Rio Dulce, Guatemala

Cloudy and 82 degrees

We are still working like worker bees on s/v Island Sol.  We have had about 4 days of rain, which has put a stop to our varnish job on what teak we have.  Thank god it is minimal, although beautiful it is a pain to keep up looking shiny and protective of the wood itself.  But only one more coat and that job is complete.  Luckily our Guatemalan "teak man", Marvin, is doing this job.  

I am still cleaning the mildew off of every surface on the boat.  It is time consuming and very slow.  I am sick of the smell of bleach, although faint it is still there, but of course it is doing the job.  After this season we will hire someone to come and clean the boat every month until our return next season. eroom is done and the bedroom is done, so hopefully tonight we will be sleeping in our quarter berth Why has it taken this long to figure this out???  But the galley is done, the main head in our stat and out of that cabin.

The picture below is my "new baby".  It is a Harrisville Design 4 harness, 6 treadle floor loam.  Charlie gifted me this at Christmas.  Again, as last year, he gave me a Kromski Minstrel Spinning Wheel, I had to leave it to come to the boat. I spent last season virtually spinning and becoming a student of YouTube University.  I am still learning to spin, which is so zen and I can not wait to get on this loom.  I am hoping to get into a beginners class at Harrisville Designs in Harrisville, New Hampshire this coming summer.  Classes have not been set yet, so everyday I check my email for the summer session schedule, as I was told they fill up fast.  So that will be another "adventure" for me.  I have never gone on a trip by myself, but I am so looking forward to that experience.   Hopefully I can add that to my blog this coming summer.

                                                                    Still having trouble adding pictures to this blogsite, it is not very user friendly.  This is a picture of my spinning wheel.  I thought I was very savvy with all things fiber, but this has been a very humbling craft to learn.  I had a bag of alpaca fleece that I purchased years ago, not knowing what I would do with it.  But I carded it, spun it and finally knitted a headband.  Although this was a very simple project, it was very rewarding to me to go from fleece to a knitted garment. I am amazed that someone hundreds of years ago could figure these "machines" out.  Anyway, I have had to lay down this endeavor to do the sailing thing.....so back to cleaning the boat!

               

Rio Dulce, Guatemala

Overcast and 80 degrees

We arrived back in Guatemala on January 9th.  Our flight was good, our 7 hr. drive to the Rio was without mishap and a large launcha was needed to get all of our luggage to the boat.  As usual it was impossible to go directly to the boat after an absence of 6 months, so into a cabin at Catamaran Marina & Hotel.

Upon opening my blog, I totally dropped everyone in the grease....so to speak, as I didn't blog about our season in Belize.  So sorry, I will try to redeem myself this season as we are going back to Belize again.  We just didn't get enough of this beautiful country.  We had several visitors last year:  our old time buddies, Chuck and Linda Rinn, our new friend, Leona Marshall (our neighbor in Cat Spring) and our every year crew, our daughter, Haley Lebeuf.

Back to present:  we are, of course, working on projects.  New wind generator with its new stainless steel mount that also holds our Starlink dish.  Starlink has made a huge jump for us to stay connected with the world and of course our family.  Very different from when we started with NOTHING!  So anyone reading this can of course, through WhatsApp get in touch with me through my cell # 713 539-7468 or my email: saundramcdowell51@gmail.com.

Other projects include: new SSB radio, new filters to the diesel generator, voltage problems fixed, located leak in main engine coolant....I'm sure there are more, but that is Charlie's department.  I am working on cleaning.  We used our Ozone machine to kill the mildew and smell and hopefully the roaches, but no, those suckers are still here and the mess they leave is everywhere.  So daily I work to that end.  We have decided to focus on the galley, head, and our bedroom so we can move out of the cabin and back into the boat.  As usual, we both got sick after one day of eating in Guatemala, but since the last 4 days we have been cooking on the boat and now all is well.

So, as things move forward we will again make our way to Belize.  This year we have 2 dive cylinders onboard, so we are looking forward to some scuba diving and not just snorkeling.  The water on the outer reef is beautiful as well as our favorite island, Half Moon Caye.  So give me some time to figure out how to add photos to this blog and I will be off and running.  Until then stay warm!