Goodbye Rio Dulce

Christmas Parade

Today I am feeling particularly nostalgic, helped along by a beautiful South African song playing very loudly in the background. If you haven’t heard it yet, I highly recommend giving it a listen on Spotify (or wherever you stream your music) “They Don’t Know What We Know” by SKIWI.

After the flower festival, you can read that story Flower Festival. we made our way back to Intle Breeze. The return journey to Rio Dulce is always an endurance test, a seemingly never ending 7–8-hour drive along the only road in and out of the Rio. As familiar as this journey has become, it still feels long every single time.We knew exactly what awaited us on our return, endless boat jobs, provisioning lists and preparations for our next adventure, now that hurricane season has officially come to an end. The excitement of what lies ahead always comes hand in hand with hard work, while we prepare to get back to salt water.

Thankfully, life in the Rio has a wonderful way of offering little breaks from the grind. There is always something organised for cruisers, and those moment of shared celebration make this place feel like a floating village.

First came Thanksgiving, which we celebrated at Dream Catcher Restaurant with American friends, and as always, a few familiar faces from other corners of the world, where we shared stories and laughter about our journeys both on the pond and in the river.

On the 5^th of December we had a truly special experience, the Rio Dulce Christmas Parade.

Considering the poverty in the area, it is astounding how much heart and effort goes into this event. Almost every small business, school, orphanage and church contributes in some way, all coming together to spread Christmas Joy, not only to the local community, but to us cruisers as well.

The Parade was a feast of colour and light. Floats glowed with handmade decorations, music echoed everywhere, and Santa himself made multiple appearances. The highlight, without a doubt, was watching the faces of the local children, eyes wide and smiles brightly lighting up as Santa rode past and the twinkling lights rolled by.

Of course, in true Guatemalan style, nothing starts on schedule. We waited for hours longer than planned, but no one complained. We simply sat along the sidewalk, chatting, laughing and waiting patiently together. In its own way, that unhurried waiting felt just as much a part of the experience as the parade itself.

And honestly, where else would we rather have been.

Major Boat Jobs

When I say “we” what I really mean in this case is Eric, with some help from me, which comes mostly in the form of moral support, however I did serve more of purpose in these repairs than normal.

One of the biggest jobs recently was relocating our watermaker to a far more sensible place, so we no longer need to open a bilge and climb inside it while sailing just to make water.

This was not a simple job. It involved moving pipes, electrical wiring, drilling and cutting.   As with most things in sailing, you learn as you go along. Fast forward 3 years of sailing, and hubby has a brain wave. Why not move it into the bathroom cupboard in the port forward cabin, add a small extra tap for water testing and BAM……...no more gymnastics required.

I am happy to announce this was the best move ever. It works like a charm, and for once, no one needs to crawl into a dark hole, while the boat is bouncing around. Once again, I found myself wondering why on earth boat builders insist on putting critical equipment in the most ridiculous places imaginable. One would think they know better…. but I remain convinced that many of them have never been out on a day sail, let alone crossed an ocean.

The Aftermath of a Lightning Strike

Six months ago, just before arriving in Rio Dulce, we were affected by a lightning strike. Not a direct hit, thankfully, but a bolt that struck right next to our boat while on anchor. That was enough to completely wipe out our tank level readings. For half a year, we’ve had no idea how much fuel or water we had on board. Everything became an educated guess.

Lightning strikes are every sailor’s nightmare. We got off incredibly lightly, in many cases they take out everything, chart plotters, electrics, navigation systems, leaving a boat effectively useless. Still six months of guessing your fuel and water levels is not ideal.

After many months of thinking, planning re-searching and head scratching, Eric finally found a way to tackle what was a very difficult repair.  Returning the system to its original setup would have possibly been easier, but it would also have costed us around USD 5,000 in parts alone. No thank you there has to be a better way.

Thankfully Eric is very much an out of the box thinker and came up with an alternative fix, which of course I helped with the labour and tiny spaces. I am delighted to report is working perfectly. As I sit here writing this, I can see both our water tanks and fuel tanks again. Success! This achievement required a great deal of re-search, cable re-routing, which on a boat means working in tiny spaces designed for people with much smaller hands and a lot more patience, this is where I came into play.

Many of you might ask why we don’t get professionals to do these jobs. The answer is twofold. First, professionals are often eye wateringly expensive in the sailing world. More importantly they simply don’t know your boat the way you do.

When things go wrong in remote places or in the middle of an ocean, you need a deeply personal relationship with your vessel. Out on the pond we are the mechanics, engineers, technicians, doctors, nurses, counsellors and whatever else the situation demands. Knowing yourself and knowing your boat are key to survival at sea, and to making life onboard more comfortable.

Delayed Departure

Our original plan was to leave Rio Dulce on the 4 December, well that plan lasted all of 5 minutes. As with most things in cruising life, reality had other ideas and departure slowly drifted first to the 26^th December….and then a little further still.

1.     Most importantly my son decided to come and spend Christmas with us. Since he is not a sailor and does have a real job, leave dates had to be negotiated. He could only arrive on the 18 December and Guatemala City was the easiest place for him to fly into, so naturally we waited. Some delays are simply not negotiable, and this was one of them.

2.     Coincidently our buddy boat Dilly Dally was delayed coming off the hard and when they did eventually splash, they started taking on water and got immediately hauled out again, further justifying a later departure.

3.     On Christmas day my body started to object to the departure schedule, I started to get sick and developed a fever, which required me to go to the doctor as in this part of the world things like dengue fever are a real concern, thankfully nothing too sinister, blood work was done and turns out I had a bacterial infection and needed to go onto a course of antibiotics.

With all the parental excitement you can imagine, Michael finally arrived, just in time to spend Christmas with us. We once again tackled the long, tedious road to Guatemala City to meet him, squeezed in a quick one-day visit to Antigua, and then headed back to the Rio.  

Christmas day itself was spent with the cruisers at Monkey Bay Marina, where a classic bring and share feast was organised. The beauty of these gatherings is that everyone brings what they are best at cooking, so the food is always outstanding. As expected, we ate far too much enjoyed every bite and still had enough leftovers to feed the marina for several days.

Finally, I started to feel better, and on the 29^th we released our lines from Monkey Bay Marina and headed off to Cayo Quemado a little anchorage up the river closer to Livingstone with our buddy boat Dilly Dally to enjoy a calm night on anchor before crossing the sand bar back into salt water. Well low and behold Dilly Dally had an issue with their auto pilot, and it goes without saying they would not be able to sail without it.

At this stage Michaels time was getting shorter and we really wanted to get him out of Rio Dulce to experience something new, if we did not leave on the 29^th we would have been stuck waiting well into January which simply was not going to work for us.

Michael and I made our way to Livingstone in a launcher (water taxi) to clear customs and immigration before our departure, I do have to add it was bucketing down with rain for the entire 30 minute ride, needless to say it was an extremely wet ride and we were drenched, thankfully it was not cold…... Passports stamped and ready to go.

Feeling a little bad about leaving our buddy boat behind we headed over the sand bar while they dealt with repairing their auto pilot, to catch up with us in a couple days.

Over the Sand Bar

There is always a mix of excitement and nerves when you haven’t been sailing for six months. You can prepare, plan, check and double check, but in the end you’re never completely ready. Still, the moment had finally arrived, and we were as ready as we were ever going to be.

A new chapter in our sailing life has begun. We were more than ready to swap river water for clear, salty seas. To dive off the back of the boat again and to return to the familiar rhythm of life at anchor, rocked gently by the ocean rather than held still by the river.

Slowly and carefully, we made our way toward the sandbar. There was one moment where we touched the bottom, just enough to remind us that we are leaving the river. With patience and a little cooperation from the tide, we slid through without an issue.

As we crossed into open water the cool breeze touched our faces, the air turned salty, and the river slipped away quietly behind us. With the wind on our faces and salt water under our keel, Intle Breeze carried us forward toward the Bay Islands of Honduras.

Fresh water behind us. Salt water ahead a new adventure begins.