"Hey, Hey, We're the Monkeys..."
[12:39] [Wednesday, September 19, 2007]
Home Is Where The Heart Is
[17:10] [Tuesday, September 18, 2007]
Tanya is "home" and has officially returned to a life on land. The last week, although an emotional roller coaster, was a time of preparation, communication and even healing.
Originally, I had planned on setting sail solo but Tanya came into my life. She quickly became a positive, driving force and she embraced MY dream and supported me the entire way. She has been key to Sol Searcher's success and what we experienced and shared along the way together has been monumental in both of our lives.
OUR dreams continue and some became reality.
Thank you to our friends and family for their understanding, support and sharing the ride with us. 
Forever is a long time
[04:31] [Monday, September 10, 2007]
I am sad to announce that Tanya has decided to return home. She has always had her own dream to teach and explore her gift as a writer and the time has come for her to make those dreams come true.
Despite my sadness, I am happy and excited for Tanya. She is already a fantastic writer and she will be a great teacher.
She has been one of the most sincere and endearing figures in my life and that will always remain with me.
She flys out from Guatemala City, Monday the 17th and this is our last week together.
This tiny boat will be so empty with her gone.
God and I will miss you dearly.
A Better Than Pleasant Surprise
[12:22] [Thursday, September 06, 2007]
I turned 21 on August 27. I've always had anxieties about planning for birthdays; I'm just not a party planner. I'd much rather tell everybody who I think cares, get together and decide at that point what everybody feels like doing. Of course, milestones are a little different! I told Brady I'd like to do something special, but I wasn't entirely sure what ... And as things fell into place (so I thought), this is what we planned: happy hour at Bruno's with Ana and Nate of Altair, followed by dinner at Cookie's Cutter, our slip neighbors.
We drank enough cuba libres during happy hour to get happily buzzed and motored home to have dinner with Ana, Nate, Janet and Russ. Janet met us at the dock and told me because there were so many of us, we were going to eat at the Ranchito. Believing this entirely, because 6 people is a lot to gather around a table in a 36-foot boat, I excused myself to the potty and let everybody else go to dinner.
Janet escorted me from the restroom to the boat (retrieving bug spray) and then to the Ranchito. It took my being beneath the little palapa ... And everybody leaping out at me! Ohmigosh!! I just about fell over, I was so blown away.
Balloons, pendants, a pinata, FOOD, even presents -- everybody I've come to consider a friend -- Roy and Debi on Lyric (former slip neighbors in Rockport), Jim on SeaYeti, Curtis and Sandy on Cattleya, Gary and Susan on Pacifico, Daphne and Mike of Tortugal, Paul and Sue on Moeranga (I'm sure I spelled that wrong), Mike and Sue on Infini, Janet and Russel on Cookie's Cutter, Ana and Nate on Altair, and of course, Brady -- here milled around, beaming, having just yelled, "Happy Birthday!" at unsuspecting me.
I had to laugh as I hugged everybody, spun around a few times in the Ranchito, accepted my scepter and tiara (oh, God) ... And then I had to cry!
I had a GREAT time on my birthday, and I owe a big big thanks to everybody who made that possible. If you want to view photos of the ensuing fun, I've uploaded print-resolution photos to the site here: http://www.sol-searcher.net/21
Thanks again, Everybody! See you around the Rio :)
New Home, New Business, New Friends
[17:56] [Wednesday, May 30, 2007]
So you may have noticed we've been doing a pretty lame job of updating. Please don't think this means we have been slackin' ... or worse.
In fact, we have started a new business on Rio Dulce with the aide and support of Daphne and Mike, the owners of our new home, Tortugal Marina. Over the past few weeks, Brady and I have dedicated ourselves full time to the start-up and development of Rio Dulce Yachts. It seems we are now in the business of selling boats. Daphne and Mike have been invaluable friends since we met them. They have shown exceptional support and offer us help and advice around every corner.
And did we mention we love the place? We fell in love the first afternoon we swung by. Mike and Daphne are both very conscientious people, both about boats and about the environment. They go to great lengths to make sure the surrounding flora and fauna are protected. Where other marinas have made themselves islands of Americanism, Tortugal has remained a part of Guatemala, nestled right on the border between jungle and river. It would be hard not to fall in love!
Other notes: we never did get our dinghy motor back, but we did get a deal on a used one ... and no, it wasn't stolen. Some days God is the sweet kitty we all know and love; others he's the biggest dickweed. Special thanks to Igor and Robert for their help moving our junk back home into storage. Just can't bring ourselves to let go of it yet. ALSO a special thank you to Brady's mom for gifting us with a new digital camera! We should have it next week, and we can't wait.
We won't be doing any cruising for several months, excepting the occasional weekend sail. From time to time we'll post our goings-on, particularly when we have goings-on to report. Discussing going further south with Sol Searcher next season ... Possibly all the way to Panama!
Fushing Feefs
[21:13] [Wednesday, May 02, 2007]
** Wrote this post several days ago and meant to post it ... We have been pretty busy pursuing a business opportunity, alerting authorities and fellow cruisers about the mishap, searching for a place to stay this summer and other errand-type shtuff .. Which is all hard to do when you don't have a motorized dinghy!
[27.Apr.07] So ... yeah. We left our cozy anchorage off Marios Marina last Sunday with three other boats: Sea Dragon, My Jo and Skol. Brady and I rounded up the fleet to tour Lago de Izabal, and damn, we had a great time! Izabal never ceases to excite us, and being able to jump into the water at any time made everyone very happy. Though we can't say we had any blistering hot days ... We hope cool breezes from either of the sierra ranges are a regular occurance on the lake; they will make our summer on the Rio far easier to handle.
At any rate. Our last two destinations were Ensenada los Logartos and El Estor. We took a dinghy tour of los Logartos at the crack of dawn, and WOW. Of course we remembered how incredible the estuary is from our last visit, but the jungle growing right over the water still left us breathless. And the howler monkeys!! Last time we visited Logartos, we saw a single troop of howlers resting quietly at the top of a tree so tall we mistook the primates for termite nests at first. This time, there was no mistaking any apes. We passed six troops of howlers, all waking up, munching lazily on the foliage they had nestled in overnight.
One family of three hung upside down in a tree whose branches extended over the creek. We all dinghied right beneath them, and for a while the monkeys seemed not to care. The littlest one watched us with wide, curious eyes, crawling slowly closer as he chewed on a cluster of leaves ... As he crawled face-first toward us, however, daddy monkey decided he had had quite enough of our intrusion. He squatted up on his perch and hooted a warning before breaking into a full-blown howl, which was far louder than you might expect from such a small creature!
We hung around for another minute or so, enamoured by the monkeys' show, and then moved on down the creek, snapping pictures and practically whispering at each other.
Our next stop was El Estor, which Brady and I found to be unimpressive but, as with all of Guatemala, worth a look. Everyone also needed to pick up some staple provisions (eggs, bread, etc.), so we headed out just before lunch and planned to spend the afternoon on the town.
The second time around, El Estor was much easier to handle than our first visit. We beached all four dinghies and chained/cabled them together, and then poked around the mercado and located a neat little palapa restaurant for lunch. Most everyone we communicated with treated us warmly, lunch was delicious without being expensive, and our self-guided tour of the town hall (a huge coral building with a very Spanish facade and an inner courtyard/garden) left us feeling as though we just hadn't given the town much of a chance before.
Still, as with Sonatina and Samcharsa on our last visit, we chose not to anchor right off town. A park/finca a couple miles east offered a more protected anchorage, a prettier backdrop and -- we thought -- better security.
We spent a quiet evening in our own company, having borrowed some movies from Skol and deciding to finish off some old leftovers for dinner. The sun set in all the glory one would expect on Izabal, sinking slowly behind the mountains to our north, setting them on fire with its final, brilliant orange glow. We fell asleep without the generator on, allowing our wind scoop to cool us off in the "V" berth, the fan providing just enough help so we could sleep in comfort.
"Team Adventure, Team Adventure," came over the radio at daybreak, waking us. "Team Adventure -- Sea Dragon has lost a dinghy!"
I jumped from the sheets and poked my head out of the berth hatch, still blinking sleep from my eyes but very much awake. Lo and behold, a cayuco approached Sea Dragon under power, towing a motorless dinghy behind ... I looked around, startled, and noticed then My Jo and Skol had lost their dinghies, also. Brady asked me to report what had happened, not being entirely certain the call we'd heard was real. He jumped from the berth and headed for the cockpit on hearing the news ... And we found our dinghy still tied to the side, but it lacked the outboard.
"Oh ... Shit."
A sort of stifled chaos ensued for a while, as the supposed fishermen who had found the three dinghies floating on the lake returned them to their rightful owners. We found the padlock we used to lock the outboard on the dinghy transom in two pieces, broken open with bolt cutters. Everyone else found locks in the same condition, and any other valuable items taken from the dinks. Gas tanks, Skol's dinghy anchor, Sea Dragon's brand-name sandals ... All gone. But no one was boarded, and the dinghies -- despite their painters having been cut -- had been left intact.
I am tired of speculating about how this could have been avoided, or how it was that none of us heard or noticed the thieves in action. God appeared after we had finished watching our second movie looking very rat-like and dripping all over the cabin. I leaned out into the cockpit to make sure he hadn't punctured the dinghy or damaged anything to get back aboard, but I cannot say for certain I saw our outboard. It just was not something I even thought about.
Skol paid the "fishermen" a substantial reward for returning the dinghies, and all of a sudden they thought perhaps they knew who might have our motors ... If only they could use a phone. They tried to gather reward payment from Sea Dragon and My Jo, insisting they could help us further ... No mas denero, they were told, and suddenly their services were terminated. We hauled anchor almost immediately and got the hell out.
We felt violated, humiliated ... And now our life is far more complicated than we'd like. We can be thankful no one was hurt. We can be thankful everyone still has a dinghy -- though the cost of another outboard will sting, at least we don't have to track down another dink. And we did have a wonderful trip.
But man, I hate thieves.
A Salute to Team Adventure
[21:09] [Sunday, April 22, 2007]
When we began this trip we were sailing solo and we liked being alone but over time we have made many new friends and shared many sails, anchorages, laughs, fish, drinks and complications with each other. This is a toast to the team: To our crew, Blu and Igor; To Peter and Theresa of Sonatina; To Gary and Leslie of Lysistrata; To Jim and Nicky of SeaYeti; To Kathy and Ric of Sea Dragon and their crew, Jeff, Nikki, Kellie and Cory; and To Ana and Nate of Altair:
From the best of the best to the worst of the worst
Some with their Gods and some with their cursed
We raise our sails high and we quench our thirst
To the cup of life and living and all that comes first.
Salute!
Man's Law vs. Nature's Law
[20:48] []
I have never been what you would call content. Always this feeling that things aren't quite right. That there's something missing. Something essential to who we were and who we still hopefully are. It's so vast and essential some of us spend our whole lives looking for it, but once it was so simple we didn't even need to think about it. It just was. I think most people have felt this way. Some briefly, who then find distractions; others increasingly, who grow more and more uncertain of "their place."
We are so self-absorbed and arrogant that we live our lives with blinders on. We now see only what is directly in front of us and no longer what is all around us. I am like this and so are you. Can we reinvent ourselves? Unlearn what we have been taught for so long? Can we even remember what's missing?
I want to. Yet I am everywhere I go. And you are everywhere too. It seems like there is no escape. Like we are all being pulled down the same raging river, and no one can pull themselves ashore; most prefer to just go with the flow. We are everywhere and the majority rules. Or at least that's what we think. Eventually one law will prevail.
Many who read this will be thinking, "Come on, Brady (John), cut the ideological crap!" or maybe just, "What the hell are you talking about?" I am just making observations.
I am one of us. For an outsider's view, I highly recommend reading "Ishmael" by Daniel Quinn. Please.
