Hello from Belize

Well, we made it here to Placencia, Belize last night at sunset.  It was a 10-hour sail from Punta Gorda, Belize to Placencia.  It was a really good shakedown for the boat and all of its repairs.  Everything held up fine with some minor tweaking, of course.  We were really tired when we arrived.  Karen did great!  She's a really good sailor!  Takes orders great and is there to help out when we need her.  Other than that, she is relaxing in the sun and her sunburn isn't "too bad".  We have been having lots of fun and enjoying being out on the sea and having the sails up for a change. We plan to head out to the reef tomorrow to do some snorkeling.  Today is some serious downtime to rest up from the last two days of traveling down the river, out of Guatemala and her to the Caribbean. More when we arrive back from the reef in a few days time! Adios, Cathy

We Are Leaving Guatemala!

We are at the immigration office, have all of our passports stamped and will be lifting anchor here in Livingston, Guatemala in a matter of minutes and sailing off to Punta Gorda, Belize!!!  We are excited to try out all of the repairs on the boat and get some wind in the sails!  It should only be a 3 or 4 hour sail from here to there and we are lucky to have our good friend, Karen, visiting from San Francisco!  See ya soon!

still in the rio....

....but we are getting somewhere even if it is slow.
This first picture is the new driving console. I made a larger box so we could consolidate all our electronics. ( gps, autopilot and compass )



This picture is the mast step ( yes our fourth one) and this time I am trying to put not so many holes in the wood.



The large hatches had some dry rot so I took out the bad wood and replace it with some good plywood



We finally put in our cockpit table and I tried to make it fancy with some rope work around the edge



the next two pictures are a good look at what the new color will be like. In Spanish the color is called rojo oxido.





I hope all is well with everyone and we will sent more pictures soon

jake