Log April 15th 2008 "New Home"

Our target date for leaving Mango Creek lodge was April 1st and Julie & I were panicking trying to find time for all the work we had to complete just to move the boats.

First I wanted both engines to be fully working on the Cat. Both engines had been given valve jobs but still there were issues. The starboard engine was leaking around the transmission seals and the oil in the transmission had turned milky white (Not a good thing!). The port engine was leaking engine oil into the bilge (also not a good thing).

Luven and Walter to the rescue. I ordered in parts from the US and within a week we had the seal. Since the engines had "v" drives they both had to be lifted off their engine beds to get the work done. The oil pan gasket on the port engine was replaced. Also we got one alternator working and replaced worn out heaters. Both props were taken in to be serviced by a prop specialist.

Both of our second-hand sails had arrived. New sails would have been about $4k each and we knew from experience that used sails could be bought that would probably be almost as good as new. The trick would be to find them about the right size. After about 2 months of surfing the net I finally ordered a jib and a mainsail. Each sail was $800 plus shipping.

The jib fit great. It was about 8" short on the overall height but that was better than being too long.  The main however turned out to be about 6" too long. We piled it into a wheelbarrow, and up it went to Julie's sail loft in the cottage. After an afternoon of both machine sewing and hand stitching it was fixed.

In between all the work on the cat we made it to the Rodeo(shopping down island) three or four times. We reprovisioned our food, hit all the hardware stores one last time and picked up more gear we had ordered through Jackson’s Shipping. We had been steadily bringing all our stuff out of the casita. The mountain of foam – mattresses and cushions – had been moved into the cat – the mattresses fit into the ‘clean area’ in the port fwd cabin, and all the rolls of fabric and the salon cushions had to go in the crew quarters on the stb side. They all just barely fit. Jake, our 17 year old helper, must have made a million trips up and down the 80 or so stairs to the casita.

Then there was Free Radical to get shipshape. I worked diligently for days getting the refrigeration working. One started up fine, the other took several days of babysitting. We moved out our clothes, big TV all our "stuff" aboard – the boat looked like a bomb hit it. Jake spent three afternoons scraping barnacles off the bottom – we need to get hauled out very soon!

The new managers for the lodge, Kevin & Amy, arrived March 26. We spent some time training with them, but we were on a schedule that was coming at us quicker and quicker.

Once it had been announced that we would be leaving Mango Creek as managers we were offered opportunities to work and/or move our boats too. One was next door as caretakers....a dock, power and water, a casita to live in and $1300 a month. We decided that working would interfere with boat building. A free mooring ball on the east end of the bay at Al Western and his wife Jeanette's......with Pam and Graham there as caretakers. A really nice offer, but alas too far from town. A free dock two houses down......no power, though and again too far from town for our little dinghy. And last but not least Peter Davis offered us a dock in Calabash Bight at the old Tropical Beach Resort, with power, water, and a cottage with air-conditioning and flat screen TV..... we could dinghy easily inside the reef to town for supplies....... we took the offer. 

Waiting until the wind died down, it turned out that Thursday April 3 was ‘move the boats’ day. A big event. Granger really wanted to come and help, so he delayed going down island for lodge supplies. Jake was in to help, and we got Randy and Miguel with the panga as back up in case the cat gave us a problem.  It was a bit squally, but the weather cleared up fine and there was no wind to make tying up more complicated.

We fired up the cat and got all the anchor lines pulled in, and took off for Calabash. It is only a short distance - a couple of miles - west along the south shore of Roatan and into the next Bight. The Catamaran ran like a charm but I was a little afraid we would run out of fuel before we got there. Docking went off without a hitch. We got tied up fine, with Randy and Miguel on the dock to catch lines. Peter was there to welcome us. We got the cat secured and took off right away in the panga again to Port Royal.

We got out to Free Radical with Jake, and moved that boat over to Calabash – tied the bow alongside the end of the dock and ran lines and anchors out. Both boats ended up on the same dock.

April 4th it was back to work on the Spirit again. I picked up Jake at his house up the Bight and we fired up the Honda generator for power. The dock was so new there was no power or water yet.

Julie and Jake got busy sanding down the starboard side of the cat's interior and taping off for the big painting job on all the cabinetry. I on the other hand busied myself with the refrigeration woodwork.

Soon it was time to start using up some of the $3000 worth of Acrylic window material we had brought down from Florida. I decided to train Jake how to cut the stuff and install it. We started with the Acrylic mirror sheet. Pieces were cut out and contact cemented to the cabinet doors for each head. There were 8 pieces and when the glue set we routered  each piece perfectly. Except unfortunately the cement reacted to the mirror foil! We lost the whole batch and the days labour ....shit......

The next day we were right back at it again. This time Jake & I started replacing the acrylic in the opening ports. Success.... we got 2 done the first day then 4 more the day after. Meanwhile Julie was busy with her major paint job down the starboard hull.

Somewhere in there we got familiar with our new surroundings. Peter would be on his way to Chicago in a couple of days and he found the time between organizing building contractors to show us around. (Peter is completely renovating this resort - upgrading the restaurant and cabanas, planning a swimming pool and landscaping and buying adjacent properties to expand the place). He gave us keys to the restaurant and had a fridge cleaned out for us to use, showed us how to work the cooking facilities and coffee machine, and where the washing machine was. He introduced us to Seabert, the watchman and "Stupid" the little island dog, gave us keys to the cabana and showed us how to operate the air conditioner and TV. Then he was off to Chicago. There is also a family here originally from England, who live ashore and act as caretakers and will do the dive operation when the time comes for the resort. There is Dave, his wife Kate, 4 kids, two dogs, a cat, two parrots (one blind) and a spider monkey in the entourage. The two dogs were pretty vicious at first, barking and snapping at us, but we won them over with ginger snaps and now they guard our boats just like their own home.

A short dinghy ride away is the town of Oakridge where we can get all our grocery supplies, most hardware and construction materials and go hang out at BJ's bar if we want. It's a pretty good setup. Two or three times a week somebody from Port Royal shows up on their skiffs and asks if we need anything down island or would we like to go with them. So far this has worked great and we don't need for anything. We even have free WiFi (as long as the power is not out on the island, that is!) so we can connect to the Internet. The honda generator finally conked out though, but Luven came to the rescue and lent us a 300' extension cord which we ran to Dave's house for power until the contractors can run power and water out to this dock. We eat our meals on the boat still, and each evening we have an early dinner and take our backpacks ashore with our change of clothes to sleep in the air conditioned cabana, returning early the next morning to continue work on the cat.

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