Newsletter April 2004

"We just don’t get tired of having fun! "

The spring flotilla has arrived, or so we call it. Pipe Dream, in the company of eight other boats, has arrived in the Bay Islands of Honduras. For those of you who are landlocked a flotilla is a bunch of boats traveling together. If we were winter visitors to Arizona traveling in motor homes we would be called a caravan. After a 30 hour sail from the Vivorillo Cays we entered the island of Guanaja through an opening in the coral reef. This reef pushes back the sea and gives boaters a ¼ mile waterway around the island and provides protection from the surf. Guanaja’s water is pristine and crystal clear. On the way in Jutta and I caught a Barracuda and we filled the freezer with fresh fish. Life doesn’t get any better than this! The flotilla anchored at Josh’s Cay, and we were greeted by Graham, the owner. Graham lives on the Cay and has a restaurant, a small hotel and, of course, a bar. He offered us free ice, water, and a free washer and dryer. You have no idea how excited we get over a washer and dryer. If you are wondering how we normally wash clothes on Pipe Dream: We use three large plastic buckets and a toilet plunger and then hang all the clothes in the rigging which makes Pipe Dream look like a Chinese laundry. Many of you know how I can agitate a crowd; you should see me agitate a bucket of clothes. This was Semana Santa or Easter week, and we spent four days anchored in front of Josh’s Cay enjoying the beach, the bar and camaraderie of other boaters. Graham’s place was packed with local families enjoying the holiday. For those of you in Yuma, a Cay is a piece of land surrounded by water.
The Monday morning after Easter we bid farewell to Graham and sailed out into the blue waters of the northwest Caribbean bound for Roatan Island. The crew of Pipe Dream has finally reached a point in the Caribbean where we can travel from island to island and do it all in day hops. No more overnighters for a while until we reach the north end of Belize. Roatan, the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras, is located about 40 miles north of the Honduran coast. The language is English, which makes it easy. The British owned the islands before they gave it back to Honduras. Most of the original inhabitants are descendants of pirates and runaway slaves. Because of this, Roatan’s bays (called bights) have wonderful names like Calabash Bight, Fiddlers Bight, Hog Pen Bight, French Cay, and Coxen Hole, to name a few. Again the water is clear and the people are friendly.
Since the crew of Pipe is on vacation 365 days a year, we watch our money and always try to save a buck when ever we can. We found out we could buy beer by the case at the local distributor at a great savings. Jutta and I purchased 5 cases of “Salva Vida” beer (“life saver” in Spanish). The taxi dropped us and the beer off at the French Harbor Yacht Club which sits on top of a hill overlooking the harbor. From there to the dingy dock we had to walk about 80 steps down the hill. While walking down carrying all the beer, the plastic shrink wrap around the cases came apart sending beer cans tumbling in all directions. You can just imagine the sight, beer cans rolling away, spewing geysers of beer with Jutta and me running after them, while getting drenched with beer. When the “Coxen Hole Beer Barrel Roll” was over and the final tally taken, we decided it would have been cheaper to buy the beer at the grocery store one can at a time. Some days it just doesn’t pay to get out of bed.
The crew of Pipe Dream gunk holed around Roatan before hoisting the sails and heading for the island of Utila at the western end of the Bay Islands. Gunk holing is moving from bay to bay and dropping the hook (anchor), “sailor talk”, arg! Utila is the smallest island in the chain and the cleanest. Everywhere there are garbage cans. I don’t know where the trash goes but I live by the premise, “what I don’t know won’t hurt me! It might be floating on the other side of the island. While anchored in Utitla Jutta and I planned our route to Belize. The trip was going to take us 12 to 14 hours if we went direct, by-passing stops on Honduras mainland. We needed to reach the reef at mid morning so we could read the water and see the coral heads and shallow bars with the sun behind us. We thought our overnighters were done but we decided to go the direct route. One more time we headed out to sea at seven in the evening. We should have known it was not going to be a fun trip since the wind had been howling for two days. Our passage was another one of those bone crushers with a heavy following sea and twenty five to thirty knots of wind. It is really scary to sail at night and to see 10 foot waves cresting above the stern of the boat (stern is the back, “mo” sailor talk.)
The coral reef protecting the eastern shore of Belize is approximately 180 miles long, the second largest barrier reef after the one in Australia, with about 10 or 12 breaks in the reef for a boat to enter safely. A vessel can enter the opening in the reef in blue water 1000 foot deep and be immediately in 12 feet of water and be looking at the bottom. This really gets your attention. If there’s a big swell at sea you will be surfing down breaking waves going through the cut in the reef. As you can tell from reading this newsletter we made it through, and this is not one of those tragic sea stories. Jutta and I will stay one month in Belize gunk holing from cay to cay. Each cay or island is about one to 8 miles apart. A few hours a day is being spent refinishing the teak trim on Pipe Dream which is looking in need of a little TLC. The rest of the day is spent snorkeling the reefs and diving for conch. I make the best conch fritters you have ever tasted; and my lobster piri piri is no pushover either. Who said you couldn’t live off of the land, um, excuse me, sea?
Well, that about sums up the dull boring days of the zany crew of Pipe Dream. We will reach Florida at the end of June and put Pipe Dream to bed in a nice marina for a few months. There will only be a few more newsletters this season. Jutta and I will travel by plane to Arizona and California to visit our kids and try to pick up a few extra bucks mowing lawns, raking leaves, or collecting aluminum cans to fund next season’s cruising budget. We are still looking for a good used grocery shopping cart to push around this summer. If everyone had sent their dollars to the “HFCF” (Help Ferdy Cruising Fund) Jutta and I would not be so destitute today. Remember the Army needs a few good men; Pipe Dream needs a couple of bucks!

From the decks of Pipe Dream
Ferdy and Jutta