

Cheers Kim and Mike

Placencia, Belize

Ka'imi at anchor in Placencia, Belize

We are in Placencia, Belize a little bit sooner than expected.  We have been here since Thursday, May 1st.  We noticed oil or fuel under the engine block while we were in Cay Caulker, but thought it very minor.  At Colson Cay we noticed that is was getting worse so we decided to get to Placencia were there was a town and a protected anchorage.  We left Colson Cay and anchored overnight outside the Blue Ground Range Islands.

Blue Ground Range

We left the next morning with light wind allowing us to use the Spinnakerand sail directly to Placencia.  Soon we lost all wind and started the motor but found our raw water pump was not spinning. The raw water pump draws cool salt water into the engine to cool the water that runs through the engine.  With that not working the engine will heat up and sieze.  We quickly put the Spinnaker back up but it was taking us directly to land, not a good place.  Mike worked on it a bit but wasn't having any luck. The wind picked up suddenly and it was enough to get all four of our sails up, the Genoa, Staysail, Main and Mizzen.  We would have to tack all day to get to Placencia, but at least we could sail.....uhhh...that is until the wind completely died again.

Spinnaker Up

We were 7 miles outside of Placencia and the plan had been once we get to the harbor we would drop the dinghy with a 15 horse engine, tie it to the side of Ka'imi and use it as a motor getting us to the anchorage. We decided to drop the dinghy right then and there in calm seas and no wind to power us into Placencia. We were not sure we had enough gasoline to make it all the way but at least we would be closer.  We took turns of about 2 miles each and it was HOT.  We took our water bottles and drank some then poured it on top of us.  The good news is we had enough fuel to make it all the way and anchored safely in the harbor.

We had three dolphins on our Bow when we left Blue Ground Range they are good luck for us.

Wonder what would of happened if we wouldn't of seen the dolphins.hmmm

At anchor we secured the sails and straightened things up then sit down to a well deserved beer or 12.  We went to sleep then woke up at 1:00 am to a squall.  The winds were near 25 and the rain was massive, it was more rain than I have ever seen.  As it approached us it sounded like a swarm of cicada's coming at us. We looked at each other and said what's that, then boom it poured.  It lasted 2 hours with lots of lightning and rain.   Some of the lighting strikes came very close.  After an hour our dinghy was full of water.  We usually bring it up on the davits and take the plug out so we don't have this problem, but we left it down that night in case we had a problem like dragging our someone else dragging.  So Mike went out and emptied the dinghy, it took a long time!  We then brought the dinghy up on the davits, yes in the middle of the lightning and rain, it is not always paradise with this lifestyle, sometimes its sheer panic and well...bad!  We were worried about dragging with strong winds a not having a motor, but the rest of the night went better and we finally got to sleep.  The morning makes everything better, Mike was able to fix the raw water pump and the engine is running, we do want to watch it and baby it a bit until we get to a dock at the Rio Dulce, Guatemala where we can make sure it is all fixed.

Speaking of Rio Dulce, that is where we are headed.  We will probably leave Placencia Monday and sail overnight to the mouth of the Rio arriving early Tuesday morning when there will be a high tide.  The mouth of the river is 5.5 ft a MLW and we draft 6 ft so we have to go at high tide.

Placencia is a nice little village.  We are able to tie up our dinghy at Yoli's Bar and from there you can get anywhere in town.  There is plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, ice cream and groceries.  The beer is Belikin and it is quite nice :).  I will post some pictures of the village below.

Yoli's Bar where we tie up our dinghy and occasionally have a beer.

Wallen's Grocery Store at ground level and Pharmacy at top where we shop.

One of many fruit and vegetable vendors.

Typsy Tuna fun bar and grill on the beach.

Typsy Tuna Beach View

John The Bakerman where we get our bread.

Inside  his shop.

John making bread, he is following in his father's footsteps.

The one mile sidewalk along the beach.

Shortcut to the beach between a restaurant and house.

Beautiful houses along the sidewalk.

We are doing exceptionally well, happy and healthy!  Cheers  Mike and Kim

Laundry Day

Trash Day