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Well sitting in an airport again and waiting. There was chaos at the security check in as they had a new toy to play with, a drug and explosive sniffer but you had to wear your shoes through this one then take them off. Of course, we sheep are now conditioned to remove our shoes so everybody was retrieving shoes from the boxes on their way through the xray machine then by the time they had gone through the sniffer their boxes had gone. The security people were getting a little hoarse but we sheep just looked puzzled and were eventually herded to the next holding pen.

The Bombay is ready to go on it's mooring in Chocolate Hole, St Johns and the sea trial is scheduled for Thursday. I am not sure if the surveyor will make it. I guess I will hear from him tonight.

I overdid things a bit yesterday. After a hectic morning at Tropical shipping loading the barrels with my stuff and sorting out the manifest I thought a swim would be a pleasant way of cooling off so I walked over to the beach to discover surf was up and an entrepreneur was renting out boogie boards and frog feet. After ½ an hour of mental fun I suddenly realized that I was so tired I could barely stand and stagger up the beach. This being 62 with a mental age of 13 is the pits.

Back to the USA

Back in the USA and heading for Miami. The trip from the Rio Dulce to Guatemala City involved a leg on a chicken bus.



I was expecting one of these and was looking forward to the ride.






Instead I got one of these, but it got me there albeit at considerable environmental cost to the atmosphere and some discomfort to my rear as the seats were plank wood and all vestige of springing or shock absorbing was long gone.

Then when I got to my hotel and logged on to print my ticket I had got moved to an earlier flight. They had warned me that this was possible. A 4.30 am start, is there such a time/



But the good news is that I have finally made up my mind on a boat, I think anyway, providing it passes the sea trial. The Bombay Explorer 44 which I had looked at before down in the BVI has finally been extracted from the back of the boatyard and splashed. I think I will be flying down to St Thomas on Thursday this week with hopes for a sea trial on Friday.

SEDUCED BY THE RIO DULCE

Well I am not going to buy this boat. There is just to much to do and the timeline for repairs, escaping from the river over the shallow bar and the necessity to be on my way to a safe area for the 2010 hurricane season does not make sense.







Not to mention the termite poo, apparently the black poo comes from drywood termites and the sawdusty stuff from the normal variety.















However this is a great area and I plan to come back for a visit on my forever boat at sometime in the future.





I can even visualise myself staying at Mango Marina with Lesbia cooking breakfast again and the resident white heron waiting on the next boat for a passing fish.






The wildlife is outstanding with manatee, plentiful fish including giant tarpon and these cute little finches that have taken up residence on the anchor rodes.

Delving into the bowels of Pacifico

The owners have suggested that I liveaboard Pacifico while checking here out. This makes it much easier as she is moored 2 miles by river from the nearest road.




I started by getting the, some what tired, dink in the water and fitting the outboard. Bob who is helping the owners sell Pacifico was directing operations and more in hope than expectation gave here a squeeze and a couple of pulls. It was a forlorn hope. The motor and fuel had been sitting in the hot sun for more than a year. But it is a Yamaha and it started second pull.


Lesbia seems to run the Marina and lives in the Palapa right in front of Pacifico. Nothing is too much trouble for her and her breakfasts are great!



The Rio Dulce is a special area and although there is real borderline subsistance fishing and gathering class here everyone I have met so far is friendly and helpful. Even the two couples sitting next to me in the restaurant who were from North London. Small world indeed.

The boat needs work and I suppose I have to decide how much I have to do before going sailing and how much can be an ongoing project. It really needs rewiring the aft cabin needs gutting and refitting from the fibreglass out as it has termites and some nasty chemicals which were used in an effort to kill the beasties.


Still there are worse places in the world to be stuck for a while.


Pictures of termite poo in the next blog!

Boat hunting on the Rio Dulce Guatemala

My hunt for the "right" boat has taken me to Mango Marina on the Rio Dulce.






To get here I flew into Guatemala City on Saturday November the 7th and stayed over night at the Torres Guest house, an OK if slightly run down place with one unusual feature not found in any guest house I have stayed before. The charming young man who carried my bags in sported a pump action pistol grip shotgun.

Armed guards were everywhere and the pump seems to be the weapon of choice.




Pretty scary when you go to the local version of Macdonalds and this guy is leaning against the wall. Hamburger bandits rule OK.

When I got the bus for the long trip down here I got my next surprise.


The bus which looked like a new [ish] coach on the internet was a really old Mercades that had many hard miles behind it and many holes in the bodywork. Yet more armed guards greeted me when I boarded the bus and I was efficiently searched my backpack opened and searched and a metal detector waved over me. The bus was driven by a very neatly dressed boy who did not look like he needed to shave yet. Still we got here and in reality despite the holes and rattles eveything vital seemed in excellent working order especially the horn. Oh yes all the safety searches were a waste of time as the bus picked up people all the way down at roadside stops without a guard in sight.

Guatemala, so far seems to be a beautiful country full of really helpful people and many of them carry guns!

Goodbye

We say goodbye to the Trek in the car park of Motel 6 in Orlando





as Gary and Melissa prepare to drive off in their new acquisition.

There were great moments in the last two years, the Alcan, wolves in Yellowstone, tranquility in the Teons and so many more.




But now the Caribbean beckons. So it is with little regret that I say goodbye to Orlando. My vision of hell includes in part the Bluewater shopping centre so International Drive Orlando which consists of many shopping centres stitched together with tawdry souvenir shops selling the same tat is hell squared.

I am down Fort Lauderdale after stashing our "stuff" in a storage unit. The boat show is on here but it is of little interest to me as it is mainly giant gin palaces aimed at the Berie Madoffs of this world.
However I can walk along the beach with Ferraris snarling past, grannies overtaking me on skateboards and a very swish couple with matching Yorkies jogging their way to lunch in Las Olas.

But I was on my way to slip F18 Bahia Mar Marina.








I paused for a moment to think on Travis Magee whose houseboat was moored here for years and Miss Agnes his 1936 bright blue Rolls Royce pickup truck. Both of course are creatures of fiction.




































But this is running around Florida somewhere.





On my way back I was held up by that east coast phenomenon, an Intercoastal Waterway Bridge which is raised by a demand from any passing sailboat I called for many bridge openings when I sailed Carpe Diem from Miami North to Washigton DC and was indifferent to the delays caused. Now it was my turn to be delayed.



So was this skater. Another Fort Lauderdale moment.

We say goodbye to our Safari Trek

Like a owning a boat the two best days of RV ownership are supposed to be the day you take possession and the day you sell.


But we were both very sad to see our faithfull Trek depart with new owners today. It carried us from Texas down the Baja in Mexico and all the way up to Alaska as well as many National Parks. So many great days on the road, fantastic destinations and comfortable nights in places as diverse as Walmart car parks, everyday camp grounds and wilderness boondocking sites.






We hope Gary and Melissa get as much fun Trekking as we did.









Now the next task is to make up our mind about a boat.

Old Town Kissimmee on cruise night again

We met Carol's brother Dave in Old Town Kissimmee last Saturday evening for the ritual so common in many US towns of the car cruise.





Dave would only stand in front of a Ford.











I picked a pristine Vette








But really liked this outragous dragster car from the 60s complete with wheely bars and giant ram pipes on top of the 671 blower. Apparently it is street legal!






This one was super clean though.

POPPIN SOME CAPS IN ORLANDO

We got a chance to do what every boy and lots of girls have wanted since Clint uttered those immortal words "...and this is a 44 magnum, the most powerful hand gun in the world"

Yup we shot the dirty Harry gun. But only after Dave, Carols brother had checked us out on some lighter stuff and made sure we were safe and knew what to expect.

Starting with a 357 revolver and lighter 38 bullets we got to blow away the blue man while practicing our range safety and reloading procedures.















We had a variety of politically incorrect targets to choose from as well as the common bulls eye.

I enjoyed blowing away Burt with my Glock 45 and got reasonable groupings albeit at relatively short range most of the time. I did try a magazine at the full length of the range but found that my eye sight is now so restricted that I do not have the depth of field to "see" the sights and the target clearly at the same time.

Dave was a good teacher and we quickly got good groupings and felt safe handling the revolvers and the automatics.



Dave had the big gun and we knew when he was blasting away because the noise and shockwave was much greater. I expected the difference in recoil when it was my turn but the violence of the kick was still a shocker and after only two shots I could feel the growing ache in my wrists.

Carol actually moved backwards when the recoil hit but her injury came when a hot shell casing from her automatic lodged in her cleavage. Nasty!

'CRUZIN' in Old Town In Kissimmee

We moved up to Orlando to see Carol's brother Dave who was over for a week.

For something to do on the first night before we hooked up with Dave we looked in on Kissimmee "Old Town". It was Old Time Car Cruising night. Everything from 30s Willys 5 windows to a Plymouth Superbird [ a replica I think ] to a really Cherry 50 Ford.






But some one just could not resist the temptation to go tacky!

Condos, a lighthouse some injured turtles and a boat

We had a look at some of the bargains in the housing market here in Florida. The realtor tried hard with a 50% discount but the "marina" turned out to be some semi derelict boats


and the possibility of some mooring balls. The condos were pretty inside with marble floors but the neighborhood is not good.





Still someone paid 3/4 mill not so long ago for it.













We drove down to Jupiter and had a look at the lighthouse.





















Nowadays it still lights the way home for the rare boater without GPS












But it mostly signposts the most costly real estate in Florida, Celine Dion lives here and Tiger Woods is building.








The Turtle hospital seems well resourced and full of volunteers some cleaning tanks and others scrubbing algae off hatchlings using toothbrushes.

However all the adults seemed to do is try to climb over the tank lip and escape to the sea.















The turtle place also had these strange fish called look downs in quite small tanks, we wondered why?






We have a boat under offer at last. An elegant old lady that someone poured lots of time effort and money into.





If she surveys well she will be our home in the future,

Tortola Trip

I have just spent an entertaining few days visiting Tortola in the BVI to look at some boats. Erica, a big lass who could not make up her mind, made sure that “I was living in interesting times”

In the end it mostly rain but flights were canceled, ferries stopped running, hurricane shutters went up and anyone responsible for boats was scurrying around making sure the storm lines were securely tied. But Erica was partly responsible for one of the strangest experiences in my life.

I got to the terminal in Charlotte Amalie in plenty of time only to find an eerie site, no queues at check in and going through security I was on my own. The security operative powered up the xray machine and my bag was duly scanned. I was waved through to the departure lounge where a few people sat n front of a single attendant. They were swiftly boarded and the attendant chatted with the floor sweeper






then she left me on my own in a vast echoing and entirely deserted terminal.





This was not entirely true there was me and two fellow fliers, but I am pretty sure they did not have tickets. I felt that I was an actor in a scene from some “end of the world” film.

Eventually some one appeared a few minutes before my boarding time and called my name. It turned out that I had the whole aircraft to myself with two flight attendants to look after me. She then proceeded to improvise on the lack of a tannoy, bellowing out the the opening of the gate and immediately called last call for passengers on my flight. All this while digging out a monster umbrella and beckoning me forward. I was ushered on board seated and they wound up the elastic for my private flight to San Juan. “ Je suis un rockstar!”

I am heading up to Orlando to pick up Carol who has been back in the UK sorted out her house purchase





and working for a German Shepherd rescue society.

This is Kaiser who now has a new home.

SHUTTLE LAUNCH AT NIGHT

Well it finally got off. I would have liked to see it from Manatee Hannock up at Titusville but even from 70 miles away it was still impressive.


It turned the low clouds into sunset pink then clmbed through the upper sky to orbit. It is the third launch I have seen and the wonder is still there.





It has been seriously wet here with a convergence line setting up over the area yesterday, big boomers and 2 inches of rain was the result. The lights went out for a while but one of the advantages of being a RV is you just start the genny and the lights come back on for you.

SHUTTLE LAUNCH BLUES

Well I am up in Titusville, opposite the shuttle launch site in Cape Canaveral, sitting in a pretty nice campground called Manatee Hammock, but singing the shuttle launch blues.

Stayed up to 1.30 in the morning and waited at the waters edge along with thousands of others, all hoping to see a night launch.



With only a few minutes to go they were counting down when BIG SPARKIES hit the Cape a few miles south of the launch site. The regulars looked at each other shrugged their shoulders and started packing up. A couple of minutes later came the official word from NASA saying "cancelled due to weather".

I booked in for another night on the strength of a positive forecast and an update from Nasa reschduling the launch for 1.05am. Wednesday morning. Tonight came the bad news, a main engine fuel supply valve has failed, and the launch is cancelled possibly to October.



Still I met some nice locals







including this one sipping fresh water from a leaky hose in the marina.