I'd like to stay we tried to help. Sometimes it doesn't work out that way. The plan was help get Juan's dog steralized so she wouldn't go into heat and have puppies. Melly is only 7 months and she was still young enough for the surgery. The problem is finding vets who use the correct sutures and medicine. We won't get into the whole issue with anathesia because what they use down here is pretty risky and a gringo vet who works in San Juan del Sur won't even perform the operation until his machine arrives from the states. So we did some research and found a vet who answered our questions with the right words.

However after the surgery we found he used the wrong type of sutures (silk) which in a couple of days had caused a bad infection. Since Juan didn't have a clean envirnment for the dog to recover from, we moved Melly into our house. She's had 3 minor operations to try to clean up and repair the damage from the infection and the sutures and she's finally closing up and 3 weeks later she is almost ready for the stiches to come out. She's a happy a puppy and LOVES playing with her new bigger buddie Lilly (Scott and Liz's dog).

After many years, we finally had the chance to refinish our floors. It's one of those jobs you just can't do while living on the boat, especially with cats jumping all over the place.

I'm really disappointed in the results; you really can't see a difference at all between the "Before" and "After" photos....

An aging and neglected 38 foot Alajuela has been moored in San Juan del Sur for several years. At one time it was probably a beautiful boat, but lacking attention for a few years it quickly deteriorated. The owner paid someone to watch the boat nightly and it was cleaned once in a while, but on 4th of this month everything changed.

In broad daylight the mooring chain parted and Ivy Rose broke free. Dragging the mooring chain along, Ivy Rose began a slow drift towards the beach and the pounding surf. This short trip lasted about 20 to 30 minutes but the struggle to save the boat would go on for days. Our friend and boat guardian, Juan, saw the boat drifting and ran to inform the Port Captain. He just shrugged and said it�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s not his responsibility. When I asked him later why nothing was done he just rubbed his fingers together in a universal gesture for �?¢â�??¬�?�??pay me.�?¢â�??¬ Juan also asked the Navy to do something and they just said it wasn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t their responsibility either. Many people who could have done something, didn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t. And Ivy Rose slowly flung her aging body into the surf.

When the boat reached the surf it was quickly pushed up on to the beach as large waves broke over the decks. At this point another cruiser arrived on the scene along with several locals and they began putting together a plan to pull the boat off the beach. Unfortunately a very drunk expat arrived on the scene claiming to be a friend of the owner (who was still 2 hours away by car) and tried to take over. He paid some guys in a panga to pull the boat using their little 40 horse power engine. About this time I heard about the boat and showed up to witness this panga pulling and Jim (the other cruiser) and the owner�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s brother-in law on the boat trying to arrange the tow lines. It was quite clear that they were underpowered and needed more pulling power before the tide started to drop.


Locals were volunteering their help, including ropes and a larger boat, but this guys �?¢â�??¬�?�??friend�?¢â�??¬ refused anyone and even told a smaller boat to go away. Needless to say their efforts failed and many of the locals were pissed because the gringos wouldn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t listen to them. Unfortunately they couldn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t understand the English well enough to see that the gringos were pissed at the drunk guy who had taken control of the scene. We can only assume that he was trying to salvage the boat for himself because it turned out the owners couldn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t remember ever knowing this guy.

Surprisingly the boat survived the pounding, loosing the dinghy, the dodger and other things on the deck. There was a big hole in the deck from where a stove pipe used to be, along with a few other leaks that couldn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t hold back the tons of sea water being dumped on the decks every 40 seconds. Laden with water there was no way to get it off the beach. So a team of volunteers, including ourselves, set to emptying the boat of water and removing everything that didn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t float. We scrambled for hours. The owner rented a gas pump and they set to work emptying the boat while we tried to remove gear and garbage. Once the boat was clear of water there was very little time to locate the leaks and try to fix them.


High tide was in the dark, and of course it was raining. But the owner got a bigger boat (the guy who tried to help in the first night but was chased off by the greedy gringo). This boat hooked up and began pulling. They managed to get the stern pointed back towards the waves and the boat started to float up off the beach, however the constant waves managed to fill the boat and it was soon wallowing and impossible to move. The little wooden tug boat pulled and pulled for hours, but the boat was too heavy. So it was left again to suffer another night in the surf.

By this time I figured the boat was lost. There was no way it would survive grinding sand and pounding waves for three days. But when I went back down there at the next low tide, I was shocked to find that a group of nicas had completely emptied the boat of water already using just buckets. The same group of people were there helping to the boat ready for another pounding. Our goal this time was to make the boat water tight. Someone had found foam, plywood, screws and nails. I set to work fabricating covers and gaskets with foam for the blown out instruments and ripped out winches. I couldn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t believe how tough this boat was and I along with others became driven to save it. The boat was so strong that it broke 3 drill bits, it bent just about every nail I tried to pound into it and it withstood the intense pounding that the ocean was giving it. It was incredible. Imagine not being able to pound a nail into the fiberglass; this boat was solid.

With literally minutes to spare I made covers for some the holes and we sealed up the boat, jumped off and kept our fingers crossed it would stay dry until high tide. After three days of heavy work, I really wanted to get back to working on our boat and I didn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t hold out much hope the little tug would have enough power to drag the boat off the beach since it had worked it�?¢â�??¬â�??¢s way further on shore each day.

We were just getting ready to do some varnishing on our boat when we noticed the tug seemed to be moving Ivy Rose slightly. At first it seemed impossible, so we stared and stared. Then it seemed to move again. The waves were crashing over the boat and the boat started to ride them �?¢â�??¬â�?��? the patches were holding! Bit by bit the little tug pulled the sailboat through the raging surf with two very crazy Nicas clinging to the mast. White water and spray completely buried the boat and I thought those patches weren�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t going hold.

Damn if that tug didn�?¢â�??¬â�??¢t do it. The tug drug Ivy Rose out of the surf and into open water! We cheered from our boat and rushed down to the docks to try to get a ride out to the boat to help bail. In no time I had the 10 inches or so of water out of the boat with a 5 gallon bucket. A pump was brought down to empty the water out of the bilges and now the boat is back out at anchor waiting for space in the boat yard. I still can't get over how tough that boat was, it became something we had to try to save and we did it!

We’re in the SW corner of Nicaragua and sometimes hurricanes cross over from the Carribean and come to the pacific side as a storm.  Hurricane Felix hit the NE corner of Nicaragua as a Category 5 (nastiest of the bunch -- imagine a 160 mph breeze) and is heading across the country into Honduras.  Since that area remembers Hurricane Mitch from 10 years ago which killed over 11,000 people, they didn’t waste any time in trying to get people out of the way.

So far no fatalities have been reported, but they are just now starting to get soaked with rain.  And they are going to get a lot of rain.  Hopefully luck will hold out for Nicaragua and Honduras.

I don’t think we’ll see much here in San Juan del Sur, maybe a rain band or two but that’s par for the course this time of year anyway.

Well, I took the rudder off the boat along with the assocated parts. Then I took my $250 worth of new metal to make some nice new pins to the house. When I sat down with the parts I found out to my horror the new metal is the wrong size. So now I can't lathe a larger pin. There's no way to get this metal down here, so I've been waylaid again.

On the plus side, we took a 8 hour bus trip to Puntarenas, Costa Rica for a mad search for more boat supplies and Science Diet cat food. Luck was finally with me as the little hotel we picked out from the guidebook was not more than 2 blocks from everything we needed to buy. And we found just about everything I've been searching for! We came back into Nicaragua with 40 pounds of cat food and about 50 pounds of boat crap.

So the slow yard work continues. I've fiberglassed the bow fitting back in and gel-coated it. Now I just need to repair the outside, and decide what to do about the rudder. Of course there are tons of other things that need to be done and only about 2 more months to do it!

One thing that's cool about the yard is there are lots of geckos who hang out and eat the bugs on our boat. Now we have our own personal bug repellants.

While we're adjusting to live in our little rented house (with the white bars in front)
Other animals are adjusting to us being here. We've had land-crabs wander in, other cats, geckos, monster sized moths, huge spiders and even a chicken came to see us. Somethings haven't changed much, the cats still sleep a lot (when they're not chasing crabs, cats, geckos, moths, spiders or chickens).
I've been struggling to find the parts and supplies I need to work on the boat and I'm starting go a little batty. At least the slow paced life here won't stress us out. The traffic in front of our house can be a little slow, but it moseys on by....

Jordan has been enjoying living in a house. She's found having water pressure means she can drink directly from the sink -- great, right?

She's also been busy killing the local wildlife:

Mouse - 0, Cat - 1
Cockroaches - 0, Cat - 20+
Gecko - 0, Cat - 1
Parrot - 0, Cat - 1

All that death, sigh. And we've been keeping the little monster locked up inside at night too!

When we hauled the boat out, there was signs that some water was getting into a fitting on the bow where water shouldn't be getting in. Being the ever paranoid freak that I am, I decided to rip out the fitting and see what is going on inside. Because if this thing failed, the mast could fall.
Unfortunately that meant grinding out itchy fiberglass in the bow of the boat where our bed and clothes are stored. So we had to clear everything out (see the piles of stuff on the sides) and tape up a plastic barrier to contain the itchy dust.
Then inside the bow, I created a second plastic barrier to block the dust and direct it out of the boat.

After a full days worth of preparation and about 60 minutes with a grinder the piece was ground out and free from the hull. The fitting was pretty rusty but still solid. There was some slight pitting in the metal that is the beginning of bad news, so rather than risk it, we bought some metal in Managua and found a great machine shop to fabricate a replacement.
You can see the open slot in the hull where the fitting goes through. Over the last 30 years the bedding compound had failed and let water in. So now it will be new, well sealed and I'll fiberglass it in strong! Better than new. But this three week long project wasn't on the original plan and I've still got many other big things to take care of...oh well that's life in the yard.

After getting a second opinion on the stone and having more tests, I went into surgery the next day to have it removed via an endoscopy technique because the stone looked too big to pass. The surgeon removed the stone successfully and installed a stint that runs from my kidney into the bladder. Surprisingly after the surgery my kidney no longer hurt. I can only hope this is the last time I ever have to deal with this again.

Other than dealing with my kidney we haven't done much. Hopefully when I'm feeling better we can get back to our lives and get some things done! Who would have thought cruising would mean learning so many technical medical words in a foreign language?

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