Sailing, We Want To Go Sailing! NOT!

The puppies have grown to over 10 pounds! Yikes! They are so cute; too big for our boat though! So far, the family doesn't have plans to sell any of them.

So a few changes to my daily routine, I'm tending bar, not teaching. Jean Piere needs more help in Math and unfortunately, my knowledge in Mathematics is limited. I took Business, and Accounting as opposed to Algebra, Geometry and Calculus. So Lilo and Mike have hired a “real” teacher. It is best for all, especially the children. I am very happy that I had a chance to help out.

Maria, the youngest is not speaking to me; I think she feels I deserted her, but I am sure she will come around. Lilo told me today that the new Teacher is doing a Review of the last several chapters in all subjects and Maria keeps telling her “Susie explained it all very good. I understand, I don't need to study again”! LOL! She is very smart! I will certainly miss interacting with her; she is just a doll!

Our friends on Moonshadow, Bruno, Isabel, Nicolas, Paula and their crew member Deb, left today for Calabash Bight. Bruno is from Austria and has been in and around boats since he was a teenager. He certainly has a lot of stories to tell! LOL! Isabel is from Columbia. Their children having been cruising almost since infancy and have met other cruising children all over the world, including the US, which is where they purchased their CSY 44'. Check out their blog www.moonshadowkids.wordpress.com

The children, Nicolas and Paula are about the same age as Maria and Jean Piere. It was so nice for them to meet and hopefully they will stay in touch online. Nicolas and Paula went with their parents and a bunch of the cruisers to the Karaoke at Frenchy's 44 the other evening and won 1^st place. They sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star " and "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and won a ½ hour on a jet ski! They were ecstatic!

Deb, their crew member is quite the world traveler herself, though this is her first stab at actually cruising; something she has been wanting to do for a very long time. She is from NY City, but has also lived on the west coast in California and has traveled and lived in London, Malaysia, Latin America and now wants to tour Central America.

Deb is a writer. At one time, while working in NYC, she had the pleasure of writing copy for Jerry Stiller and Ann Meara! How cool is that? For those of you younger folks, they are the parents of Ben Stiller, Actor. They were regulars on the Ed Sullivan Show and others for years as comediennes. More recently, Jerry Stiller was the father of George on Seinfeld and Jerry (Arthur Spooner) played the father of Carrie Hefferman on The King of Queens.

Moonshadow plans to tour the rest of the island, then possibly go to Guanaja and eventually hope to make it to Panama before hurricane season. I really hope we will be able to join them along their voyage or in Panama. They are really nice people.

Lucky, the only male pup

I was able to get a couple of shots of the only male puppy, Lucky. He is so cute! I wish now I had taken a close up of the pads of his feet cause they look just like the paws of a bear! He is going to be a big boy!

Motu

Here's another interesting story.   Our friends Reini and Petra, from Vienna, Austria just sold their boat, “Motu” to Sergei from Russia. He is a Nuclear Physicist / Buddhist! How far removed is that!!!? We haven't had many opportunities to talk with him, at least not me. David has talked with him a little. Hank on Sunyata is helping to teach Sergei to sail. They made a trip to La Ceiba for a couple of days to tour a little and to do some shopping for boat stuff. They got hit with 35 knots of wind on the nose and I hear that Sergei was somewhat “green”!  

Hank told us that he plans to repower the boat with a nuclear reactor so that he doesn't have to worry about fuel because he WANTS TO SAIL TO ANARTICA! That's quite adventurous for a novice sailor! Good Luck Sergei! In the meantime, Sergei is selling his RV. A 30' Winnebago that is powered totally on propane fuel! Smart guy! He left on Sunday, May 6th, with his Suziki motorbike attached to the stern.  LOL!  I'm really hoping Hank will be able to keep in touch with him. 

We had recently decided that the cutlass bearing might not be so much of an issue. For those that don't know, this is what turns the shaft on the engine that moves the boat, that powers the batteries that powers the refrigeration that powers the lights that powers the head. On our particular boat to repair this problem means that we have to haul out, which means that we may have to go to the Rio Dulce, Guatemala.  Anyway, we decided we needed to take the boat for a "test drive" and so on Monday, May 7, we left the anchorage on our way to Guanaja. Yeh! 

The sky was blue, the surf a little rough, the wind on the nose, which makes for big waves . . . but we were off the dock, off the hook and on our way to new adventures, heading to Guanaja. . . .free at last!   We were bucking into the waves, a little worried that it was going to rough and uncomfortable going for a while, but the winds were expected to calm down in the afternoon and we were committed.

THEN the worst happened . . . no propulsion forward. David had the engine revved to about 2200 RPM, and we were moving at about a 1/2 knot. Didn't take long for David to determine we were in trouble. Our worst fear, the transmission. We turned the boat around and headed back to the harbor. Once we got past the markers we didn't know what we were going to do. David quickly deployed our anchor to keep us from running aground; we were in only 6 ½ feet of water and our keel is 5 ½!

It was early and it seemed as though all the boats at anchor were “asleep”.   Jonesy on Niki Wiki called on the VHF radio and asked if we were in trouble . . .ROGER! He quickly came to our rescue and about 5 other boats soon followed, we had George from Silver Sea at our stern, Jeff and Miles from Eclipse on our port side, Jonesy and Craig from Teal Sea on our starboard. Lenny and Sue from Wind Dancer hung around to watch the antics. Jeff did have a slight malfunction and flew into our hull, but luckily no one was hurt nor any damage. They towed us back to our old anchor spot and waited till we dropped the hook again.

About an hour later, our buddy, Mike from Brooksy Point came by to say hello and to tow us into the marina as the winds were expected to kick up in the afternoon. We were no sooner tied up do the dock when Lilo hollered to me to be at the bar to work at 4:00 pm as usual. . .back to normal, like we never left. Mike jokingly told us that they had put a curse on us! There is a feeling of “family” here at Brooksy Point. No better place to be if you're going to be stuck at a dock! With Mike's help so far, we have been pretty successful on our other repairs so hopefully this event won't be any different, though it is even more involved.

Needless to say, David is depressed. He spent a good bit of the morning trying to determine whether it was possibly a linkage problem; it isn't. So that means either rebuilding or replacing the transmission. It's an expensive job, not to mention, very difficult to do; not to mention it will takes weeks to get the transmission from the states.  So I'd say our plans to go ANYWHERE this season are pretty much out of the question.

The first mechanic we met with wanted $800. US to take out the old transmission and re-install the new one. That's a bit pricey; especially since David has done a lot of the grunt work!  We had "appointments" with two other mechanics, neither of them showed.  Then Hank on Sunyata gave us the name of his mechanic.  After several missed appointments, "Smiley"  and a couple of helpers showed up today (May 26).  They broke a neumatic drill trying to get the bolts off, but they finally after a couple of hours got it out and worked out how they will lift the engine!  Now we have to order the new one from the states.   

Needless to say, it's becoming pretty quiet at Brooksy Point as many of the boaters have headed to the Rio Dulce, the states or to Panama.   This evening is probably our last "potluck" too.  

Well stay tuned for the unfolding story of the transmission, exciting stuff, eh???