Angry clouds

Guatemala Cruise Day 4: The sea was angry that day, my friends

After all the perfect weather we'd had so far on this trip, it seemed like a cruel joke to wake up early this morning to dark, threatening skies and high wind. I guess it had to happen, right? I awoke when the engines cranked up before 5 am, and I believe we pulled away from the dock at Abelle's boat yard a little before 5:30, a bit later than Simon had planned for. (I figured that late night the night before was going to have some fallout!)

Surprisingly, even with the loud drone of the engine, we were so tired that we managed to doze off and on until around 6 am, I guess it was, before going out on deck and surveying what Mother Nature had in store for us on this last, long day on the water, as we made our way back from Rio Dulce to Placencia, Belize. Captain Simon was not a happy camper, as the winds had been gusting up to 30 knots (on our nose again as the winds had shifted around to the northeast), and he was concerned that conditions would deteriorate further once we got out of the calm river and into the sea.


Lush rainforest along the river banks

The closer we got to Livingston and open water, the rougher it became. The wind continued to blow hard, and s/v Hope began hobby-horsing and rolling around in the building surf. We knew we were in for a real doozy of a day at sea.


You can see how rough the river was starting to get as we got closer to Livingston

As we drew closer to the dock at Livingston where we needed to check out of Guatemala with Customs and Immigration, Simon realized that it was chock-a-block full of boats that didn't dare venture out in the rough conditions. We'd have to anchor out and send in the dinghy to check out, since there was no room for another boat, particularly one of Hope's size, at the dock. Needless to say, he wasn't happy about this. If the anchor didn't set properly, the stiff winds could easily blow s/v Hope into other boats on the dock. This was one of the many times on this cruise I was relieved to be on someone else's boat. These kinds of situations are nerve-racking enough even for those of us not ultimately responsible for the boat, but for a captain, they are really stressful, since it is his responsibility to keep the boat and its crew safe from harm.


Rough conditions near Livingston, Guatemala

Our work in Livingston done, it was time to haul up the anchor and make our way to the sea. The wind had not relented much at all. Several of us took some preventative less-drowsy Dramamine just in case. Although I rarely get seasick, I could already tell that my tummy was feeling just a little "off" for the first time on this trip. The "motion of the ocean" made everything more difficult today -- from walking around the salon and cockpit, to using the head, to getting food or filling a water bottle. Even reading, for most of us, was out of the question. Ruthie, the lucky gal, was the only one who seemed to be able to read and do pretty much everything else with nary an issue. Simon forbade anyone from going forward to the bow due to conditions.


Photos never do a good job at capturing sea state -- it was rocking and rolling out there with numerous whitecaps

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Even with the medicine, I was feeling a bit queasy and kept eating saltine crackers in an attempt to keep my stomach calm. A couple of times I thought I was going to be sick, but I just kept staring at the horizon, and the feeling would pass. I had to stop moving around, though, and just sit very still.

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Since we were running behind schedule, Simon told us he would only anchor for about an hour in Placencia to make it easier to eat dinner. Then we would continue motoring through the night to San Pedro. We pulled out most of what was left in the fridge and had a large buffet so that we could eat up as much of the food as possible, since this would be our last dinner on board. We still had a lot of Ruthie's delicious Italian Sunday Gravy pasta dish and various cheeses. Unfortunately we were very low on bread as much of it had molded along the way. But there were plenty of Ruthie's high-test brownies, so no one went hungry.

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