Bob and Wendy of Wendy Ellen came by for a visit. They are the couple that had a rough go of it coming through the surf. Interesting to hear their side of the story, but it didn't quite go along with what we heard on the radio that day. Oh well. They had planned on coming in for a quick overnighter to pick up fuel and continue on, now they are here for a bit longer, just going through the boat cleaning up water. It looks like everything got wet. Part of the problem as I see it is the boat itself. It is an older Gemini, although a catamaran, these boats were built real close to the water, almost touching all the way across between hulls. They boast an eighteen inch draft, but at the same time it doesn't have any clearance over the water. Add to that, as Bob was telling us, the boat is powered by only one engine that puts out thirty horse power and has some sort of lift to take it out of the water while sailing. He assumes that they may have about twenty horse power at the water. This would leave the boat way under powered for any maneuver in waves. Also with just the one motor they would lose that great ability to turn a catamaran around, putting one engine in reverse and the other in forward. The only way for them to turn would be to go forward fast enough to get the rudders to come into play. In tight quarters, this could make for more problems.
Although a Captain of a boat is ultimately responsible for what happens aboard, the hotel has come through very generously. They were given the use of a room for a couple of nights, comped a few meals, and given one of the maids to help with all the clean up (although she got sea sick). Oh well, they are the only other boat we have seen heading north, a bit farther up than we are going, but the same direction. It sounds like they are calling it quits after ten years of cruising and heading home to a house in Mexico.
It was pool time. The day turned out to be one of those really muggy days where you are soaking wet all the time. We also had some overcast that helped keep the pool a little cooler than usual, so it was actually refreshing to jump in the water. There was quite a turnout at the pool so we got to do a lot of socializing. Back on Neos, we had John and Sharon of Sunsation, over for sundowners. They are tossing around the idea of heading through the canal and checking out the other side for a bit, then coming back to go to the South Pacific, or just heading straight to the South Pacific. Plans would be to get across the Pacific and then have the boat put on a large ship and delivered through the Red Sea to the Med. That sounds like a good way to go at present with all the trouble with crossing through the Red Sea and also around the Cape of Africa. We haven't changed our minds though and still are still aiming for Nuevo Vallarta by the end of May. We headed into the marina to eat dinner together at the restaurant. It was supposed to be Italian Night, but that got cancelled, so we ate from the menu. The food was excellent!
It was late by the time we finished with all our social obligations and so we missed the showing of "24" and headed straight to bed……..more later..
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