TO MARYLAND AND BACK

7-91 to 10-91

Land locked in Colombia Maryland at Jan’s parents, wondering how the boat is fairing on the Rio Dulce without us. Begin the arduous task of ordering rigging for the boat, can’t seem to get anything definite from Hamilton Marine, finally talk to the shipping people personally and things get rolling. Jan recieves another operation but is unhappy with the doctors prognosis. "Are you going to be happy with that?" , "hell no". She proceeds to help herself, a long and painful process. Plans are to get back to the boat by late Oct and try for Florida once again, Jan’s knee doen’t look good so I will be going by myself and looking for crew. I dread that and dread not having Jan there by my side. This whole thing is in our laps so will muddle thru somehow.

10-91

Bags are packed, about 200 lbs of stuff and I am on my way. Will decide how to deal with this stuff when I get there. Arrive Guatemala City, and no spool of wire, but customs no problem I just showed them the letter I had made before I left, Yachte en Transito. Spend the night in the Fenix, and pick up the wire the next day.

Get all my stuff on the bus somehow. I roll the spoll with my feet, have the duffel over my shoulder and pull the box on my little cart. Get let off at the crossroads, it is hot and a long haul across the road. Meet a gal (can’t remember her name now) going my way we share a water taxi to Mario’s. She maybe possible crew.

Palantir is stll afloat and in good shape, wonderful. Barry is even gotten tolerable, must not be drinking as much. Move Palantir to new dock, deserted and plenty of room to work on the rigging.

Back in the land of The Womb, but this time really stranded. No problem can ride mario’s express to Frontera anytime. The morning net is still Loony Toons for sure, you have to be here to appreciate these people. Russel seems to have Bozo pretty much under control, later I take Palantir over to his new land and help him on his radio, every kind of fruit tree you can imagine, and mangos out the ying yang.

Work on the rigging goes smoothly, have a chain plate made and bent to fit, decide to splurge and eat out at the resturant mostly, that’s where I got those ameboas!!

Got a Crew

Hear about young couple on net looking to crew, Heather and Fabian from England and France repectively. We meet and hit it off right at the start. Preparations for departure are in full swing. Notice damage from the main mast crushing into the cabin top, great. Build a compression post out of pipe, hopefully it will hold it together.

Tina arrives like a bolt of lightning as usual, don’t get to talk to her much, I guess she is not part of the Floyd Stewart fan club anymore but... There is a party at Punta Bacadia for a Holloween thing and it turns out to be fun. Mostly locals, this place is pretty much thier only form of entertainment and Beth welcomes them all.

October - Try again for the States

11-1-91

Underway at last, spend the night in bay where October lives. Russel there in the Dixie Gig, how many times do I have to say goodbye to him? Heather and Fabian seem excited about trip. Little problem which worm gear, very tight wondering if sustained any damage. Fabian and I dive the rudder, in the ooee goooee water of the river but find nothing.

11-2-91

Livingston the gate way to the carribean, check out with no problems, grab last minute supplies and a cold beer. This open roadstead always makes me nervous with the weather around here but the weather holds for the night and we are underway early the next morning.

11-3-91

Winds are very light until late morning and then begin to pick up. Decide we won’t make Placentia til after dark, so pull out the new belize guide and find a little anchorage about 8 miles south called Palmento Cay. About 4:30 we pull in, very selcuded surrounded by mangroves, we drop the hook in about 8 ft of water. Quickly find out I won’t have to worry about modesty, a real problem with 3 people on this boat so makes things more easy. Swim and relax Heather has most perfect breasts I have ever seen (that’s only an observation Jan.) and later some good Fabian cooking, the best part of this trip so far. Discover however that I’m spending alot of time on the pot, cramps etc. Sure feels like ameboas.

11-4-91

Get underway in the morning during a rain squall, drops bigger than nickles but not much wind. Soon we are anchored in front of Harry’s and thru the binoculars I can see him hanging out in a hammock. Get ole Pal out and inflated and wander into shore, "hey Harry!", I say. "Hey Floyd", Harry says just like it hasn’t been 8 years. Not much change around here except Harry has a phone, still don’t know what to make of that. We proceed to find some Belikin Beer and fish to cook at the Co-op. Harry shows Fabian how to cook the fish Creole style .

Meet Mike and Bonnie again, they are running a pretty sucessful charter buisness. MIke having problem with his eyes, to many years in the glaring sun. Also run into Linda on "Pleades", they ran into some heavy weather and took some damage to thier boat, I guess they are now on the way back to the river. Much discussion and meeting about the BDF and customs harassing boats, bad for buisness. I guess the group of 8 boats before us got jumped on badly and so left the next morning. I don’t want to check in so haven’t been back to the boat all day, supposedly they can’t board you unless someone is there. We are out of here in the morning, and I sure don’t want to have to go to Belize City to check out.

11-5-91

Cold fronts moving down, but a long ways off yet, still the wind is NW, I feel we should be ready at English Cay for a weather window and don’t want to check in so we are off early. Against wind and current we are making slow progress and using fuel I hadn’t planned on. As a result its now late afternoon and we’ve only made 20 miles. We are close to Blue Round range, so we tuck in there for the night. Maybe that we will end up leapfrogging all the way up the coast, I don’t mind a chance to see the Keys. Keep telling Fabian about all the good diving here but so far to close in to mainland, not very clear.

11-6-91

Underway again, wind on the nose again, what ever happened to the east wind? The day is nice thou and we make it another 20 miles into Colson Cays just as a thunder banger hits. Hadn’t much time to set the anchor in the narrow channel when hell broke loose and of course we started dragging, and heading fast into shallows. Don’t even have the anchor all the way up when I have to power out of trouble, one big bump but we make it dragging about 50 ft of chain and anchor. Meet some Belizean fishermen and buy some lobster, Fabian is like a little kid discovering new things and everything is a new thing.

11-7-91

Head up to Bluefield Range where the Manatees are supposed to be. Tricky entrance, but nice and protected from all sides. Good thing cause the Norther will be here tomarrow or the next day. Find no sign of manatees but really a beautiful spot, we settle down to wait. Ameobas really getting to me, wonder if we should head for Belize City, 15 miles, I really, really, really don’t want to go there so promise myself to take care of it in Mujeres. I could start up a weight loss program that really works, this stuff is like fasting, I have had some interesting halluciantions, one was like a surrealistic holagram of a beautifull woman whose hair had some sort of electrical discharges blasting away like tiny thunderstorms, it was very artistic.

11-11-91

We spend 3 days at Bluefield, the Norther hit but not a very strong one. The wind is still out of the NW but expect it to finally switch around, a good window to Mujeres. So we are off, the northern entrance to Bluefield is narrow and tricky but I feel the light is right and decide to try it, not so sure when we get out there but it does look like a break in the reef over there, here it goes! Kinda blustry gloomy morning, the wind still on the nose up to English channel with a little drizzel. We cut across the Flats and at noon we are sailing out into the Carribean, Good-bye Belize. We make a tight tack I hope will clear us of Lighthouse reef, still waiting for the wind to shift and it isn’t cooperating. As night falls the lighthouse is abeam and we have clear water, the seas look pretty big after so long in the river and behind the reef. As night progresses, Heather is pretty freaked out about doing her watch alone, I stay up a little while to talk and she discovers that it will be okay, hah! On her second watch she wakes me, the wind has shifted and she can’t hold the course, should we tack? Against the wind and unabated current we haven’t done very well at all, so I agree but for some reason Palantir won’t come around into the wind. Finally after a bout 8 tries I give up and it does seem the wind has shifted back so we are making a course. Later I wonder our fate if we had been sucessful in tacking.