welcome to our blog!

This blog tells the story of our 22-month sailing journey from Oakland, California, to Bristol, Rhode Island, aboard our beloved Bristol 32 sailboat, Ute. Please feel free to browse through the archives (partway down the sidebar to your left) to see pics and read stories of our adventures in North America and Central America . (Sorry the first 3 months of the trip are missing - they vanished somewhere in an internet cafe in Mexico - but all you're missing is CA, Baja and Western Mex).

If you're trying to track us down now that we're landlubbers, try us at uteatlarge at yahoo dot com. Thanks!

Thursday, November 30, 2006

still here...

we know, this is getting kind of silly.....but it happened to us again.....a breakdown sent us back to Providencia, and the time we spent fixing it cost us a weather window. no biggie. other than all these false starts getting a bit embarassing - everybody knows everything on an island with a population of 5,000 people - we are safe, content and ready to try again. The port captain and our yacht´s agent (we are required to use one here - but he´s great) are so kind and so accomodating, it´s almost absurd.

long story short, this time it was the engine´s freshwater pump....the funny part is we could easily make it all the way to Roatan without an engine but we need it for the last mile or two ....no way are we coming into French Harbor - where some of the shoals and reefs might be marked with stakes, but more reputedly aren´t - under sail, at least not when we have another option. And such a lovely spot to keep returning to! Luckily we had a spare pump on board. We brought an entire spare Isuzu Pisces with us in pieces - but I think we´ve used up most of the spares - is our grace period nearing an end?

hard to believe that by the time we get to the fabled isle of Roatan, with its high-speed internet, hot showers, laundry options and cheeses of the world, the pics we post of our going away festivities in Bocas will be over a month old.....we´re going to make you look at them anyway, of course. In honor of Gladys if nothing else.....

shoot, if we´d known we be here so long we would have lobbied you all to come visit.....file away the name Providencia for when you´re looking for a truly unspoiled, welcoming, totally mellow Caribbean isle. All of our photos look like postcards and screen savers....well, except for the pics of us at 2 and 3 and 4 in the morning hauling up the anchor (my job- by hand mind you - the manual windlass broke in Baja) in walls of rain and gale-force wind and trying not to crash into our neighbors or a reef. But wouldn´t life be boring if it was all snorkelling and rum drinks, anyway?

we´ll let you know.

Hopefully - not that anyone´s holding their breath at this point - we´re outta here sometime in the next 2 days.....maybe this time will be the real thing....

more soon. Cheers, UTE

3 comments:

Rick Carey said...

Oops, but better Providencia than Cuba.
By my reckoning this will be your third attempt to escape the magical attraction of Providencia.
Third time's the charm.

Rick

Anonymous said...

I'm with Rick on this one. Third time's a charm!
Happy to hear from you on each return, however. Your sense of adventure and acceptance is stunning. This ability you two have to put things in the 'best light' always looking on the 'bright side' is insanely admirable. Thanks for posting. And yes, we're eager to see postcard-worthy pics (and be able to send you ultrasound and bumpwatch images). The little guy is over a pound now.

Safe passage!
XOXOXOXOXO

Love
mommas-to-be

Anonymous said...

When you get to a decent computer I want to see some screen saver type pics of Providencia (actually.. maybe that could be a great Xmas present to send us all screen savers.. I wonder if people actually still pay to download them??) Hope the break down is minor and you too are in good spirits! xoxo Jen