Grounded!

We are high and dry and sitting out of the water. We are on stands at the La
Ceiba Shipyards in La Ceiba, Honduras. Its always quite tense to haul your "house" and have it "float" on land. The yard is quite good and the travel lift (the piece of huge equipment that lifts the boat on slings out of the water) was large enough that we didn't need to remove any stays (the pieces of wire that hod the mast up). The driver, Jorge, was very good and took excellent care in moving Astarte from her watery nest to her landbase. The boat then gets balanced on metal stands with wood pads and large pieces of wood are placed under the keel. It is quite unnerving to be staying on the boat because we both think it is rocking. That's what happens after 30 months on the water.

The haul out was the first step, now the bottom is being sanded and prepped for new bottom paint. Michael's been working hard at getting the broken thru-hulls out – one he found had been installed incorrectly at some point by the original builders or a previous owner. We're also removing the prop to put on a new cutlass bearing. Unfortunately they don't have the flat zincs we use, so we'll have to figure out a solution to getting a new zinc made.

The staff at the yard are all quite friendly. Many speak some English and those that speak Spanish at least talk slow enough for us to comprehend at least most of the conversation. The setting is interesting. We are settled on a grassy area overlooking some fields as well as the shrimp boats at the near-by docks. There are cows, bulls, goats and sheep that graze in the fields during the day and the baby goats (kids) are funny to watch – they just sort of bounce as they run around. The bird life and sounds in the morning and evening are very exotic.

The hardest part of living aboard is climbing up and down a ladder all day (we're about 10 feet off the ground) and not having a usable toilet aboard. That means a walk to the not so tidy restrooms. For the late night needs – it's a bucket and chuck it!

The place is safe with lots of guards around – but unfortunately they can't protect us from the fire ants, no-see-ums and mosquitoes.

We should be in the yard about eight to ten days. Then back to Cayos Cochinos for some serious boat cleaning from the dusty yard and guest arrival prep.

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