tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-367780892007-10-03T11:18:33.433-07:00Tanya KaterinaBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-79734149416446495232007-09-19T12:39:00.000-07:002007-09-19T12:42:18.836-07:00

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-68231399186932378472007-09-18T17:10:00.000-07:002007-09-18T17:36:31.378-07:00

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

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-73576551544707997682007-09-10T04:31:00.000-07:002007-09-10T05:00:56.640-07:00

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

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-44386252604322173262007-09-06T12:22:00.000-07:002007-09-07T12:17:09.631-07:00

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

Tanya Katerinatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-73858233025862956582007-05-30T17:56:00.000-07:002007-09-06T14:48:34.290-07:00

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

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-65518947216960097982007-05-02T21:13:00.000-07:002007-05-02T21:19:21.306-07:00

** 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

Tanya Katerinatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-59871644281828832432007-04-22T21:09:00.000-07:002007-04-22T22:01:45.564-07:00

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

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-43641379847910151782007-04-22T20:48:00.000-07:002007-04-22T20:59:28.743-07:00

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

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-64752597212129279382007-04-19T18:25:00.001-07:002007-04-22T21:02:14.921-07:00

Obviously we have not been updating the site like we used to and we'll probably not return to the style of recapping our days for some time. Our laptop is hanging in there barely but we no longer have our video camera and now our digital still camera has bit the dirt. From time to time we will post a log and once we are able to post photos and videos again we may return to updating the site like

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-4505496257518959272007-04-03T10:20:00.000-07:002007-04-03T12:49:29.045-07:00

When we started this voyage, we had heard a little about buddy boating, but considering we had a crew of 4, we didn't give trying to find another vessel to travel with much thought. The only vessel in the area we really knew about was Lyric, whose crew had already taken her to the Rio, our furthest destination. Who needs chatty neighbors, anyway, when we've got our own company and enough spunk

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-6031561549566232692007-03-25T20:36:00.000-07:002007-04-03T12:41:40.424-07:00

We're moored off Ranguana Caye for a couple days with Sea Dragon and Altaire. The men have been spearfishing, and we girls have snorkeled on and off. We spend sunset sharing drinks -- last night on the island; tonight in Sea Dragon's spacious cockpit. We also share plenty of laughs, and after today's several hours in the water, the reprieve allowed everyone to feel less inadequate about our

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-66588043986476442912007-03-18T03:47:00.000-07:002007-03-19T15:07:41.039-07:00

We sailed hard yesterday all the way from Hunting Caye. The storm let up just before sunrise, and Sea Dragon called us at 6:30 AM telling us they were weighing anchor. Having spent the better part of the night not sleeping but cleaning, we followed immediately and drank our coffee underway. By the time we rounded Seal Caye and prepared to raise sail, the wind picked up 15 - 20 kts, and a dark

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-42488693679460588222007-03-17T01:18:00.000-07:002007-03-19T15:03:53.773-07:00

Your closeness to the rest of the crew makes you a fine reflective caricature of the overall atmosphere. When we're feelin' lazy, you yawn like a little lion and lay about on your back. When we're prepping for adventure, you put your nose in just about everybody's business, begging with quiet mews to come along. But when the going gets rough, you'd much rather return to your most basic instincts

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-77145931173522473942007-03-17T00:46:00.000-07:002007-03-19T15:01:58.557-07:00

A "cold" front has come in about 18 hours ahead of schedule. The wind howling through our standing rigging woke Brady. Mostly it's just wet, but even 20ish knots makes a lot of noise, and we're rolling quite a bit with just over a foot under our keel. Oh, and there's lightning. No thunder, which means it's all out beyond the reef so far, but bright, strobe-white flashes in an otherwise black

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-58760829093361646902007-03-15T22:08:00.000-07:002007-03-19T15:01:12.976-07:00

Wow!! We buddied up with Sea Dragon last night on Ranguana over drinks. As soon as we saw her crew -- Captain Rick and his wife, Kathy -- we recognized them from the Rio! It is astounding how different boats look when they've pulled away from a dock; so much more beauty to behold of a vessel on open water. Rick and Kathy are "chartering" a couple friends, Jeff and Nicky, through the week. This

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-21371363751887129012007-03-14T20:03:00.000-07:002007-03-19T14:57:38.038-07:00

It sure is nice to be sailing again! We waited in Placencia through Monday for weather to settle down. Enjoyed a cero we caught on the trip from Punta Gorda for two nights; paid a brief visit to the Tipsy on Sunday to catch live music (heavy wind drove us anxiously back to the dink pier, from which we could keep an eye on the boat); provisioned ... By Tuesday we decided the wind wasn't letting

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-69235802351094778202007-03-10T00:30:00.000-08:002007-03-10T10:31:59.940-08:00

We are back in Placencia and will be staying through Sunday for Tipsy Tuna's live reggae/punta band, and then head out Monday morning. We haven't decided exactly where we're going yet but most likey we'll be staying in the southern cayes and attempt Glover's Reef and the Sapodillas in search of whale sharks. In about a month we are thinking of heading for the Bay Islands (Roatan, Utilla) of

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-42269334868645990362007-03-09T09:42:00.000-08:002007-03-10T10:11:24.966-08:00

We left Livingston yesterday afternoon with mixed feelings about our departure plan. Raul, our customs officer, printed "Big Creek" on our zarpe as our port of entry to Belize. He said the general consensus seemed to be this was an easier place to check in than Punta Gorda. This gave us two options: continue to Punta Gorda anyway, anchor overnight and check-in in the morning, taking the chance

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-21873026297044340412007-03-08T22:31:00.000-08:002007-03-10T10:14:02.223-08:00

While in Guatemala, we purchased a prepaid cell phone to make our phone calls, since the call rates via wireless service are such a great deal. Unfortunately, being taken up once again by the gorge as we exited the Rio and then having to deal with customs clearing out of Guatemala, we forgot to call several people we said we would ... By the time we realized, we had already sailed beyond service

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-68320415158747578632007-03-08T14:24:00.000-08:002007-03-10T10:17:26.520-08:00

We received the voltage regulator for our generator yesterday afternoon, and within a couple hours we had fixed our problem. Hoorah! Woke up this morning in no particular hurry, but we were -- as expected -- very anxious to get moving. Had our coffee, tidied up, filled our water tanks at Mario's "B" dock and started our not-so-lazy motor through El Golfete back toward Livingston. The jungle and

Bradytag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-63758821397124718252007-03-05T16:33:00.000-08:002007-03-06T12:24:09.777-08:00

Friday morning we headed back into the lake with SeaYeti. Our first stop was back to Denny's beach on the south side of the lake for swimming, frolicking and beer. We had the hammock hanging over the side and put God in it. He decided he did not want to be in the hammock and attempted to jump back onto the boat but missed completely, going into the drink. We quickly got him out and he was much

Tanya Katerinatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-36561815445132727022007-03-01T18:48:00.000-08:002007-03-06T12:11:40.083-08:00

ok..... I will attempt to recap the last week or so, but the events are a blur due to excessive alcohol, a dockside boat and heat-induced apathy. We had returned from our second trip into Lago de Izabal and were preparing to join our two buddy boats, Sonatina and Lysistrata, for the trip back to Belize. We woke the morning of departure to discover our generator is not outputting any voltage. We

Tanya Katerinatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-37560347316103388492007-02-06T13:08:00.000-08:002007-02-07T13:12:20.738-08:00

We left Mario's Marina alone and rather anxious because of all the horror stories we'd been told about the Rio and the Lake. We made our way to Denny's Beach, a small anchorage on the southeast corner of Izabal we'd been told would be safe. It was here we met our Brits, Peter and Theresa and Will and Jeanine. Over dinner and drinks we familiarized ourselves with everyone and swapped cruising

Tanya Katerinatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-59887121544311364882007-02-05T22:07:00.000-08:002007-02-07T16:24:34.371-08:00

We got a late start from our anchorage just outside of El Estor because Brady had to make a battery run into town. With our camera reloaded, we motored lazily along Izabal's north shore toward Finca de Paraiso, the working ranch through which we have to travel to reach Aguas Caliente. We anchored almost on top of the finca's lakeside cabanas and finished packing to head to the falls. Our gear

Tanya Katerinatag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36778089.post-50584398386158324592007-02-03T21:17:00.000-08:002007-02-07T13:06:44.360-08:00

Our daysail lasted just under two hours, and it was fantastic. However, with a dying wind and our Brits still behind exploring the tiny Rio Amatillo, we furled sail and turned around to meet up with them. A Guatemalan fish camp and what seems to be an abandoned hostel at the mouth of Amatillo were about the extend of our excitement on a brief dink ride up the little river. Trees grew right up to

Tanya Katerina