Nov 07 Update Hello Everyone, Just a little check in to let everyone know how we are doing. I know it has been awhile since we have been in touch, the summer flew by too quickly and we managed to pack ourselves with house chores and repairs while we were home in San Diego. We visited family and were so surprised how quickly the time went. We were sorry to not have hooked up with more of our friends. Sorry if we missed you this time around. We arrived back to Managua, Nicaragua on Nov. 16th, and stayed at the Best Western across the street from the airport. This was a great way to go because the concierge met us at the airport and shuttled us thru the immigration and customs agents like we were royalty. We didn't have to stand in line and the greatest thing was that none of our 300 pounds of boat stuff and parts were even checked. So we did not have to pay duty on anything, which is always something we worry about. We then rented a 4 wheel drive with a driver for $125 to take us to the marina which is about 4 hours of driving and many pot holes later. We had the driver stop at many stores along the way, including the Price Smart to load up on supplies and food for the boat. The car was stuffed to the rim with all of our luggage and food, we were sure glad that we had enough room to fit everything. We are here in the beautiful marina of Puesta del Sol on the Pacific side of Nicaragua, doing all of our boaty chores. We have rigged all the sails back up and did some mast head repair. Gary successfully repaired the water maker this time and it was a good thing we brought it home with us on our last trip only to find they had installed a wrong part from the factory. We should get better water output now and we have just about every spare part necessary!

We managed to locate and install 4 new marine batteries since ours finally
died. Now we have a solar panel that has given us grief and decided to die
as well. So we had to wait for the factory to re-open after the
Thanksgiving holiday. Yesterday we were in touch with the Kyocera solar
factory and they will ship a new solar panel to us under the 25 year
warranty and decided to go ahead and replace the other one just in case it
decides to die sometime in the future. How is that for customer service!
We are just waiting to see if FedX International will be able to ship
directly to the marina without much hassle from customs. We should know in
the next day or two how much time this will take. So meanwhile, we are just
about all put back together except we have no refrigeration running while we
are only bringing in half of our amps. It is just enough to run the
computer, lights and stereo.

We came back to a pretty clean boat thanks to our buddies on Hurrah who were
keeping an eye on things. We didn't have too much mildew this time around
and thank God for no bats! We were gone for about 4 ½ months. Our only
minor complaint is that it is sugar cane burning season and we are raining
black ash everywhere! We have to keep all the screens up all the time cause
of all the ash that would otherwise pour inside the boat. We unpacked our
300 pounds of stuff and amazed ourselves at finding places to put
everything. I know I won't be able to find it all when we need it, but it
is here somewhere on the boat.

Other than that it is beautiful here in paradise with mild weather and cool
breezes at night. We have been meeting a whole new parade of boats passing
through the marina and unfortunately leaving us behind. We are anxious to
get on the move, but must sit here and wait for our solar panels. So we hang
out and keep doing our boat chores and enjoying ourselves at the pool. I
know it sounds rough.

We finally went to the beach yesterday and did some body surfing which was
fun. We decided that this place is not such a bad place to hang out and
wait. There is a great surf break nearby but the surf is small right now.
Nearby is a beautiful white sandy beach with a great swimming pool and
palapa. There is a big Sailfish and Marlin fishing tournament event planned
for this weekend. They are expecting 30 - 40 big power fishing boats! It
should be a loud, crazy, power infested weekend. We will just have to join
the group and get drunk with the rest of the crazy power boaters! Our
neighbor is in the Flora de Cano Rum family and they sure do like to drink!
They have been flying in groups with helicopters ushering people into this
place.

Anyway, all else is well and we look forward to getting under way as soon as
we can.

Keep in touch,
Celeste and Gary

 

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