Livingston - Ready to Depart

Sunday, February 13, 2005

015-48.960 N
088-45.000 W

Hey, we did it! We actually cast off the dock lines and managed to escape the Rio Dulce! It took a bit longer than expected. Yesterday it was pouring, and we didn't see any reason to start the trip in the rain, especially since tomorrow's high tide is the same as today's. Today ended up being spectacular. Clear, clean blue skies and a great temperature. We finally left Catamaran marina at around 11:30 and headed off.

I needed to calibrate some new autopilot equipment and had to place the boat through a series of maneuvers. I'm sure that one approaching boat thought that the captain of BlueJacket was either dying or drunk based upon our course. The good news is that everything is now calibrated and it's looking good.

We weren't able to clear out today as we had hoped, but the chances of clearing out at 4 PM on a Sunday afternoon are next to none. Unfortunately there's a small cruise ship that is also waiting to clear out, so we're just going to try to get there earlier than they do.

That's about all that's fit to print. Tomorrow we cross the bar at about 11:00 on a 1.2' high tide which will go up to 1.4' in case we get stuck. We've made it before on a 1.2' high tide, but one never knows. Wish us luck!

-- Geoff & Sue
Log ID: 629