Hurricane Alley Again... Log October 20th 2010

This is the time of year when the weather is hot and still, and everyone is watching the Internet weather sites, waiting for the next hurricane to form.  

Hurricane season – watching and waiting We are doing some little boat projects but basically just trying to stay cool. Every day or two we take boat out for a run, to break in the engines. Our first baby step was a run around Calabash Bight. After running aground and backing off (embarrassing), we found that the starboard engine was vibrating like crazy. We returned to the dock and got Luven over to check on it. He aligned the shaft a little better and tightened the coupling. But there are 2 lock nuts missing – one from each engine. He is going to get them from the mainland – metric thread needed. Meanwhile we were grounded. 

An old sailing buddy emailed us – they were going to be in Roatan on a cruise ship, and would we be interested in taking them snorkeling – 6 people. We put the pressure on Luven to get the missing locknuts installed on the coupling while we prepared for the charter trip. It is a little cooler, but now since the weather broke it seems to be raining every day! But, on the day Joyce and her family arrived on the cruise ship, we got out the foulies and picked them up. 

While we were in Eldon’s picking up fresh provisions for our guests, we met up with Ikeman who had just returned from the fishing grounds. Apparently he had gotten thrown off the boat for something bad – he had 4 stitches in his hand. Anyway he looked pretty hungry and dirty from hitchhiking his way home from the Moskitia Coast. We bought him a sandwich from the deli and gave him money for collectivo taxi and water taxi home. 

We picked up our guests, and they had a nice island tour from Coxen Hole to Oakridge, where we jumped in the launch and drove through Oakridge and the bights to our Bight. 

We jumped on the cat and out we went in the rain to Pt Royal. The guests snorkeled in the rain at the cow and calf and had a blast.

Time went very fast though and we had to keep moving. We got back to Calabash by 1:30 and back to Oakridge, so we could get the guests back to the cruise ship. 

Times are tough this time of year for everyone – tourists and the small amount of income they provide for the locals are non existant, and this brings out the worst in people. One rainy Saturday night, Ed had to put a guy off the boat.  Ed was having one of those sleepless nights and was lying on the settee. About 1:30 AM, he noticed tall thin black guy in the cockpit, looking above the door at the shoes there. He thought it was our night watchee at first, but then realized it was a stranger. He got dressed, woke me up and got the rubber bullet gun. The guy had gone and sat behind the wheel, so Ed didn’t see him at first. Then he moved, and Ed asked him what the $%*# he was doing here. He said he was hungry, he was a poor fisherman from Helene,  did we have a piece of bread. Ed told him to get off the boat, otherwise he could get shot. He apologized profusely and took off.

Next morning, we noticed Doug’s boat on the dock in front of us had its companionway boards open. The guy had gone in the boat, tossed it, looking for whatever. Took out a battery and left it on the settee, presumably planning to come back after he tossed our boat.

There was blood all over the floor, bloody footprints leading into the boat, along the dock to our boat. Bloody shorts. Very weird. We cleaned up the mess, and as we were putting the companionway boards back in I noticed a black snake, all coiled up, on the coach roof. We got a long stick and Ed poked at it – it was dead – so he tossed it into the sea. That was weird. 

Cebert came to us first thing one morning looking for a favour. His dog was half dead from some infection in his neck. He had no money for the vet, or a ride. Could we take the dog. And pay for it. And by the way he didn’t want to come himself, not liking to ‘deal with these things’. He wanted to send his 12 year old son Scottie. We told him no, it was his dog so he must come himself, with us, and talk to the vet and make the decision to euthanize, or pay to fix it.

The vet gave the dog a shot, and left Cebert some antibiotics. After we paid the vet bill, we delivered him and the dog home.

The dog died anyway, the next day. 

We had a busy week getting ready for our first Cruise Ship charter. Fifteen for snorkeling at Port Royal.

Ikeman worked with us in between rain showers  and the rain stopped enough for us to send Ed up the mast again to replace the VHF antenna, and tape up the spreader boots. Ikeman worked for three days at cleaning the entire exterior of the boat – a big job. By day 14 of pretty steady rain we decided to take the boat for a spin anyway. It wasn’t looking good for waiting for sun, and we wanted to get the engines broken in before our charter. We took Cebert with us to Port Royal again – the wind was still from the north and strong, but it at least it wasn’t actually raining.

When we were in Port Royal, Ed put the engine in reverse to turn the boat, and the shaft pulled out of the engine! The engine was vibrating like crazy. The nuts had loosened off the coupling. But the shaft did not pull right out – luckily the rudder stops it. We motored back on the other good engine.

Luven came over the next  morning and fixed the shaft coupling – he had neglected to put on a lock washer and loctite. Sigh! No damage to the shaft or prop, thankfully. 

We continued to go for day trips, and practiced docking in Oakridge at Miss Claire’s dock. Thursday’s big charter was fast approaching.

On Monday, Hurricane Paula formed from a Tropical Storm just off the Honduran coast. Luckily it was heading north and would miss us totally. Unfortunately, as I was meeting with Chena to come up with the charter menu we received an email from our cruise ship agents. The cruise ship was not able to come to Roatan due to the hurricane which was now in Cozumel, and so the charter was cancelled! 

Rats. All that work and anticipation for nothing. Never mind, I guess that’s the business we’re in.