Archive for the ‘Western Caribbean’ Category
On to Guatemala
Monday, May 26th, 2014
Tuesday, 20 May 2014
After a few relaxing days at El Bight I decided to head directly for Livingston at the entrance to the Rio Dulce.
The weather forecast showed settled weather for the next three days and it seemed like a good idea to take advantage of it. So I moved Speedwell back to Bonacca to clear out, spent the last of my Lempiras on beer and junk food and left early on Tuesday morning.
There was no wind till the afternoon and I was begining to think I’d be motoring all the way and might need more fuel. I wondered about stopping at one of the anchorages on Roatan to fill up with diesel.
But then it started to blow and I kept going. Pretty good most of the way apart from occasional fierce squalls. The last night, approaching Tres Puntas, was particularly bad. Very dark. Enormous looming clouds. Heavy rain. I hove to to allow the squalls to pass and stop the rain coming straight down the companionway. The Samsung tablet was working if I kept it plugged in which was a great help as I was worried about shoals and reefs.
There was a lot of big ship traffic and, disappointingly, the AIS did not see as many of them as I did. Arrived at the anchorage at Tres Puntas at dawn. A massive container ship had just altered course to avoid me and another was approaching between me and the coast. Unbelievably heavy rain hid the shore. I found a place to anchor feeling beyond exhausted. I had been awake, except for two or three 20 minute catnaps for nearly 2 days. The anchorage looked terrible with a squally wind making a lee shore. Garbage floated in the water. I had no other option, so dropped the anchor in 3m and let out 40m of chain and slept for a few hours.
When I woke up I was feeling a bit more human, the wind had gone north-easterly again, the water was calm, two swallows swooped and flitted inspecting the rigging and the world looked beautiful.
It is about 10 miles across the bay to Livingston and I wanted to arrive there with a rising tide to help me get across the shallow bar at the entrance to the river. I spent the night comfortably anchored at Tres Puntas. Next day it was a perfect little sail across and although the wind had picked up somewhat when we got to the shallow bit and thngs were quite hectic, we made it safely in with 30cm to spare under the keel.
I anchored as close as I dared to the town dock and hoisted a yellow flag. There was no response to my radio call to the Port Captain but after a few hours a launch came alongside with about 10 people on board armed with official forms. They wisely chose not to board Speedwell and I passed my documents across. Details were recorded and I was told to come ashore next morning to pick up my cruising permit and hand over 1200 Quetzales.
I was in Guatemala.