In September, we surprised ourselves and bought a house in Punta Gorda Isles, Florida. It's in a great location, in a large boating community with easy access to the ocean. The house has a boat dock for SeaTryst, and the price was too good to pass up. Our cruising this year will be short ... making our way from Rio Dulce to Florida so we can work on the house and experience Florida living.
We arrived in Guatemala City on November 17, greeted at the airport by wonderful friends, Oscar and Carola. They not only picked us up, but served a wonderful lunch, brought us to the mall to get phone and modem, made a delicious meal, and gave us a room in their totally gorgeous apartment in the City. Later they invited our friends from Seahore (Anne & John) to join us all for dinner. It was an especially warm welcome and return to Guatemala!
Early the next morning, we took the 5+ hour bus ride to Rio Dulce. John was on Tashmoo and arranged for the launcha to pick us up. It was so good to see him again. Cindy stayed in Massachusetts for a while longer finishing a work project and would be returning in a few days. SeaTryst was in great shape. The only part that needed replacing was the starter battery. All systems were in good order, and the boat was clean and had less mold than prior years.
We got the boat provisioned for what we expected to be a short trip to Florida. We grabbed some groceries in town; got meat, cheese and yogurt from the Casa Guatemala boat, and Maggie prepared several dishes that she froze for meals while underway.
Realizing that we hadn't ever taken pictures of downtown Fronteras, we took a few shots. If it look crowded, it is! Basically it is one road leading to the bridge over the Rio; everyone decided to build shops along the side of the road. There are no sidewalks and gridlock is a normal occurence. The locals think nothing of just stopping in the street and running over to a stall or shop while the traffic backs up on both sides of the road. It is colorful with lots of local Mayan Indians dressed in traditional clothes and merchants selling everything imaginable.
On Tuesday, November 23, SeaTryst left the slip and went to Abell's for the bottom paint to be touched up. She was there for the day, before splashing into the water at dark. She looks great.
We picked up a mooring to get used to being on our own systems before getting underway.
Thursday was a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration at Tortugal. Myke Daly, one of the owners, stuffed and cooked three turkeys, vegetables and pumpkin pies. Cruisers made more pies ... and we ate until we couldn't move! After a short rest, we had a brief farewell evening with our four amigos. We surely will miss Tashmoo, as they head the Panama, and Seahorse, who will stay around the Bay Islands this season.
On Friday, we released the mooring at 6:00a and went downriver to Livingston. The ride through the gorge is quite beautiful.
We were checked out of the country by 9:45a and underway to Belize. Our first night we anchored in Placencia, getting underway early the next day and motoring in the rain, until we anchored off a cay near Belize City. At 5:20a on Sunday, we got underway for our overnight passage to Puerto Morelos, Mexico. Our plans were to make a straight shot to Florida, but we heard of a front coming down, prohibiting us from getting all the way.
After two days of motoring, we were finally able to cut the engine at 6:00p for a brisk sail in 18kt winds and favorable current. SeaTryst was flying at 8+ kts. We pulled into Marina El Cid at 3:00p Monday, November 29.
El Cid is a five star rated resort which advertises rooms for $550 per night and has a large marina attached. We get to stay in the marina for the atronomical sum of $20 per night and use all of the resorts facilitis. Water slides, large beautiful pool, hot tubs, tennis courts, five restrauants, etc, etc. We are not sure if our being forced to come here because of weather is a curse or a blessing. If it is a curse we have the best bad luck you can imagine. I guess we will just have to bear up and enjoy the pool and facilities while nature forces us to stay. Since it looks like we will be here for a couple of weeks, we plan on taking a few side trips to see the wonderful Mayan Riveria.
We do want to get underway so we can enjoy our home in Forida and get Rosie back with us. Both of us keep looking at her favorite places on the boat, thinking of her and missing her very much.