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Gathering Rain Water from Tropical Storm COLIN

Posted on by by Posted in Florida, Sailings

What is the average daily water consumption per person? It depends on your location. Living on a boat, we have to be frugal with water. We have three water tanks on the boat for a total of 200 gallons (=757 liters, 1 Gallon = 3.785 Liters) of water. On the boat, we usually make water each day until all the tanks are full.

Due to the strong wind from Tropical Storm COLIN, while staying at the Mooring Field (Mooring Fee: US$21.30/Day) in Saint Augustine City Marina, we stopped making water because the source of the sea water looked stirred.

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Visiting Friends and Shopping in Walmart in Stuart, Florida

Posted on by by Posted in Florida, Sailings

It takes about two hours by car from Fort Lauderdale to Stuart. Going by sailboat with no wind, it took two days. We motored one day to West Palm Beach and another day to Stuart. Stuart is quiet and easy-going place without heavy traffic. We have friends to meet in Stuart. We were excited to see them again after many years. Sharing time with friends is like enjoying my favorite chocolates. Sweet memories!

Our original plan in Stuart, was to anchor in Manatee Pocket Anchorage or in front of our friend’s water-front house. However, the channel to Manatee Pocket was not deep enough when we tried to pass between the high and the low tide.

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Yachting Capital of the World, Fort Lauderdale, USA

Posted on by by Posted in Florida, Sailings

Fort Lauderdale is known as the Yachting Capital of the World. The whole city is boat oriented: boat brokers, boat related retailers, boat insurance, jobs, services, and etc… You name it. It is here.

Being a resident of Fort Lauderdale, entering the Port Everglades, is like coming back to my sweet home. I remember the sea breeze on the beach and I know lots of restaurants, bars, and stores to go. There are dear friends and neighbors, I want to meet. The only problem is that there is not enough place to anchor the boat. This means staying in a marina which is expensive.

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Pictures of Key Biscayne, Miami, Florida, USA

Posted on by by Posted in Florida, Sailings

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Welcome back to America! Key West, Florida, USA

Posted on by by Posted in Florida, Sailings

Things are big in the USA. Entering the channel, we were so amazed how big the channel markers are and the satellite radar is. The anchorage in Key West is wider than anywhere in the Caribbean. All of these conveniences cost nothing to us. It didn’t even cost anything to clear the customs. (***Note this is not completely true as John had to buy a customs clearing number-$40, a documentation license-$20, and do an interview with a Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official for a ‘Local Boater Option’. The customs number and documentation have to be renewed every year, but the ‘Local Boater Option’ is good for the life of the passport.) Being a member of the ‘Local Boater Option’,

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Sailing from Rio Dulce River in Guatemala to Key West, Florida, USA

Posted on by by Posted in Caribbean Islands, Central America, Florida, Sailings

An adrenaline pumping sailing trip!

April 26 to May 3, 2016: I found that weather forecasts are about 50% accurate. Maybe it will rain, maybe it will not. Maybe it will be windy from the East, or maybe from somewhere else. Our sailing from Rio Dulce, Guatemala to Key West Florida started by motoring for three days, as the wind was directly in front of us, and we had a very limited area to sail in. This was definitely not what was forecasted. We stopped in different anchorages for first three nights to rest, the wind simply was not what we had expected.

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Shiny Bottom of the Keel, Touching the Bottom When Passing the Rio Dulce River Entrance

Posted on by by Posted in Caribbean Islands, Central America, Sailings

April 26, 2016: While waiting for a high tide to get out the Rio Dulce Entrance, a local boat stopped by and asked us if we needed his service to pass the shallow spot. We told him that we will follow our previous GPS track that we saved two months ago when we passed the shallow spot. We didn’t hit the bottom at that time.

Figures can mislead us. John showed me the high tide schedule on his iPad. It was different from the data I previously downloaded from the internet. Based on the data from the iPad,

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My Experiences of Clothes, Food, Water, and Medical Bills in Rio Dulce, Guatemala (February to April 2016)

Posted on by by Posted in Central America, Medical Service Experiences, Sailings

“All sorts of bodily diseases are produced by half-used minds.” — George Bernard Shaw, Irish Playwright (1856-1950)

Clothes are real cheap in Rio Dulce. Most of the stores sell second hand clothes that appeared to be brought from the USA. John has been enjoying buying work T-Shirts when there is a bargain. It costs 33 cents for a T-Shirt. Whenever he brought newly purchased T-Shirts, we laughed at the printings on the T-Shirts. I also purchased a nice summer dress with 30 Quetzals (US$4). We don’t know how all of these second hand clothes are brought here but they were like new and real cheap.

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Burglar Bars for the Hatches

Posted on by by Posted in Boat Projects, Caribbean Islands, Central America, Sailings

While staying in some anchorages at night, we sometimes wished to have a bit more protection on our deck hatches. We have four small hatches and one big hatch on the boat. These hatches are big enough so we can get out of the boat if needed during an emergency; at the same time, any intruder can easily break-in when we are soundly sleeping at night. Looking back, there are some anchorages, both John and I took a turn to watch at night because we didn’t feel safe. For about three years, John has wanted to have the burglar bars made.

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‘Land of Trees’, Boat Projects Accomplished in Rio Dulce, Guatemala

Posted on by by Posted in Boat Projects, Central America, Sailings

I have read that ‘Guatemala’ means ‘Land of Trees’ in the indigenous language. The country is still very green with lots of forests but most people use wood for cooking meals. Based on the daily wage, there are not enough jobs for the people here, and to compound the problem, families have lots of children leading to even more widespread poverty and overpopulation. Even though I prefer to eat meals cooked in either a wood burning oven or over and open fire, I am glad to see some are replaced with gas ovens or electric ovens as that means the deforestation might have a chance of being stopped.

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