We had a great week in West End, Roatan, and then on to Utila to check out of Honduras.
On our way from West End to Utila, Bob caught a 51" mahi mahi - what a way to close our cruising season.
When we arrived in
Utila, Bob stayed on the boat to clean the fish, and Maggie, John and Anne
went to Immigration and Port Captain to check out of the country. It was
quick and easy. We spent a couple of nights in the East Bay of Utila, before
getting underway. We sailed, with Carl and Debbie on Diva, and
Anne and John on Seahorse, heading back to the Rio Dulce. We
started out under full sail, but as the wind diminished we put on the iron
genny. After we arrived in the anchorage, we had everyone onboard for a
mahi mahi dinner. This was our first time in the beautiful, but rolly,
anchorage of Puerto Escondito. The scenery was spectacular! After two nights of rolling, SeaTryst and
Seahorse weighed anchor, heading 60 miles to Cabo Tres Puntas,
our last night on the blue water before heading into Rio Dulce. What a day
- we had it all - perfect wind, no squalls, and even a fish! It was
a swordfish, a huge brown fish that wouldn't give up. Since the are
endangered species Bob decided to cut the line and let it go free. It put
up quite a fight. Bob was tired and needed a rest; Rosie took
advantage! We were awake at 4:00a on Monday, May 10, so decided to head
across the bar in Livingston. High tide was 5:32a and we wanted to
get across before it started to go down too much. At 8:00a we called Raul, the local agent, to check us into
Guatemala. He, along with Port Captain, Immigration, Customs, and Doctor
boarded SeaTryst about 8:15a to begin the paperwork. Bob and John went ashore to handle the details. Maggie and
Anne stayed onboard the boats. Livingston is known for theft no matter
what time of day, so we took precautions. Maggie noticed Gypsy, a
sailboat with a Mystic hailing port, anchoring just ahead of
SeaTryst and called over to them. It turned out that she had been
introduced to Sue and Dan by Jim Funk, a good friend and owner of
CanvasWorks of Mystic. Jim did a lot of the canvas on Gypsy
before she set sail in the fall. We had not met them, but talked on the
phone while still in Connecticut. We were indeed two ships passing
... Gypsy had spent 3 weeks in the Rio Dulce and was heading north; we
were checking in. While we worked hard to get SeaTryst ready for the
hurricane season, Rosie got to relax after a time playing with her
ball. After two weeks of hard work, we left the Rio Dulce on
May 24, ending our 5th season of cruising. ~~~ Summer was spent in Mystic, growing vegetables in our new
garden. Bob planted 96 ears of corn; we had 12 tomato plants, squash,
peppers, eggplant, beans, and watermelon. It was great fun for
us to tend the garden and eat the fruits of our labor - and share
them with friends. Unfortunately, our friends got tired of our free
zucchini and asked us not to give them any more. We had our second reunion weekend with Tashmoo and
Evergreen, and even got to see Robin (Seabiscuit)
displaying her glass work at the Mystic Art Festival. Our friends on Tashmoo will sail with us again next
season while Evergreen works and saves their money for an around
the world cruise late next year. 
