January 2009
- RAM Marina - Rio
Dulce
Well another year's
cruising is about to get underway, but not without its
dramas.
Roger had flown out
to the boat ahead of me (more about that later) and so I was flying to
Guatemala by myself (if travelling
separately is good enough for royalty……!!!!!).
My journey was going
to take 36 hours, which was not made any easier by having to sleep 4 hours on an
air-conditioning vent in Washington Dulles airport, only to be told I couldn’t
check in as I didn’t have an Honduran Visa!!!!!! One and a half hours of arguing
later, I not only boarded the plane, but was upgraded to first
class!!!
As I said earlier
Roger had flown out ahead to get the boat ready for when I arrived. So you can
imagine my surprise (and relief) when he told me he had booked us in to an
hotel!!!
Bear in mind
Beaujolais had been on the hard (up out of the
water) for 9 months and they had more rain than usual (which is scary when you
see it rain here) here, she was a little worse for wear. She looked very sorry
for herself.
She also had
uninvited guests!!
There was a wasps
nest under the dinghy and plants were growing on her
lifelines.
Water had got into
places that had always been dry, mainly because we didn’t have anything to cover
the cockpit.
The wood panelling in
the aft cabin had all warped and come away from the walls. Also the batteries had flattened, one
beyond retrieval and a myriad of other little things had all conspired to stop
Roger achieving his goal.
After a good nights
sleep we walked over to the marina, Beaujolais
was due to splash mid morning.
The hull had been
scraped and newly painted and she was hauled up on the 80 tonne lift and gently
slipped back into the water where she belongs.
Unfortunately the
weather decided to take a turn for the worse and the next 4 days were wet and
cold (15degrees) and miserable.
The woodwork in the
cockpit had suffered under the blistering heat and constant rain, our deck box
had delaminated and so it was, over a hot mug of tea, we decided to call on
Dennis.
Now Dennis is a
carpenter of some repute in this area and we decided to take advantage of the
time we had, not only to get the deck box repaired, but also to redesign the
table and binnacle shelf in the cockpit.
It soon became clear
from speaking to Dennis, he is passionate about wood. Turns out he is also
passionate about the Snickerdoodles that our good friend Lynne always makes for
us to bring on the boat when we set sail!!! (By the way we have run
out!!!)
We also called
Thelma.
Thelma did a great
job of stripping the wood and varnishing for us last time we were here, and the
cockpit is in desperate need of attention as it has never been done since before
we got Beaujolais
.
One of the worst
parts about cruising, is the chaos that is created when getting ready. It is the
most frustrating and depressing time.
Everything is a mess,
you tidy up and within seconds it’s a mess again.
It is not a case of
living, but more a case of existing.
Beaujolais had so many jobs
going on and so much disruption that we stayed at the hotel as long as possible.
But even when we did
move aboard it was still hell.
Poor Roger’s list,
instead of getting smaller, keeps getting bigger! Plus all the jobs he has had
to do, weren’t even on it! Ah! The joys of sailing!
