April 20th

We are here in Roatan, Honduras now. Wow, what a sleigh ride last night. We had nothing of a sail up and still couldn't keep it under 5 kts. We have 20 kts of wind in the anchorage, but no fetch. It was great meeting up with Dan and Lorraine after 3 years. They came out to the entrance to the anchorage in their dinghy and guided us in. That was good because the light wasn't good and the markers were crappy too. Then, they came back and picked up our laundry and later took us to town so we could shop and check in, then back to the boat. What great friends!! Looks like we'll probably be cruising with them next year as they want to do some of the same things we do. We are sure glad to be here! We don't like the passages, only the being here. I'm thinking, at least right now, nothing goes to weather like a 747...maybe that's how we'll see OZ and NZ and maybe even the South Pacific.

'April 19th

It is the morning after our second night. We are motor sailing, mostly motoring, as we have little to no wind. While it would be nice to sail, it is great that the seas are calm and we have some cloud cover so we aren't too hot either. In fact, it's downright cold at night...must be in the 70's (low 20's)somewhere! I have to put on a jacket! We wanted to meet up with Hooligan (Tim and Paula), who we'd crewed for through the canal a couple of years back. However, if we stop where they are we won't meet up with Dan and Lorraine (Zephyrus) before their son arrives. I know I would be hard pressed to socialize with friends if I were supposed to be entertaining/spending time with one of our kids...so, we'll have to catch up with them next season.
We hope to spend at least 2 weeks in the Roatan area, before we head into Rio Dulce. We have some extra work to do, on Fortuitous this year, if we want to keep her looking good. Besides the regular lay-up, we'd like to do a couple coats of varnish and I'd like to sew some toe rail covers and a sunbrella cover for the companionway. That will take some time, so we'll need to be in a little earlier than we'd like. However, we're in a good cruising ground for next year as Mexico, Belize, Honduras, and Cuba are all waiting nearby.

April 18

Here we are in the middle of nowhere, off the coast of Honduras somewhere. We are skirting the coastline and all the reef associated with it. We had an uneventful day and night, motor sailing for the most part as there is little wind. We are sailing now, kind of, at 3.5 kts. The seas are calm and the winds very light, coming directly behind us. We have a very small head sail up, right now, as the other needs some sail repair to the UV and general re-stitching. That's not helping our progress. However, it is a lot more comfortable than our passage from Cartagena. We should arrive in Roatan sometime on the 20th. Fortuitous is doing well and all crew are fine.

Providencia, April 16th

Forgot to mention, before we arrived in San Andres the last time, we noticed our headsail UV sunbrella protection looked frayed. It must have chafed a bit on the spreaders at some point. We pulled it down and found all the UV protection needs to be restitched. That would be a big job, by hand aboard! I don't think my sewing machine will do that kind of thing so we'd have to do it by hand. Thankfully, we have a 110 jib that's never seen the light of day. We unearthed that and put the 130 away. It's working just fine, so far. Hopefully we'll be able to find a sail repair in Rio Dulce so we can have it done professionally. The sails are 30+ years old, but are generally in good shape.
We took a local bus around Providencia. Quite an experience with all the locals. The bus is completely open air, with a couple of tarps to roll down if it rains. The music was blaring from at least 4 large speakers (like the kind we have at home) strapped/bungeed to the corners. The people here are far more akin to Jamaicans or Bajans than to Colombians. Many swap from Caribbean dialect to Spanish to English easily, although some speak only one of the latter two. They are very friendly and helpful. The anchorage here is one of the calmest, and probably the shallowest, we've been in. We have about 6' below the keel. I'd be very worried about anchoring here if there weren't 10 or so other boats in the same area. Coming in, the charts were off by at least 1/4 mile. Thankfully, the channel is well marked as our charts indicated we were going directly over the reef.
We had a great lunch, yesterday, at the Bamboo Fishhouse restaurant. It wasn't cheap, $19 a plate, but the ginger coconut milk prawns were excellent. We will probably check out and leave either tomorrow or Monday in order to meet up with Zephyrus before their son arrives.

Now that we have internet, I will also add some photos below of our stay in Providencia.

This is a photo of the Bamboo Fishhouse dock...those of you who know me would easily be able to figure out how I feel about getting out of the dinghy onto a dock like this!

 That being said, if we could have the coconut shrimp there again, I'd be gladly jumping onto that dock!!

 This fisherman caught a barracuda and was cleaning it. Wow, what big teeth you have!!

 In town we waited for the local bus to circumnavigate the island.  That's an interesting way to do it.

 The music was blaring and the people came and went.  We loved the braids on this young girl.

 This was our bus leaving to go around one more time.

 It happened to be "day of the child" there and there was a parade and a program down by the dock.

 All the school kids were wearing their colours or sports uniforms.

Catalina Island is attached to Providencia by a small pedestrian bridge. Catalina has a lovely little waterfront walk with these great tiles that appear all wavy, but are flat.

Something's lost in the photos, but it was really quite unique.

 This is also part of the walkway and the bridg.

 There was a trail  out to where there was supposed to be a rock that looked like a head of Capt. Morgan. We started the walk, but it was quite long and would take much longer than we had if Ralph  dragged me behind him.  So, I waited at the beach and he contined.

 Of course, he got there and can you see a head here?  No, me neither!

 A nice shot of the anchorage from Morgan's Head.

 Fortuitous awaiting our return.

 As we were leaving through the channel, Ralph took another shot...well, I might be able to see a profile there.

This is how much sail we had up as we were still doing over 5kts. The sea conditions are deceiving as all the wind and weather and seas are coming from behind. However, after 3 nights we arrived safe and sound in Roatan, Honduras where we are now.

Albuquerque Cays

We are currently in Providencia after a 5 hour motor sail to San Andres from Albuquerque Cays, day before yesterday, then an 11 hour passage to Providencia. We should be checking in and out here in the next couple of hours. We hope to be here for 2 or 3 more days and then we'll have a 3 night passage to Roatan. We liked San Andres and rented a golf cart to see the island.
Albuquerque Cays had very clear water, but we found snorkeling there a little boring. We've seen better fish in Western Panama or in the San Blas. Fishermen approached us, our last night there, and needed water. We gave them a jerry can full and they have us a lovely big snapper (5 meals worth) which they cleaned, scaled, and filleted. While doing that, he rinsed the fish overboard and accidentally dropped it. So, he had to dive in to retrieve it. So, we gave them a couple of cans of meat and some coveted chocolate bars too! Very friendly and nice guys. The islands seem to prefer English to Spanish and most of the people we met don't really consider themselves Colombian, more Caribbean. 
We haven't been off the boat here in Providencia as we arrived at 6 last night. We're not allowed to go to land until we've checked in. We'll be looking for fresh veggies, fruit and a laundry here. A nice meal out would be good too!

The above message was sent via the HAM radio. Now we have internet and I am able to share some photos of the Abuquerque Cays.

 This is me on the bow entering the Cays. There is a lot of reef.  We had way points but, just in case...it was a long ride in on the salty wet bow!!

Here we are finally anchored in front of the north island where there is a Colombian Coastguard training outpost.

"What do you mean you want me to go back out there again?"

.

 A lovely sunset to go with our sundowners!

 Next day, in the dinghy, we get off to have a look around and a good look at Fortuitous at anchor.

 We went to the Coastguard station and took some pop and cookies for the kids. We'd been told they'd be very appreciative, but they didn't seem all that excited. There were all these paths on the island, all lined with conch shells.

 We took a walk around the island. It was very small with a lovely clean sand beach.

 These are all conch shells...it's almost obscene!

 They'd made a Colombian flag, below the real flag, from painted conch shells.

 I found a couple of beauties, with no one in residence...read deceased...so I took them back to Fortuitous.

 "Which one, which one...hmmmmm??"  Yes, Darcy, I have one for you!"

We have an underwater camer that keeps pooping out...we managed to take a couple of shots.  The water was clear, but the sealife wasn't what we'd hoped for.

 A sea cucumber...I prefer the vegetarian kind, but people do hunt and eat them.

 This would be yours truly trying to keep out of the camera's eye and keep afloat while breathing through a snorkel...all a bit daunting for me!!

I'm not sure what these are, but there are all these cup/vase-like plants/animals? in this area. There are lionfish too, although we didn't see any. People kill them as they see them as they are not supposed to be in the Caribbean and are multiplying like crazy and taking over.

Albuquerque Cays

Arrived the day before yesterday. It was a good sail, if still a bit lumpy with seas from the aft port quarter. Did a tour of the two islands. They're so small it must have taken maybe an hour all together. This is a VERY reefy area and was supposed to be fabulous snorkeling. While the water was very clear, with visibility to at least 30', we didn't see as many fish as we'd hoped to. We'll try again today.

All is well on Fortuitous and all systems are working fine, thank goodness!

San Andres

Arrived yesterday morning. All is well, but we were very tired and a little salty. Certainly our most uncomfortable crossing to date, with large seas abeam. We took water in the cockpit, and some spray clear over the dodger. Not a lot of fun and we both arrived a little crabby, to say the least. It then took us 6 tries to anchor...not fun. However, we're here and almost checked in. We should be here till the weekend, then on the Albuquerque Cay or Providencia.

Now that we have internet, I can add some photos to our HAM radio sent comments above.  We really like San Andres. It is touristy, but maybe we were ready to be tourists!

 This shot of Ralph was taken when we were leaving Cartagena and before we were in the thick of things on that passage.  It was not fun at all and, if we never see waves like that again, it will be too soon!

 San Andres was a difficult spot to anchor. We tried in one anchorage, 3 times, and finally gave up. Then we moved to another and it still took a couple of tries. After that passage, we were in no mood for that difficult a process.  Then, right after finally anchoring, a nice guy came along and told us we might  not want to be where we were because all the party boats were around us and it could be noisy in the evenings.  At that point, we couldn't have cared less!!  Turns out, it wasn't bad at all and we never did move. This is a shot from their malecon. Beautiful water and a nice sandy beach. San Andres is termed the Hawaii of Colombia.

 We stopped at this nice little restaurant and had a great lunch...just sat there and enjoyed the landlubbers view of the same ocean we'd just endured for 3 nights!!

 We had to do the touristy thing, so we rented a golf cart and circumnavigated the island (about 20 miles). We went to Captain Morgan's cavern. Kind of a rip off, but they did the best they could with what they had.

 Here we are in the cavern. As we decended into the cave, the guide, for this area, told us our tip was purely voluntary. He wasn't so laid-back about it as we walked away saying we'd already put a tip in the box at another area.

 This is outside the "theme park". We forgot to take a photo of our golf cart so this is the only one we have.

 There is Fortuitous looking happy to be  in the water. We had a nice lunch in the yacht club outside which we were moored. The charged us about $4 a day to tie up our dinghy and, for this money, we could have used the pool and showers too.  We also got a discount at the restaurant.

 This was a weird boat with eyes painted on the side.

 Looking back towards the hotel strip. This is a duty free area too, so shopping is a big thing.

It was rather disconcerting to see all the wrecks around San Andres.  However, it is not surprising as there are reefs everywhere.  From here we are off to Albuquerque Cays.

April 3rd

Got away at about 2 pm. We've done a record of 160 n miles in 24 hours. We're flying out here at 7kt average. It's very uncomfortable as seas are abeam and large. Feeling crabby and wondering what we're doing out here!

The Amazon Part 2

We had a great breakfast at Marasha and packed up all our gear to head off for the next leg of our adventure.  In retropect, it would have been much better to have been able to stay where we were and do some out trips.  The next accommodation was much less than adequate, in our minds, but the experience was still worth it all.

 We had to slog back through the muck to get to a boat to take us down the river from the lake we had been on. This too is a bit blurry, but gives you some idea of the "trail"...and we'd been through much deeper muck than this the day before, but were too wet and uncomfortable to stop and take a photo. At least it wasn't raining, this time.

That big blob on the tree is a termites' nest.

 And yes, we pretty much lived in our clothes! We did have another change or two, but, as you can see from the photos with the same clothing all the time, these must have been our favourites.

 We headed down this river in a tiny ulu-type canoe to meet our bigger boat. This was great, as far as we were concerned. For $5 we could do this rather than slog back through the same long path we'd done the day before.  This was a short slog and then an interesting boat trip.

Once in the bigger boat we headed off on the Amazon and then into another tributary. This is the Amazon, 2000 miles upstream (roughly) and still a huge river. Little islands of weeds are everywhere.

 Zacambu Eco Reserve was our destination.  There were several sloths hanging in the trees just where we headed into the tributary.

 We had to check-in in Gamboa to get permission and pay to go into the park. Word has it that most of these people used to be in the drug trade but, since Colombia has had their clean up, they are now working in tourism. It appears their new jobs don't pay very well!

This was our transportation for the day.

What a life these kids have. There are no schools, so they don't have a hope of bettering their existence.

 While waiting for the check-in to be done, we wandered around the property. Behind Ralph, they are constructing the thatching for their houses. It is a very interesting process of weaving.

 Off we head downriver and pass several other homes, all with little to no amenities, but most with a satellite dish outside.

A family setting off, in the family car, for some outing or other.  Makes you glad to be born in Canada!

Yes, we ARE in a boat, and yes, THERE IS a river there somewhere!!  This entire section of our trip was spent bushwacking through trees and weeds. This weed is called sea lettuce, I believe.

 Another tour was heading in the same direction, but not to the same lodge. We actually had our own tour, which was much better. There were at least 8 tourists in this boat and, yes, they're on the river too and somewhere under that blue tarp!

 This was a tree we passed. Unfortunately, I can't remember the name of it...we covered a lot of territory and a lot of plant names.

It was really a weird tree in that the blossoms were all along the bare branches and trunk, not at the ends as we usually see them.

 During our tour, we stopped for lunch in some little back eddy of the river. We had to eat quickly, or be eaten...by the mosquitoes. We were fine, while the boat was moving, but once we stopped we were sitting ducks!

 During lunch, several families passed us heading to God-knows-where.

 Again, what an existence!

 Not a lot of freeboard on these  canoes!

These are the types of long-tail motors they use here...just like in Indonesia or Thailand.

 As I said, much of the time we were bushwacking in order to make way in the river. I kept wondering what might be falling in the boat and, worse yet, on me...remembering the tics from the San Blas hikes!  This stick bug was about the worst that we saw, thankfully!

 We stopped at this place as the farmer had an anaconda in a cage here, poor thing!

 They dragged him out, let him wiggle on the ground and think he might have a chance, then let those who wanted to hold him, and then put him back in the cage.

He didn't want to let go of Ralph's arm and, no, I didn't hold him!

 At the same place, they also had 2 captive Amazon fish, piraruku. He splashed around in this mucky pool until he got a fish in the net.

 He then threw the fish out on the land so we all could see it...what a life!!

 This is one of the farmer's kids.

 As well, they had a cayman attached to a string out in the river. This was our guide showing us the cayman.

 This, apparently, was the farmer's wife's kitchen.

 Here is the entire kitchen.

 I prefer my kitchen at home, or even aboard.

 We had some more rain, so I brought out my trusty poncho!

The river is still 12' to 15' below peak. In this shot you can see the high water mark on the trees.

Yes, in fact, there is a river here!  

 This was a bird apartment building near our new lodging. Some sort of oriole, I believe.

This is what they look like close up. They had the oddest cry, kind of electronic or robotic, not like a bird at all.

This is the last accommodation. As said before, the river floods to  a height of about 12' to 15' above the present level, so all the construction is on stilts.

This, in fact, is the "washroom" where I actually spent most of my time after my arrival. Unfortunately, we don't have any photos inside. The toilet, again, had no seat...also no flush! You had to use a bucket of water from the barrel inside the cubicle. You can see the red sink on the outside, for washing up afterward. There was a shower or two in here as well.

This is the runway from the toilet to the main house and our "bedroom", for lack of a better term.

This is the front of the "lodge". We pulled up in front of here and unloaded our gear.

There was a lovely sunset that evening. We hit the sack a little while after dinner.

 After dinner, the family (comprised of several related women, men and children) sit on the floor and a couple of crappy wood benches and stare at the soap opera on the flat-screen satellite TV set. It is just so incongruous!! That green chair is a rocker with one rocker missing...best chair in the house! For a little excitement, as I was getting ready for bed, Ralph looked up at the ceiling. There was the biggest, hairiest, brown spider we'd seen! He called the guide who said, it's not a problem at all.  Ralph pointed at me and said, "Yes it is!" They poked it with a stick and it disappeared into the thatching that went outside...at least we hoped he'd gone outside!

 By early morning, I was terribly sick.  Don't think it was the food as we all ate the same and I was the only sick one. I felt crappy while it was still dark, but be damned if I was going out there alone in the dark! I think these vultures were waiting for me to kick the bucket and, I would have gladly obliged the way I felt.

 I spent most of the morning sitting on the porch and running to the back out house/bathroom. They made me some herbal tea, to help settle my stomach, but I managed to get rid of that too.  Thankfully, it didn't taste too bad...they were trying so hard; I really didn't want to hurt their feelings.

 The plantain boat arrived and they bought some from the vendor.

 This is part of the family; I believe the owner/cook and her two daughters.  Just the cutest little kids!

 While I was on death's door, Ralph was off fish for piranhas. I'm guessing this is his first!

 They really do have sharp teeth.  The native people use them to cut hair.

 Here's his entire catch lined up! They do come in bigger sizes, but sadly Ralph didn't get any of those.

 Here's the proud fisherman displaying his catch!

 They cooked them up for him and, of course, he had to eat them.  He said they were quite good but, you wouldn't know by me because just the smell of the cooking sent me off on the runway out back, to the loo. I gotta say, not being there for the photo, I can't tell if these have been eaten already or not???

This was his entire meal.  The smell of this cooking just about finished me off!  Directly after this, we packed up and left.  I didn't think I'd make it back to Leticia without being sick, but managed during the 4 hour boat ride. We found a hotel and I went straight to bed. Ralph went off to the pharmacy and got something to fix me up. The next day I felt semi-human, thankfully, as we had to fly back to Cartagena.  We splashed Fortuitous the next day and readied to move out.