Back on the Rio Dulce

Saturday, August 31, 2002

015-40.200 N
089-0.000 W

Ahoy from BlueJacket on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala! I'm happy to report that 1) that the trip was completely uneventful and 2) that the boat is in great shape.

We came back down to the boat in order to do some work and do some inland touring. And believe me, I've got a ton of work to do as we brought down 4 large duffel bags filled with boat parts. We had carefully loaded them so that no bag was more than 50 lbs, but all were close to that. On top of that we had 2 backpacks, a laptop, and a canvas bag stuffed to the rim with stuff. I think that everything added up to about 225 lbs! I was thoroughly searched 3 times, which isn't surprising as my backpack contained unusual stuff such as the SSB and a satellite phone.

The airlines have really screwy pricing that made this trip possible. A ticket that's 120 days between departure and coming back is almost 2x the price of a 60 day ticket! Since hurricane season runs until mid-November, and we left July 1, this was perfect we were able to come down 1/2 was in between, haul parts, and check on the boat.

The boat is docked at Tortugal Marina which is in Fronteras on the Rio Dulce. It's a wonderful marina and they've done a great job of looking after the boat. They were on it every 2 weeks running the various systems. They also provided us with a dehumidifier which kept the cabin nice and dry and mold/mildew free. On most boats they have to air them daily to keep them from turning green due to the high humidity. I think that they had just washed the decks when we arrived as everything was spotless.

BlueJacket's cabin is all cherry wood and was starting to show the wear that 16,000 miles have put on it. A company known as "The Shop" is run by 2 Americans named Chris & Pat. We had seen some very nice examples of varnish work that they had done and plus the price was right. Chris & Pat do the delicate work and charge $25/hr for their time. The majority of the varnish work was done by Guatemalans and they charge $3.50/hr for their time! The materials cost more than that! So I had them put 10 coats of varnish on, and it looks marvelous, just marvelous. Of course now the areas that I didn't have them do look bad in comparison.

It's clearly the rainy season down here. It rained almost all night and the forecast shows lots of the same. The river is up a solid 2 feet, which I've heard is unusual. The day temp feels much cooler at around 80 F than it was in June/July but perhaps that just due to the cloud cover.

We're planning going to see the Mayan ruins in Copan, Honduras while we're here and then go to the "Highlands" and Antigua on the way back to Guatemala City. Sue had been researching this via the Internet and had sent out a lot of e-mails to various companies. Either the addresses bounced or they didn't answer the e-mail. Then on top of that they re-numbered the phones in Guatemala City and the didn't update the web sites. And they probably wonder why they don't get any business off of the web! However, a guy by the name of Otto in Fronteras answers his e-mail and we used him to pick us up from Guatemala City (4.5 hours/275 km each way) and we'll use him to get us to/from these other locations.

Well, that's about it from here. Hope you're having a great Labor Day weekend!

-- Geoff & Sue BlueJacket,Fronteras
Log ID: 289