The quiet life in Paradise

Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador

 

Now that I have done pretty much everything I am going to do to the boat before I leave El Salvador, I find myself living a very quiet life.

 

Being in this marina is nice but a little isolated. Up until a couple of days ago, I was the only non-employee in the place. Carola and Jim, from the sailboat Koza, are the only other cruisers staying here and they were gone on a road-trip when I arrived. Now that they are back, I at least have someone to talk to occasionally.

Tennis anyone?

There was plenty to do on the boat to keep me busy of course, but in this heat and humidity it is hard for me to stay motivated for very long at a time. For variety, I have taken the dinghy out for a couple of runs up and down the estuary. One morning I actually got up early (before noon) and made the journey down to the Mar e Sol restaurant for breakfast - I stopped into Bahia del Sol to pay off the balance on our account while I was in the area as well.

 

On Sunday, like every other Sunday, all of the cruisers met down at Lou & Lynn's home for an afternoon of swimming and conversation and a pot-luck dinner. This week was tacos! Since their house is only a quarter mile up the estuary from Paradise, it was a very short ride there, but I still hitched a ride with the Koza crew - they have a big dinghy with a big motor.

 

A few days ago, I dinghied over to the town of La Herradurra to scope out the supermarket and treat myself to one of the incredibly good fresh-squeezed orange juice drinks at one of the restaurants overlooking the estuary. Pretty exciting huh?

 

It is Tuesday today. My flight to Canada leaves on Thursday morning. Tomorrow, I will put the finishing touches on decommissioning the boat - it should be safe here for the rainy season. The only real issue here is lightening, of which they get plenty, but there is little I can do about that so I won't worry about it.

 

I have trussed up the mainsail in the remnants of our sail cover in hopes of at least keeping the sun off of the sail over the summer. It is not pretty but I think it will hold.

 

{GMST}13|19.422|N|88|56.675|W|Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador|Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador{GEND}

 

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Nautical disaster

Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador

 

That was really ugly! Probably the worst lack of judgement that I have had in recent memory. This is what happens when Susanne is not around to keep me from making idiot decisions.

 

Today was moving day, when I was going to take the boat up the estuary to its more permanent home at Paradise Fishing Lodge. Because of the tidal nature of the estuary, the best time to do this is at high slack. Because of the direction that the boat was docked at Bahia. If I went too early, I would have to back up against the current, something that I knew would not go well in this boat.

 

This morning, the high tide at Libertad (the closest tide station) was at 10 AM. By 10:30, it sure looked pretty good around the boat, with the water barely moving. I had enlisted the help of Ron from Dawn Trader to accompany me onboard, and several guys were there to help with the lines on the dock. A bit of wind, from directly astern, had come up and was a bit of a concern, but I still felt it was doable. I was wrong!

Unbelievably still intact

 

Things went bad very quickly. As soon as we got backed out of the slip a couple of feet, the wind swung the stern over hard to port and the bit of current that was still running forced us onto a collision course with the sailing vessel Heavy Metal, which we plowed into rather hard. At this point it was suggested that I give up and go back to the slip, but with the current trying to push us sideways, this did not appear to me to be an option. I continued to motor backwards, scrapping along the side of Heavy Metal, using our solar panel as a fender, until our stern got past theirs. when the wind and current now forced us backwards onto the end of their dock.

Still progressing backwards, we scrapped by the end of the dock and found ourselves pinned sideways onto the front of the Marina's big catamaran. One of their very pointy bows met with our solid rail, just aft of the solar panel, which took up the strain by putting a nice bend in it. By some miracle, our bow actually started swinging out against the wind and current at that point, and I was finally able to motor away from our predicament.

 

Needless to say, the trip up the estuary and docking at Paradise was somewhat anticlimactic after that. I gave Ron a ride back to Bahia in the dinghy and was able to inspect the damage done to the boats and docks. Basically everything there looks unscathed. It helped that Heavy Metal is an unpainted aluminum hull which appears pretty much indestructible.

 

Once I was back onboard Sine Timore, I was able to better assess the damage. A few nasty scrapes in the wooden rub-rail (I guess that's what it's for) and a sadly bent stainless steel rail. A bit of a ding in the gallows support as well.

 

Using techniques I have perfected from years of driving and repairing beater cars, I was able to patch together a rail-straightening rig, using a handy cement post beside the stern of the boat. It may not be perfect now, but I think it came out pretty good, all considered.

Not bad...

 

At least life is rarely boring when you live on a boat.

 

{GMST}13|19.422|N|88|56.675|W|Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador|Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador{GEND}

 

 

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Life is complicated

Bahia del Sol, El Salvador

 

On the last day in April, I joined our friend Wally on his boat, Stella Blue, for a quick passage to Chiapas, the most southerly port in Mexico.

We left the estuary around noon, to catch the high tide over the bar, and experienced a very exciting exit. The swell was running pretty high and we had to climb several breakers on the way out. Just when we thought we were through and the pilot boat was saying goodbye, we got hit by one more, seemingly enormous, wave. Wally steered us bravely into it and when we came over the top, the boat came down with an incredible bang.

After that is was a piece of cake.

 

We motored for most of the two day passage, managing to sail for only a few hours on the first afternoon. Other than dodging a few fishing boats in the night, it was a very tranquil trip. On the second day, we saw a lot of turtles passing by, each with a single bird standing on its back. Unfortunately whenever I tried to take a picture, the turtle would hear the boat approaching and dive underwater, forcing the poor passenger to take flight, leaving me with a picture of water.

 

By the time we got to the entrance to Puerto Chiapas, the swell was running more than 2 meters. This proved to be no real problem but sure looked impressive as the waves broke on the breakwater. Everything was perfectly calm in the marina of course, being as well protected as it is.

 

Marina Chiapas has changed quite a bit since we were here a couple of years ago. They now have their travelift working and the yard was full of sailboats on the hard. The restaurant was very busy, and the food was good as well.

 

We arrived at the marina around 10:30 in the morning. By the end of the day, both the boat and Wally and I were checked into the country, and I caught a ride to Tapachula, where I took a room at a hotel for two nights. The next day, I walked to the TikaBus depot and bought a ticket for the bus from Tapachula to Guatemala City and on to San Salvador, leaving the next day, Monday, at 7 AM.

 

The bus ride was OK, except for some delays in Guatemala, leaving Guatemala City late, running into a funeral procession in some small town along the way and a very slow border crossing into El Salvador. I did not arrive in San Salvador until after 8 PM. I took a room for the night, then completed my trip in the morning by using a taxi to take me to the marina at Bahia deal Sol.

 

Meanwhile, on the same Sunday that I was booking my bus trip. Susanne had taken a last minute flight to Edmonton, after receiving news of her mother's failing health. She is currently staying with her brother in Edmonton, while I am working on getting the boat ready to be left for an extended time here in the estuary.

 

Tomorrow, Wednesday. I plan to take the boat some 5 miles up the estuary to the Paradise Fishing Lodge, where we had left the boat the last time we were here. After that, I will have to see what kind of deals I can get on flights back to Canada.

 

{GMST}13|18.072|N|88|53.526|W|Bahia del Sol, El Salvador|Bahia del Sol, El Salvador{GEND}

 

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