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!