Month: January 2014

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Our Boat

When Pam and I were living in our log cabin we built. Cut ever tree and built it on lake Greenwood in South Carolina. We never got tired of living simple and watching the wildlife there. When we lived in Southport NC and were building our boat we never tired of watching ships coming up the river. Even today if there are dolphins around the boat we are there to see them. Down here there is something going on everyday where we are at here in the river. The wildlife that comes out of the jungle is great but there has not been any thing that has happen more than what has been happing and we have been putting in our bogs. So this week. We are working as hard as we can to get ready to leave near the first of the month.
We have been ask to write more about our boat and how she looks inside. What makes her simple and why we try to keep her simple. So this week maybe we will try and let people know what the Pamela Ann is like. Remember I have a 8th grade education so I have do things with what little education I have. When I stared to draw the plans for her, we stared with what we wanted the boat to do. First I wanted her to have a keel so when “ not if but when “ we ran aground it would be kind to us. So I drew a wedge shape keel. This will let the boat slide up on what you hit and in the best cases slow her down as it comes to a stop. Not just stop and throw things like maybe “ Us” forward. This is not the best for speed but in most cases you can get her off buy finding a way to back her up. Maybe by using her simple chain windless. Laying her anchor and line back behind her. This works best when you can get a power boat to make a wake. It’s hard to get them to do it when you need it but when they get the message and do it, they can wash us off most of the time. Lay hard as we can on the anchor line with the windless and when the wake hits you’re off. We built that too. It’s a simple tooth and peg windless like they used many years ago. Hard to break. Simple to build. They are too slow for most boats today but it is powerful.

2014-01-26 036The hull we designed we needed about 46 feet to get what we wanted inside and we decided to build her with the simplest rig we could. This to us is a schooner. In the past they would build them from what ever materials they found locally. They would build them to haul what they needed. Maybe they would fish them or maybe they would dredge with them. Almost never built for just work but built for what work they were needed for. They were ocean going schooners. Schooners did most of the work around the world for a long time. Bay schooners with very little draft almost never went out in the ocean so we designed her as a coastal schooner with 6 foot draft and we designed her with a long bow sprit. I am not sure why I wanted a long bow sprit when a shorter one would do but maybe it is like the great boat designer Herreshoff said “A long bow sprit on a boat is like long hair on a woman.”

2014-01-26 028In keeping with tradition we needed to build her cheap And the cheapest way ” for us” was in steel. You don’t need a building to work in steel and you can buy a little peace of steel for her every week. At no time did we have money in the bank set a side to work with. Building this way even surprised me at how long it took to build her. From the time we laid the first peace of steel to the “First Trip” 10 years went buy. More than once I wanted to give up and do something else but Pam would not have no part of it. To her the adventure was going on even if sometimes I couldn’t see it. There is a famous quote that says “Life is what is going on while you are making great plans.” Living in Southport NC and building the Pamela Ann was the greatest adventure we have ever been on. Now taking her on around the world may someday top that. Being here in Central America is a good start.
When we went inside Pam said “Now draw in a walk in shower after that you can draw in the rest of what we need.. I wanted a quarter berth near the main hatch doors so we could sleep warm and dry when we are off our watch and be back in the cockpit quick if needed.. Pam wanted the galley near the main hatch doors so she would be close to the cockpit. This way she could work in the galley and not miss much going on outside. We needed to draw in the motors before we could put in much. I wanted to go with out a motor and use a push boat to dock the boat. I wanted to keep her as simple as I could but we both knew that was way past crazy. The days of sailing motor-less is over. The people that try are always in trouble and “ Always, “will take a tow.” They never tell that in the articles they write for magazines. If you are out here Its not just like what you read in magazines. Dreams sell magazines This is not dreaming. It’s real out here. So where were we going to get a motor with out any money set aside for a motor. We both love VWs so when Pam said “Why not diesel VW motors out of a old cars? “ It sounded so simple.” Let me say this now. There is not a thing simple about making a car motor work in a boat. The first few years out we were more or less motor- less because I could not get them to work with any reliability. The motors were great and the transmission were great it was the adaptor I made that didn’t work. We used Dumpling as a push boat and went sailing any way. Not buy choice but because we would leave with them running and some where they would tear up the damper plate and we would be back to using Dumpling as a push boat. That’s right. It’s them. We have two and more than once we have had both tore up at the same time. We had been gone from Southport for 3 years. All the way to New York all over the sounds of North Carolina the Chesapeake twice with me working on them. When we came back I worked on them and we went on to Fl but in Fernandina it happened again but this time I found and old man with a lathe. I had a new plan. He said he could not do the work but I could if I wanted to and use his lathe. Only one problem I don’t know how to run a lathe. Our buddy Gene was with us on his boat from Long Beach and he said he would do it We used the old man’s lathe made the parts we needed and this was the first time they became trust worthy. They are old now but they are still going .
Back to how we designed the in sides of the Pamela Ann. Pam wanted and opening port hold over the sink and a hood over the stove. I wanted a vent in the ice box to the out side of the boat to let in cold air. If we are sailing in a place where it is cold out side. This works well. Hot air will rise and cold air will settle so when we are sailing in the winner some where it’s cold we let mother nature keep things cold. by opening the vent. Nothing to break down. When I built the ice box I built it with 3 lids. The first lid opens up into a glass dish that hangs down in the box and keeps butter and cheese cold and will not let small thing like butter find it way to the bottom of the box. When you lock the little lid you can pick the box lid with the glass dish in it up. Then you can get in to the main box but if you want to clean the box the whole top of the box will come off. We have found that insulation,. we have 6 ins, is not as important as keeping the gaskets in good shape. When our old cat start sleeping on the ice box and it’s hot outside it’s time to check the gaskets. Before we came south we bought a small 12 volt evaporator unit and now we can turn the ice box in to a refrigerator with a click of a switch. There is no cold air down here and ice can be a problem. They don’t use ice like we do. You may ask for a bag of ice. You may get a bag so small it will only fill up a glass. If you are coming this way and you need something cold buy at least a small unit because there is very little that is even cool down here. For a stove we have had all kinds of stoves and propane is the best by far. No problem finding propane. We have a very old kerosene Taylor 30 stove that I converted to propane with burners taken out of a new Harbor Freight stove. In it’s day it was the best and the best looking stove on the market. Now it just old but if you polish the brass an the stainless, I think it still a good looking little stove and I think it looks like it belongs on an old schooner.2014-01-26 042

Maybe next week we can tell a little more about the simple things we use and have on board that makes our life simple. Maybe we can post more pictures mid week of how she looks in side.

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Making Some Progress

This week we are steal working on the boat like we are on a mission. We need to be on our way by the first of the month. We had 3 days of sun shine but now the rain is back and it came in hard and strong. We painted the cock pit the sun was shining but just as we were finishing up the rain hit. Now we had another problem we had the covers off the chain hawsepipes and deck water was coming in the boat. To make things more fun we could not go in the boat through the main hatch doors in the cockpit because of Wet Paint and we had the cock pit covered up as much as we could. If water gets on wet epoxy paint it will take all the shine off are worse the drops of water will make fish eyes in the paint. Only way to fix fish eyes is to sand and repaint. Only way to get the shine back sand and repaint.

"Wet Paint"

“Wet Paint”

Only way in was crawling through the aft cabin hatch. To make that more fun try that soaking wet with the wind whipping the boat around like a cat on a leash for the first time. It finally stopped raining hard and we put the chain covers back on with 5200 and made a mess. Pam said we were making 3 steps forward and 2 steps back but that’s good don’t you think if you are living on your boat in a place like this. This is what dreams are made of. Who cares about a little rain. Every day. For weeks. Finely we had the rain out of the cock pit and the water stopped coming through the chainpipes on decks but now we had another problem we still have the little helper we have had working for us. We needed to get him across the river so he could get home to his wife and 3 kids. I will miss him as much as any thing we will leave behind here. He is little. I have measured him 5 foot 3 and maybe 110 lbs but strong and more fun than having your on monkey. Didn’t speak a word of English when we met but now we have been together too long. If things go bad wrong he will now use the “S” word. When I thought the rain was dropping we left to go across. Remember I don’t “try as I do “speak Spanish and he dose not speak English more than the “S” word but as we left I pulled out the end of a bag with life jackets in it. I waved my hand like we were turning the boat over he said “ No “. I guess we have learned to talk with out a common language then we both laughed but when we came out of the little cove the marina is in we stopped laughing. Dumpling our dink didn’t want no part of where we were going but we went on any way out in the river. Then it hit us again harder wind and rain. We went across the river and a little up the river. We needed to go across and down. I was trying to get to a lee shore. When we finely got over to the other side and we could see. I was worried about a man and woman that work for the marina. They left before we did in a dug-out canoe. The dug-out is small with maybe 5 inch of freeboard. We could not see any dug-outs in the river or any one at all in the river. We went on to the dock we were headed to in the lee of the shore that was blocking some of the wind. On the way back I saw an inflatable that belongs to a Guatemalan here towing a dug-out so I went over. It was there dug-out and they were safe in the inflatable. They used their cell phone to call for help. That’s right they have a dug-out. Their only way of getting a round and a cell phone. I have said over and over I don’t speak enough Spanish to claim I can speak Spanish but when I came along side of them I said “Okay” and in Spanish I said “ me look “. They said Okay and then she looked straight at me and said “Gracias.” If you are coming south to Central America “Okay” has worked everywhere we have been. My favorite word is “no problema.” The woman looked like she was glad I was looking for them and her being in the inflatable not the dug-out I would bet she was glad even if they don’t have much at all they had that cell phone. I know I would not have liked being out there in that storm in a dug-out canoe. I didn’t like being out there in little Dumpling. We don’t have a cell phone and as hard as Dumpling was to handle I can only guess what it was like to be out there in a dug-out canoe in all that wind with only a paddle. We have been here long enough that all these people are like close friends now. It won’t be long we will leave all of them and all of this behind. This always makes us a little sad. It’s like they have let us in to their world and they are glad we are here. I’m sure that woman would have been glad I was there if I had found them in the middle of that storm. We are in all of there lives here.
We were setting talking to some new friends here and one of the workers at the marina has a dog. He told his son to go and wash the dog. I could understand that much of what he said. He had been in something that stunk. The boy put a rope around his neck and lead him over to a water hose where they wash clothes. He wet the dog down then pored washing power on the dog got a brush and scrubbed the dog. We were all laughing at how good the dog was getting a bath with washing power for clothes when the boy got a gallon of bleach to pour on the dog we all in English and Spanish said “No!” “You don’t bleach your dog.” He stopped.

Clean Dog

Clean Dog

I feel we will make new friends the next place we stay long enough to get to know people there. We have been leaving for most of our life now but it don’t make leaving any easer. Why do people do what they do. Why have Pam and I always loved traveling so much that we have spent a life time leaving good people behind. Most people don’t know that Pam and I love living simple as much or maybe more than sailing. I don’t know why but we love traveling more than sailing or simple living that’s why we built a schooner to live on and travel. She is so simple its makes her fun to live on and a blast from the past to sail. She is rigged like boats were over a 100 years ago. It’s the traveling we look forward to. Living on our old schooner we live very simple lives and when we stop we are content for a while with just living but the urge to travel on is always there. There is a couple here that have travel from Alaska to here in there power boat. Wouldn’t that be something. Most people don’t know how much work there is in taking a sail boat to places far away. Working the weather. Nights at sea. Trying to find wind and having to much. Trying to find and angle you can sail and steal get to where you are wanting to go without having to work as hard as most sailors have all had to do at least once. Coming here it was the current. When we leave here we will have the wind and the current against us for a long way. It will get better when we turn south but it’s a long way east first. Out there you never know what will happen.
We were coming down one time from up north in the states. It was just getting day light when the motor locked up. We were off the New Jersey coast I went to check. Found the motor was okay went back on deck found a lobster pot pulled against the boat with the line around the prop. We were out of site of land. I new I was going to have to go under the boat to cut it off . Pam called Tow Boat US and they answered. We were really surprised. Came right out. We signed the ticket. We had the insurance and they said it was a renegade may have been from Maine and had been floating out there for years. They left we went on. A little later that same day we were coming up on the buoy at the Delaware Bay. We saw a boat turning side ways looked like they were going crazy. We thought maybe they were drunk. When we got there I was headed to the buoy when the current caught us and with the sails up and the motor at full bore I could not turn the boat away from the buoy. We were going to hit it so I went behind it telling Pam to set down hold on we may run aground but we didn’t. Now with the sails set and the motor running we were going up the bay just find. We cut the motor and every thing was good. But “What If?” There is no one to call down here and you’re lucky if there is a buoy. We are trying to make a good plan for taking our old schooner on south and there is always that thing of very little money. We are safe here in the river today and we will go. We always go. We have a week are so to be safe here before we go back to sea. What if I make a bad mistake or what is out there? It won’t be long now and we will let you know.

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Our Week

Its been a little over a year now that we have been in Central America and ever day we see something new or we see bigger and better things than we have seen before.
We are learning to live here better each day. We will miss this place when we leave but it looks like we will leave from the Rio Dulce in the next few weeks. Where will we go? Maybe Honduras. The Bay Islands but we are not sure. We have said we were not going back any where but we may come back here in the last of July if we are still in the Western Caribbean. Hurricane season. It’s safe in here and there’s so much we want to see here before we leave for good. We are learning to ride buses and collectivos. When we first came down we didn’t feel safe any where. Now I think if you don’t look and act like you have money. No one will bother you. I don’t have to dress down I just dress like me and I have been going where we want to. After traveling as much as Pam and I have in our life I believe there are bad people every where but most people are not and in Central America you won’t believe how help full they can be. We do feel like we need to stay out of places where you would be vulnerable like taking the boat to some remote place. We would feel better if we had a few boats to go along with us but taking a bus or collectivo from one place or town to another we feel safe and it’s fun. Collectivos are vans with 3 seat and a side door.

Collectivo

Collectivo

They will let you ride if there is any way to get you in. The driver just drives but they have a man we have heard called the conductor maybe that’s what he is called are it may be a joke but it’s what he doses he runs the collectivo like a symphony. When the collectivo is stopped he will be walking around the van calling out where they are going and when they have a good load of people they take off, stopping at ever little place where people stand. He will jump off and load people, unload people and the driver just drives with out talking to the conductor. I have watch them and they are always looking at each other. How ever they do it its like a well rehearsed dance. Pam and I had to go to Pert Barrios on the coast for her to have a test done. Check to see if she had a kidney stone. We went to Fronteras before day light to catch a collectivo and the adventure was on. It was raining we got the guard at the marina to take us across the river didn’t want Dumpling left in the rain at a dock all day. She might sink with it raining like it rains down here. We went to the wrong place. A conductor help us find the right collectivo. When it was way past full we left stopping every few minutes to take on even more people or let some off. Every seat was full every place you could stand was full and the conductor seamed to know a lot off the people so he had women setting in men’s laps that got on together The way it works is you get on and the conductor takes your money on the way. So we showed him a piece of paper we had with the address on it. He passed it around till some one read it to him then he said it would be Q48 a man in the front of us “I think” stared to say in Spanish we paid too much. The conductor gave him the paper. You could tell he could not read it either but it satisfied him. “A lot” of people down here can’t read so if you think looking it up and writing it down will solve the speak no Spanish problem. It want work unless you can find some one that can read. I am sad to say they don’t place the same value on school here as the states. As I have said they stop where ever people stand. It was not day light when we stopped on the side of the road it was powering down rain and picked up a man with a new pair of hole diggers. It took a little while but the conductor finely found a place under the first seat for the hold diggers. Every one picked up there feet so he could get it under there. No one complained. Remember the van was packed but they left no one behind.. We couldn’t see out maybe that was a good thing with the driver driving like a teenager with his first car. Remember there is no automatic transmission down here so he was always changing gears, like he was in a race car. I was laughing to me it was fun I told Pam how great it was and that I had dreamed of doing this forever. Riding in a van way over loaded in the rain it’s not day light in a third world country with most of the people there with at least one gold tooth. But she was not as happy as I was. Remember she had not had any supper or breakfast, No coffee. The test thing. She never said any thing just gave me the no comment look. You do get tired riding with no room to move but it’s cheap. If we come back we plan to make more trips to the great places here to see like the Mayan Ruins the Kite Festival where they fly 40 feet wide kits are the Day of the Dead. Maybe go see a live volcano. There is a lot to see here and we were planning to work on our boat first then go see things but politics got to us first. New law cant stay here no longer than 180 days. Have to stay gone for 90 day before you can come back so we may go see other places in the Western Caribbean I said and then come back. This time our boat want need as much work. She has a new paint job and all her varnish is good 2 new sails and we did a new hand laid teak and holly floor in the aft cabin. We will have more time to see things now. Maybe when we leave here there will be more sea things to see but there is steel interesting thing to see here.

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We came in the other night and the guard had just caught an iguana that was fighting with another one. This is what you find running across the floor where we are working on our new sails. There is manatees here thing that come out of the jungle to look at us and birds lots of interesting birds .The Rio Dulcet is a river with 2 lakes and it’s inland. Being inland you get to see the Guatemala people. Not just the beach crowd along the coast. They are very interesting people to me. To see how some are maybe most live with so little. They have good doctors here and health care is cheap. Pam is okay just a nerve in her back. No stone. Got medicine. And we are all right tonight. We said in our last blog that a boat blew up here. Maybe some would like to here more about that . There is no investigators down here very little law and no new paper reporter trying to get the story but this is what I believe happen. The man was none to drink. That happen a “ lot “ in places like this where people set on there boats and drink them self to death. Some with money a lot with out. There was no safety equipment on his stove. There is a lot of talk about a rat knawing on the gas line. I don’t think so. I believe he got up turned on the stove and forgot to light it then he laid back down. How long I can only guess. I don’t know how long you can breath propane but when he woke back up he may have smell gas but he lit a cigarette by habit. I said he was dead in our last blog but no one knows for sure. It’s the way it is here. It’s hard to find out the truth here. How do you call? You hear people talk but where are they getting there information from the local bar. His name was Richard he was from Sweden and the boat was a Hunter named Panacea.

Some of the boat parts

Some of the boat parts

It’s hard to find out any thing more here and maybe this new law in part is to help with people that are just setting on there boat here and letting there boat fall apart with only enough money to pay there bar bill. You see it every where in the states. And you see it here. If you are in and certified marina you still have to leave after one year for 3 month before you can come back only 180 days if you are not in a certified marina. That’s why we have to leave before we want too. If we come back maybe it will be even better this time. I have said and it’s true this is the most fun we have had with our boat. A dream come true. This is what we dreamed about all the time we were building the Pamela Ann and now we are here. Not just here in the Rio but here in the Caribbean. We will let every one know what happens next but I would bet it will be good.

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What IFs?

If you are reading this on the same day we posted this Pam and I are quietly celebrating one year of sailing out of the states. It’s been quite a year. If you have been reading our blog you know we had a lot going on. Now it’s time for us to leave this place and go on. The what ifs are back. They are bad enough when we go sailing in the states but they ‘re worse here, knowing you are going back to sea and you are no where near the US. It’s safe here in the river There has not been any weather bad enough to brother us. There is a lot left to see but they say we have to leave. New laws.180 days is the maximum you can stay here unless you are in a certified marina. We don’t want to live there, too much money Too much marina politics in any big marina any where. We want to live as near to the Guatemala people as possible not live hear and as far a way from the people as we can. Have to stay away 90 days before we can come back. So we are leaving. The worst what if is what if I make a mistake and get us in real trouble something we can’t handle. I have tried to tell in our blogs what it really like out here and the best I can say is. “ It’s Real.” You make a mistake and life can get real. “ Quick.” We made a friend in Key West he was going to Cuba and on south. As far as I know they have not open up Cuba for US citizens. It’s against the law he went any way. When he got there and went to customs there sat a man and woman with nothing. They had lost there boat on a reef in the dark. He agreed to take the man on with him. The Cubans were happy. I don’t know how the woman got back. The man wanted to go on maybe the woman didn’t maybe she had a way to get back to the states but think what it would be like to be ship-wreaked in Cuba with nothing. Who you going to call. Remember its against the law to take your boat to Cuba. He went on as far as Guatemala with my friend then he brought a back pack and went on south.
We were waiting on the weather in Key West. A couple left to go to the Bahamas during the night it got ruff. The anchor deployed by it’s self and anchored the boat in or near the Gulf Stream. When they tried to get it back up they ran over there line. When there line got in there prop they tried to just cut there line. The anchor line when over but stayed on the prop now they were anchored backwards in the Gulf Stream in the dark in big seas. After day light Sea Tow came and cut them lose but they said it cost them a lot. When Sea Tow finds you’re in a bad way you can bet it’s going to cost you till it hurts. All over not setting a little anchor pin. There was another boat on the reef at Xcalak, Mexico nice boat everybody said. he misjudged the opening in the reef and there it was up on the reef. Stuff happens out here. In the river here a launches is a boats built here that are long and skinny powered by out boards and they move ever thing here with them. In one of our blog we showed them moving a live cow in one. They drive them wide open where ever they go with the bow up in the air. You can’t see the drivers sometimes so you wonder if they can see you. One hit a sail boat anchored in the river. Hurt a man on the sail boat and he finally died. But the worse thing we have seen being out and going happen last Thursday. A boat blew up here. It was near six thirty in the morning we had the hatch open over our bed. It’s always hot here. We heard an explosion so load it shook our boat. A little later we found out it was a boat that blew up. They say it was propane. If that is what it was you know there were some bad mistakes made there. It blew out windows in the hotel . The windows in a boat on the other dock and broke a mast on a boat near buy. They got a man off the boat with burns over eighty percent of his body. If someone said you could make a bomb that strong with propane I would have said “Not possible.” We went buy and hour after it happen. There was a lot of people there a lot of stuff in the water no boat it was on the bottom and it looked like what I think it would look like if a “bomb” went off. I have not seen anything blown up before. Here are a few facts that every body is saying the same thing about. The sailboat was a Hunter named Panacea. The man was and older man he smoked he was known to have a drink or three and the stove was hooked up straight from the regulator to the stove. I prefer to have a DC switch at the regulator with a light to let you know the gas is ON or OFF. When you cut off the stove you cut off the gas at the bottle with a flip of a little switch. Another thing. He had been doing battle with a rat. Just a few days before he had a few drinks and had went down on his boat and sat off a pack of fire crackers inside his boat to encourage the rat to leave. I could say a lot about the rat but the man passed away so I will let his friends make all the jokes about. “ The rat.” With all we have seen and what has happen to us last year you can see why the big what ifs are what if I make a mistake we can’t handle. Breaking our boom was my fault tying the boom with a line that would not break for a preventor. Best thing is a bungee cord. Anchoring with one anchor in light sand over coral you may find yourself chasing your boat with it leaving without you. That I won’t do again. If we are leaving the boat now she is riding on two anchors. No matter how nice it is outside. The little thunder storm that hit us before we could get back to the boat just came up with out warning and like I was saying chasing our boat with Pam not happy in our dink Dumpling out there in a bad storm with a 2HP motor. Then after we finally got on got control of the Pamela Ann then there was the I told you so. It has more meaning coming from a wet woman with all her groceries floating in the water in the dink. What will happen to us this year. Maybe more if we leave than if we stay but is that a bad thing. Maybe we can handle what mistakes I make.
When we leave we will miss this place All the things that have accidentally happen to us has not been all bad. The young man we hired to help us work on the boat has been great. He is mostly Indian. Lives with his family wife 3 kids in a house without water or power but he lives fine. He can see thing in the jungle I can’t see. Pam loves it too. When he points up with his finger then points at what he sees. Most are maybe all the gringo here never see what we get to see things like iguanas the size of small dog. All kinds of birds But mosey the iguanas is what I like. There is one here a man said he measured it by watching where it head was and where it tail was then when it left he measured that and it was over 7 feet we have seen it and it is big. It looks even bigger when it’s crossing over from one tree to another.

Jungle

Jungle

Iguanas

Iguanas

If you zoom in you can see a red looking iguanas in the very center

If you zoom in you can see a red looking iguanas in the very center

 

 

 

In getting ready to go we have been trying to get some of the stuff off the boat we don’t need. It’s even harder if it Pam’s stuff. We got up at day light getting ready to go to a swap meet at one of the big marina but when we went by the guard here he call us over and there in a trash can he had an animal that look like a very big rat but it’s not. It has a tail like a rat a long mouth and beautiful fur but its hands and feet are like a raccoon’s. It can hold on to stuff. If you got near it, it hissed like a cat. He told us it was a Comadreja the way they say it it sound like “Com ma ra ha” and it eats bananas and pineapple. It was great. That’s what we want to see not an old movie on movie night at the marina bar. We need to leave in a few weeks. If we do what if we see another place better than this. The what ifs have bothered us for as long as we have been sailing but when we get out there we know it will get better are it always has. It never goes completely away. What if we had not went sailing. All we have seen for years sailing in the states and what if we had not left last year we would have missed all of this.