A coffee break as the rain comes down
Sowell Family's Travels on Gijima
Skipper: Tim Sowell Admiral Tracy Crew Sean & Alex
Sun 22 Aug 2010 22:36
It is mid afternoon Sunday, I am taking a coffee break in the cockpit on the
boat, listening to satellite radio (yes we still get Sirus/XM down here, I
doubt we will get it much further south), but it is a time to reflect as the
rain which has been coming down most of the day, as we get the very tail of
"Tropical Storm Frank" is now off the Mexican coast heading away to the
north west. But the associated swing of rain as the outer fringes swing in
here, No wind to speak of, we can expect showers through the night and then
it should clear. As Mexico starts to capture it.
Yesterday we had a relaxing morning in Antigua and joined up with the
transport back at 12.30pm, and rolled out to the south. Rain coming down
from the Tropical Storm Frank, we got some very heavy showers for a short
time, again dodging washed out roads, but we soon made dry land and made
good time to the border. Where we ran into trouble 9why I never like
crossing borders) Jorge (our driver same one as on the way out) talked to
the Guatemalan officers and they said they want $50 each from all four of
us, because we not registered into the country. This has happened before so
and is why we insisted on a stamp in our passports, and it saved us as they
were saying since their systems were down when we entered we did not get put
into the system, and it was our fault(how do you make that???). But we
argued that since we had the stamp in the passport that it was not our
issue, and they need to resolve. By this stage it had gone well past my
basic Spanish, and then the real reason came out when the guy just he will
let us pass if we by them sodas, (Jorge has seen this a number of times on
the boarder with Guatemala as they just want extra money in their pocket so
they do scare tactics), but we stood our ground due to stamp, and they
eventually gave in.
Next stop was San Salvador at 5.30 pm for groceries we hit a nice mall, and
Tracy filled up 2 to 3 weeks of goods, she was pleased to be in a nice mall.
Boys helped collecting things from the list, and we were on the road an hour
latter arriving back at the boat 7.30 pm and it took us another 3 hours to
sort things out. Boys are so happy to be back on the boat, toys everywhere.
The boat was in good condition except the mosquito net which has warn 2
holes and tare we have pegged it and when it is dry I will have the local
lady work on it, we need to strength it as the weight of the water and sun
is effecting it, we would do a couple of modifications on a new version, but
we should be able to get this strengthened to get us through the next 4
months.
Today I worked on the water maker running it and found the raw water intake
below the raw water strainer blocked with twigs, I need to look at how to
fix this maybe a bigger diameter intake hose, but I can clear it quickly. I
have also picked up the small outboard after it was serviced we have issues
with the impellers drying out while we were away, and I received the
modified brackets for the washing machine engine mounts I had the brackets
re-welded and then I have it reinforced, looks a lot stronger, (I am about
to put them back in and we will see if we have solved it, or created a new
problem of alignment).
So ends a catch up, and life back on the boat.
Tim, Tracy, Sean, Alex Sowell
S/V Gijima