Scroll down to see all pictures In October we got our engine back- rebuilt!! We were so excited to get it running again, but then discovered the starter was bad. We’ve had starter problems before, and had the dang thing rebuilt in May. But it had to come out again and Rudy sent it to a shop in Guatemala City, who really rebuilt it! On October 26 Rudy had everything put back together and we started our new Bukh engine! Yeah!! Alas we celebrated prematurely. When Rudy was unable to bleed the air out of the fuel line, he checked the fuel lift pump. Sure enough, there was a tear in the diaphragm. More parts ordered, wait for their arrival…
The Sweet River Band’s highly anticipated return to the stage was scheduled for October 13th. Steve, our lead guitarist, went to the US in September, and planned to be back for the gig. Personal reasons have kept him in the US and he won’t be back til January! Mike and I recruited fellow cruiser Gary aboard Ishi to fill in a couple times. Gary is an accomplished guitarist and singer who does a solo act ordinarily. But then Mike was hired to do a boat delivery and Gary headed for Mexico aboard Ishi, so here I am without a band! I also DJ Karaoke here at the Cayuco Club and we had a fun party for Halloween with everyone dressing up as a musical performer. Well, what the heck, I’ve never been accused of being shy… I decided I’d try a few solo numbers with my keyboard. It’s an amazing instrument- I can set it up to play all kinds of cool stuff with one touch! So now I perform on my own, a few original songs,but it’s a start! My latent musical talent is blossoming!
In November we got the fuel pump and Rudy installed it, only to discover that the injectors were bad and needed to be replaced…will it ever end??? The old injectors were already serviced in Guat City, but they’re no good. So Rudy took them to a shop in Puerto Barrios and the man there found new ones for us. Three weeks later Rudy installed the new injectors- great! But the engine would not start. Now what? The only possible explanation is that the fuel injector pump, which we have not messed with, is not set to the same compression as the new injector nozzles, therefore, the fuel is not atomizing and the engine will not start. So out come the injectors, the fuel lines and the injector pump and off they go with Rudy to the Bosch dealer in Guat City. One of the lessons we’ve learned through all this is that if you’re gonna rebuild the engine, do EVERYTHING!
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, with many of the boaters chipping in to help the girls in the kitchen in preparing the feast. It has been quite cool here for a couple weeks so it even feels like fall. We are football fans and lucky to have satellite TV and NFL Sunday Ticket here. So we have fun watching the games on Sunday and Monday, and following the standings. There’s a great group of folks here at the marina, and we also play dominoes and Mah Jongg (the latest craze here), watch movies together on Movie Night, eat supper together on Potluck Night, and get crazy together on Music Night!
Al and I spent a few days in Guatemala City before Christmas, just to get away and do some errands. We brought our rebuilt fuel injector pump back with us and Rudy will install it and the rebuilt (again) starter after New Year’s …we sure hope this is the final step. A Christmas Eve get together and Christmas Day dinner provided good times and good food with our extended cruising family. And we had one heck of a party on New Year’s Eve… keyboard music, charades, karaoke, fireworks, and togas! With a little booze to keep us going, we all actually stayed up past midnight!
So what’s next for us? Well, we make our plans out of jello, as do most cruisers!
We won’t do much at all until our engine is finally fixed and running. In January we hope to make a bus trip to Panama to check it out, and we will leave Rio Dulce aboard Carina in the spring- destination unknown at this time. I will continue writing and making music, and Al will continue to surf the net to his favorite political sites. We will make a trip to the states sometime in 2007. In the meantime we’ll keep in touch, and hope you all will do the same.
We wish you all a wonderful holiday with family and friends. We’ve had many occasions this year to ponder what’s important to us, and we frequently remind
ourselves how fortunate we are, despite our tribulations! We hope all the things you wish for come to you in the coming year.
Much love from Linda and Al
Here are some really cool sites with lots of info and photos in case you’re interested:
www.saltysailors.com- fellow cruisers’ website
www.lifesstory.com- we’ll be traveling to Panama with Beth and John
www.seayeti.com- good friends at Mario’s Marina
www.riodulcechisme.com- I have a story published on this site
www.winanstech.com/carina
| 