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| Cheers, we are happy to be back on board Songerie again. |
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| Birthday girl at the head table. |
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| A tasty traditional soup, Sancocho, was serve,before the fun started. |
Shortly after our arrival back on board Songerie, we joined a Guatemalan birthday party at Marina Gysa. From early morning all her aunts and their friends arrived to prepare for the party. The party comprises of a birthday girl dressed in a white-princesslike-satin-dress, balloons, food, cold drinks, cake and the traditional piñata.
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| Dad guiding the piñata with a rope, making it more difficult to be hit. Any willing body, from children to grand parents get a turn hitting the piñata. |
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| Havoc broke loose when old and young "fight" for candy after a successful hit broke the piñata! |
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| Elaborate sweet birthday cake. |
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| Back on-board, Canela always keeping an eye on the cook. |
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| Chaos in the saloon, when Jaco have to inspect the oil pan...right at the bottom of the engine. |
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| At long last the new pan. |
Our first project involved hoisting the 200 kg-plus engine to inspect the oil pan. Weighing all our options (among other things, ordering a new one for U$600 ect), Jaco decided best is to make a new oil pan in stainless steel. Back home (Africa) this is a small job, Here in Central America it involves twice, 8 to 16 hours bus drives to and from the capital organizing the argon gas tank to be filled, waiting about 3 weeks, etc, etc,
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| Fitting the new perfect oil pan! |
Regular BBQ's with sailor friends, from all over the globe, kept us sane while struggling with boat jobs! (Varnish and paint the saloon, fixing/welding the stainless steel frame, constructing a new lazarette and repaint the cockpit)
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| 10 man life raft |
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| Entrance. |
Our life raft (10 man-far to big for only 2 people.) has expired 6 years ago and can be dangerous being too big for only 2 pax. We decided to deploy the life raft to test it. (In future our new Caribbe dingy with grab-bag and fishing rod will be our life raft.)
It inflated very well, but due to continuous rubbing at spots, it deflated after 10 minutes.
We also found a note INSIDE saying no food included -we must take extra!
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| Inside. |
Above is the video of the life raft. Click on play to start the video.
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Swop old inflatable dingy for this big compass. (due to aging eyesight, we needed a bigger compass)
Martin and Carlien- we have something from 'Anna Laura' to always remember you! |
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| Water lillies at Gysa |
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| Jaco bringing the new dingy home. |
We bought from SV 'Motu' their old Caribbe dingy. It is big enough to replace both Jaco's beloved walkerbay and the old inflatable dingy.
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| There goes Hans with our beloved walkerbay! |
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| Songerie on anchor in front of Mar Marine. |
At last, on anchor again! When most maintenance was done we moved around the Rio Dulce, exploring the different anchor spots.
One weekend we hosted Doug, a Brazilian cyclist, on-board Songerie. This included a BBQ with SV Lela and SV Sea lion... the Jazz trio of the Dulce!
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| A perfect get together with great friends. |
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| How privileged can one be... great musicians (Titou and Damian) plying ONLY for us! |
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| An unforgettable Sunday. |
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| Ciao Doug, its been great hosting you! (Our new dingy can take 2 bicycles at once!) |
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| Our favourite Guatemalan coffee shop, San Martin in Guatemala city. |
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| Special breakfast for Christelle's birthday. |
I chose to visit Guatemala city on my birthday, to escape the Dulce heat. Jaco treated me to an excellent breakfast, shopping at the second hand clothing shop: super Paka then dined and wined the rest of the day.
Jacques and Annette (SV Panache) invited us (and the dogs) to join them on a day-trip celebrating her birthday. After a lovely breakfast we embarked on a mini-van taxi ride to the Finca El Paraiso cascades. A cool water river traversing the Guatemalan jungle and drops 12 meter to a clear deep pool. The hot water falls temperature being perfect. Standing underneath it is to give your shoulders and back a constant hot-water massage. Above the waterfall following the trail is the source of the hot water spring.
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| Sailing on a rainy day... |
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| Shake down cruise to Cayo Quemado. |
When most boat work were finished, we sailed to Cayo Quemado testing all the new fittings.
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| Jaco crewed on a Chillian boat, for the thanksgiving regatta. |
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| Ready for Anita and Joep's visit! |
