Leaving the Rio Dulce

Time to leave the Rio

Our stay in the Rio Dulce has been one of the longest spans between sailing, but having sailed almost continuously for nearly 18 months to get here, it was a welcome break. Well, sort of as we seemed to find ourselves doing boat related jobs most days.

It has been a busy season for us and pleasing when we look back on all the boat jobs we accomplished. Whilst the highlight was undoubtedly the new deck, some little things like replacing the leaky galley mixer tap that we had been putting off, got done. It was also good to tackle the main engine and do some preventative maintenance. Next season's list of planned jobs is a little smaller, but of course things can change! The priority will be to either replace the EPIRB, or find a service location to replace the battery, which will be coming up to the end of its five year life span. With our intention still to head into the Pacific next year, this is something we must attend to.

During the last few weeks, the weather has turned noticeably colder, in fact unusually cold. Whilst we are still in shorts and t-shirts, some of the marina staff are really feeling it.

Before leaving, Steve joined the 'Pass It On' team to visit a remote village to install a solar panel and battery so the school could have lights. 'Pass It On' is a local charity run by an ex-pat British yachtie called Julia. Solar installations is something 'Pass It On' do all year round, relying on donations. They have a waiting list of villages that they would like to help and getting to them is not all that easy. The main roads are sort of OK, but venture off the beaten track and you will need a four wheel drive with special tyres to cope with the mud.
It was a very humbling experience.

Pass It On

We found this great clip below from Sea Change on YouTube that not only shows aspects of the river, but also a trip they made with 'Pass it On'.

Trivia Nights

We also entered the International Quiz again, our team was aptly called 'Ship of Fools' made up of Rudolph and Elisa from Tulum III, and Pamela and Charlie from Castalia.
Our highest finish was second on one occasion, but hoping to improve on this when we return to the river, not that we are competitive...

Film Nights

It was also time to go to our last movie night at Tortugal Marina until we return. Special thanks to Jodie Aston who not only organises the quiz nights, but puts on some really great movies. Sometimes we have read the synopsis and thought 'should we bother?', but we have always come away with a 'Wow' as Jody always finds a great movie. Another bonus is the free launcha collection and drop off, a great price on a pizza with free drink and free popcorn, what's not to like!

Many thanks to Jody Aston for letting us use her trivia and film night photos

Our location in Guatemala means we are within striking distance of Mexico, and with a boat called Aztec Dream we just can’t pass up the opportunity to visit. The pilotage is going to be challenging. The Navionics cartography we use has not proved to be that accurate. However, fellow cruisers who frequently visit the Bay Islands, Belize and Mexico, have given us waypoints and we also use the Rauscher guide book, which is probably a must have if you intend cruising these areas. It is full of hand drawn charts and very useful information.
Eyeball navigation is important, as are polarising sunglasses to spot the coral heads.

The first priority however, is to actually leave the river. For our draft of just over 2m, this is no simple task as we have to coincide leaving with a high tide at the river entrance to clear the sandbar. To belt and brace this, we have booked up a local boat operator and his friend to tow and tip us over the bar. We don’t want to run the engine in the stirred up silt, so this seems like a good plan

Before we head off though, we will first slip the lines in the marina a few days before the high tide and make our way to the anchorage at Texan Bay, about 2 hours away, calling in to see friends Jim and Kitty at Monkey Bay along the way. This will give us a chance to make sure everything is working as it should, although we won’t run the watermaker until we are back out at sea. We especially want to test out the newly refurbished anchor windlass. We will also top up 4 of our 20 litre jerry cans with diesel to keep in reserve. We kept the main tank full during the hurricane season to minimise condensation in the high humidity, and reduce the risk of diesel bug.

Leaving our jungle home will be a wrench, but at least we know we are coming back. It is easy to see why so many cruisers base yachts here year in, year out. We struck incredibly lucky finding a space in Tijax due to the high level of repeat business. We would like to especially thank Ninneth and Abel 'Oscar' and all the Tijax team for making our stay here so enjoyable.

New Blog Posts for the sailing season always depend on our ability to find suitable WIFI. Small updates may be found from time to time via our Facebook page, The Voyages of Aztec Dream.
All being well, our next update should come from one of the Bay islands off the coast of Honduras.

Thank you for taking the time to visit our blog.

Lynne and Steve