still in nicaragua

and things are definitely looking up! actually we're doing great. this is a wonderful place to spend some time. got new jerry cans and lots of chain and new bronze padlocks in town. it looks like the weather window will open up tuesday or wednesday, so we'll try and get outta here then. we considered doing an inland trip this weekend, but then discovered the engine needed a little TLC. here's my hubby's account of this morning's events - as pirated from an e-mail he just sent:

"Woke up this morning at 6:30 and got the boat ready to pull her into the fuel and water dock.... we are out of both. Cora let go the line on the mooring ball and I put the girl in gear. no forward motion. try reverse. no reverse. Cora DROP THE ANCHOR! dropped the anchor as we are drifting towards the docks and the rocky beach. we managed to get the anchor set without hitting anything, but we were about 5 feet from the docks. Managed to hop onto the dock with cora alternately letting out and taking the anchor chain so we could swing closer to the dock [Cora's arms will never go back in their sockets quite the same way]. So we are now tied to the dock and anchored as well (!) cause we couldn't get the anchor up yet. Culprit, the output shaft coupler fell off the outputshaft on the transmission, tranny still spun but the shaft was not attached.

Solution: Red locktite to hold the retaining bolt in the output shaft on the transmission which in turn holds the output shaft coupler on. Mind you this all happened before eight am.....I had
had coffee but cora still hadn't had her tea. My bad. So Hopefully all goes well and we leave nicaragua tuesday and meet Big Daddy soon...."

so as you can see the fun of boat ownership never ends. hopefully we can get it fixed this AM so we won't have to pull a Hebe and be here two months (this is unlikely but always possible so we don't want to jinx ourselves). at least it's a nice place to be....(check out www.marinapuestadelsol.com if you're interested...it's very fon-cy).

speaking of Hebe, we're thrilled to report that they made it over the bar in Bahia del Sol (after two days anchored right off the beach waiting for the right moment) and are currently scheduled to leave there on Monday and head straight for Costa Rica (hopefully they will have better luck with that than we did!). so proud of them for getting so far with an outboard motor only! dunno how they're doing it. major studs.

in other great news, a crack team of my in-laws and fam purchased a new digital camera on our behalf, so we're going to try our best to rendezvous with it in CR. Thanks Neil, Mike, Cally, Rick, Nancy, Marti!!! we appreciate it!!!!

updates to follow soon. CC