Independence Day

Independence Day

No, not the sci-fi film, but the parade in the local town of Fronteras to celebrate Guatemala's Independence from Spain. Between 1523 and 1821, the Central American countries of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala were all under Spanish colonial rule. On 15 September 1821 all five countries gained their independence from Spain. Guatemalan Independence hero Maria Delores Bedoya, ran through the streets of Guatemala carrying a lantern as a symbol of hope for the nation's liberated future. Today, in a combined effort, this tradition remains. Beginning in Guatemala City on 14 September, the 'running of the torch' relay sees relay runners cover a distance of approximately 350km across the five countries, ending in the city of Cartago in Costa Rica on the 15 September. Although we weren't lucky enough to see any of the relay runners, we did see a very colourful parade with lots of proud locals taking part.

At this juncture we should be reporting how things are going with troubleshooting the windlass. We had excellent communications with the manufacturer in Italy, and also back up from the USA. So, the excuse for not having tackled it yet goes like this... We are dog sitting at the moment and we take Sky for a walk in the afternoon when it is cooler. By the time we get back we are hot and sweaty so take advantage of the lovely swimming pool. As it goes dark at 6pm (12 hours of night, 12 hours of day in the Caribbean) it is really not practical to start taking stuff apart by torchlight, and way too hot during the day. The boat air conditioning helps, but outside it has been nearly 40 degrees centigrade at times. Anyway, it will get done.

As well as varnishing the handrails, 10 coats at the time of writing, we had a Yanmar (our make of engine) engineer call by. After about 10 minutes, Rocky had identified that we needed to change the gasket on the heat exchanger, fix a pin hole in the exhaust elbow, and have the water pump and turbo charger refurbished. He is also going the remove the heat exchanger and clean it out. The water pump and turbo will go to a specialist shop in Guatemala City, but we have no issue with that.

We had also booked up Jose, a local carpenter, to fix some caulking on the teak deck. As he went round it the strips of masking tape got longer and longer. Teak decks on yachts are a marmite subject, but we like ours very much. It is a great pity as at some time in the past ours must have been jet washed, resulting in the teak wearing away quicker than it should have done. The outcome was that in places, the depth of the teak was only about a few millimetres. Jose said he could replace the caulking that had 'lifted', but we would be throwing good money after bad as it would lift again at some point due to the teak being so worn.

Time has come to replace the deck

We discussed our options and eventually agreed we needed to replace the teak on the side decks. The teak in the cockpit was ok. We made a good price with Jose and he is going to remove the old teak and supply and fit new. We have asked for 10mm teak, as this seems to be what the manufacturer would have used. Work won't start until October, but we will keep taking pictures, so we can do a blog entry on the progress and outcome at a later date.

Lynne is still getting some vertigo issues. The dizziness has not been so bad, but it has made us think about looking for crew for parts of our Pacific crossing in 2019.

We are off on an excursion to Tikal soon. Must admit we are both looking forward to a change of scene and discovering more of this amazing country. It will also be strange to sleep in a proper bed again!

Below are some pictures from the local Independence Day Parade.