SailingKnitter

Roatan - end of the working day

2012-01-29T08:32:00.000-08:00

We've been really busy (not), working hard (not) and contributing to the advancement of mankind (not).

But we DO have our old job back. We are again officially the Host Vessel here in the Roatan Marine Park Mooring field at the West End of the island. Our job is to ensure that arriving boats maneuver safely through the channel in the reef, get attached to a mooring, and are given information about protecting the reef and paying for the right to stay here. Thankfully we are not responsible for the social entertainment or moral values of said cruising vessels.

These photos were taken by friends on s.v. Pavo Real which is moored near us. Obviously, the sunsets have been beautiful. You can also see in the photos how we lift our dinghy with the halyard each evening to hang on the starboard side of our boat up out of the water. We do this for 2 reasons, first to prevent theft of the dinghy and engine (it is locked at all times) and secondly to prevent a buildup of barnacles and slime on the bottom of the dinghy.

Much as we love to watch the sun set, it does mean that we have to put on our LED headlamps to be able to continue knitting (me) and reading (Jonesy). Anybody feel sorry for us?

Socks and Island Food

2012-01-25T09:21:00.000-08:00

Now finished...another little pair of socks for soon-to-arrive baby Ella Grace. The self-striping yarn really did all the work on these. I just twiddled some toothpick sized needles around the yarn and this is the result.

My ~~stupid~~ computer would simply not connect to the internet using the TIGO dial-up USB port modem. Using this telephone company is how we get internet out here in the anchorage - and also in Guatemala (but that takes a different SIM chip). We load money onto these "sticks" using a telephone number and then buy chunks of computer time (day week, month). Anyway, it's all very confusing and was a no go.

Hibiscus

So Jonesy and I dinghy'd into the village of West End and rode the packed public transportation "collectivo" van into Coxen Hole. The first place we went was out of business. I was hungry so I forced Jonesy to take me to what looked to be a very popular local food joint. The menu was limited and verbal in Spanish - fried chicken, fried pork or pork patis. Well, I can't eat wheat which is probably what is coating anything fried so I opted for the last choice given whatever it was. The plates came. Lovely red beans and rice and a nice green salad. But what in the world was the mass of bones and connective tissue in the yellow sauce? No meat to be found! Jonesy guessed it was pig's feet. Yep, we looked it up later - pig's feet.

We walked about a mile to the next computer/phone business to see if they could get my internet working. The lady there tried for about an hour but no luck but we did enjoy watching and listening to the stream of people coming in to buy phone time. Next, we walked to where a different public transportation company had vans to take us out to French Harbor - another half hour of travel (the van only travels at about 20mph!). There we went into the main TIGO customer service office and a talented young man diagnosed the problem, uploaded a different driver, so voila! it works. No charge? You've got to be kidding. A generous gratuity was accepted.

We got back to our boat just in time to dinghy over to the sailing catamaran Sunbow for dinner and drinks with a gang of other cruisers. I celebrated having access to the cyber-world again and being able to watch the sun set over the sea. It just doesn't get much better than this.

FREEDOM

2012-01-22T07:30:00.000-08:00

Free at last! Bright and early (9am) we tossed off the mildew covered lines, waved good-bye to the staff and friends at Mario's Marina and pointed the bow down-river towards the sea. All systems (chart plotter, engine, engine exhaust fan, running lights, auto-pilot, manual helm, sail roller furlers etc.) checked out perfectly in the first half hour so we were confident that this was really going to be the start of our 2012 open sea cruising season.

I managed to stay awake a couple of hours to knit on a new sock project (secret) but then fell asleep. During my recent work re-organizing storage lockers on the boat I found some great sock and fingering weight yarns that I forgot I had ~~sneaked~~ brought aboard! Check out this old skein of "Red Heart Super Fingering" 100% WOOL - yes real wool from Red Heart brand. This went right into my current project.

We passed through the beautiful river jungle gorge – I, of course slept through it all because we had to get up at the crack ‘o dawn to get ready to leave and I had barely gone to bed by then. So, no new pictures, sorry.

Jonesy woke me up in time to drop the anchor in the port town of Livingston, Guatemala where the river meets the sea. As I stood guard on both the anchor's ability to stick in the mud and the boat in general (theft issues here) Jonesy scooted into the town to visit our agent Raul who handles all of our paperwork cha-cha dance for both our passport visas and our marine travel documents. Check out this fishing boat with the pelicans loitering on the back. We could actually smell the pelicans before we could see them – eeeew. About an hour and a half later Jonesy returned to the Niki Wiki after successfully checking out of the country of Guatemala (and buying bread and bananas which were not available locally before we left). Already the air was different - much dryer than up in the jungles where we have spent the last 7 months.

Now came the scary part – crossing the very shallow areas of the sandbar which tries to block our path to the sea. We had timed this trip for a high tide exit (1.6 feet) during the daylight hours. We draw 5 ½ feet (our boat measure 5 ½ feet from the waterline to the bottom of the boat) so we needed at least that plus a margin of error for safety so we wouldn’t hit bottom. We need the extra depth from the peak of a rising high tide to float us higher. Plus we needed the seas to be calm with no wind waves so we wouldn’t bounce up and down – it’s the “down” part that may cause us to hit bottom. Our date for this departure was carefully planned to optimize our chances of a safe crossing. Piece ‘o cake…we never saw less than 6 ½ feet of water so that means that we had a full foot of sea beneath us! Obviously, you can see why we needed the high tide and didn’t want to bounce!

The winds and seas were calm that afternoon so we motored for about 3 hours over to our planned stop to anchor overnight at Tres Puntas Guatemala. Jonesy had checked with our agent to ensure that there hadn’t been any violence there lately and we glad to hear that there hadn’t been. Last year we made the trip out to the islands straight from Livingston due to a murder of a cruiser on a sailboat along the same coast a little farther southeast in Honduras. But apparently the violence hasn’t spread north up to Guatemala so we could have a restful night before the 24-hour trip out to the island of Roatan.And peaceful it was indeed. The sea was flat and glassy and there were no clouds. After sunset we sat out on deck under a sky full of stars. The stars were reflected across the flat water so it looked like an endless sky. . Jonesy tucked himself into the berth and I stayed up knitting with my LED headlight.

Early the next morning we took off for some Caribbean sea cruising. I went back to sleep so that I could be awake and alert to knit all knit take my watch at the helm. The seas were still calm and the wind was only 3 knots out of the north – right on the nose again. Jonesy spotted some dolphins which were our only sighting of the trip. If you look closely at this photo you will see the mountains of Honduras on the horizon. Our route takes us far enough way from this dangerous coast, but we can still see it!

At 7pm Jonesy went below to sleep and I knit (and glanced at the gauges and looked about for other ships). Still, it was lovely calm conditions until around 1am. Monsters appeared on the radar screen. At first small dots as if another sailboat had suddenly appeared, but then it grew to the size of an island and was joined by other “islands” all lined up in a row. Dang, I knew what it was then – a line of tropical squalls. For an hour I watched as we approached the squalls. I secured the cockpit by rolling down the plastic rain shields and zipping them closed – and waited. Soon we were in the squalls, but all I got was some higher winds and choppy wind waves which woke Jonesy up. We luckily had passed through the line and not a drop of rain!

Now Jonesy took the helm and I went below. No sleep though because the winds had picked up (on the nose still) and the seas were like a washing machine. I couldn’t stay in one position in bed but was rocked back and forth no matter which way I positioned myself. Finally exhaustion set in and I was out. While I slept Jonesy battled another set of squalls that had the most rain he’d ever seen at one time! The wind blew the rain sideways so that it was forced under the plastic cockpit rain panels and drenched every seat in the place. Meanwhile it squirted under the forward hatch and soaked my newly covered V-berth cushions. But in our rear berth I was safe, dry, and dreaming about new color combinations and stitch patterns for socks.

Roatan Island Immigration Office

Finally, the sun came up as we approached the island of Roatan – right on schedule. Not too early as to arrive in the dark, and early enough that we had time to head to shore to check in with the authorities. We headed to our GPS waypoints for the cut in the reef, motored in and picked up a Roatan Marine Park mooring ball (a good one too because the sailing vessel Pavo Real had just given it up and sailed out as came in).

Within minutes we had dropped the dinghy in the water and scooted to shore to the little village of West End. Picking up a “collective” which is a (12) passenger van for public transportation, we joined 22 other people crammed like sardines for the half hour ride to the main town of Coxen Hole.First stop has to be the Immigration office. Whoops, nobody was there. So we meandered around town and stopped for lunch. We checked again and the immigration officer had returned so we got our passports stamped and bought our 90-day tourist visas (US$3).

Roatan Port Captain and Customs Offices

Next stop was the Port Captain’s office which is right next behind the Immigration building and next door to the Customs (Aduana) office. I know, you can't really read the sign because some of it has fallen down. No worries - it was like that last year too. Everybody knows what it is so why fix the sign?

There was nothing to do but sit and wait. because now it was lunch hour for the Port office. Here's Jonesy waiting in the little park next to the Port Captain's office. See that "briefcase" the older gentleman has open on his lap? Well, it was made of wood! Soon the Port Captain returned and we did the paperwork cha-cha dance to officially bring the boat into Honduras.

So now we are in one of the most beautiful spots on earth. I snapped my hammock into place under the boom of the main sail – ah, back in the hammock again. Already we have social plans; today is Football on TV and domino games at Foster's Grill, tomorrow we meet a friend in West End to deliver dinghy repair epoxy that we carried with us from Guatemala then a potluck supper on sailing vessel Sunbow, and Tuesday is a gathering of cruisers at the Creole Chicken restaurant where we can enjoy island style food in the open air on the beach.

By the currently accepted definition of "cruising", Jonesy got to immediately make a boat repair in an exotic location. Our rear electric head had broken another impeller so he got to take the toilet apart in a small cramped space and replace the part. Yep, we had the replacement part. What was my job? Well I stayed out of his way and knit.

Then I prepared a late lunch/early dinner of chicken fried pork loin, country gravy, baked real russet potatoes, a green salad with fresh tomatoes, and a hefty slice of garlic bread.

Last night I realized that I had not once said the words or phrases "hot" "clammy" "sweating like a pig" "let me cool off before I do that" nor had I used a sweat rag at any time! The bright sunny skies and cool Caribbean trade winds have made life so very comfortable for me. Here's a photo taken yesterday of the good ship Niki Wiki safely on a mooring in the Roatan Marine Park in West End.

Oh! Another green sea turtle just swam by…life is good.

Yikes! in Southern Mexico

2012-01-15T15:41:00.000-08:00

After we had spent an extra day in San Cristobal de Las Casas we were finally able to get a bus down to Palenque. Why the delay? We went to buy tickets and we were told that the road was closed. OK, no problem. We went back the next day, boarded the first-class bus and both settled into window seats for the journey.

Uh-oh. We came to a stop. Time ticked away and the line of cars and buses didn't move in either direction on this 2 lane highway. Being rather curious and unafraid, I ventured outside and walked up the road - yep, just like the last time but this time it was daylight so I felt very comfortable. That is until I reached the road block. Yes, a political road block had been set up in the small village of Abasolo. This gringa quickly turned around and headed back to the bus.

After 3 hours, traffic moved and we were finally allowed to approach the protesters. These photos were covertly taken from inside the safety of the bus. The groups of men approached each vehicle and apparently stated their cause - and demanded money to pass. From what I gathered, these are an indigenous group who feel that the government hasn't come through with financial support to their people. So they resort to closing the only highway in the region and disrupt the flow of commerce. Yes, I had seen, during my earlier expedition outside, that the local police were in on it too by actually using their vehicles to block the highway.

Nail Board

So what happens if you don't want to make a "voluntary contribution"? See this 2 x 4 wood board with the nails sticking up on it? This is swung into place in front of your vehicle until you pay up. Did anyone try to pass it? Yep. We saw a car with lots of flat tires on the side of the road.

Here is a photo of the men working verbally on our bus driver. At the same time, men were banging on the door on the other side of the bus and demanding to be let aboard. Sure was a tense several minutes. Finally our bus driver paid them enough money and we were allowed to proceed.

We never saw any weapons or violence, but that's always a concern when people get worked up about something. Thankfully, the extortion was running smoothly at least when we passed through. A few hours later, our bus approached the first Mexican Federal police car we had seen. The officer and our driver had a chat in the middle of the highway - I assume about what had happened. Well, they were laughing too so I don't know it they thought the whole thing was funny or had more interesting things to talk about.

We're just glad to be safe.

Knitting and We're Outta Here

2012-01-13T19:04:00.000-08:00

*Knit, write, rip, erase, write, knit, repeat from * until you get it right. That's how my week has gone for my latest design. But I'm finally happy with it and it is now in the test-knitter's hands. It's the March Mystery Scarf/Stole KnitAlong for the Holiday Mystery Gifts Yahoo group so I won't be posting photos until it's released. You know, because it's a mystery.

To reward myself for my perseverance (and to ease the guilt about neglecting boat work), I started a little pair of socks for soon-to-arrive baby Ella Grace. This has a hard deadline! She'll only be tiny for a short time.

Of course I really should be working harder at getting set to throw off the lines of the boat and head out to sea in just 3 days!! Today we took our little fiberglass lancha for it's last trip up the river to the town of Rio Dulce/Fronteras. It has now been hauled up onto shore to be stored until we return to Guatemala here in June.
Today was the last time this season we tied our launcha up to the dock at Bruno's Hotel and Restaurant, and our last meal there too. We shopped for fresh produce, frozen fabulous pork chops and loins from the Casa Guatemala orphanage meat shop, and picked up a stack of fresh corn tortillas from one of the street vendors.

Here's a photo of Jonesy with our shopping basket and tote bags. Whew! It was hot and humid today and town was just as crowded as usual. We dodged the cattle trucks, big rigs, motorcycles, buses, and tuk-tuks safely happy to know that we won't be doing THAT again for several months.

We will drift down river to Livingston on the coast. There, we will officially check out of Guatemala before crossing the sandbar at the mouth of the river at high tide and out to sea. Our plan is to spend one night in a small anchorage along the coast before setting sail for Roatan Island, Honduras. That passage will be about 26 hours depending on wind and sea conditions.

So, weather permitting we'll be joining our cruising friends at the Roatan Marine Park mooring field in less than a week. Yipppeee! Let the fun begin!

Pop Top Chain Mail

2012-01-11T17:09:00.000-08:00

Have you seen some of the crafty things that folks are making from soda and beer can pop tops? Some of the local gals here crochet these together to make purses, belts, bracelets, etc.

But I thought that this chain mail of pop tops that we saw in San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico was, well, hummm, something else.

Tag hidden to protect Mr. Crafty

I don't know...I just can't see either one of my sons spending hours pulling the tops off of their ~~beer~~ soda cans, then crafting them together to decorate their rides. Plus, what exactly is the purpose, if any, for this loopy chain? Too weak for a cow or dog catcher, and too high to drag on the pavement and make noises. And what's up with the antenna mounted on top of the license plate? Doesn't that get in the field of vision for the driver? Maybe I'm just too old to get it. Maybe it really is deck.

KNITTING CONTENT:

A finished circular lacy baby blanket for Ella Grace who will be arriving soon. This new pattern is with the eagle-eyed test knitters right now.

Binnacle Bra Installed!

2012-01-06T09:15:00.000-08:00

Remember the Binnacle Bra that I knit for the sailing vessel Interlude a couple of months ago? Well, the gals have now installed it on their boat and sent me the photo!

And you know what? I used the leftover yarn for their Wine Glass Slip-on Coasters that were delivered as Christmas gifts to them by the sailing vessel Jumbie for me. Now these gals can be all matchy-matchy as they sip their wine flavor of the evening in their cockpit while watching the sunset.

The pattern for the Coasters is free only during the month of January 2012 on the Holiday Mystery Gifts Yahoo Group so if you want it - go get it! After that it will be for sale on Ravelry.

To relax my brain and just for kicks, I knit a little cat toy for our marina cat mascot Estrella ("star" in Spanish). I used up some of the hand-spun wool singles that I had bought many years ago for pennies from some spinning guild members. The wool is natural colors and too scratchy for much else. But holding two strands together, I created this dead "critter" on a string stuffed with unspun wool rovings for Estrella. Ugly? Yep. Does she like it? Oh yeah. Estrella lives on the sailing vessel Barnacle where she is (over) fed and leading a much better life now than before when she was producing kittens (now fixed) and scrounging for food in the village. Someday I'll get a photo of her but it's tough as she only comes out at night.

Mexico & Crafty stuff

2012-01-04T18:29:00.000-08:00

Posada San Cristobal

After 2 days in Tapachula, Mexico we were ready to explore another area - San Cristobal de Las Casas. We were very joyfully surprised to discover that the bus would be taking the winding road (Mexio 211) up through the high mountains! Friends had told us how beautiful this route was, but that the buses took a round-about way to avoid the bad road at the 6,400 ft. summit. Well, that road has been upgraded and that's how we got to go - up and over the Sierra Madre de Chiapas.

The scenery was wild, rugged and sparsely populated. Up, up we went driving by small villages where there was always at least one sign advertising that they bought coffee and cacao beans. We passed small family houses where their coffee and cacao harvest was spread out in the sun to dry and saw coffee shrubs everywhere. Coffee and cacao are cash crops for these rather poor people. We didn't see much if any corn being grown like we had seen up in northern Mexico. I'm guessing it's because with the cash the farmers can get from the coffee and chocolate crops they can buy the federally price subsidized corn for food and come out ahead.

Posada San Cristobal

View from our room

Sorry, no photos. I never knew what was around the next bend and by the time I saw it - it was gone. Once over the summit, we came into the high altitude town of Motozintla, home of the Mam indigenous people. The road then criss-crossed over over a wildly rushing river. Finally after about 9 hours in the bus, we arrived in the mountain city (elevation 7000 ft) of San Cristobal de Las Casas, Mexico and instantly fell in love! No, no not with each other - that has been going on for 37 years already - I mean with the beautiful 16th century city.

We found a lovely and very inexpensive hotel (Posada San Cristobal) right near the center of town. Next morning it was time to head out and explore! The city was so clean and it reminded us of Cartegena, Colombia because of the Spanish Colonial influences. When we saw these two well-fed dogs sunning themselves we suddenly realized that we hadn't see any street dogs at all.

But what there WAS was plenty of fresh roasted and brewed local coffee and chocolate! Along the street were coffee shops with chairs and tables outside where we could sit with our drinks and simply enjoy the sunshine and cool temperatures of this high altitude city.

TV repair shop

But of course, there were many stores too - like this TV repair shop. It was really only as wide as the doorway. That's it. But I'll bet they do a great job of keeping old sets running.

The little leather goods shop was filled to the ceiling with beautiful skins in whatever color strikes your fancy. But something else was calling to me...we had passed a fabric store near our hotel and I needed to get back to it. A real Parisina which is a Mexican chain of fabrics, crafts, and notions.

I have spent many hours in these stores during the two years that we cruised the Pacific Coast of Mexico. They are my Mecca. But one can not simply dash in and pick up what you want and be gone. Oh no, you have to look at everything. And then it takes 3 people to sell you even just one button. One gal gets the button out of the glass case for you at the button counter where you have waited in line for your turn. Then you take your carbon copy of the hand-written order paper over to the cashier's secure cubicle and wait again to pay for your nickle purchase. She gives you a receipt and staples it to your order form. Then you wait in line again to pick up your bagged purchase with the original order form stapled to it from another secure cubicle station. But it is well worth it! Everything so so inexpensive! Ribbons and lace are about 10 cents a meter, zippers run about a nickle to a dime, and fabric is generally about $1 to $2 per meter.

zippers

I consider a visit to this store as "educational" because I have to ask for everything that I want so I have to learn the Spanish words for this stuff. Or just wave my arms around and point. That works too.

This store even had quite a bit of yarn for knitting - acrylic of course, but then it does get cold up in these mountains. The rest of these in the photo are spools of crochet cotton, Omega brand crochet nylon, and a few spools of thread. There are so many different brands of sewing thread available. It's just overwhelming.

And YES, I do actually make things from my craft supply purchases and don't just hoard the materials. For instance, I made these wine glass charms recently for a friend to give as gifts. At first I used some pre-made wire earring hoops, but then I realized that I could simply use wire and bend it in the same shape. Add a few beads and Voila! wine glass identification charms with each one different.

So, one of the charms has a knitting row counter on it. That one is for a friend who doesn't do well at remembering how many glasses of wine she has consumed! Perhaps she (or some kind soul in her company) will remember to turn the counter one click each time her glass is filled.

Wine Servings Counter

The green knot work on the far left side is a shackle lanyard for sailing gear.

In the knitting arena...we have the January Mystery project for the Holiday Mystery Gifts Yahoo group. These are Wine Glass Slip-on Coasters. Yes, I had to purchase a glass of wine in order to take a photo of the little coaster on a glass. Dang. My grandmother used to have little paper and plastic diapers for wine glasses, so when I realized that somebody was leaving red wine stains I took out the needles and made these. The yarn used is Elann Esprit which is a sport weight cotton with a touch of elastic. I figure that the elastic will give great stretch and hold, plus will prevent saggy-diaper syndrome if it should get too wet (sloppy drinkers you know).

OK - that's enough for one day. I know I promised sheep...but that will be the next blog....really.

Mexico - We Return!

2011-12-23T16:39:00.000-08:00

Chiapas, Mexico

As "tourists" in Guatemala, we are allowed to stay here through the grace of a 90-day visa. Near the end of those days we must leave the country for at least 72 hours, then come back in and get a new 90-day visa. It' always the visa dance in our lives. There's always the question of where to go this time? It was Belize last year, Honduras earlier this year so how about Mexico! Ahhh...the land of Mexican Food and great beer.

Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico

My head was spinning with visions of sheep and wool. Yes! In the highlands of Chiapas, Mexico are villages which tend sheep, spin the wool, and weave fabrics including some very bizarre fuzzy black skirts. I had just read about this in my SpinKnit Fall 2011 eMag so I was itching to go-see-do.We had spent 2 years in Mexico on the Pacific side of the country (in the hot no-sheep lowlands) when we first took off cruising and loved it.

So off we went on another bus adventure. From Guatemala City, we rode on a first-class "TICA" bus to the state of Chiapas, Mexico which is a one full-day trip.

As we descended down the western slope of the Guatemalan mountains towards the Pacific Ocean, we saw many raging rivers weaving around giant boulders. There were small waterfalls along the cliffs as we drove through coffee plantations and fields of rubber (latex) trees. The small houses we passed had flower and vegetable gardens and we saw whole fields of flowers growing. My nose was stuck on the window the whole way down and I didn't knit a single stitch.

Tapachula, Chiapas Mexico

In the afternoon we realized that we were not on the route that we had expected (Jonesy always travels with road maps). Where the heck were we? No explanation was ever given, but we were headed in the correct general direction. You have to be flexible in Latin America after all. The highway was so smooth compared to the roads in Guatemala! What luxury! So what if we crossed the border at a different place? It was all new to us anyway.

Then we stopped...in a line of traffic...for 3 hours as night fell. Nobody knew, or would say why. So, I went for a hike down the road to find out what it was all about. Great. They were doing construction of a pedestrian overpass so they had stopped traffic in both directions. Like I said, you gotta be flexible in Latin America. No biggie. Well, except I was thirsty and there was a mini-mart at the end of my hike but I only had Guatemalan currency and we were in Mexico - Jonesy, still on the bus, had all our new Mexican pesos.

Bus station anti-theft device - twine.

Eventually we got into the big city of Tapachula, found a hotel room and went out for our first real Mexican food and beer. Oh my! Just get across that border and suddenly you get the flavorful foods of Mexico! We spent the next day walking to the bus station to buy tickets for the next leg of our trip and eating Mexican food all along the way. We met some American tourists in Tapahula from a Holland America cruise ship! The Pacific Ocean is just about 15 miles away and they had taken a day-tour into this city. We were really surprised at that because it is really not a touristy area, but it is lovely.

KNITTING CONTENT
These little Lace Cuff Baby Socks were part of my knitting work while on our travels. Just another pair of foot coverings for my niece's first baby (it's a girl).

So where's the sheep? Next blog...I promise; beautiful San Christobal de las Casas and the village of San Juan Chamula where the sheep live and give us wool.

Shetland-Style Lace Bonnet

2011-12-06T13:16:00.001-08:00

Deep down in my collection of my "someday" patterns stashed on the boat, there has been this "Shetland-Style Lace Bonnet" pattern by Margaret Stove. Lovingly ripped from the pages of the Interweave Piecework Magazine (Mar/Apr 1994 & Jul/Aug 1994 for errata) it has tickled me each time I've enjoyed an afternoon of rifling through my treasures.

Finally! We have a little girl to be born early next year to our family! My niece is having her first baby and it's a girl. There in my yarn stash was a ball of my hand-dyed sock weight wool yarn in mottled shades of lavender. Perfect.

The pattern is written in line-by-line, i.e. stitch by stitch fashion and ya'll know by now that I prefer charts. No, I didn't send away for the charts when I stored the pattern, nor did I ask for the matching booties pattern. No worries, I plodded along.

Oh my! There were stitch gymnastics in this design that I had never come across before! Thankfully, the instructions were clear and I continued on, counting, counting. Unfortunately, this is the type of knitting project that requires intense concentration. So much so that I had to ask Jonesy not to talk to me. That's kinda hard to do when we are both sitting on the sailboat facing each other and only a few feet apart. We are both used to just blurting out our thoughts at any time. But, Jonesy has lived with me long enough (36 years!) that he has learned when I need quiet knitting time.

After a dinghy trip to town and a walk down to the fabric shop to buy some ribbon, I was able to finish the set today. The color in the booties alone photo are closer to the correct shades. The improvised booties? Yep, that will be a new pattern for the Holiday Mystery Gifts Yahoo group next year which has already been sent to the test knitters.

Sumpango Kite Festival, Guatemala

2011-12-02T08:00:00.001-08:00

Can you say "Big Kites"? Throughout Guatemala, folks celebrate the Day of the Dead on November 1st by flying kites up to the heavens to be closer to their ancestors. Up in the highlands in the village of Sumpango, these kites have inspired a competition and festival. For many months, mostly young people craft these kites from bamboo, tissue paper, glue and some plastics and show them off at the festival. Yes! They do attempt to fly them and some actually do fly.

A group of us traveled up to Guatemala City, then out to the village to experience this annual event. Amazingly everyone was allowed to walk right up to the kites! so that we got to really check out up close the handiwork that went into making these monsters. Here is a photo of work being done on one of the smaller kites and one of the giant beauties! Check out THAT giant framework! After the frame is assembled, the tissue paper covering is rolled out underneath the frame, then the edges are seals and the fringe is applied.

All this work is making me hungry! No worries, there are plenty of good eats being grilled on the open air wood fires.

There was plenty of corn to eat - this is Meso-America after all which is the home of maize. You even get to choose your colors - white, yellow, blue, or mixed colors. And then if you want it steamed on the cob, grilled on the cob, or processed into tortillas. Yep, those are blue tortillas that these women are cooking over their wood fire, and they DO taste a little different, perhaps sweeter and earthier (if there is such a word).

Blue corn tortillas

Here in Central America, everyone is quite comfortable in knowing exactly where their food comes from...meet Mr. Pig roasting over the fire. YUMMY!

Mr. Pig - pick your portion!

If you have a need for a sweetie, there were ice cream vendors pushing carts full of frozen treats, tables laden with fruit, and these delicate twisted and fried concoctions covered in a sweet syrup of honey and local semi-processed cane sugar.

Let's look at some more of those kites...

Back strap weaving and Farming

An important part of the local tradition this special day is to visit the graves of family members. Not just a short how-you-doing visit, but a day filled with decorating the graves and having a full picnic meal at the grave site. The flowers were stunning and we found out that many are grown in the area for sale/export so the quality and variety are excellent. As I love color, my head was spinning from all of the hues. The women were dressed in their finest traditional clothing so I got to spy plenty of beautiful weaving and embroidery handiwork up close.

Selling steamed corn

All around the festival kids were selling handmade kites and vendors were selling cheap plastic commercial ones like my kids used to fly. In the open air fields lots of little kids were flying (or trying to fly) their own kites.

So what do you think we cruisers did on a Craft Wednesday event later in the month? Yep. We made our own little kites. Michelle from the sailing vessel Enchantment ventured into the small nearby town of Fronteras and bought all the necessary materials; tissue paper and bamboo skewers. The kids in the shop even showed her how to make the kites!

So we made our frames from the skewers and some sewing thread, then cut and glued designs to them. Cheryl from the sailing vessel Interlude even added the thread harness assembly so she could actually fly her kite from her boat. As per Michelle's idea, I'm going to simply display mine from the ceiling of my boat as a reminder of another interesting adventure into the culture and people of Guatemala.

Knitting a Binnacle Bra for a Sailboat

2011-11-22T10:44:00.000-08:00

Poor Cheryl and Karen of the s/v Interlude have had a terrible time trying to make the binnacle (aluminum stand) for their compass and steering wheel look nice. Paint just won’t adhere to it and chips off in a short time. Their boat is otherwise freshly varnished and spotlessly kept. What are a couple of sailing gals to do?

Ask a knitting friend to knit them a Binnacle Bra that's what! Sure, it probably was initially a little joke, but one should never tease a rabid knitter who likes a challenge like that. Hmmm...let's see, what type of yarn? How should the construction be worked out so that the finished bra whould stay in place?

YARN: "Esprit" from elann.com came in the right sea green color to match the rest of the boat's canvas and it is a cotton yarn with a touch of elastic. The binnacle is inside the cockpit and out of the sun so cotton will be fine. The stretchy elastic will allow for a good fit.

Then came the measuring, gauge swatch, and lots of math. Because the fabric will be flexible (as knit fabric always is) and then the addition of the elastic, I didn't have to be spot-on, but of course I wanted it to fit correctly. The plan was finished and the knitting began.

STRUCTURE:
1) Casing on bottom with bungie cord to fit the lower lip.
2) Swirl decreases on skirt to inside pole
3) Casing at base of stand between skirt and stand with a cord to pull tight to hold the bottom to the binnacle.
4) Heart Strings cable motif just for some nautical and friendship fun!
5) Casing at top with cord to tie tight
6) Overlap flap for velcro for vertical closure

Ta-da! All the knitting is now done - and none too soon. Karen & Cheryl just left this morning to begin another big adventure...first out to the island of Roatan, then heading down to Panama and out towards the South Pacific. Sometime in the next few weeks, Karen they will have the time to fit the bra, add the velcro, adjust the ties, and take a photo to share with us. Bon voyage ladies!

Knit Picks Print Catalog

2011-11-15T12:51:00.000-08:00

Mix-It-Up Christmas Stocking

Drum roll please....for the first time ever, one of my designs has been included in a printed catalog! The November Knit Picks catalog has my "Mix-It-Up Christmas Stocking" pattern as part of their Holiday knitting suggestions.

I haven't seen the catalog yet because I don't get real mail, but many friends have confirmed that it is really there. This pattern includes many different holiday themed motifs so that you can select those that strike your fancy and make your own unique hang-by-the-fireplace heirloom stocking.

Mix-It-Up Christmas Stocking

We have returned to our boat home after a tremendous two weeks of travel throughout northern Guatemala and southern Mexico. Jonesy has been diving into boat projects now that the outside temperatures are more tolerable. Me? Well, I committed to a new design submission that is due tomorrow. I've finished the math, sizing, multiple charts and the pattern has been written. Now I need to convert the charts to the line-by-line instructions for folks who prefer that. Then send it off to be test knit.

Promise to post more really soon!

Mayan Deer Dance Festival

2011-10-27T17:05:00.000-07:00

It's a long, hot summer here in the Caribbean coastal area of Guatemala. The oppressive heat and high humidity make the simple act of walking seem like a marathon run. But there are always interesting things to see and events to go-see-do that drag us off our boats to seek adventure.

Down river from us is a biological reserve called the Biotopo Chocon Machacas to protect the Caribbean manatee and other jungle native wildlife. Within this area is also a school for the indigenous Q'eqchi' Mayan children, a small rustic hotel and restaurant. The local people were putting on a presentation of the traditional "Mayan Deer Dance" not only for their own enjoyment, but also as a fundraiser for the school.

So off we went! We threw off the dock lines, and headed down river in our boats. There are no "road signs" on the river so thankfully a cruiser who had been there before guided us all into the isolated, calm lagoon (Lagunita Salvador (15.47’ .00 North, 88.50’ .51 west for you google earth folks) and dropped our anchor. All around us we could hear and see the large flocks of water fowl and land-based critters. I sure wish we could have just anchored in this place for many days because it was so serene and natural. But, this is a lawless locale and it is not recommended to be out here alone. There is just too much poverty and what little we have can bring great wealth to a man who struggles to feed his family. So we had a little group of us for safety.

Soon enough we dinghy'd to the dock, tied up, and walked along the wooden boardwalk through the jungle to the facilities.
The older children had decorated the "Welcome" arches across the walkway with festive balloons and were anxiously awaiting us. Once we had paid our donation and pocketed our little slip of paper which was our meal ticket, we were free to explore the site before the performance. My head kept spinning around to study the beautiful huipiles (blouses) of this village.

Down here in the low altitude (hot) eastern Caribbean side of Guatemala, the women wear lace huipiles often with elaborate embroidery. Most of the lace is machine made, and often so is the embroidery. But I do see some crochet lace, and handmade embroidery if I look closely. Underneath the huipile they wear a simple single colored camisole.

The gathered skirt is also worn as everyday wear. I would love to be able to wear such beautiful clothing! But that would probably be insulting to the Mayans (won't stop me from buying some though 'cause they sell all of this locally). And yet, at the same time I am thankful for all the strong women in the world who have fought for us (albeit not all of us yet) to be able to wear more comfortable clothing of our choice. I'm still wanting to be able to go shirtless at the beach like a man though. Let's do it in my lifetime, OK? (stepping off soap box now)

The eco-lodge is a beautiful 2-story structure made from locally sourced natural materials for the most part. This view is the upstairs hallway with doors leading to the dorm (hotel) rooms off both sides. I loved (and of course had to gently stroke) the decorative and functional privacy screening made from bark-striped branches in their naturally shaped form. The whole building is open and airy to let the breezes through (no air-conditioning).

Peeking inside the rooms, we find your basic necessities of wood furniture, bedding, and mosquito netting all under the palm-thatched roof. Really, what more could you want out here? For lounging, there is a nice open-ended rustic sitting room at one end of the lodgings. Can you see yourself reclined here with a cold fruit beverage, immersed in a good book, bird watching (or listening) and knitting? Or taking a stroll down to the lagoon to try and spot a manatee coming up for air while thunderheads rise over the mountains to the south?

Back outside, we stopped to watch the women preparing the feast. The preparation of meals in rural Guatemala is a long, hot and tedious process.

First, the corn must be ground into a fine meal before mixing with water to make the tortillas and/or tamales. The dried rice needs to be cooked, and the fowl (turkey in this case) must be slaughtered, water fetched, fires started and tended, and root vegetables harvested, peeled and cut.

What's in this big kettle underneath the banana leaves? Tamales! The women have made these by putting a handful of corn dough (masa) into a piece of banana leaf, then folded and wrapped the leave securely around the dough. These then are all placed together in a kettle with water and steamed for a long time to cook the dough.

These ladies are working in the more modern kitchen complete with running water. We assume that this is the kitchen where meals are normally made for hotel guests, while the big kettles are for large gatherings such as this festival. I noticed that they remove their lace huipiles when cooking. They always wear them when in town shopping, and they put them back on later.

We were quite impressed by the tidiness of the village houses. They palm-thatched single room houses did have wood siding which is an upgrade from the adobe mud that we've seen elsewhere too. Of course there was the medium-sized family dog wandering about.

Ah ha! The mirimba (Guatemala Xylophone) has been set up and everyone is eager for the show to begin. People emerge from the surrounding areas and line the grass field; women in their colorful clothing, children squirming, and men in western wear. The Mayan Deer Dance is a traditional show where the actors wear brightly colored and highly decorated costumes while sharing the story of the Conquistadors arrival.

Actually, the tale is a satire and pokes fun at the Spaniards who kill off all the deer, jaguars and destroy the balance of nature. At the end, after also killing off the Mayan people, all that is left are the foolish Spaniards. It is said that when this dance was performed for the Spaniards, they mistakenly thought it was a tribute to their conquest! Hence the joke was on them.

Before the dance can begin, women offer a blessing to the players with burning incense. Then let the show begin! No, we couldn't follow all of it, but it was fun just to watch the dancers flounce about. At times, the audience would gasp or laugh in reaction to the story. Obviously, they all knew what was happening!

So, let's see...here's one of the deer, and one of the Conquistadors. You can tell by the masks. One of these must be the jaguar, oh here it is. Oh, it was just too hard to tell at times. The costumes were so elaborate and we were sitting some distance away. These dancers really went all out with their pantomimes; running around in the heat in these heavy costumes and full facial masks. During the intermission, we were able to see some of the costumes up close. The rental of these costumes is quite expensive and this festival doesn't happen every year in a particular village, but moves about the area.

When the conquistadors had finally killed off everything that was living and were alone in the "new world" the dance ended. Now, it was time to eat! Check out this great little outdoors sink where the basin is a miniature cayuca (dug out canoe).

Those of us who were visitors and paying guests were treated to our meals inside the dining room of the hotel. Also, some of the villager men ate inside, while the women and children ate their meals outside. We were brought our large bowls of steaming hot soup as the main course - complete with a whole turkey leg or thigh in it! These were your smaller turkeys so don't imagine the size of the drumsticks you see in your American or Canadian homes for Thanksgiving.

The tamales were a bit of a disappointment...no flavor nor filling of any kind. They were just fist sized balls of corn dough. I ended up slicing pieces of my tamale into my soup. I later saw that many of the women were sitting on the grass chatting and nibbling their tamales by taking pinches of the dough with their fingers and putting it in their mouths. They seemed to really be enjoying it too. Much as I love corn, I just can eat that much plain corn dough at one sitting.

Also in our soups was 1/2 of a potato and about 1/2 of a choyote squash (about the size of a large pear), and some sort of leafy herb floating about. Boiled rice was served on the side. The broth was quite tasty. So we chewed through our rubber turkey and enjoyed the company of other people and our surroundings.

Now the beverage was very special! The local village grow cacao trees and process the chocolate from the beans. Pure, unadulterated Guatemalan chocolate is the finest type of chocolate in the world. We were served the ancient chocolate beverage of the Mayans - cold water chocolate. For modern tastes they did add sugar. I really liked it and drank not only mine but some other folks' as well. I was a very lucky gal indeed.

By late afternoon, we were full of our typical Mayan festival meal and were ready to head to a safe anchorage for the night and new adventures to come.

Thank you to all the dancers, organizers, cooks, cleaning crews, decorators and everyone else who contributed to making the Mayan Deer Dance such an interesting event.

Mayan Blessings

Snake!

2011-10-09T13:20:00.000-07:00

Look what Jonesy spotted yesterday morning! It's a Yellow Blotched Palm Pit Viper, and was a really big one too and bright lime green.

Jonesy was taking out the garbage when he looked out into the small canal by the trash pen and saw this beauty swimming quickly away from him. Yes, it is venomous.

You know, This would be a great color combination for sock yarn wouldn't it?

Knitting Content Continued

2011-10-07T15:09:00.000-07:00

So, to continue (after my computer's insane touchpad deleted the rest of the prior blog post and I had a mini-meltdown / hissy-fit combo) here is a photo of the Waterside Socks on the Six Sox Knitalong Yahoo group.

I learned a couple of new techniques from James' pattern. First off, the mini cable is so easy to execute! It is made by double wrapping a stitch on one round, slipping it on the next 2 rounds, then crossing the elongated stitch over 2 other sts - easy and no cable needle needed!

Next, I learned how to knit a "Strong Heel". This heel and gusset construction does not require any short-row wrap and turns or picking up stitches. Very smooth indeed. And it fits great! Now, the pair has been completed, blocked, and tagged to go to the orphanages in Kazakhstan through the Motherless Child Foundation. The yarn is an older Opal "Feelings" sock yarn.

Next up is a plain pair of socks for the kids knit with the ever-popular Regia "Steps". Jonesy says this is one of his favorite pairs I've knit in a while. Nope, not for you dear. You don't even wear socks anymore down here in the tropics.

My knitting guild, that I still belong to (The Camellia City Stockinettes in Sacramento, Calif.) has several on-going charity knitting projects. I haven't done much to support these the past few years because they require washable yarn and all I had was wool (soft, luscious, lovable wool). So, on my recent visit to the states I brought back with me several POUNDS of acrylic (or ack!rylic as us woolly folks call it) just to knit up some of these charity items.

First up is a chemo cap in a subtle shade of Red Heart Chunky yarn sized for a man...a BIG man. I'm just not used to giant yarn and needles after spending years knitting up socks so it turned out kinda extra-large. Anyway, I hope somewhere out there some guy will be happy to find a hat that fits his large bald head.

Then, while I was stash-diving in my yarn lockers on the boat (I consider this exercise by the way) I found some incredible mercerized cotton yarn. The colors were so bright and cheerful! Even though I preferred subdued colors for my headgear when I was bald from chemo, I know that there are other folks who like to wear happy colors. So, I knit up this whimsy chemo cap just for whoever that is going to be. The cast on edge has picots (little bumps) , then there is some 2x2 ribbing. I love how the yarn colors pooled at the top of the hat! Doesn't that look like a storm map or an outer-space nebula? the hat is topped by a length of I-cord doubled back to form a loop.

I was tickled to discover that there are other crafty folks summering here on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala! Now, we have a weekly Wednesday craft session at my marina where we can all get together and create. At our first couple of sessions we all played with polymer clay (Sculpty, Fimo) and made beads, pendants and little toys. Can you believe that I've had all the materials and tools for this on the boat for five years and never even touched it? I stocked up on supplies before we left the states because I thought that I would have SO MUCH TIME to be creative. Not. I have to confess that, just perhaps, my knitting addiction may have contributed to this lack of time to pursue other crafty endeavors.

My pendants

Anyway, we have been having a lot of fun with beading, knitting, and next week is card-making with our scrapbooking supplies. I need some cards to attach to the socks that I knit for the orphanages and I'm sure the younger gals (ages 13 and 8) could and would help me out.

Currrently on the knitting needles is this blob. Sometime next year, which isn't that far away if you think about it, this will be a new pattern for the Holiday Mystery Gifts yahoo group. What is it? I'm not telling! But I can tell you that Jonesy likes it...OK that is because it is purple. But I accept supportive murmurs from him when I can get them.

Ambulancha?

2011-10-07T14:12:00.000-07:00

So, if you have a town that has no roads through the jungle to it and the only access is by boat from sea or the river, how to you transport injured or sick people in from outlying communities? By an Amubulancha of course! It's simply an ambulance that is a boat (lancha) instead of a street vehicle.

This photo was taken at the docks in Livingston, Guatemala which is an outpost on the far eastern side of the country on the Caribbean Sea. Along the coastline and up the Rio Dulce river there are many small Mayan or Garifuna settlements which benefit from this service to Livingston. Also, I have to assume that the lancha can blast over to the larger hospital in the big port of Porto Barrios about 15 miles away down the coast.

The "gurney" looks so soft and comfortable. Hopefully we'll never need to find out how it feels. Hey, I should put one of these padded lounge beds in our lancha. That way when Jonesy takes me out for a ride or to town to shop I'll be comfortable instead of sitting on the hard fiberglass benches. Okay, maybe I'll get an upgrade after we install the cupholders...one day.

KNITTING CONTENT:

Yes, there has been plenty of knitting going on in these parts. I volunteered to test knit a new sock pattern from James G. Davis called Waterslides. Naturally, I had to keep this secret until the pattern was officially released on the Six Sox Knitalong yahoo group. Do you like the knitting basket? A friend brought this back to me from her explorations of the city of Antigua up in the Guatemalan highlands. It is made from pine needles and the white cording is cut up plastic grocery sacks. What an innovative use of natural resources and stuff that would otherwise end up in a landfill (or alongside the highway).

PIGS

2011-09-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

So, what is the pig-etiquette when meeting Mr. Pig along the open road-stead? As Jonesy and I took a walk through the rubber tree plantation nearby we were intercepted by this hog who came grunting and snorting out of the undergrowth. We stopped in our tracks, unsure of how to proceed.

Now, this isn't a wild pig, but is the future cash income from one of the villagers down the road. We know how to deal with wandering dogs, cats, iguanas, etc. But how do you deal with a hog on walkabout? Do you simply pass him? Nope. When we resumed walking, Mr. Pig faced us and grunted what we thought was perhaps an aggressive warning. After a minute of our pig versus humans stand-off, Mr. Pig turned towards the village down the road and trotted off.

Unfortunately, that was the same direction we were walking - going back to the marina and the boat. So we dropped our pace and followed him at a safe distance until he turned into a family compound and mingled among the barefoot children, skinny dogs, and chickens.

You know how I prefer Mr. Pig? Roasted in a deep pit which is exactly what happens here at the Marina several times a year. This last time was in celebration of Guatemala's Independence Day. Here are some of the staff wrapping up our pig in aluminum foil and banana leaves the night before we eat.

The fire in the pit has heated the tray of water to boiling (to eliminate flare ups due to dripping grease). After a final wrap of banana leaves, the future feast is lowered into the pit. The beast will be turned a couple of times over the night and will be ready by mid-day the next day.

Earlier in the day, my new young friend Gia and I made a visit to the pig while he was being prepared in the kitchen. Looks like the head isn't included in these pig roasts like they are in Hawaii for the luau pigs. Gia wondered where his head went. He was beheaded! But still a lovely pig don't you think?

Not only did we have this pig, but later during the roasting some chickens were added and some extra succulent ribs. The feast was incredible and the house was packed with piggies of the human kind. We were all successful omnivores and munched away on these meats, corn on the cob and coleslaw.

So, villagers please keep growing these creatures for us and we'll do our best not to disturb them while they forage.

Zapoteca Sweater and Rum Punch Socks

2011-09-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

We have a finished knitted object! After quite literally days of tedious work to carefully weave in all the little loose yarn tails from the 11 different colors, my Zapoteca sweater is officially done.

This warm sweater should fit a 2 or 3-year old at the orphanage in Kazakhstan. The diamond pattern is created by working 2 colors of yarn at the same time in most rows and stranding the unused color behind the stitches on the wrong side. This technique creates not only fun patterning, but also makes a thicker, and warmer sweater as air will be trapped between the fibers. I made the body and sleeves about 1 3/4" longer than recommended in size charts as the little ones in the orphanages tend to be thinner than American/European kids so the length to width ratio is different.

The yarns are Knit Picks Wool of the Andes and were leftovers from my Christmas Stocking knitting adventures last year. Again, I even had leftovers from my leftovers so I knit up a size 2 or 3 Wonderful Wallaby Hooded sweater. This is a really fun knit and is totally seamless! Oh, yes, I did have to weave in a lot of ends but after working on the Zapoteca sweater this was a piece of cake.

Of course there have been socks on the needles a lot lately too. The knitting group within the Motherless Child Foundation is hard at work churning out hundreds of pairs of socks for this winter's delivery to the kids in the orphanages in Kazakhstan. These socks will be included with other goodies for these kids many of whom have never received a gift before these annual parties began. My finished pair is already on it's way to the collection point for the socks to go Kaz later this year thanks to fellow cruiser Pam who is hand-carrying these back to the USA for mailing.

I named these "Rum Punch" because the lace design travels a wobbling path down the leg. Kinda like how someone (who shall remain nameless) walks after she has consumed too many delicious Rum Punches made with orange juice, rum, a dash of Angostura Bitters and the juice of 1/2 a lime.These lacy socks are a new pattern of mine called Rum Punch Socks which were developed for the Holiday Mystery Gifts Yahoo group.

Sorry I couldn't get a better photo of the lace, but I had lost my sock blockers on the boat. Thankfully I found them after I moved the big spare jib sail in order to search in the storage locker below for craft supplies. My sock blockers had slid down behind the sail bag. Eureka!

There always has to be a pair of plain socks on my needles to travel with me and for working on while socializing. These are some smaller socks made from 2 different colors of yarn pulled from my stash. Nothing exciting - just warm wool socks for the kids. Now, there is a pair of blue socks on the needles. Always socks, but not exclusively socks. I've never claimed to be monogamous in my knitting.

But my marriage - that's another thing. We just celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary and we're still having fun. Whenever I need groceries or even just a change of venue, Jonesy fires up our launchita and drives me to town. My job on the trip is to be on the lookout for improvised floats for crab nets (such as empty pop bottles or chunks of styrofoam) and point them out. Also, I make great ballast to keep the bow of the boat down when the wind whips up waves. Over the course of the 2 summers that we have spent here on the Rio Dulce, I have also learned to sit to the port (left) side of the boat to balance it better and to let Jonesy see over the bow.

So, what did I pick up in town this day? Among other things this GIANT cabbage (about 90 cents) from the vegetable vendor which we shared with one of the workers in the marina 'cause it wouldn't fit in our refrigerator. Also, I bought a pomelo (from the fruit farm vendor) which is a sweet citrus fruit that tastes like a non-acidic grapefruit, a stack of fresh, warm handmade tortillas from a tortilla lady, and 3 candied sweet potatoes from the candy boy. These sweet potatoes are cooked with the local unrefined sugar and are so tasty as a quick snack! Oh yeah, I think I'll go slice one up and heat it in the microwave right now...

Copan Ruinas, Honduras

2011-09-06T17:31:00.000-07:00

Jonesy and his feathered friends

Road trip! A group of us (6 cruisers) hired a van and took a 4-hour road trip up to see the Mayan ruins in Copan, Honduras. This trip had a dual purpose, 1) fun, 2) exit the country of Guatemala and re-enter 3 days later which gets us another visa to stay in Guatemala for another 90 days. I had a new visa already because I had traveled to the USA recently, but of course I went along for the "fun" part!

The last half of the trip up to Copan was made over winding, mountain roads. Yes, there was beautiful scenery of rural life in Guatemala but the road had been recently washed out in many places by landslides from the recent heavy storm. So it was slow travel over some gravel roadbed and to avoid the rock piles hiding around the curves.

Sure glad I wasn't doing the driving! Plus, we were riding in a passenger van with seats, not a standing-room-only pickup truck which is the usual mode of transportation in these farming areas. Finally, we reached the border and Honduras was in sight! We trotted back and forth across the border to visit immigration offices on both sides and to get our rubber stamps in our passports (out of Guatemala and in to Honduras). Only 10 more miles to go!

That afternoon, after settling into our hotel we all headed out to explore the small town of Copan Ruinas. As is usually the case in Central American towns, everything revolves around a center plaza or park. Here cowboys linger after doing their business in town, and women sell colorful fruits to enjoy. We were very impressed with how clean Copan Ruinas is!

The next morning we all gathered together in the plaza (when in Honduras, do as the Hondurans do) and headed off for the 1 kilometer walk to the Mayan Ruins. Wow! There is even a paved walkway lined with shade trees leading from the town out to the ruins. Amazing. Along the way the local school children were practicing for a parade. As we are all moms or dads, we had to pause to watch. The youngest were about kindergarten age and were so cute trying to keep in lines!

At the ruins, we each paid our $15 US fee for general park entrance, plus we hired a guide for just an additional $25 total for our group of 6. We were told we could have Fidel our guide for up to 2 hours. Four hours later, he was still excitedly sharing his knowledge of the ancient Mayan city of Copan, the culture of Mayans, and pointing out plants and trees that were used by these people. The 6 of us were limply trailing along in dire need of food, and to get the weight off of our feet. He was an excellent guide and we loved every minute of it! Notice that he uses a stick with a feather on the end to point out details so that his hands don't touch these ancient carvings.

We climbed up and down the steps to the tops of several temples, each with it's own history of the king who had it built by the slaves. In this photo you are looking at the ball court in one of the plazas. When the city was occupied, there wasn't grass here, but paving stones covered with a white stucco. The buildings were covered with stucco that was tinted a deep red color! Under the massive tarp is the stairway of the kings. The tarp is there to protect it from further damage by the rains. This stairway has the entire history of this settlement carved into it.

Here's a view of a smaller temple looking down from the top of a larger temple. The surrounding hills are still farmed by some of the descendants of the ancient city. Large Scarlet Macaws can be seen and heard within the park (yes, they do feed them so these birds will stick around). We found this little 4" frog hanging out on an alter almost perfectly camouflaged.

All among the ruins were the tall stellae stone carvings such as the one shown earlier with our guide. Different kings were glorified in these monuments and in front of each was a carved alter for sacrifices. Yep, we saw one which had a concave area for the victim's head to rest and a trough for the blood to drain down Eeeww. These Mayans only sacrificed slaves who were captive enemies, not their own people.

I really liked this bat demon carving. There were hundreds of stone carvings on display in the museum. Inside of the open-roofed museum, they have built a replica of one of the smaller temples and painted it the colors that it would have been back in the day. Very different! Of course, I had to "plank" across the center doorway floor. No, I'll never grow up.

The next day we visited Macaw Mountain Bird Park and Nature Reserve which was just 2 km outside of town.

That is where the picture of Jonesy with the birds was taken. He is holding an endangered Green Macaw, a Blue and Gold Macaw, and a Scarlet Macaw. This park exceeded all of our expectations! It was beautiful, quiet (except for the birds) and our $10US entry fee included a guided tour. These birds are mostly rescue birds and there are projects underway to increase the populations of the endangered birds. The aviaries are HUGE structures which allow the birds to fly around and the walkways are smooth and well-crafted.

So how close have YOU gotten to a toucan? Isn't he beautiful? We decided not to swim in the creek at the park as it was still muddy and running wildly from the recent storms, but we did enjoy a cup of fresh coffee made from the beans that are grown locally. In fact, some of the plants in the shade along the walkways were coffee plants, and many other lovely tropical flowers. This spot is a must-see for anyone visiting Copan.

After a wild ride along muddy roads on the local form of intra-town transportation called a "tuk-tuk", Jonesy pays the driver $1 per person. We hit the hotel for some downtime before dinner. The hotel roof is covered with a thatched "palapa" roof and has tables and chairs. We all would meet up there in the evenings to relax, consume adult beverages and enjoy the views and/or rainstorms.

Here's a picture of Jonesy on the rooftop. Notice the new shirt? We scored 3 shirts for about $1.25US TOTAL at an "American Clothing" shop a few days before we left for Honduras. Can't beat the price - probably somebody had a vacation in Hawaii and wouldn't wear the shirt in the mainland. So it got handed down to the Guatemalans - and us. It's a big business buying used clothing from the USA to sell here.

Dinner out with friends isn't just about the food - it's also about how that food gets to your table! At this little restaurant in Copan, some of it is carried on top of the waitress' heads! Not just full bottles of wine, but also little stoneware pots which have a hot coal inside to keep the refried beans hot for dipping! The grilled meats were so tasty here and of course, the company of friends made it even more special.

So, that was our lovely trip to Honduras and we are now back on the boat in Mario's Marina. We'll go back to Honduras again as there is so much more to do and see there. Next time we're planning to spend more time at Macaw Mountain including lunch in their cafe, walks along the nature trails, and chilling in the stream. We also would like to hang out at the hot springs near Copan and perhaps take a road trip out to other areas where there are interesting Mayan archaeological sites and coffee plantations.

What? No knitting content? No...I really don't have anything to share that is as cute as this little girl riding her mama's feet in a doorway in Copan. Life is good.

Sock Summit Portland Oregon

2011-08-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

So...this is it. The only picture I took (actually somebody else took of me) at the fabulous Sock Summit knitting event in Portland Oregon. Even though I was there a full day and a half, saw and fondled many wonderful objects, my camera stayed in my bag. Why was that? I think it's because I was in sensory overload not only from the woolly goodness of too much beautiful sock yarn, but also from the over-stimulation of seeing old friends and making new ones.

6000 rabid & ravishing sock knitters converged at the Sock Summit for classes, demonstrations, contests and shopping. The classes were taught by knitistas, gurus, authors, and the goddesses of the fiber craft world. I won a class from one of the vendors! So my Saturday morning was spent in the 3-D Embellishments for your socks class which was quite good fun.

On our first day, Carol (who I was visiting in Oregon), Sandi (drove up from Calif) and I headed into the massive Marketplace area which was filled with over 130 vendors. We agreed not to try and stay together so we could browse and buy at our own paces (and not embarrass each other with our squeals and drooling). We also assumed that Carol, who is a novice sock knitter would probably stay just an hour or so and then head out to run some errands in Portland.

The day sped by. When the marketplace closed that evening, I sat myself down at a table to knit and chat with other fiberly folks. Then something caught my eye and I looked up. There was Carol emerging from the market weighted down with 3 bags full. Her glazed eyes met mine and she staggered over to where I was sitting and fell into a chair. The yarn got her. It happens to so many of us. She never even stopped to eat or pee all day. Given the enormous quantity of luxury sock yarns in that hall it really shouldn't have been surprising. It happens to the best of us.

The sock photos here are all little baby socks made from my Tiny Treasures pattern with added embellishments. The pink and blue pairs were sent to the Mittens 4 Akkol program for the baby orphanage in Kazahstan. The little green pair were knit for Carol's friends Joyce and Guy who are expecting a grandbaby soon. I love how the colors of the sock yarn matched up with some of Carols flowers on her back deck!

Scalloped Lace Socks

2011-08-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

Introducing...the August/September sock for the Six Sox Knitalong Yahoo group - SCALLOPED LACE. It is a very simple lace and ribbing patterning on the leg and top of foot with just a touch of scallops on the cuff for that touch of girly-girl. This is my 4th design contribution to the Six Sox group over the past several years. Heck, I'm knitting anyway and need constant change and variety to keep me a happy cruiser so I might as well share what I've come up with, right?

When I first knit these and wrote up the pattern I wasn't really happy with the orange color of the yarn. But suddenly I'm seeing orange everywhere in clothing! I think the fashionistas are calling it "Tangerine", whatever. I just hope a teenage girl in Kazakhstan gets some warmth from them and feels pretty. Yep, these have already been mailed to the collection point for the Motherless Child Foundation.

Colors & Cashews

2011-07-22T16:12:00.000-07:00

Guatemala is the land of color. From the richly colored traditional textiles, the bright lace "ponchos" worn by the local Mayans, to the natural colors of the land, color is everywhere.

So maybe that's why I've been knitting up some more colorful stuff lately? (OK that's just an excuse because y'all know I love lots and lots of color in my work). Here are a pair of child's socks knit with a donegal (has little bits of colored slubs in the yarn) wool sock yarn. The pattern is my Hug Me Socks (a free pattern).

Next up is a square baby blanket knit from the center out to the edges with some of my leftover sock yarns. This was a simple mindless project that I could work on when socializing, playing Mexican Train

dominoes, and indulging in the adult beverage of my choice (rum). Although it was mindless knitting the knit hit the fan again with this project. Seems that I started in the center with size US size 3 double point needles. When there were too many stitches on those I switched to a size 3 circular needle. Well, at least I THOUGHT I did. Seems it was a size in between a US size 2 and a US size 3 - it was 3.00mm rather than 3.25mm. Doesn't sound like much of a difference does it? Well it is. The center of the blanket pouffed up and out!

Solution? Rip out from about the center of the orange section, pick up stitches, and knit back to the center using two US size 3 needles and 3 US size 2 needles because I don't have 3.0mm double points. It worked! Yes. I have already ordered some 3.00 needles from Knit Picks.

As I wandered around the grounds of Mario's Marina here to take pictures of my knitting I also took a few photos of some of the plantings. Seems like there's always something different blooming. The local folks who work at the marina have been busy adding new plants both in the ground and in pots.

Do I count as "local"? Because I, too, planted some things! In the back of the grounds is a large area where one of the fellows (Marvin) had planted some squash. To prepare the area, they simply cut down the big stuff, then burned out everything - the ole slash and burn farming method of the tropics.

So this is it. The "garden". No neat little rows, no fencing, no irrigation, nothing. Just an old trash heap burned to the ground. I planted two types of summer squash - regular green "Black Beauty" zucchini and a yellow variety (Sungold?).

The green squash germinated very quickly and I already have several plants. The yellow is still thinking about it. It is brutally hot working out in the garden in the full tropical sun! But the plants love it.

I bought (for about $2.50) a big bunch of lemon grass from a new plant nursery right in town. Can you believe the price? And look how good it's doing in the garden? I hired Marvin to plant it for me seeing as the marina is looking for work from the cruisers to keep their crew busy. At $4.00 per hour I can afford their help (and that gives me more knitting time in the air conditioning on the boat). Whoo hooo - I can't hardly wait to brew up some lemon grass iced tea!

On the boat, I have a few little containers made from the bottoms of plastic soda bottles that are planted with tomato seeds. Yes, of course I can buy tomatoes here, but they are all the same type, the roma or plum tomato and I like variety in my life. So I planted a heirloom type (Brandywine) and two colors (red & yellow) of a little plum shaped tomato.

No joy yet on sprouting, but I'm a patient person.

More knitting with color - ELEVEN different colors to be exact. I was fondling my big plastic bag of leftover worsted weight Knit Picks yarns one day. What could I do with such a bizarre assortment of yarn leftover from designing Christmas stockings?

Why, knit a toddler sweater for the kids in the orphanage in Kazakhstan of course! Plain stripes would have been easy - but the extra warmth from stranded color work would be much appreciated in that cold country. I knit in the round up to the armholes, then divided for front and back. This is way so much fun!

OK - I mentioned cashews in the title of this blog post. Here's what that is all about...we have cashew trees right here on the grounds of Mario's Marina! Yep, they are the trees that help shade the volleyball court (well, at least they shade the people watching the volleyball players sweat in the sun).

Here is one of the very few cashew fruits left this season - and it is in terrible shape being eaten by bugs as it lays on the ground. The "nut" part is just that one brown lump on the bottom of the fruit. We buy really big roasted cashews (no salt) from Diego, the local nut seller for about $6.50 per pound. They are so sweet and delicious and taste much fresher than those we have purchased in the states. Gee, I wonder why.

And here is a cashew nut in a farther state of decay. The fruit has withered to look something like a sun-dried tomato. But look! The cashew nut has sprouted and now has a stalk and a root. A new cashew tree!

Oh dear, it is unfortunately located in an area that is supposed to be a grassy lawn. Look at all those new cashew trees sprouted in the lawn! The farmer in me wants to transplant those somewhere to grow up and make more cashews, but I guess there are enough trees here. Things just love to grow without our help when they are in their natural habitat.

One more piece of news ... our new Shade Tree marine/boat cover has arrived! We ordered in from the company up in the states and had it shipped to us ($$$). Here it is - mounted on the bow of our boat. We've been so happy with the ShadeTree cover over the center section of the boat that we bought many years ago so we coughed up the bucks for another one to keep the V-berth area shaded. It sure has made a difference in the temperature inside the boat - not only in the V-berth stateroom but also in the galley where I spend ~~as little as possible~~ quite a bit of time.

Later!

Hot Waterfalls Adventure

2011-07-12T15:40:00.000-07:00

What do you do for fun when you live in a steamy jungle environment? Go for a road trip to the HOT waterfalls of course!

A group of us cruisers summering over here on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala tumbled into the marina's van and rode through stunning green cattle grazing lands for about an hour to these falls. Because the falls are on a little river which is the private property of a large agricultural plantation/cattle ranch we paid our 10 Quetzales ($1.25) per person fee before jumping into the waters. COOL, fresh water flowed through the ponds but it was HOT water that streamed down the waterfall. Heated by geothermal activity, the water was too hot to touch.

We swam underneath the waterfall to a small space behind the falls. This space was a steamy "spa" that we could fit at least 5 people into. So we stood on rocks on the bottom, with cool water up to our waists and enjoyed the bizarre contrast with the steamy air while looking through a hot water curtain out to the ponds.

While standing and chatting in one little pond, we realized that our feet were getting a special foot treatment! Occasionally, little bursts of steamy bubbles would spit out of the gravel on the bottom and toast our toes! Ouch, and yes, it did smell very strongly of sulfur - eeeew!

Next up...how about a waterfall inside a cave that you have to swim up the river in the cave to see? Sure! Just one caveat though, you have to hike through the jungle on a steep, slippery trail to get to this treasure of Guatemala. So we did of course. We started out wet from our swim in the hot waterfalls and stayed wet from the sweat rolling down every body part.

We had to hire a guide (Francisco) to lead us to the caves area and he sure earned his fee (another 10 Q or $1.25 per person). See him there in the photo carrying my basket? Yep, my knitting goes everywhere because, well, you just never know when you might have a few minutes to knit, and he earned himself a generous tip for lugging my basket. OK, not exactly a glamour shot of me (creeping downhill behind Francisco) but that was the view everyone else saw all day too.

At last, we arrived at the point where the river comes out from the cave! Within less than a minute we were all happily jumping into the water to cool off. Yikes! This water was really cold! Such a shock to the old body system to go from overheated hiker to icy cold water, but after a few minutes it was actually refreshing (that's what I kept telling myself).

What a treat it was to swim in fresh water after months of seawater swimming. It's so different! The sweet and woody smells of the nearby jungle filled our salty sailor nostrils.

So we all gathered our nerves and waterproof flashlights at the mouth of the cave. Here we go! The water was deep in some places along the way, but there were plenty of rocky ledges to stand on and rest or just enjoy the atmosphere. When somebody aimed their flashlight at the ceiling of the cave we disturbed the bats so that they flew around. But many of the bats just kept on hanging, moving about just enough so that we could determine that they were there huddled in small groups of about 20 bats in a recession in the ceiling.

And here is the water gusher we found after about a 200 yard swim up the cave river! Not really a waterfall, but really fun to see anyway. As we lounged about in the cave, we wondered just how high the water would be if there were to be a sudden thunderstorm. Our flashlights told us the answer....way up over our heads near the top of the cavern were several tree logs wedged in the crevices. And they were fresh logs from perhaps a recent storm that had found their way downstream and into this underground portion of the river. The heebie jeebies set in and we all decided that it was time to get out!

So we trudged back through through the jungle to our van. At one point our guide showed us a cave which has petroglyphs etched on the walls. He said the cave was used for Mayan ceremonies. We don't know how old the drawings are (hundreds of years or mere months?) but it was interesting just the same even if we suspected it was for us touristas' enjoyment.

Down stream from where we were playing all morning, several local women were hard at work doing their laundry. Their children played naked in the stream which I would assume doubled as their baths. We've often seen women doing laundry this way. They lay one piece of clothing at a time on a rock and scrub with laundry detergent that is sold as a bar or cylinder shaped block. Looks like hard work to me, especially in the sun.

Next stop was lunch! We went down the road a little bit to the town of El Estor which is right on Lake Izabal. Lake Izabal empties into the Rio Dulce just about a mile up from our marina, and it is the largest lake in Guatemala (about 35 miles along).

Lunch was at a new lakeside restaurant called Don Yulo and was fabulous. We each ordered a steak of some type or their specialty,longaniza, a local big pork sausage cooked on the grill. The meat was so tender - and we found out why. It was imported from the good ole USA as proved by the proprietor who showed us the big hunk of beef with the USDA stamps on it. No need for proof though as our steaks were delicious (see what you missed Jonesy?)

But wait, there's more! After lunch we headed back up the road to take a little trip up a nearby river gorge. Ahhh, this was to be a sedate tour with somebody else doing all the work - a good thing as we were all lethargic after our big lunch. After a little bargaining by Marco, our marina manager who is from this area, we settled on a good price and these boys paddled us in their cayuca canoe.This cayuca was once a solid piece of wood carved from a tree trunk, but it had been covered with fiberglass at some point in time to extend it's useful life. We also hired a second cayuca which was a fiberglass model.

So we loaded up, and the kids paddled us up the slow moving river. Soon we entered the amazingly steep walls of the gorge. It was so quiet, except for the sounds of the boys paddles in the water and the many birds and insects in the jungle. The walls towering above us were draped with vines, ferns, and tenacious plants hanging on for dear life on the sides.

So mellow, and cool in the shade from the cliffs. Water dripped down in many places making tiny waterfalls and a sweet dribbling sound. Again, the smells were incredible with subtle floral scents, wet rocks and simple earthiness.

Eventually the river widened and became too shallow to continue in the cayucas so we got out and explored on foot. We decided against doing the walk up the riverbed to a nearby village as we were all worn out from the morning trek. Maybe next time we'll just come here and then do the hike up river.

What a marvelous adventure made even more fun with the company of like-minded folks who are always ready to explore what this beautiful country has to offer. Oh, and who also kindly share their photos.

Final thought for the day: When you live in the tropics and use an open air restroom facility, remember to apply insect repellent on ALL parts of your exposed skin (including your bum) before attempting to use the toilet. Ask us how we know.

Knitting Ups and Downs

2011-07-07T20:20:00.000-07:00

Let's start with the knitting "ups". For the baby house orphanage in Kazakhstan I knit up this little baby set. The yarn is Lang Bebe 100% wool in a baby or fingering weight (as in super tiny).

First I started with the leggings. I was worried about having enough yarn so I made a little nordic type design and changed colors for the foot. Well, there was enough yarn left over for a little vest too! I hope this will keep some little kids warm. That's one of the benefits of knitting for the orphanage - the items will get worn by many different kids. As each one grows out of their clothes another baby comes along to wear it again.

Now, for the knitting "downs". The knit really hit the fan today. For the first time in my knitting life, I have knit a pair of socks in two different sizes. Yep. I really screwed this one up and of course I had a time deadline for it too as the pair was for a cruising friend who is leaving to travel up to the states. The sock is a rather tedious mini cabled design which hurts my hands to work. This is a lesson to ALL KNITTERS: Do NOT let your first sock sit in the knitting basket for 2 years before beginning the second, matching sock, or else they just might not match. Solution? I'm going to rip them BOTH out and knit this beautiful hand-painted wool sock yarn up in a simple stockinette stitch pair of socks.

Launcha Envy

2011-07-01T20:41:00.000-07:00

Because we live on a river/lake here in Guatemala without roads, our transportation is by boat. Is it part of human nature to envy other men's modes of transportation? I think that may be true. Jonesy stopped dead in his tracks when he saw this lancha (skiff, panga) tied to the dock at Bruno's marina in town. What was so interesting? The cup holders of course! Look! There are built in cup holders on the seats of this boat! Jonesy has lancha cup holder envy.

That is totally cool! We HAVE to have those. So, next time we go into town, we'll be looking for the plastic inserts. Jonesy can make the holes with his hole saw so we can do the project ourselves. Actually, these will come in handy as we always have water bottles with us that are impossible to keep from rolling around in the bottom of our launcha.

A recent highlight on a trip to town was that the cattle egrets are nesting on the little island in the lake. This tiny speck of land is covered with a noisy combination of water birds. The normally all white cattle egrets are displaying gold colored plumage (breeding plumage) on their heads and down their backs. We crept up quietly and watched as parents tended to chicks and others were hard at work displaying their special feathers and mating.

The other assorted types of egrets, cormorants and vultures acted like they didn't even notice all the activity.

I finished the little baby socks for Carmelita who works here at Mario's marina. These are knit from my "Tiny Treasures" pattern in a nice soft cotton yarn. Yep. It does get a little chilly here during the winter months, sometimes below 60 degrees F! A little baby needs some sockies then.

Life is good back here on the river again. The cruiser potlucks have been well-attended, the happy hours have been, well, happy and we have settled into the rhythms of the lowland jungle of Guatemala.

Up the River

2011-06-15T13:11:00.000-07:00

Yep. I guess it was time to give up Roatan, Honduras after all...our courtesy flag was tattered and torn after so many months in the sun and trade winds. Looks like that's another item to add to the list to buy for next year. We are required to fly a small flag of whatever country we're traveling in as a "courtesy" and to let the officials know that we have legally checked into the country.

Upon arriving in Guatemala, we contacted our agent Raul by phone and he came out to our boat with the whole gang; representatives from immigration, customs, and a medical inspector. Now THAT is service! Here they are arriving at our boat in their hired skiff.

We all sat in our cockpit and passed around documents, copies of documents and pens. It all happened so quickly that I didn't have a chance to serve the ice cold Coca-Colas to our guests. Dang, I guess I'll have to just have a few more rum and cokes in the coming days. Or add a wedge of lime and call it a "Cuba Libre". That way I can count it as a serving of fruit!

We waited a little over an hour, then sent a captain from each of us 3 sailboats to shore to pay our fees and pick up the completed paperwork, visas, boat cruising permits, etc. Here's a photo of Jonesy, Karen from s.v. Interlude and Randy from s.v. High States dinghying into the little town of Livingston. That left one crew person on each anchored sailboat. Why do it that way? Because 1) Livingston isn't exactly scenic and the street con artists and beggars can be aggressive, 2) The anchorage does not have good holding and the boat may drag it's hook and end up somewhere where you don't want it unless someone on board can start the engine, 3) There are "opportunists" who may see and know that a boat will be vacant for an hour or so and may want to see what is good for the taking.

Livingston is a "wild west" outpost. It is only accessible by boat (no roads) and thus has developed a different culture than the Spanish/Mayan interior of Guatemala. The population of Livingston dates back to the slavery and pirate days in the Caribbean.

So, in the afternoon our little caravan headed up the Rio Dulce river gorge. This is a photo of our boat entering the interior. Yep, look closely, we are way up there. See? You have to have other boats along for the journey not just for safety, but to take photos of each other's boats!

We were greeted by the sounds and smells of the jungle. We could smell different floral scents and woody/earthy scents. The birds and cicadas were plentiful. Unfortunately, it was also very smokey. This is the end of the dry season and there was apparently lots of slash and burn going on in the agricultural areas.

Along the 20-mile trip up the river, we encountered other river traffic including these small boys playing and fishing in their dug out canoes. There are many local Mayan indians living along the river - as they always have. We are just a passing curiosity to these boys.

The limestone cliffs are quite high in some areas along the river. At one point there is a steady flow of water from the limestone at the bottom of a cliff and locals use this as a water source during the dry season.

Here you can see how smokey it was that day and see how high the cliffs are compared to our 63 foot mast on our boat. We have heard that this is the location for the filming of the first Tarzan of the Jungle movie. I wonder if I could knit while swing from a vine?

Along the way, there is a mineral hot spring that you can smell (sulfur) way before you can see the facility. These houses are the typical structures that we see along the river - with thatched palm roofs and very open to let the occasional breeze in to cool.

All three of us sailboats arrived safely at Mario's Marina and summer camp for cruisers. Jonesy even took my suggestion and BACKED the boat into our designated slip. Whoa! This big boat really doesn't like to back up at all and shows us that by going in the wrong direction. But this time, Jonesy did a great job (Okay, the guys at Mario's also helped a lot by grabbing the lines and tugging us in). But we are quite happy. This way, we can board our boat from the dock and walk directly through the opening in our cockpit instead of walking all around the outside (in the sun or rain). And, our rear stateroom where we sleep is in the shade every afternoon with the bow (pointy end of the boat) facing into the afternoon sun and getting hot and HOT. We're in a steamy jungle here.

One of the first jobs we needed to do was go buy an air conditioning unit for the boat. We have built-in marine air, but it is very inefficient and costly to run at 42 cents a KWH. So, early one morning, we tagged along with Marco, the marina manager to the "big" town of Puerto Barrios. First, we rode in a boat over to the place where the van is stored, then we rode the 45 miles along a 2-lane road to this seafront shipping town. We passed many trucks for Dole, Chiquita and Del Monte loaded with either bananas or pineapples headed to the port.

The first thing we did when we got there was go to McDonald's This is a very special treat for us. Look at this great breakfast "Traditional". See, McDonald's has to serve food that these people like to eat. I looked around and everyone but Jonesy had ordered this meal. It is scrambled eggs, sausage, mashed black beans, fried plantains, a slice of fresh cheese and several warm corn tortillas and orange juice. Yummy! Actually I have to say that McDonald's does a great job with this breakfast.

We bought our window A/C unit and then stopped for another errand. As I waited in the van I noticed this SUV. Hmmm...so your rear door is missing. Just get another one, tape over the missing window, and use straps between your tow hitch and your luggage racks to hold it onto your car. No problem!

These are another pair of socks for the kids in the orphanage in Kazakhstan. I just used a ball of the jacquard patterned Regia sock yarn and a ball of a gray mottled sock yarn. Now I'm onto a pair of purple Hug Me Socks as my "take-along" project.

Also on the needles is a set of leggings with feet for the baby house in Kazakhstan. I'm using some lovely baby/fingering weight Lang wool in a soft green shade. Plus, I have some teal which I'll use for the feet (because I don't have enough green). I'm still trying to think of a decorative way to do this so it doesn't look so much like I HAD to do it, but rather that I CHOOSE to use two colors. Perhaps a little Fair Isle patterning of the 2 colors before switching to the teal booties/footies.

Besides that I've been working on a new beaded Christmas stocking design. The easy part was the charting and planning stage. The HARD part was when I decided to get clever and do the cabled ribbons patterning in 2 different colors of beads. Then ~~I kept making mistakes~~ had to fight the beads to get the order correct for pre-stringing on the yarn. Like they say...the 3rd time's the charm. I hope the folks who knit it will have an easier time because I have gone to the trouble to make a listing of the bead color order and have checked it 3 times.

Now look...that doesn't look so hard does it?

If not sock, then not knit

2011-06-07T19:36:00.000-07:00

If it wasn't a sock, then it didn't get any knitting attention these past few weeks. There just seemed to be a lot of demand for socks, plus I had completed the write-ups of several new designs and needed to knit up the photo samples. Not just one sock for the photo - but 2 because, well, that would be a waste and the kids in Kazakhstan need socks. So, there was a sock knitting frenzy in these parts.

First up is a pair of socks knit for our good friend Cheryl on the sailing vessel Interlude. These are simple ribbed socks in Lang Jawool cotton & wool blend. Cheryl and Karen will be traveling to the high altitudes in Chile and Peru next month and needed warm clothing! I love to knit socks. Sounded like a good match to us.

Wear them well Cheryl! You may recognize Cheryl's leg in this photo as she has been by ~~shanghaied~~ volunteer leg model these past few months. Now you get to see the rest of her!

On the Mittens for Akkol yahoo group we have been having a Sock Knitting Marathon event for the 530 pairs of warm wool socks we need for the kids in the orphanages. I seem to be getting down to the bottom of my sock yarn stash so I worked on matching up odd balls of yarn for custom socks.

Then, because some of the sock yarn was just plain butt-ugly (which of course is why it was still in the stash), I got to play with my fiber dyes and make them look better. For a horrid purple and white splashed dots Opal yarn, I over-dyed it with a dark purple. I now declare the yarn acceptable for knitting and it won't hurt my eyes when I knit with it. These are the lace socks from that yarn. It is one of my new designs called "Roads Traveled Socks" and will be available in the future on the Holiday Mystery Gifts Yahoo group.

Another ball of Opal yarn had black and white dots, plus alternating pastel colored stripes! Eeeewww. So I mixed up a diluted solution of a cordovan brown and these manly ribbed socks are the results of that effort. Yes, you can still see the original patterning but now it is quite subdued and I don't think anyone would be scared to wear these socks.

Next up are a very simple pair of ribbed socks knit from Regia yarn in a blue color scheme. At first I was tickled that I had found 2 50gr balls of yarn in the same colors so I could knit a larger pair of socks. But, when I started the second sock with the second ball, I realized that although they were the same "colorway", they were not only different dye lots,

but the yarn itself was constructed in 2 different ways! Wow! I've never had that happen before - where a yarn company changes the structure of the yarn itself. It was quite obvious when I had knit a couple of inches of the ribbing. Thankfully, I like to knit the 2 socks at the same time on (different needles) so it wasn't too late to change to a smaller foot on the socks and use every bit of just one ball of yarn. Yep. The second ball has already been matched to some gray yarn and is on the needles for another pair of socks.

Scrounging around in my stash I came up with one ball of a Regia striped yarn and one ball of a solid blue which were a great match.

Each ball alone could only make one sock, but together, they could make a pair. So, I used the solid yarn for the cuff, heel and toe, and the striped yarn for the leg and foot. Do I know how to have fun or what?

But wait, there's more! Here's another pair of "Roads Traveled" socks. These are the smaller size and are knit in a pastel multi-colored yarn.

And there was some test knitting again for the Six Sox Knitalong Yahoo group. This sock is called "Incurvation" and was designed by Janine La Cras. I knit it with a Regia sock yarn. The pattern is lovely, but there is knitting action on every single round - no restful just plain knit stitch rounds. So although I have started the second sock, it may be some time before I finish it. I need to have projects that are easy for knitting while socializing or riding in crowded buses and these are not the project for that.

Finally, here is this year's christmas stocking for the Holiday Mystery Gifts group (yes, I consider this a "sock"). It is my "Beaded Beauty Christmas Stocking" pattern and will be available on July 1st for the knitalong. No, I haven't finished knitting up the photo sample yet, but the pattern is with the test-knitters and I really will finish this. Really. Just as soon as I finish these other socks...

Time to move on

2011-06-06T15:43:00.000-07:00

Uh-oh! Those are clouds and a rain squall moving in on the Niki Wiki on a mooring ball in the Roatan Marine Park. Now that hurricane season has officially begun, it's time for us to move on to safer territory. The lazy, mostly dry sunshine days of the winter and spring cruising season here in the Western Caribbean are over. We have been watching the thunderstorm clouds build up over the mainland of Honduras 25 miles away each day. Then we enjoy the wild lightening shows at night. Overhead, we see the stars at the same time.

But those high-energy clouds are moving closer all the time. The tropics are heating up. It is now time to take that final load of trash and recycle aluminum cans to shore in West End Roatan Island (Honduras). Jonesy does a fine job of toting garbage from the boat, to the dinghy, up on the dock, and then down the long sandy road to the trash bins.

The little village at West End has been very quiet these past few weeks. The big cruise ships are visiting less frequently. The cooling trade winds have been less intense and even missing on some days which means we have been left to swelter in the heat and humidity with only the ocean water to cool us (oh darn).

Where we once had to dodge the tourist tour buses, rental cars, and honking taxi's, we now drift up the open road only having to pay attention to the occasional vehicle. There still are plenty of young folks here for the scuba diving adventures, but they are either out at sea diving or are sleeping it off from a wild night of partying. This little town really ROCKS at night - we know that only from being told about it and from the loud music and occasional raucous laughter we can hear way out at the anchorage (sound travels over water). Only old folks like us are out and about in the tropical sun at mid-day.

Many of the other yachties have already left for safer seas. Some left a while ago to head north up to Florida and then up the eastern seaboard of the USA. Others have headed south towards Panama and Colombia for the summer to hide from hurricanes - or even go through the Panama Canal into the Pacific Ocean.

We are returning to Guatemala and going straight back up the Rio Dulce river to Mario's Marina again.

But first, there's a lot of preparation to do before we head out to sea. We have some maintenance, and potential repair, and of course, provisioning. To support the tourist industry, there are a lot of specialty food items imported into Roatan which are also available in a couple of the larger grocery stores in the towns of Coxen Hole and French Harbor. These items are not available in Guatemala, or really anywhere else that we've been in the last 5 years (except the outstanding Riba Smith store in Panama City).

What "specialties"? How about canned sauerkraut, Hormel chili for hot dogs, and sweet potatoes/yams - and then there's the frozen Johnsonville Hot Italian sausages and Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage. These items, which are readily available in the states of course are very, very special to us as we didn't have access to them for many years. We reserve these goodies for the occasional treat.

Just days before we planned to sail off, one of our cruising friends noticed that our spreaders on our mast had exposed bolts - way up high. Oh-oh. That didn't look right - we could see hardware and most boats have these spreaders mounted flush to the mast. Was the spreader tweaking loose?

So Cheryl from the sailing vessel Interlude quickly volunteered to go up our mast in her bosun's chair (I think she's an adventure junkie and risk taker). After we got her all rigged up to the halyard (rope thing that goes up high) we all hoisted Cheryl up the mast.

The good news was that there wasn't a problem. It was only that the rigging tape had been destroyed by the sun and had disintegrated away exposing the bolts (see photo). No biggie. We didn't have any more tape aboard so we added it to the (growing) boat parts list for me to haul back from the states this summer.

Cheryl thoughtfully took photos of our rigging and of us (Karen from Interlude, Jonesy, and me Terry) lounging on the deck of Niki Wiki while she risked her life. And because Cheryl had the camera, this is the only photo we have of her performing her heroics - she's wearing blue shorts, a gray shirt and is sitting in her black and gray bosun's chair.

Next on the agenda was cleaning the prop. Our propeller had accumulated a beautiful garden of aquatic life. Unfortunately, this would inhibit our forward motion when using the engine. So I ~~got to~~ had to don scuba gear and ~~play~~ work really hard at scraping this flora and fauna off of not only the prop, but the shaft, zincs, and the bottom of the keel (which didn't have anti-fouling bottom paint on it due to a little mishap with a sandbar last year in Panama that we're not talking about).

Wow! What a difference being able to breathe underwater makes when cleaning the bottom of the boat! It was a lot of fun. Jonesy was in the water with me as my buddy and to point out the thru-hulls (holes in the boat to suck in water for the toilets and engine or to blow water back out) that needed cleaning.

How do you like our dead boat pet? Ah, the tropics...you just never know what you'll find on the boat.

Our 26-hour overnight passage direct from Roatan to Guatemala was planned so that we left at the crack 'o dawn. That way we arrived in Livingston, Guate at the peak of high tide. Why high tide? Because we have to cross a sandbar at the entrance to the big river and need to be sure that we have water beneath the keel.

We joined up with the sailing vessels Interlude and High States to make the passage together. There's safety in numbers. Besides the 3 rain squalls we went through, it turned out to be a very pleasant motor passage for all of us. Low winds, low seas, and no pirates, just had to keep our eyes peeled for the freighters coming from the banana and pineapple plantations of Honduras and Guatemala and heading out to somewhere in the world.

Well, that's enough for today. Tomorrow I'll share some of the knitting that's been going on.

Floral Me Softly Hat

2011-05-08T13:03:00.000-07:00

Just because I could...I knit another of my Floral Me Softly Fair Isle hats this past month. Sometimes I have to knit something other than socks. Not often, but sometimes.

This was a quick project...hmmm....and I have lots of this type of yarn (Knit Picks Palette fingering weight wool) in my stash in all sorts of colors. Perhaps there should be another one started soon.

Busy month!

2011-05-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

Wow - the month of April just flew by! There was lots of knitting, socializing, snorkeling and go-see-doing going on last month.

The socks pictured here are my new pattern - WOVEN WISPS socks. The smocking on the cuff gathers together the strands of straw (ribbing), then let's it flow down the back and front of the leg in a lacy woven design. Modeled by the lovely Cheryl from the sailing vessel Interlude this pattern is available for free only during the month of May on the Holiday Mystery Gifts Yahoo group.

The highlight of April was the visit by a friend of mine from high school! Carol spent two weeks with us on the boat and was the perfect boat-guest. Why? Because her family had a sailboat and she knows her way around marine heads (toilets) and doesn't get seasick. Sailing to Catalina Island off the coast of California as a weekend guest with her family is how I discovered the joy of sailing! Seems fitting that Carol would be our guest on our sailboat now.

And Carol KNITS! In fact we spent a lot of time with our yarns and needles. Carol knit a beautiful hat in alpaca yarn and two different dishcloths.

We had fun checking out Facebook and ~~laughing at~~ looking at old high school acquaintances. Carol is a naturalist so we toured the botanical gardens (mostly just laid around in a garden hut and chatted) and snorkeled almost every day - often for over an hour at a time. In the evenings we experimented with different fruits and fruit juices and rum or tequila in the blender. Alternating nights, we'd just whip up a couple of gin and tonics with fresh lime juice. Yes, we even had little umbrellas a couple of times. It is the tropical island after all!!

We introduced our guest to the Debauchery on the Derelict Dock cruiser BYOB and Appetizer event. Unfortunately, the weather was quite humid and there was the pall of smoke from agricultural burning so we didn't get a good sunset most evenings.

We rented our first car to go-see-do the small villages up-island on the eastern and southern sides. This is a picture of Oak Ridge on the south shore. Oak Ridge is at the end of the paved road and is the last stop for public transportation (Tica bus).

We stopped for lunch in Jonesville on the south side, and ate at PUKY'S. I don't know, there's just something about that name and the cartoon fat crocodile that gave me the creeps. Anyway, it was a nice clean little open-air restaurant right on the water. Carol and I had "Typic Food" - that is the typical food of the island. What was it? It was a freshly made flour tortilla, 2 fried eggs, a grilled hot dog, a blop of mashed red beans, and fried plantains. Here's a picture of Jonesy and Carol pondering the menu at Puky's.

Continuing along the dirt road down the center of the island we turned off to go down to Camp Bay on the north shore. This is a beautiful place! At the far end of the white sand beach is a little bar/restaurant called "Asylum". This is it - a thatch roofed hut on stilts out over the water.

And this is one of the resident dogs. Sleeping and enjoying the breeze. Yes, I checked to see if she was breathing because she never moved the whole time we were there.

Here's Pam from the sailing vessel Glide (which can be seen in the background) modeling her new knit hat that she knit herself! She was already a knitter, but I taught her how to work on a set of double pointed needles and decrease the crown seamlessly. She actually knit 3 of these hats within about a week and donated 2 of them for the kids in the orphanage in Kazakhstan! Go girl!

I have to confess that I'm an enabler. While her enthusiasm was hot, I loaded her up with a bag of beautiful Noro and Lamb's Pride yarns to knit more hats for the kids. Glide is currently underway for a long sailing passage non-stop to North Carolina, then all the way up to Maine. I do believe that Pam will be knitting all the way. In fact, she reported in on the side-band radio net that she has already knit two more hats.

Besides working on a couple of new designs (that have to remain secret a while longer) I also knit up some thick wool socks for the orphanage. Both pairs use Brown Sheep "Lamb's Pride" worsted weight wool and my "Hug Me Socks" pattern modified for the heavier wool. In the red pair I switched to an after-thought heel to make the incorporation of the extra strand of sock yarn and nylon woolly yarn a little easier in the heel area. The toe area also has this reinforcement.

It always tickles me to see how neatly socks fold up when I've used the after-thought (Turkish) heel.

Where are these knitted items now? Up in the United States! Carol hand-carried a bag of items including these socks and Pam's two hats up to the states and will mail them to the Mittens for Akkol organization soon. Thanks Carol!

So, that's been our life lately. One more month of the island life before we head back to the mainland of Guatemala and the Rio Dulce. We'll miss a lot of what we can get and do here - but Jonesy and I both start salivating when we think about the juicy pork chops we can buy from the Casa Guatemala orphanage's meat shop in the Rio Dulce!

Diving and...knitting?

2011-04-02T18:57:00.000-07:00

So, when we dive we always do a "safety stop" which is a 3-minute stop at a 15 foot depth (or 8 minutes if we went deeper). What a waste of time (except to get those nitrogen molecules out of our bodies which is important, you know, the "bends" suck). Of course we could study the coral, sponges, and other sea life up close and make good use of our remaining air. But we had other ideas.

My dive buddy, Cheryl from the sailing vessel Interlude suggested that I fill the time with knitting! What a totally switched on gal! Wonderful idea! So today, we did just that. Here I am knitting with the fishies which can be seen in the background. I'm sure they were confused. I mean, people pay thousands of dollars to fly to and stay here on Roatan to dive. What is this human blob doing? She's not chasing us and taking photos.

You know, it wasn't that easy. The cotton yarn was sticking to the needles and had a mind of it's own floating about here and there. I'm glad the bright colors came out in the photos and my wet suit (or "girdle" as Jonesy calls it) did it's job to make me look slim.

Also hanging around today was this big, about 2 1/2 feet long turtle - doing nothing. Heck, she should knit and at least produce something instead of hanging about a canyon hiding from human blobs.

RESCUE
As I was rinsing off the salt water at the dive shop, the VHF radio came alive with a call for help from a sailboat. Their engine had quit and "alarms were going off everywhere". Fortunately, Jonesy had just arrived in the dinghy and we could see the boat out about a mile beyond the reef.

So, we headed out to the cut in the reef and met up with other cruisers who were coming out in their dingies to help too. The disabled sailboat used their sail and tacked back and forth into the wind to come closer to us. The seas beyond the reef are just too rough for our little dinghies to go all the way out to where they were stopped.

When the sailboat got to us, we tied up a dinghy to the center and the stern cleats on both sides and started our engines. Acting like four miniature tugboats, we managed to move the big boat forward and into the safety of the mooring field on the calm side of the reef. Also fortunately, there was one, and only one mooring available as this is the high season here on Roatan. Other cruisers in dinghies guided the sailboat towards the mooring ball and picked up the line. There was a smooth and gentle handover to the waiting hands of the captain who ran his lines through the pennant. (pennant = line from mooring ball which is underwater and is covered in stinging, alive sea creatures and goo). Whooo hoooo! Safe!

Spring Socks by Claudia Tietze

Now, of course, they have to diagnose the engine problem and make repairs. But the family (Captain, wife, and daughter) on this Canadian vessel (Kodo) are now safe and life goes on at the West End of Roatan Island, Honduras, Central America.

Now that it's April I can finally show you the socks that I test knit for the Six Sox Knitalong Yahoo group. These are the Spring Socks by Claudia Tietze. Very nice, with just a touch of lace.

The pattern is available for free only during the months of April and May.

Knitting & Diving, knitting and diving...

2011-03-31T10:33:00.000-07:00

Terry

Knitting & Diving. That pretty much describes these past two weeks for me. One of my diving buddies, Cheryl took some underwater photos of me as we kicked hard into the current one day. Usually, there isn't much of a current, but a couple of days it was really strong. For safety, we swim into the current (hard work) for the first part of the dive, then drift back to the dinghy letting the sea work for us.

This day we spotted a darling Caribbean Squid - so cute! It was just hovering over this coral and wasn't shy at all. Most of the sea creatures are unafraid of divers. As this is a protected marine park, they are used to us bulky blobs of human matter moving slowly through their neighborhood and doing no harm.

Caribbean Squid

Blue Parrotfish

The colors of the reef are more colorful than they appear in these photos.

Human Blob Terry

Check out this big Blue Parrotfish! It was about 2 feet long. We see many different types of parrotfish but this guy is really special. The reef has all sorts of bizarre formations, walls that drop off to the deep, and canyons. Here's a small arch that we came across. Even snorkeling, you can see a lot of these.

The folks on the sailing vessel Footloose had an issue with their halyards (ropes that pull up the sails) being tangled way up at the top of their mast. So we had some good watching while Doris hoisted Tom up the mast. No, it's not all play out here. The definition of cruising is making boat repairs in exotic places.

There has been group knitting going on! That is if you can call 2 people a "group" - and I do. Pam from the sailing vessel Glide who is already a proficient knitter, came over for a lesson on knitting with multiple double pointed needles.

Oh yes, a kind reader asked for the patterns from the last post. The man-thong pattern is free on KNITTY.COM
Here are my instructions for the warmer:

size 5 dpns
DK weight yarn.
CO 24, join.
knit 2 rounds
YO, k2tog all around one round (for eyelet holes for ribbon to tie the thing on)
Continue knitting in the round until you have the desired length before shaping the end.
k6, k2tog around
knit
k5, k2tog around
knit
continue knitting one less stitch before the k2tog until you have 6 sts left. cut yarn and thread thru end to gather.
Find a willing wearer and Enjoy!

Host Vessel Job

2011-03-25T17:56:00.000-07:00

Well, it has happened - we got a "job". Yep, we are now the new HOST VESSEL in the Roatan Marine Park mooring/anchorage here in West End, Roatan. It's kinda like being the Host vehicle in some of the National Parks in the USA. No biggie - in fact Jonesy has plenty of time to watch the NASCAR races in a comfy spot in the village.

So, in exchange for a free mooring (yippeee!), we help folks pass through the narrow gap in the reef, and get them attached to a mooring ball. Jonesy has spent a lot of time zooming around in his dinghy since we accepted this position. Also, we are responsible for verifying that everyone has paid their fees which is not a problem. Cruisers tend to be nice folks and are usually so glad to get off of the lumpy seas from their passages from Belize or other Honduran islands and into a smooth, safe place that they are willing to fork over some cash.

We are NOT entertainment directors nor are we responsible for the morals and behavior of the people on the 20 boats here. That being said...we did have 25 wild and crazy cruisers on our boat last week for a get-together! Everyone brought finger foods to share and there were plenty of adult beverages. Just before sunset, I presented Doug from the sailing vessel Highland Light with a little bit of knitting that I had done for him.

Willy Warmer

Look. Don't mess with a knitter who has too much time on her hands and a large stash unless you want to pay the price. Doug said he wanted a "willy warmer" and for several weeks there was a lot of teasing going on about the appropriate size. We joked about "measuring sessions" and what the opportunities were for using such an item. Jonesy selected the yarn colors and away I knit. While I was at it, I decided to also knit a man-thong as something Doug could actually wear.

Man-Thong

Wear? Yes. Later that evening, in the dark of the night, he strolled out onto deck to model the man-thong. Lisa, his wife asked us all not to post photos of that event. Dang. It was some good watching! And yes, I do have the photos.

Everyone stops at the exact moment of sunset to see the sun sink into the sea. Why? Because it's special and also because we can sometimes see the "green flash" at that final moment of sunshine. All throughout the mooring field there are cheers and whooping from the boats to celebrate a green flash. Then Doris from the sailing vessel FootLoose plays Taps on her old bugle.

Knitting still happens every day on board the Niki Wiki where the Caribbean breezes keep me cool and comfortable. Even on the days that I go scuba diving with my good buddies, I manage to find time to knit. I have now made 9 dives!!! Because the gals on the sailing vessel Interlude have an extra set of gear, all I have to pay for is the rental of the tank + air which is $5 bucks - that's it!
Now that I have bought a replacement for my camera which suffered sudden death, I'll try to get more photos.

She be certified

2011-03-07T11:40:00.000-08:00

I survived the PADI Open Water Diver course and passed the physical and written tests - Whoooo hoooo! I'm now a certified scuba diver! It was a hard, and exhausting week, but my new friend Mary and I made it through. Thanks so much to our dive instructor Christina and all the folks at Roatan Divers .

It was great having a fellow student who is my age and who has a positive attitude. Mary made the whole experience so very pleasurable as we laughed together at our awkwardness both in and out of the water.

So, as I was walking back to the dinghy with Jonesy at the end of the day, I was prattling on about how useful this new skill of mine will be. Well heck! If something goes wrong down on the keel of our boat I can go down and check it out. Oh! Jonesy says...now YOU can clean the propeller for us! We won't have to hire anybody. Oh, yeah, I guess that is now one of the "pink" jobs on the boat for me. Yeah, and while I'm down there I can change the zincs on the shaft and then clear out the barnacles in the through-hulls (exit & entry tubes) to the heads (toilets).

Once I rest up I'll get back to my knitting. My brain has been full, and my body empty of energy this past week, but I'm really looking forward to picking up the needles again. We paid for another MONTH on the mooring ball here in West End, Roatan - we're stuck in paradise again.

Girl's Days Out

2011-03-05T08:26:00.000-08:00

The "girls", Karen and Cheryl of the sailing vessel Interlude and their guest, Michelle invited me to take a hike in the Carambola Botanical Gardens. Road trip? Hike in a jungle? Yes!

We took ourselves on a self-guided hike through different planted and natural areas. One interesting plot is planted with trees and shrubs that produce spices. We were able to crush a leave from a cinnamon tree - delicious aroma! From studying my spice book I believe that this tree was true cinnamon as opposed to "cassia" which is where we get the reddish-brown powder that we use and call cinnamon in the USA. It was a cruise-ship day and apparently a group of folks had gotten a guided tour before we got there, but we had the place all to ourselves. They had thoughtfully left out the samples of leaves, nuts and fruits on little display tables so we enjoyed looking (smelling and touching) those too.

On one of the hillsides was a small grove (plantation?) of cacao trees which had immature pods growing on the trunks. These pods have the seeds which after a fermentation process will produce chocolate! Yum!

So we hiked all the way up to the top of the hill and along a ridge to get some great views of the sea. Below us was the Anthony Key Resort and the reefs of the north side of the island. These are some premier diving & snorkeling sites.

We had a wonderful unofficial tour guide - a yellow and white cat who walked the entire trek with us. We kept asking him which trail to take, but he preferred to just go where we led him. There are a lot of pet cats on the island and a large number of them have this same coloring. We have seen very few cats throughout Mexico, Central America, and Colombia but they sure are popular here! And very friendly! Jonesy and I have been able to get our kitty-petting needs fulfilled these past few months (remember our boat is named after our long-departed family cat Niki).

It's not really the best time for viewing flowering plants but we did manage to spot a few and walk among some plantings. In the summer months is when we see the orchids blooming on the mainland.

The palm trees had GIANT bunches of big, hard palm nuts on them. There are so many different kinds of palms in the world - it's amazing. The fruit and the fibers from palm trees provide a lot of products that we use such as palm oil, dates, baskets, and other consumables.

Palm "nuts"

So that was one of the outings I've done recently with other cruising women. Another event was the Women's Day Out we had at a local beach resort. About 20 of us all met at the Luna Beach resort which is right on the beach in front of where we are anchored. We had a great lunch - a lot of chatter and introductions, then a swim in the fresh water pool.

Yes. That's me in the synchronized swimming stance. In the background you can see one of the boats at anchor in the bay.

So, that's been some of the activity lately. I've continued with my scuba diving lessons and have 2 dives scheduled for this afternoon for more instruction. Other than that, we've just been leading a quiet life and enjoying what we think is one of the best cruising area we've found so far.

Rain, Rain and LOTS of rain

2011-02-23T07:37:00.000-08:00

Rain, rain, and LOTS of rain. That's what we had last week here in Roatan. Although it is not unusual to have the occasional squall come through, these torrential rains were bizarre. We had two solid days of downpour from the same big storm that had earlier swept across the USA.

One morning we woke up to the water looking quite similar to my morning coffee (I take it with milk and use the local panela or light-brown sugar). There was so much dirt/earth/soil from the runoff from the island in the water! It wasn't until hours later when the rain stopped that I could get out and take a photo and by then it was already clearing. Within 24 hours it was again clear enough to see the bottom and the scuba dive boats were out on the reef. Fast!

We later discovered that the main road (sand & dirt) in the village of West End had been wiped out by flooding and that was the source of the mud in the bay. We were quite impressed that the local community had dump trucks of earth and a hoard of men repairing the road within a day and were done by nightfall. If the tourists can't get to the restaurants, dive shops, and trinket shops then they can't spend money, so time was critical.

So we stayed on the boat and read, knit, and put bowls under all of the new leaks. Dang, I thought I had made good progress in sealing known leaks, but the amount of rain we had proved me very wrong. I had borrowed a copy of the PADI Open Water diving manual from another boat and spent some of this downtime studying up for my future scuba diving lessons. With so much rain I felt I WAS underwater anyway. As for knitting...well, I worked on some brainless projects like this dishcloth which are little gifts to other boaters.

Eventually, the sun came out. We loaded up the stinking garbage and dashed to town dispose of it and to pick up some provisions. There usually are a couple of pickup trucks with vendors of fruits and vegetables parked along the road in the shade. The assortment is limited to the basic goods (peppers, carrots, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, limes, plantains and oranges. But we can also find cantaloupes, watermelon and the occasional broccoli and celery. Here's a photo of Jonesy hauling in a bag of groceries to the end of the dock where we tie up our dinghy in West End. We do a LOT of hauling in this lifestyle.

We also do a lot of walking - sometimes just to get our basic needs and other times to explore and stretch our legs. On shore, there is one stretch of beach that is bisected by a canal on private property. In order to continue our walks we must cross the sky bridge over the canal. Great. I'm not wild about heights especially when there are gaps in the structure and I can see how far up I am.

We climbed up the rusty steps and managed to get across the bridge. That was the good news. The bad news is that we'd have to do it again on the way back. Ugh.

Did I say rusty steps? Yep. Especially the bottom steps which I have pictured here. All the steps were rusty and many had rusted clear through and had holes. So, as we climbed (and descended) we had to step on the far left and right sides of each step where the metal was more intact. So we waddled up the steps, carefully cross the wooden boards on the top, and waddled down the other side.

But it was worth it as we got to stroll along the big wide beach at West Bay! Our entertainment in the tourist area of West Bay is checking out the sunbathers and trying to place their language. Most are Europeans and we marvel at all the different languages (and the skimpy men's bathing suits - eeew).

And then there's the sand art to study. Hmmmm.

And even tree houses!

Up this spiraling wooden staircase is a full house, complete with plumbing. You can see the structure in the 2nd photo. How cool is that? Of course this takes hauling your groceries up to a new level.

There are about 15 to 20 boats on moorings here in the West End with some staying long periods (months) and others only hanging out with us for a few days. Right now fully half of the boats are Canadian flagged vessels which if you think about the difference in population sizes is a very odd thing. We've all been generously patronizing the local restaurants and bars (Jonesy can't pass up $1 chili dog night at the Crooked Palm) as part of our duty to keep the local economy going.

Jonesy & Terry at the Crooked Palm

For all of our cruising years, we have made a point of being back on the boat by dark. This is part of our plan for safety. But, here at West End we've allowed ourselves some evening and yes, even past sunset and into dark adventures. That's because the main road - and all the establishments line an open road that is well lit. We have never seen a shady character rowing through the mooring field unlike most of the places we anchor. So we've enjoyed the perceived safety of West End and the businesses have profited from us. Just doing our part to help the flailing tourist industry.

Dive! Dive! Dive!

2011-02-10T07:44:00.000-08:00

This may give y'all a better idea of where we are now. Right here. See the little group of yachts in the farthest bay? That's West End on the island of Roatan. In the foreground is the tourist area of West Bay.

These photos were taken by our friends Ted and Joan on the motor vessel Panchita when they took an open cockpit airplane ride around the island! Check out that little sea plane - we would see it take off and land several times a week from the Fantasy Island Resort. We may not ever see Panchitia again as they just headed off for the Eastern Caribbean islands and Cuba. But, you never know about that...cruisers can and do change their minds.

In fact, we just ran into Enrique and Katheryn on the sailing vessel Pelican in French Harbor a couple of days ago! The last time we saw them over a year ago they were headed north up to the US state of North Carolina. Plans changed and now they are here!

I went scuba diving for the first time ever! It was fantastic and so much easier than I thought! Of course I'm already used to the water and having a snorkel in my mouth for a long time, but all that other gear looked a little (ok, a lot) overwhelming. I had my own personal instructor for 2 dives which made me feel very comfortable. This is a picture of Cheryl from the sailing vessel Interlude who was instrumental in talking me into taking the dive lessons. I lust over her pink fishy cap.

What was it like? Totally a Disney experience! Big schools of blue fish, big groupers lurking, and lots of colorful reef fish. The best part was being able to get in close and watch the behavior of the fish in their natural environment. Because this all is part of the Roatan Marine Park the fish are used to divers and don't fear us because there is no hunting or even touching allowed.

The little dive boat was crowded with gear and cruisers and I didn't get many pictures because I was way too busy (and happily nervous). We all went into the water for the first dive of the day. Even Jonesy, who snorkeled on top of the water and watched me the entire time. After about an hour, we rested on the boat and snacked. Then the rest of the divers went in for a 2nd "tank" (dive) while Jonesy and I relaxed in the sunshine of a beautiful day.

On the knitting front, I finished up a little pair of socks knit from Brown Sheep Wildfoote sock yarn. The foot is about 6 1/4" long which is the smallest size we make for the older children's orphanage.

Also on the needles is a very nice sock design that I am testing for another group. Sorry - I can't show you until April.

So, we've just been snorkeling, walking on the different stretches of beaches, making water, reading, watching the cruise ship tourists pass us on adventure boats. Then we have been listening to music, cooking and eating good food, and monitoring the sunset every evening and watch as the cruise ships leave the big ports around the corner of the island and head off to their next ports of call.

SEA LIFE OBSERVED
Queen Angelfish
Banded Butterflyfish
Tiger Grouper
Nassau Grouper
Foureye Butterflyfish
Rock Beauty Angelfish
Blue Tangs
Barracuda
French Brunts
Sergeant Major
Yellowtail Damselfish
Queen Parrotfish
Donkey Dung Sea Cucumber
Spiny Lobster
Queen Conch
Caribbean Reef Squid
Fairy Basslet (aka Royal Gamma) pretty purple and yellow little fish
Spotlight Parrotfish
Bluehead Wrasse
Squirrelfish
Porcupinefish
Trumpet Fish
Remora Sharksucker - on another fish!
Yellow Goatfish

Plus lots of super healthy corals, sponges, and anemones and worms. I don't have an identification book (yet!) for this but that's on my shopping list now.

HUG ME Socks

2011-02-06T13:38:00.000-08:00

Introducing my super easy sock pattern that is perfect for those wildly colored hand-dyed yarns. Hug Me Socks is the February/March 2011 pattern on the Six Sox Knitalong Yahoo group .

Hand-dyed, painted and variegated sock yarns are often so colorfully busy that any knitting stitch patterning simply disappears. These special yarns require a more simplistic approach such as the easy knit and purl combination used in these socks. The bonus is that this patterning makes a stretchy sock that wants to hug your leg and foot. Heel construction is the traditional flap & gusset method.

See how it stretches to fit even my heifer calf quite comfortably? Nope, I won't keep them - they are tucked safely into a locker to be sent to the orphanage in Kazakhstan.

Hammock Feet & Ducky Races

2011-02-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

These are my feet in the hammock and this is the view looking west away from the island. That's one of the best parts of cruising - the scenic beauty that we have 24-hours a day from our home. Because we now have an unobstructed view of the west, we get stunning sunsets too as we watch the sun sink into the ocean!

The weather has been fabulous - in the low 80's during the day and the low 70's at night with a steady breeze. Although we are always ready for rain (close the hatches when we leave the boat), we haven't had any in almost a week. We are enjoying living at this higher latitude where it is cooler than down in Colombia and Panama. The water temps are still a little cool at about 79/80 degrees so we just bought another tropical light weight wet suit at a local dive shop so we now have one for each of us.

The next photo is the view towards the island (Roatan), and finally a picture of our mooring ball for those folks who don't know what one is. The ball is about 15" in diameter and we're in water that is about 12 feet deep. When snorkeling yesterday, I noticed that a large queen conch (shell with animal inside) was visiting the turtle grass by our mooring ball.

DUCKY RACES

On our last day over in the French Harbor/Fantasy Island anchorage, we were treated to a Rubber Ducky Race. Ted & Joan on the motor vessel Panchita have an extensive collection of these bath toys and have organized many events in the past. This one was a fund-raiser for the Fantasy Island Marina Cruiser's fund to purchase some new furniture for our "green" park area where we have our Happy Hour get-togethers and potluck dinners.

Jonesy and I each selected a duck and placed our bets. Then we had some time before the official event to prepare a large rum & coke for me and a beer for Jonesy at the "bar" set up under the thatch-roofed palapa. While we waited for folks to arrive, the local monkey family came over to check us out (and get a few handouts of food).

It was a sunny day following a solid day of heavy rain so we walked along the bay to stretch our legs. Then it was time to sit and get out the knitting.

Race time! The ducks were ~~ceremoniously~~ dumped into a bucket and transported to the starting point out in the bay. Go! The crowd stood on the shore in the shade and watched the ducks drift slowly to shore - kinda like watching the grass grow in the summertime. Yes - there are ducks floating in this picture. Really. Look closely.

Finally, they moved in closer to the finish line so we could actually see them. Within a short time, the first ducks rode the tiny little wavelets up to the sand and "stuck". Winners were applauded. Jonesy and I still had to wait for our duckies to drift ashore. Waiting, waiting...then my green duck arrived somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Jonesy's duck? Well, it was 2nd from last and only a few seconds away from being dead last which would have resulted in a boobie prize of $5! This stupid duck spent almost the whole race floating on it's side. Oh well, a lot of fun was had by all and money was raised for our group and future cruisers who arrive. The hot dog feed and potluck followed on the "green" making it a full day of activities; shopping in the morning, macaroni salad preparation, duck races, and potluck - whew! Finally we got back to the boat and it was time for hammock swinging and star gazing.

West End, Roatan & Iguanas

2011-01-31T18:36:00.000-08:00

Hummingbird Nest

Yesterday, Jonesy woke me up with a gentle pat and softly told me that we were heading off to a new spot here on the island of Roatan - Yipppeee! I love spontaneity! He had listened to the morning side band radio cruiser's net and heard that the weather would be great for a day trip and that there were 4 mooring balls available in the Roatan Marine Park at the west end of the island.

So, after a cup of coffee to get the old brain engaged I secured some loose items in the salon area and closed the ports (windows) on the sides of the boat and got ready to sail.

We had a great 3-hour motor-sail and, with the help of friends, managed to pick up a mooring ball (a floating ball at the top of a heavy chain which is secured in the sand with a long (4 foot?) "sand screw". Anchors can destroy the reef environment so the Marine Park has set up these moorings. We paid $100 US for a month on the ball. We can literally fall off the boat into some of the best scuba diving and snorkeling in the world.

But sometimes being spontaneous has it's drawbacks. We had sent our laundry out and wouldn't be able to take delivery 'cause we had left. Ooops. No biggie, we radio'd a fellow cruiser and asked them to pick up our laundry after it was dropped off at the Cruiser Green - outdoor gathering area in the marina. We'll get it in a few days maybe. Good thing we don't wear much clothing.

So, how about these iguanas? Big enough for you? Do you see the human's foot in the top of the photo? Right there in French Harbor where we were anchored for the past few weeks is Sherman Arch's Iguana Farm.

We took a stroll there and were "greeted" by a mass of hungry monsters. All throughout Central America we have caught quick glimpses of these ancient beasts high up in trees or marching across fields, but never so many in one place! And these guys were not afraid of humans, but were instead coming out to us. That's because part of your entry fee to this area is the chance to feed the iguanas. We were handing out taro leaves and they were munching away on the leaves right out of our hands. Isn't Jonesy brave?

So today we took the dinghy ride over to the West End village which is a funky Scuba Dive town. We checked out the restaurants, paid our mooring fees, got our "Lion Fish Killer" permits, and perused a few little grocery shops. After eating lunch on the boat, Jonesy checked out the internet (which has been down all throughout the islands for a few days and is back up) and I snorkeled with 2 friends from the sailing vessel Interlude for about an hour. Wow! and Double Wow! The fish were amazing! And tomorrow is another day in paradise.

Rainy day ramblings

2011-01-28T08:34:00.000-08:00

I am finally making progress again on this Follow the Leader Aran Knitalong sweater although I am still a FLAKer slacker. Yes, it has been languishing for years on the needles, and no, I don't even need it anymore. But I'm determined to finish it for the orphanage in Kazakhstan. Some big kid will get a warm, tightly-knit wool pullover. I make myself work 2 rounds minimum each day. Creeping, creeping along (in Wool of the Andes, by Knit Picks in discontinued color 'rain').

After my brain, and hands get tired from twisting all of the cables on the sweater, I pick up my sock knitting to relax. These are a little pair of baby socks from my trusty Tiny Treasures pattern for the baby house in Kazakhstan. The yarn did all of the color changes for me, I just knit.

Then, because there was a lot of leftover yarn and the group needs another several hundred pairs of socks for the kids next fall, I knit a pair of 7" foot children's socks. These were soon finished, so I dug out a pair of teenager socks that I never finished (because I didn't take enough brown yarn on my trip to the states) and finished them (because I had found the brown yarn on the boat).

These are a wilder version of my Handsome Devil Socks pattern. The slip-stitch patterning makes a nice textured leg and top of foot which should be toasty warm too.

So, we're still in French Harbor/Fantasy Island at anchor in the rain today (yes we have internet on the boat!). Yesterday was sunny & beautiful and we both jumped in the water to cool off and get a tad of exercise. As we were drying off on deck we were lucky enough to see a big rainbow from the reef over the Fantasy Island resort and ending at the top of a jungle covered hill on the island. Picture perfect! I was too busy testing the swing of the hammock to get the camera out so you'll just have to trust me on this one.

Oh! There was other knitting progress made this past couple of weeks - I finally worked the 2nd armhole edging and sewed buttons on my Grass Creek Vest designed by Mabel Corbett. It's knit with pure Shetland wool - you know, from the isle of Shetland as in Scotland.

And I knit a cotton washcloth for a cruiser-friend from the January Dishcloth pattern from the Holiday Mystery Gifts group. The color striping was done for me by the yarn - Sugar'n Creme Striping worsted weight.

There was some "good watching" here in the bay this past week. This is a photo of our friend's boat s.v. Hooligan with a large barge & tug doing a 180 degree turn off their bow. Tim & Paula & dog-crew Nigel were ashore on a walk when this took place so I documented it for them. A brand new dry dock facility complete with 300 TON travel lift just opened up this past few days and this barge was one of it's first customers. I guess having large ships and barges moving throughout the anchorage is going to become the norm here. Of course we've always had the shrimp fishing boats coming and going as seen in this photo (the orange boats are shrimpers). The travel lift though is good news for us boat owners who now have another option for hauling our yachts out if need be.

So, that's been life aboard s.v. Niki Wiki - lots of quiet times, social outings, reading, knitting, cooking, and even a little boat repairs. Jonesy managed to caulk up the leak in the dinghy transom so our floor is now dry! And I smeared silicon caulk around the hard dodger to try and stop the drips that were leaking into our Navigation Station area inside. Well, the drips have slowed - but now it looks like they're coming in from the window. Next sunny day....

Another Opportunity for the captain

2011-01-21T12:15:00.000-08:00

Yep. Captain Jonesy has had another "opportunity" to make boat repairs in exotic places. We have been having bizarre problems with our fresh water system. First, the water pressure pump got noisy and air would burst out of the faucets when you turned them on. The pump would also run for long periods of time - a lot, grinding and whirling.

So, Jonesy climbed down into the bilge and replaced the fresh water pump. This is a tough job because he had to unbolt our reverse-osmosis water maker pump to get access to the water pressure pump. This is also why we always have spares on the boat - ya never know when stuff is going to let go.

We left French Harbor and Fantasy Island and motored just a little over an hour over to a more remote bay here on Roatan island - Jonesville Bight. This settlement is called Jonesville because a lot of the families are named Jones! We anchored in the bay, dropped the dinghy and went to explore.

Check out this bar (and brothel) which is really just an old boat anchored in the middle of the bay! We stopped for lunch at the famous "Hole in the Wall" restaurant on the water which is just that...a scruffy but tropically flavored open air restaurant.

There were plenty of critters about - several dogs and this beautiful Macaw.Because of a past injury to it's wing, it couldn't fly so he was free to roam about. The boa constrictor on the other hand was an unwelcome visitor. What? Yep, boa constrictors are native to these islands. This one was just a baby and was hiding up in the raftors on top of one of the hanging tee-shirts (I told you it was a funky place - there are tee-shirts nailed to the ceiling). See his little head and body in the gap? I poked him from the bottom of the shirt - what fun!

Well, although Jonesy's replacement of the fresh water pressure pump did get rid of the air in the lines and the pump was running less often, but it still ran a lot. Oh, and the bilge pump which gets rid of water that has accumulated in the lowest part of the boat, kept running too - at least once every couple of hours at first, then a lot more frequently. Crap. And, even though we were making water from sea water, the tanks weren't filling up like they should. Over a period of several days we searched the bilge for water leaks. No sign of water anywhere!! No dripping hoses, pipes, units...nothing.

Finally, we saw the water trickling down - oozing from out of the fiberglass structure of the boat. Yep. some water line inside of the fiberglass was leaking. Great. Jonesy had spare tubing (again, with the spares) and he squirmed around the bilge and installed new lines to bypass the hidden ones. But, there were 4 hidden lines and he only had enough tubing for 2. Well, that DID slow the leak, but it was still flowing pretty good.

Not only were we concerned about the water leakage, but we were also waiting for our mail to be delivered to the island. Important stuff, like our replacement credit cards for the ones that creeps got the number and made fraudulent withdrawals. Oh, and a knitting book and a marine identification book too. So, we hoisted up the anchor and headed back to French Harbor to track down our package and get hoses to try and replace ones on the boat.

Yesterday, we picked up our package that had been held for ransom in customs. Why? Because we had to pay duties and sales tax on the 2 books and on my 4 knitted Christmas Stockings that were being returned to me from Knit Picks! It doesn't matter that I knit them, sent them to the states for the photo shoot, and now they were being returned - I STILL had to declare a value and pay. Also, my "author's free copy" of a knitting book with my patterns was in our mail and same thing, I had to pay duties on it. Geez - what a hassle.

Anyway, today Jonesy tackled the other 2 water lines. You guessed it. The one that was leaking the worst was the last one he replaced - #4. So far it's been several hours and the water pressure pump is quiet - ahhhhhh. Success. In case you're wondering if I helped - yes, I did my part. I stayed out of the way and fed the mechanic whenever he needed it. That's my job (and I knit).

See that black shiny grit in my hand? That's some of the "ash" from the recent volcano eruption in Guatemala! I have a little baggie of the stuff - it's so pretty! Imagine this stuff coming down instead of snow and you've got an idea of what Guatemala City had.

So, we're planning to head to the grocery store tomorrow to restock, then we'll head back out to gunkhole (move along the coast stopping at various "holes" or bays along the way) back up to the eastern part of Roatan island.

Jade Seahorse - Utila Island

2011-01-17T10:17:00.000-08:00

Sometimes we come across some real treasures on our travels, both natural and man-made. On the island of Utila, Honduras we discovered a unique little hotel called the Jade Seahorse. I was instantly drawn to this place and felt so at home and inspired that I think I could take up permanent residence.

What was so special about this place was all of the handmade mosaic, glass, cement, nautical "found" items, and wood crafts that went into creating a beautiful garden! There are meandering paths, tunnels, patios under the big trees and bridges all covered with mosaic work. Neal, the proprietor and master craftsman behind the project collects the funky artifacts and also makes some of the glass pieces himself. Inside the gift shop are stunning glass items for sale (not for life on a sailboat!). There are several cabins that visitors can rent which are quite decorative. We liked the name of this cabin - "Shagrila".

How satisfying it would be to be able to express oneself artistically and at the same time provide an income. I can't imagine that I'd ever be bored - there's always got to be something more to build, add to, or change about the gardens.

So, skip the sterile and stodgy hotels and spend some time in Utila at the Jade Seahorse. It's a place you'll always remember!

Neal - Proprietor of Jade Seahorse

Finished Object

2011-01-10T07:03:00.000-08:00

It's not always nap time or happy hour! We do actually get things done. Jonesy replaced the fresh water pump yesterday (making boat repairs in exotic places = cruising). I worked a few more rounds on my cabled sweater (FLAK) for the orphanage in Kazakhstan.

And...ta-da...this is a photo of the finished sweater made from the big wad of wool that I won at the Knitting Retreat last fall. The yarn is a thick & thin merino wool that was dyed in 6 individually colored hanks. I had to plan very carefully on how to use the colors and the size (chest = 36") so that I wouldn't run out of yarn! All that is left is a small ball of the darkest yarn. Hmmm...maybe a matching hat?

Roatan

2011-01-06T10:03:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday we left the island of Utila and motor sailed over here to the big island of Roatan - about a 6 hour trip. We arrived to calls on the radio from our cruising friends who were already anchored here. Then a couple of hours later we had a hearty welcome at the Happy Hour at the Fantasy Island Marina resort. It's so good to meet up with friends again!

Plans were made for a girls snorkeling expedition for the next morning and off we went! Notice the wet suits - the water temps are still a bit chilly. We were out on the reef for about an hour and a half and saw so much! Lots of small fish, giant sea slugs, and unfortunately 3 lion fish. These beautiful fish are non-native and are destroying the other wildlife on the reefs. It's a real problem that the Marine Preserve is working on. We hear that in Florida they are promoting them as food eating - that way folks will actively fish them out and they'll be greatly reduced in numbers!

After all that exercise, it was time for this girl to take a nap in the new hammock! Our old one finally fell to shreds this past summer after many years of service. Jonesy strung up the new one and I was soon swaying on the bow and "just resting my eyes".

Soon enough it was time for Happy Hour again and socializing. We returned to the boat and I cooked up the fabulous wahoo (ono) steaks that we had bought from a fisherman that morning. We like to coat them with cajun/creole seasoning mix and "blacken" them in a pan. As a side dish, I mixed up some instant mashed potatoes with garlic, cream cheese, and parmesan cheese. I made patties and coated them with seasoned cornmeal (the special precooked variety we can buy down here) and fried them in a little oil. Yummy!

We'll be here in French Cay Harbor / Fantasy Island for a least a week, maybe more. Then we're planning to gunkhole along the coast to other bays and cays we haven't visited before.

Life in Utila

2011-01-05T17:57:00.000-08:00

Niki Wiki at Anchor Utila

We've decided to stick around the island of Utila a few more days than planned because we enjoyed it so much. That and another big blow or a norther wind was coming and we felt secure in the anchorage.

Utila main street

We walked the main (paved) road all along the scruffy bayfront full of scuba dive shops. Then explored up the hill into the neighborhoods. There are so many funky little cafes and bars to visit! Some have docks so we can just motor our dinghy right up to their dock. Thus, we can keep an eye on both our big boat out in the bay as well as the dinghy tied up at our feet. This bay has been known among the cruisers as "Burglary Bay" because of all the thefts of dinghy engines and thieves boarding boats while the owners were ashore to take anything of value. But things are supposed to be better now (but we are still super vigilant).

The weather has been very cool - as in temperatures in the low 70's with constant breezes. Jonesy even has worn a sweatshirt and long pants at night! We've found that the cool temps have made it easier to do little boat chores, take long walks, and knit on heavy sweaters. We still haven't gone swimming yet because the water is only 78 degrees right now. It will climb up to the 80's soon and we'll wait for then. Even the younger crowd is getting chilled on their dives.

We bought Honduran TIGO internet SIM cards for our USB sticks today so we both have internet service on the boat at anchor! How cool is that? No longer do we have to risk losing our computers to the sea as we carry them in backpacks to shore for internet. But it also means that we'll spend less time on boat chores and knitting on things like these cotton Spa Cloths worked up in Sugar'n Cream yarn. And this little Garter Stitch Baby Blanket and Hat Set for the Holiday Mystery Gifts Yahoo group.Sometimes you just need a super easy and quick knit. My problem was finding a model for the hat! So I wandered the streets of Utila and came across this adorable little baby. Photos were taken, and then I left the blanket and hat with the mother. She is still probably wondering who was that crazy lady and why did she knit for my baby?

Cruiser given black eye while sleeping

2010-12-24T13:13:00.000-08:00

A soundly sleeping cruiser was rudely attacked by a flying cooler while sailing the Caribbean Sea. Around midnight, storm squalls had appeared in the area and the cruiser had been relieved at the helm by the captain (who can’t sleep during worrying sea conditions). The cruiser went below and fell soundly asleep in her bunk. Suddenly, another squall moved into the area and the s/v Niki Wiki was rocked by winds and waves. The newly purchased, and stowed cooler, jumped from the shelf and landed squarely on the face of the snoozing cruiser resulting in stars being seen followed by screaming. By morning the black eye was evident.

Other than that, we had a wonderful motor-sail from our anchorage at Texan Bay through the stunning Rio Dulce jungle river gorge, passing by the scruffy town of Livingston as we had already done all of our official paperwork in advance and out to sea. Our adventure over the wide sandbar at the mouth of the river was uneventul – in other words, we didn’t run aground. In fact, we saw nothing less than 6” under our keel, yes that’s inches, not feet. This is why folks on boats who draft more than we do (5 ½ feet) have to be that much more careful about tides and sea bumps (swells, waves).

We left Guatemala at 7:30am and arrived at the Honduran island of Utila at dawn the next day. During the night hours we ran dark – no steaming or running lights because of the recent piracy of two yachts and murder of one captain. Also, we altered our course to be farther away from the dangerous/violence-ridden shoreline of Honduras. During the day we had sunny conditions, winds about 10 knots from the north mostly and seas were 2 feet and 6 seconds apart which meant I could get a lot of knitting done and Jonesy read another Clive Cussler novel. Then the squalls began after dark when Jonesy had gone below for a nap. So, we had rain most of the rest of the trip.

Speaking of food, our freezer and refrigerator are now even more stuffed! Our good luck came at the bad fortune of our friends Doris and Tom on the s/v Footloose. They have had to return to Guatemala and return to the states due to the sudden illness of a parent. They had been out for about a month already and are avid spear fishermen so we are now loaded up with ready-to-cook conch and grouper fillets plus other meats, chicken and cheeses.

While underway on our recent voyage, I prepared “cracked conch” , cornmeal coated grouper and Columbian flavored brown rice. Yummy! Then for breakfast, I chopped up the leftover cracked conch (breaded & fried) with scrambled eggs and rice and used this mixture to stuff Columbian “arepas” (corn meal patties) for me. Another yummy! Jonesy got his American style ham & egss + toast breakfast.

At some point in the middle of the night two knitters were aboard ships which passed in the night. Another knitter was aboard a cruise ship traveling from the Honduran Bay Islands (Roatan) to Belize in the opposite direction on just about the same route. I kept an eye out on the horizon for the bright lights of a cruise ship as well as checking my radar and AIS system, but no joy. Jonesy did spot a cruise ship later, but it was going in the same direction as we were. That’s as close as I usually get to another knitter these days.

EAST BAY, UTILA, HONDURAS

Right after we arrived in East Bay, Utila the skies cleared so we had a nice sunny couple of hours to dinghy over to town and get checked in with the Port Captain, Immigration, and pay our fees (about $6 processing fee and $1.50 per day anchoring fee). We explored a little local market and giggled at the wonderful availability of products we hadn’t seen since last spring on the island of Roatan. In this photo, our boat, Niki Wiki is one of those sailboats at anchor.

BOYS "GUARDING" OUR DINGHY

We tipped a couple of local boys (aged 10?) to “watch” our dinghy on the public dock while we were in town. When I happened to look out at the dock from the Port Captain’s office I saw that they were having a wonderful time lounging and playing in the dinghy. Boys will be boys. I later saw them helping folks with heavy loads coming off of the ferry. Great little entrepreneurs!

Sign on a business on Utila Island, Honduras. No. We don't know what "Fresh Pickins" are either, but we'll let you know when find out.

Our dinghy engine acted up yesterday, so this morning, Christmas Eve, was a quiet day on the boat while Jonesy investigates the engine. Looks like water has been leaking into the gas tank as we suspected last week. A whipping came untied on a halyard line, so when it stops drizzling I’ll go out and play with string (just don’t throw me in the briar patch).

We're sitting in the Driftwood Bar & Cafe on the waterfront, enjoying some adult beverages (and free WiFi) and a balmy breeze with the temperatures in the mid-70's, and missing our two sons. Merry Christmas boys and everyone!

Lace Hupils

2010-12-19T08:47:00.000-08:00

In these hot, tropical Caribbean lowlands of Guatemala, the Mayan women wear these lacy blouses (huipil) over spaghetti strapped camisoles rather than the heavy woven fabrics seen in the cool higher alttitude villages. Their shape is a simple rectangle folded in half and a neck opening cut out. Then a small area is sewn up the sides leaving a hole for the arms. This leaves a lot of fabric draped (flopping about) at the sides and underarms. Most of the ones I see are machine made airy fabric with intricate bottom borders, sometimes with floral fringes. Some are hand crocheted such as the three pastel colored huipils at the far left of this photo taken of a local street vendor.

The embroidery around the neck opening is machine made in these, but sometimes you can see hand-embroidered samples walking by. Hmmm. I wonder if anyone would be interested in knitted lace?

The Mayan women wear long woven skirts. You can see the fabrics for the skirts leaning against the huipils in the top photo and also here's another pic. In this area, the skirts are quite full and gathered rather than the straight line wraps of other areas of Guatemala. It seems that shiny threads of gold running through the skirt fabric are very popular in this area. The black and white semi-patterned areas are ikat or tie-dyed. The threads are dyed before weaving, and the patterns appear as the cloth is woven.

This lovely woman was embroidering a blouse while tending her vegetable stand here in the Rio Dulce. Her huipil is not typical of this area with the heavy tapestry style fabric so she is probably originally from another village (Chichicastenago?).

These are not "dress-up" or ceremonial clothes, but rather are the everyday wear for these women. I don't know how long this traditional form of dress will be around, but I so enjoy looking at the beautiful and colorful fabrics! So much so that I've been inspired to dig out my embroidery floss and perhaps give it a go as a border on a simple tank top. For me...not for Jonesy. He looks just fine in his traditional cruiser outfit of tee-shirt, shorts, ball cap and sandals or crocs.

Twas the day before leaving...

2010-12-17T12:47:00.000-08:00

Twas the day before leaving and all through the yacht,
Sweaty crew worked the chore list, last goodies were bought.

The shade canopy is down and carefully stowed,
We pulled the launch onto shore, (our lake travel mode).

The laundry was washed and hung up with care,
The freezer is crammed and no cupboard is bare.

The dinghy's been hoisted, our arms are quite sore.
Transit papers and passports - paperwork galore.

Charts and guides have been studied, the course carefully plotted.
Signatures signed, "T"s crossed and "I"s have been dotted.

Good-bye to Marios, good-bye Rio Dulce,
We'll travel the seas and be back in mid-May.

Wandering Walls Chullo

2010-12-09T12:30:00.000-08:00

Here's the Wandering Walls Chullo hat that I test knit for Meaghan Ryan. The yarn is Knit Picks Wool of the Andes, in colors Oyster Heather, Pampas Heather and Persimmon Heather. Of course this will go to the orphanage in Kazakhstan. The pattern is available on Ravelry.

One of the unusual chores we have because we live on a boat is to get our propane tanks refilled about twice a year. We use propane for just cooking, but it's pretty important to not run out! Especially when you're out anchored in remote places. We have a tiny backup tank so we can let the big tank get completely empty and just switch tanks.

Anyway, here on the Rio Dulce in Guatemala we simply take the tanks up to the office here at the Marina and they come back later in the week all full. Jonesy and I rode along on the journey with the tanks just for yucks. First, the tanks (and us) get an open air boat ride up the river to where the marina keeps a van (there's no road to the marina).

After a nice ride through vast open fields of grazing cattle and rubber plantations, we arrived at the propane refill place. Jonesy helped unload the tanks. What an operation! I'm terrified of compressed gas (it explodes) anyway and here everyone was walking around filling tanks with hoses scattered and loud hissing sounds. Everything was outside in this elevated work area.

We came back later in the afternoon, after taking a long drive into the larger town of Puerto Barrios and eating at a real McDonald's. The tanks were ready so we loaded up, drove back to the dock, parked the car, boated over to the marina, and voila! Got Gas! Yep. Another $10, another 6 months.

Pirates

2010-12-08T08:21:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not talking about old geezers who dress up in funny hats, eye-patches and wave plastic swords. This is serious. There have been 2 attacks by murderous pirates in the last week along the Caribbean coast of Honduras which is right near here. The latest resulted in the death of the boat owner.

Both times, the boats were anchored, alone in the isolated bay of El Diamonte. Men with guns and machetes swarmed aboard and ransacked the vessels taking everything of value. Here is a link to the News report.

These boats had just left from the Rio Dulce here. Of course, we are angry and concerned. Frankly, we are not expecting the Honduran government to do much, if anything, about it. But at least the Canadian authorities are investigating the murder. Our plans have changed, but for safety reasons I will not be sharing them here.

The cruising will continue because that's what we do! Thankfully, we are safe from automobile accidents caused by texting drivers, earthquakes, airplane security searches, cranky bosses, snow storms and other various dangers.

Progress

2010-12-03T10:15:00.000-08:00

There's been some progress made around these parts lately. The cooler weather has made it easier to get icky work done. That "cold blast" from the US & Canada has worked it's way down here. Brrrrr...Jonesy is wearing a sweatshirt (and shorts) and put on socks this morning. Temperatures are in the mid-70's for the highs and mid-60's for the lows. It's a very welcome change from the oppressive heat of the summer months.

Knitting has been progressing on the sweater. The body is done up to the armholes and it's divided for the front and back now. I've changed colors so that now I'm on the 4th color of 6.

Yesterday, we rode in a collectivo (a 9-passenger mini-van) with 23 people crowded aboard over to the larger town of Morales so that I could see the dentist. No big deal - just a little patch to an old crown ($35) and back home we went. Sure, the whole trip took 4 hours, but we've got nothing but time. So, check that chore off of the list. Moving on....

Shoes, Bees, and Ants

2010-11-30T14:15:00.000-08:00

In the last 24 hours I've blown out 2 pairs of rubber flip-flops. What bad luck. But the good news is at about $1 to 2 bucks each they were a bargain seeing as I wore them everyday and left them outside in the tropical sun for years. So today we took our little boat over to town and I searched thru the open air stalls and stores for new shoes with success - a blue pair and a brown pair. I'm good for another couple of years. Clothing expense isn't an issue for cruisers in these warm climate areas.

Now, this is why I saw bees swarming as I was knitting outside the other day - a BIG beehive is in a nearby tree. You can even see the combs that make up the structure in this photo. The entire outside of this hive is covered in live bees. We estimated this to be a least 2 feet high and 1 foot wide. It's good to see the bees thriving, but I sure hope they stay away from me.

This is a papaya tree that we came across when out walking yesterday. If you look at the upper part of the trunk you will see the oblong green papaya fruits hanging right off of the trunk. When they turn orange they will be yummy! When green, you can put a couple of slices in when you cook beef and it will tenderize the meat. Yep, papain is the enzyme from unripe papayas that is used in commercial meat tenderizers.

The leaf-cutting ants were really busy! Under each of the green pieces of leaf in this photo is a strong ant. They march in the same exact line for so long that they actually wear trails through the jungle floor or grass.

Yes, there's been knitting going on too. This is the bundle of wool yarn that I won at the knitting retreat last month. There was a contest to see who could correctly identify the most yarns out of 100 samples. They were numbered and we were to match them to a list of yarn brands & names. It was hard! I wasn't too interested in "playing" until I saw the prize! That's a whole sweater's worth of bulky weight super soft merino wool in 6 skeins of coordinating colors! On size 10 needles the knitting is zooming right along.

More boats have left the marina, leaving us behind. Fortunately, some folks are only just now returning from the states or Canada to begin a few months of cruising so we are seeing new faces too. Some people we'll see out there in the islands in the coming year and others we'll never see again as they are headed for adventures elsewhere. We're planning to linger in the western Caribbean for another year and enjoy all that it has to offer. With the tropical islands, cool high-altitude villages, city shopping opportunities and the beauty of Guatemala, we're not in any hurry to leave.

Turkeys in Paradise

2010-11-26T10:01:00.000-08:00

Yes, we are still in paradise (Guatemala), but we're not the turkeys I'm talking about. It's the five delicious Thanksgiving turkeys that were pit roasted for the potluck here at Mario's Marina. There's Jonesy checking out the pit. The birds were wrapped in aluminum foil and put down by the hot coals sometime early in the morning (when we were snoozing). We just had to take a peek underneath the corrugated tin roofing material which covers the pit and check them out.

The turkeys were cooked to perfection and had a mild smoked taste in the white meat. The dinner was fabulous with all the fixings including two new to me items; cranberry sauce with horseradish and orange-ginger carrots. I have to get the recipes before these folks to go out cruising!

Speaking of which, we are NOT leaving tomorrow. No biggie. I need to visit the dentist for a cracked crown and she is totally booked up until December. I tried to go in October, but the electrical power was off in town for the whole day and then I flew up to the states.

Then, we still can't just leave just yet because there are no high tides in the morning until later in the month. We need a high tide to be able to glide across the sandbar that blocks the exit out to sea! We're talking just an additional foot and a couple of inches difference, but it may make the difference between getting out and getting stuck. And we need it to be in the morning so we can check out of this country and get to a safe harbor before dark.

No hurries, no worries. In the meantime, I'm working on my bamboo knife rack and knitting needle holders. Well, not "me" exactly, but Innes is hard at work sawing the bamboo into different sizes. He sure worked up a sweat even while working in the shade. I'm thrilled with the results! Now, it's time to get creative with jute rope and twine to bind some of these together for the rack.

Oh! A giant Blue Morpho butterfly just flew by! I'm sitting up in the thatch-roofed palapa right now to catch the breeze and there it went. The leaf-cutting ants are hard at work chopping up the hibiscus plants and carrying the bits down to their underground fungus farm and I'm watching a swarm of bees up in a palm tree nearby. So much to see.

KNITTING: I knit and gifted a baby blanket to a new young mom who works here in the marina. Luckily I gave it to her the day before she had the baby! Unluckily, I was in such a hurry that I neglected to get a single photo. But, I did write up the pattern and it is being test knitted for next year's Holiday Mystery Gifts knitalong.

Then, I just finished test knitting a project for another designer. Very cute. Can't share yet, but I will soon. It's drying on a (stripped-of-leaves) hibiscus bush in the sun. The high humidity means that it takes a long time to dry wool knits.

These last few days, Jonesy has replaced our raw water wash-down pump, installed more LED amp-saving lights & bulbs diagnosed & repaired the faulty battery meter, and replaced the engine room exhaust fan. At least that's what I've seen him working on. There have likely been more jobs but he likes to work on the boat when I'm off somewhere so I don't fall down in the bilge (again). As such, I'm sometimes oblivious to the work. He knows when I've been working...because he gets to eat. We have blue jobs and pink jobs on the Niki Wiki.

Busy Busy

2010-11-14T06:02:00.001-08:00

With the date set to leave the safety of the marina (Nov. 27th) we've been busy working on our chore list. It was like a birthday bash for Jonesy when I unpacked my suitcases and presented him with all of his new boat parts. New impellers for the heads (toilets)! Pumps! LED lightbulbs! Water-maker maintenance kit! 2 depth sounders! and much, much more.

So, now that he had this pile of good stuff, it was time to get busy with the repairs. First, he replaced our amp-sucking incandescent bulbs with super efficient LED bulbs. This will mean that we can run lights at night for knitting! Next was a big repair - the replacement of the gear in our electric windlass (big thing on the bow which pulls up the heavy anchor & chain from the seabed so we don't have to).

Then, there was the Margarita Party down the dock onboard the motor vessel Kimtah. Is it possible to laugh for 3 hours straight? Yep. We all voted this to be the best party of the hurricane season!

Friday was a BBQ party up by the pool where we grilled some fabulous 1-inch thick pork loin chops and vegetables. Saturday morning was the swap meet up in the Cayuco Club here, followed by the Prime Rib dinner at the Rio Vista marina restaurant ($8 per person). Today, Sunday, right now Jonesy is up at the club watching the Formula 1 race on the big TV, then we have the usual Mexican Train domino game in the afternoon. Tomorrow is the Cruisers' Potluck. I'm making enchiladas so we'll have to zip up the river to town in our launchita (small boat) and pick up some fresh handmade tortillas.

Then maybe I'll start to work on my chore list...or maybe not.

Motherless Child Foundation Christmas Project

2010-11-13T11:06:00.000-08:00

This is the nonprofit organization that raises funds for the kids in the orphanages in Kazakhstan for whom I knit all the socks, hats, and mittens. Take a look at minute 2:33 in the lower left hand corner of the screen you will see MY SOCKS!!! The red & yellow wildly patterned socks being held up by the little boy were knit by me a couple of years ago. They are from my Caleta Socks pattern. What a thrill to see them matched up with a happy face!

Back Home in Guatemala

2010-11-12T10:52:00.000-08:00

The return trip:

The giant pile of boat parts, special candies, spices, enchilada sauce, brand-name medicine, yarn, turkey baster, books, and more boat parts had to be loaded into 2 suitcases not to exceed 50 lbs. each. Success! Each bag weighed 49.5 lbs.

One of the house cats, Loki, enjoyed exploring the empty boxes and made quite a pest of himself. Now, everything else had to be stuffed in the 2 carry-on bags. Balancing out weight versus bulk was the trick here. Hmm...seeing as I don't need the PJs in the tropics, I threw them out after my last wearing, and then wore layers of clothes for the trip rather than packing them. It's a good thing that I lost a little weight during my visit!

After a shuttle van pick-up in Sacramento at the god-awful time of 3:15am, 3 airplane flights and a 5 1/2 hour bus ride, plus a short boat ride, I arrived safely back to the boat 36 hours later. I left Tuesday before dawn and managed to make it to the marina in time for a quick nap followed by the Wednesday evening all-you-can-eat taco buffet! From autumn in northern California to snow in Salt Lake City to who-knows-what-because-it-was-dark-during-the-6-hours-I-sat-in-the-Los Angeles Airport to nippy high-altitude Guatemala City to the tropical heat of the Caribbean all in one trip. It was a welcome pleasure to be able to relax and enjoy tacos with Jonesy and our many friends here at the marina. The "Hurricane Season" is winding to a close and already some boats have left for their adventures. We will leave on Nov. 27th . . . unless we don't.

So, here are some photos from the Knitting Retreat in Lake Tahoe back in October. That is a whole room full of 60 women talking, knitting, eating, drinking, and knitting some more. I led a "make 'n take" session of my little Ribbon Candy Ornaments pattern. First I had to wind into tiny hanks 4 different colors of fingering weight yarns of 4 different lengths and label the baggies with the color designators (A, B, C, D) for each of the 60 kits. This pattern is now in the "Knitting: 2011 Day-to-Day Calendar" box of patterns which is available at book stores and yarn shops.

These are two Ribbon Candies that I knit and

wore as earrings

just to show everyone what the end product should look like - these can be tree ornaments, package ties, or yep, earrings.

Another knitting event I attended while visiting up in the states was a Lace Shawl Design Workshop taught by Amy Singer, Editor/Publisher/Founder of Knitty.com online magazine. Amy led us through the various shape options for shawls, and guided

us on

stitch pattern selection and placement. Fun stuff! After buying some beautiful alpaca laceweight yarn, I re-read the supplies list for the class and she specified a fingering weight yarn. Oh my! That meant I needed to run (actually walk) down to the nearest yarn shop and buy another shawl's worth of yarn - and a new lace stitch dictionary,

oh, and the right size needles. I DO like to have the correct materials for school.

Here's my feeble beginnings of a top-down, starting at the center-back triangular shawl. The yarn is Melody Superwash wool by Jojoland. So where's the lace you might ask - well, I wanted a solid stockinette top at

the upper back which will somehow morph into lace. It's the "somehow" that will be the challenge.No, I did NOT wimp out...this is planned. Really.

Guess what I met at the class! TWO pairs of socks

on the feet of knitters made from

two of my patterns! First, I saw the Medallion Cable socks in red, then the light colored Cozy Cables Socks were presented for viewing.

So, here I am with my knitting buddy Sandi, and Amy Singer. In Amy's arms is her electric ukulele. I didn't even know that there was such a thing until then.

I've sent a YEAR'S WORTH of knitting for the orphanage in Kazakhstan to the folks who will hand-carry it to the kids at the end of this month. 36 pairs of socks, plus hats, mittens and gloves. The last pair of socks were a challenge as I ran out of yarn! My knitting buddy Sandi gave up some of her leftover sock yarn so that I could finish the pair. A kid with big feet thanks you Sandi!

These are a new design of mine that was just released to the Holiday Mystery Gifts group - AKKOL MITTENS. The actual knitted mittens were tucked into the boxes I just sent off. While I was in Sacramento, I knit 10 more 7x7" squares for the guild's afghan project for the VA hospital and two more chemo caps for a local medical center. Just doing my part and enjoying the process.

These next couple of weeks we'll be busy with the final boat projects and provisioning the boat for our adventures. We will first sail up to Belize. This will be new territory for us! Whooo hoooo! Let the cruising begin!

October in Sacramento California

2010-10-28T12:34:00.000-07:00

October in Sacramento California is heavenly for those of us who like to get out and walk! The temperatures range from the low 80's to 70's, skies are blue, breezes are soft and the roses are in full bloom still.
This is a Peace Rose in one of the many rose gardens on the grounds of the California State Capital.

Downtown and Midtown Sacramento have the streets all laid out on a grid with lettered streets (J, K, etc) running east/west and number streets north/south. Plus it's all FLAT with sidewalks and crosswalks everywhere. I've done miles and miles of walking this month to fun and exciting places like the state capital, AmTrak station, grocery stores, gluten-free shop, yarn shops (!!!) and the large central library.

Yes, to me, American grocery stores are fascinating because of all the overwhelming options which are available. I was worried if my constant coughing (from this nasty flu bug which has lingered for weeks) was disturbing the sleep of the homeless people at the library but nobody complained. My favorite read was the stack of "FiberArts" magazines - wow! are so inspirational.

The orange trees on the grounds leading up to the back of the State Capital were full of fruit. Isn't this what you would expect to see in California? Orange trees, palm trees, yep, they have those all right. See those black posts on the road? Guess there won't be any more big rig trucks crashing up the rear steps of the capital building again like happened about 9 years ago.

So, I haven't just been wandering around the city streets. I've also been knitting up many squares for the Land's End Feel Good Knitting Campaign. The good folks at Land's End sent me 2 cones of a very nice worsted weight cotton, acrylic and a touch of wool blend yarn to make into squares to be sewn together and donated to the needy. This is great mindless knitting for me - especially since I was fighting the flu bug and just didn't feel up to anything more difficult.

But, I did manage to get a photo of this new sock design of mine called Textured Traditions Socks which is being test knit on Ravelry.com right now. Looks like the Christmas stocking from July doesn't it? Well, that was the starting point for these. The pattern is written in 2 sizes; women's medium and women's large/men's medium and will be available on Ravelry soon.

Gotta go knit...I've got to finish the last giant sized sock for the Akkol orphanage in Kazakhstan before I send off the boxes. A whole year's worth of socks, hats, mittens, and gloves will soon be on it's way to warm the kids. What? Of course I've already started work on socks for next year!

Gaggle of Knitters

2010-10-22T11:25:00.001-07:00

IMG_3357
Originally uploaded by Fiberminder

I'm sure you've seen the usual nicely-posed photos of groups of knitters, but I think this one (taken as the "big cheezes" were trying to get us organized) better shows how much fun we were having. Yes, that's me in the front row with the perpetual mug of coffee, and YES I'm wearing handknit socks for the first time in 5 years!

The Knitting Retreat up in Lake Tahoe, California was such a treat! I made many new friends and got to spend time with my long-term knitting buds. The weather was fabulous - low 80's in the daytime and high 50's at night and I got to walk many miles through the pine forest, eat toasted marshmallows by the bonfire, and win fabulous wooly prizes.

Ah Heck...

2010-10-11T08:44:00.000-07:00

So, where are we? Well, Jonesy is still in Guatemala enjoying the 4pm Happy Hours every day at Mario's Marina (oh, and working on his long list of boat chores). I'm up in the good ole USA!

There are technical issues: #1) my computer has an electrical short and is dead. Actually, it has exceeded it's expected lifespan for a computer in the salt air environment so I have to just accept that and replace it. #2) I left my camera battery charger and upload linky cable thingy back in Guatemala. So, I'll have to rely upon friends here to share their photos of the upcoming KNITTING RETREAT in Lake Tahoe! Whooooo hooooooo!

So, I've been chipping away on my shopping list for the states - exciting stuff like a turkey baster, candy thermometer for making yeast bread for Jonesy. Nope, haven't found those items in Latin America and I've been searching for years. Jonesy is ordering online and I'm receiving boat parts here and repacking them as luggage to go back to Guatemala. There is other stuff on my list - but guess where the list is? Yep. On my dead computer.

But the weather here in Sacramento has been beautiful and I'm hanging out with my son and getting my "cat time" in with his two adorable cats. Life is good.

The trouble began in Belize

2010-09-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, we took this speed boat /water taxi from Puerto Barrios, Guatemala to Punta Gorda, Belize. The trip took a little over an hour and thankfully, we had perfect weather and very smooth seas. It was so great to be back on the Caribbean again and smell that salt air. Punta Gorda is not a tourist area of Belize. The shoreline is lined with mangroves and there are no sand beaches.

But, our little 3-day "vacation" to simply re-set our Guatemalan tourist visas (they were expiring after 90 days) didn't go as planned (do things ever?). That first evening, I had a very painful gallbladder attack and ended up in the local, rural hospital. All they could do for me was to give me pain meds, antibiotics, and who knows what else - 8 injections in the rump!

Eventually, they put me into a sleepy/drowsy state as the pain meds weren't strong enough, and admitted me for observation for the night. The "Female Ward" as it was called was painted in a tropical pink color and had 8 rather narrow beds with crisp white linens. No air conditioning, but it is right at the waterfront of the Caribbean sea so the breezes came in the large open windows. Plus they had lots of fans rotating around the room. Seriously, I thought it was perfect at the time and blissfully snoozed away (OK, maybe it was the drugs).

All the nurses are Creole and speak a Creole language to each other, and a pidgeon English to me. My doctor was from Nigeria and spoke English and he was so calm and kind. The whole atmosphere was very Caribbean - no hurries, no worries, tranquil.

Breakfast in the morning was soda crackers, room temperature vienna sausages and hot water with sugar in it. I was told it was my "special diet". The other 2 patients also got scrambled eggs and large fruit smoothies. I can't eat the crackers (wheat kills), so I managed 1 vienna sausage and you know what? The hot sugar water actually tasted good after an evening of vomiting and pain.

The morning "shower" was interesting...a nice orderly put some warm water in a galvanized steel bucket in a bathtub. Nobody told me what to do, but I'd seen women bathing in the rural villages, so I knew that I was to squat, use the plastic bowl to scoop up water and pour it over me. Actualy, it felt very, very nice after a rough night.

Jonesy had brought my "things" - towel, soap, toothbrush, comb, sleepy clothes (and knitting what a sweetheart! but my brain was too garbled) as he was told to do this by the doctor. Later, they gave me all 4 of my prescriptions filled in little bags with hand-written instructions. We paid the bill ($7 US total with the most expensive items being the blood & urine testing) and left to go back to the hotel and recover. I slept for 48 more hours straight. Only waking up enough to drink water & fruit juice as ordered by Jonesy and take meds.

So, the doctor told us that I needed "an operation" but first I needed an ultrasound to be sure. All I can say, it hurt like childbirth labor only high up under by rib cage and there was no prize in the end.

We stayed at the funky & arty Sea Front Inn pictured here with the sea behind me. The doors to the rooms were painted with colorful pictures of the animal the room was named after. Each room at the inn is named, rather than numbered - we were in the Angel Fish room. The continental breakfast was waiting for us each morning upstairs in the dining area. So on our tray was a painted wood tag with that name on it. Yes, this inn faces the sea and we ate our breakfasts with the warm breezes coming in the open windows. Very nice.

But, the best thing about Punta Gorda? The Cotton Tree Organic CHOCOLATE - real, made on the spot organic locally grown cocoa bean chocolate. We watched as they fed the beans into a grinder and saw the long rope of pure chocolate come out the other end. Not a fancy operation or building by any stretch of the imagination, but just pure chocolately heaven indeed.

After our mandatory 72-hours out of the country of Guatemala, we returned to our boat. Immediately, we were supplied with references for English-speaking doctors and suggestions of the best hospitals in Guatemala City. So, 2 days later we took the 6-hour bus ride up to the big city and met our new doctors in the Emergency Room of the unversity hospital. I was probed, questioned, and scanned all in the first hour and sent to a room to stay overnight. Laparoscopic surgery was scheduled for the next morning. FAST!

Total cost was US $5000 - for 3 nights/4 days in this upscale and modern hospital. This cost included the surgeon, anesthesiologist, and primary care doctor fees, all tests, medications and follow-up care. It was one of my best hospital experiences with all others being in the United States. I was pampered by the nursing staff who were always cheerful and unhurried. The food was perfect; fresh vegetables, fruit juices and all absolutely gluten-free as I require.

But, I was glad to be released and back with Jonesy at the hotel to recover for a few more days. After my stitches were removed we were free to head back down to our boat (after some shopping of course!). As you can see from this photo above of us taken just yesterday, we are both happy and healthy and glad to be alive. Now, back to the good life!

Another One Rides the Bus

2010-09-13T08:56:00.000-07:00

Recently we had the pleasure of riding a first-class bus up to Guatemala City and back. A 5 1/2 - 6 hour trip costs just about $8 US. These coaches are not your common "chicken bus" scary rides, but are fully equipped for your comfort. See? Right there on the door is a series of icons showing you all the features of this bus:

1) MUSIC (of the driver's choice and often quite enjoyable)
2) MOVIES (of the driver's choice, last time it was 2 violent guns, blood, explosions, car-chasing "film noire" moves)

3) AIR CONDITIONING & HEAT which can both be needed on the same day at different altitudes

4) EJECTION SEATS ?? What ?? That's what Jonesy said this icon meant. Probably for those times when you see a mudslide roaring down the hillside and you need to eject before the bus is swamped in mud.

Seriously though, the mudslides (derrumbes) have been so tragic. We travelled those same roadways several weeks ago and saw all the damage and the progress which was being made towards correcting those areas. Now, new rainfall from another tropical storm has caused more sliding and many lives lost. The area is so mountainous (as in volcanoes). It's been a tremendous setback.
There is somebody in my life who keeps torturing me by sending me photos and links to photos of strange knitted hats and other objects. I've warned him NOT to encourage such wild behavior in a knitter with too much time on her hands, but Noooooo, he took it all one step too far.
The results? A Sock Monkey Hat that I'll make him wear in public.

Next up, are these Christmas Holiday Socks from a new design of mine. As I was working on the Christmas Stocking designs a few months back, I realized that they could ~~easily~~, with some effort, be converted into "real-people" socks. This time I used quite traditional colors, but of course knitters can use whatever colors they desire. The pattern is for sale on Ravelry, and soon on Patternfish.com and my own SailingKnitter Liann Originals website.

Finally, here are the latest socks for the orphanage in Kazakhstan. These are for a big teenaged guy, so not only is the foot long, but I've ribbed both the leg and the top of the foot. Just because a guy's foot may be long in length, it doesn't necessarily mean that he has a correspondingly large calf or foot width. The ribbing stretchs and contracts to fit a multitude of sizes.

I finished this pair up while recovering in the hospital after surgery up in Guatemala City.

Yep. THAT's another story...

Off to Belize!

2010-08-25T14:21:00.000-07:00

Our tourist visas are expiring so we have to leave the country for a few days - so we're off to Belize today. We'll take a van ride down to Puerto Barrios (a big port city in Guatelmala on the Caribbean), then a ferry ride across the bay to Punta Gorda in Belize. We'll be back on the sea again! Whoopeeeeeee

Antigua, Guatemala - The Old City

2010-08-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

Bus trip! We grabbed seats on the early morning first-class bus from down here in the coastal lowlands and rode for 5 hours up to Guatemala City, then changed over to a shuttle van for another hour to Antigua ($12.50 per person total). Antigua is an old colonial city, and original capital of Guatemala up in the highlands and more towards the eastern (Pacific Ocean) border.

As we climbed in altitude, we went from our usual hot & muggy weather up to invigorating spring-like coolness and occasional gentle rains. The scenery was stunning with high-peaked green mountains, lakes, and of course, volcanoes. Tall waterfalls tumbled down along the steep cliffs, originating in the cloud covered pine forests.

Because this is an active volcanoe area, there are a lot of ruins in town from the colonial period due to several historic earthquakes.
We wandered around the cobblestone roads of Antigua, looking into shops, and eating delicious food - and coffee. We haven't had hot beverages in the afternoon in years, but the lovely temperatures made it possible to sit at an outside table, indulge in the local Guatemalan coffee and people-watch.

Besides the old Spanish colonial buildings, restaurants, Spanish language schools, and lovely weather, shopping for textiles and other handicrafts is another reason so many people travel here. There are so many shops to see that it would take a month to visit them all!

We like to visit the local market places and mix with the indigenous Mayan people. Check out the hand woven fabrics which are used for the blouses (huipils) and the wrap around skirts. It used to be that different Mayan villages wore different costumes, but it is sort of mixed up a bit now. Some of the intricate embroidery is still handmade, but most of what is for sale in the marketplace is machine made.

The fruits, vegetables, dried corn and beans were so colorful and fresh! Because of the cooler climate, there were apples, peaches and pears
for sale. And check out those gorgeous strawberries! Oh - the bees swarmed all over the cut watermelons and any stall which was selling made-on-the-spot fruit drinks.

These baskets (and the omnipresent plastic tub) contain naturally colored corn in shades of blue, yellow, red, and white. On the streets we saw women making blue tortillas which really do taste different than the white or yellow ones. Also you can see here a basket of mixed beans. In the low country where we are living now there is only white corn available and 3 types of beans - white, black and red. Period. LOTS of beans and corn, but it is all the same. Not all stalls are so tidy. Inside the permanent market building are literally hundreds of little shops. Here we found this pile of terracotta pottery for sale. Yikes! I kept my distance as I was afraid if I touched something it would all come tumbling down - but there was some interesting pieces in that mountain.

We did make it over to the touristy handicrafts market - again hundreds of little stalls. For the most part, all of those stalls were selling exactly the same merchandise! You can see in this photo how crowded with unsold merchandise the stalls were, and those people you see are just about the only other tourists in the whole market. It was pretty much empty except for vendors. Ha! I didn't see the trash collector in diving in the trashcan in this photo until I posted it here. It was a lovely, covered building, but it was just too much - color & "stuff" overload for me. Yes, I was so overwhelmed that I didn't think but to take this one photo at the time. Although I did recover enough to buy some little fabric notebooks and tiny gift surprises for my friends.

Although most of the vendors where friendly and just wanted to make a sale for the day, there were a few who were downright pushy! When I didn't want to buy a tablerunner from one young gal after she followed me around doing her hard sell, she called me "stingy" in English.

And here we have the "Mother of all Fountains" if you get my drift. It is hundreds of years old and is a copy of one in Italy. This fountain is in the center of the main square which is quite beautiful actually, and a good spot for people watching.

After a couple of days exploring Antigua (which is so not enough time really) we wanted to travel to a more remote location. Back at the guest house/hotel Jonesy pored over the maps to find where we would go. The choice? Lake Atitlan with it.s small Mayan villages, more textiles, active volcanoes, yep, that's the place.

Are there enough colors going on in this room for you? No? Well how about the fuchia colored bathroom? In order to get to our room, we had to walk through the interior patio areas (yes - 3 of them) of the owner's residence. These were highly decorated too - and swamped with all sorts of flowering and jungle plants. Kooky, but way fun.

Up on the rooftop, Jonesy settled in with his evening local beer and enjoyed the cool breezes and view. I scrambled up a wooden ladder to the tippy-top flat roof to take this photo.

KNITTING CONTENT

I'm still cranking out socks for the kids in the orphanages in Kazakhstan. These are a very wild pair of monstersocks using leftover sock yarns in primary colors. Gee...I wonder where I got the inspiration for these bright socks??
These are another adult pair of socks in some wild self-patterning fuchia, turquoise, purple and orange sock yarn.
And finally a large pair of socks in a more tame colorway of self-patterning wool sock yarn.

Next blog: Solola, Santiago, and San Pedro la Laguna villages of Lake Atitlan in the Mayan highlands.

House (Boat) Guests

2010-08-08T20:24:00.000-07:00

Our friends are traveling for a few days so we are taking care of the pets that they were taking care of for a family who has gone to the states for a couple of months (did you get all that?). No, not soft furry pets, but a Leopard Gecko, and 2 hermit crabs (plus live crickets as food for the gecko). They're actually kinda cool! The gecko is big - about 6 inches long and quite chubby. The owners (kids) left lengthy handwritten instructions for the critters and a book about leopard geckos.

The hermit crabs sure are frisky when you pick them up! And scratchy too with their sharp feet. Nope, I didn't handle the gecko, she can just rest in her terrarium and digest the crickets she ate.

The river/lake has been rising steadily this past week due to heavy rains from a storm (which is now the Tropical Storm Estelle in the Pacific Ocean) which passed through here a few days ago, and the usual summer rains. It's getting hard to get on and off the boat as the docks here are on fixed pilings - not floating docks. As we rise up on the water (we float remember), the dock stays put. Sure wish we had longer legs!

One of the stores on the river that we like to shop in is flooded - but they are still doing business! Just go around to the side door and start wading. It's worth it - they sell great "gringo cruiser" foods and specialties from Mexico.

Here's the latest creation - a "real people" Christmas Holiday sock. Recognize some of the patterning? Yep, those are the same details that are on my Mix-It-Up Christmas Stocking stranded version. So, with some math and heel adjustments, I converted it to a sock in 2 sizes: Women's Medium, and Women's Large/Men's Medium. The pattern is being test-knit in Ravelry over the next few weeks.

For the lovely person who requested my Broccoli Salad recipe here it is.

Broccoli Salad
In serving bowl, wisk together:
1 Tbl mayonaise
2 Tbl cider vinegar
2 Tbl sugar

Add and Mix well:
2 slices of bacon (we prefer Oscar Mayer turkey bacon for great flavor) cooked crisp, then chopped
2 Tbl chopped red onion

Peel stem of broccoli and cut off bottom inch or two. Dice stem sections, and cut florets into bite-size pieces. Add to serving bowl. Mix well.
Add and Mix well:
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup walnut pieces

That's all there is to it! Jonesy will even eat the leftovers the next day, but I only like it when it is fresh and crispy. As you can see - it's kept him healthy and happy and still having fun.

Quirigua Mayan Ruins of Guatemala

2010-08-05T16:36:00.000-07:00

The big activity here at Mario's Marina last week (for us summer campers) was a 1/2-day trip to a local site of Mayan ruins called Quirigua. This small site is off the beaten track of the modern world and not visited much by tourists, but it is less than an hour away from the marina here.

Quirigua is known for it's stelae which are intricately carved stone pillars. Of all the Mayan ruins in Central America, these are supposed to be the best preserved. From what you can see in the pictures, there is still a lot of detail easily viewed. I really liked the feather motifs running down the corners of some of the stelae.

After the Mayans abandoned this area and drifted off into other areas, the jungle grew up over all of their building projects. It was eerie to walk around the site and imagine that over a thousand years ago this place was bustling with activity.

Today, the jungle has been cleared just enough for us to view these artifacts and surrounds the site, but just barely. Right beyond the boundaries of the park are large banana plantations. This is where YOUR bananas come from if you buy Del Monte brand.

It was hot and humid with the threat of rain which is what it is everyday here in the lowlands of Guatemala during the summer months. But we trudged through the sodden grass and even explored out into the muddy and buggy jungle to see more.

These are the "steps" (?) leading up to the major building area. We had a hard time climbing them as they were so tall. Wait a minute here...the local Mayan indians are quite short statured. These must have been (are still are) a tough climb. Oh look! Jonesy is wearing some of the socks that I knit for him. See? He really does wear his "all-season wool" socks when we venture out.

The largest structure was the Acropolis which is all made of large stone blocks. We could see where excavations were still being conducted here so perhaps there will be more treasures to see in the future. No big temples here. We'll have to travel to other sites to see those. But the artwork is beautiful at Quirigua.

So, we're doing fine. We both had our routine dental checkup & cleanings ($25 each) by an english-speaking dentist. Then, Jonesy had a small filling repaired (another $25). I had my annual mammogram ($35) which was done on a walk-in basis and I had the films in my hands with the radiologist's report of good news in 2 days. Life is good.

Serial Killers in Panama

2010-07-28T15:34:00.000-07:00

The current story about a couple of serial killers from the United States is too wild! Quite a few of the cruisers here knew, and partied with this murderous couple!! Not us, we didn't go to the part of Bocas del Toro Panama where they last operated (killing perhaps 7 people).

Here's a link for the best series of reports. Actually, this reporter in Panama is the person who pursued the mystery of the disappearance of a US citizen and stumbled onto a bigger story.

http://www.panama-guide.com

So, they also had a sailboat - I wonder if there is a cruiser missing now? Their M.O. was to kill the owner of a property and them assume the property - so is that how they got a sailboat?

Anyway, read the series of reports. Jonesy and I have often talked about who some of these people we meet in Colombia and Central America really are. It's a great place to disappear and we've met some "interesting" folks along the way.

1000 Fabulous Knit Hats

2010-07-25T09:44:00.000-07:00

It's HERE! This is the new book by Annie Modesitt which is full of photos of hats - including several of MY HATS! Whooo hoooo!

The actual patterns for my hats are not included, but you will be able to see my versions as well as the hats knit by other crafty folks from my patterns.

No, I don't make a dime from the sales of this book, but it is exciting all the same.

Enjoy...