PHOTOS HERE —>> https://goo.gl/photos/Gfn54RPAtNboHLXY7
Here we are at the end of September. It is hard to believe another 
summer has passed. Our September has been quite a mix; with friends we travelled down the Rio aboard Jacques’s lovely 65 foot Fleming trawler to spend a long weekend in Texas Bay. We explored different branches/tributaries of the Rio, went on a day trip to Quirigua an ancient Mayan site, celebrated John’s Birthday and enjoyed several nights out with friends. Plus we had the boat pulled at the beginning of the month, moved into a cabana at Catamaran, worked daily on Aeeshah completing much essential work and had time to enjoy late afternoons in the pool with our buddies at Catamaran. So overall we have been quite busy.
Texas Bay aboard Atlantic Ranger:
Jacques invited us and Diana and Lane to join him for the weekend at Texas Bay. He had never been, wanted to run his engine, plus there was a lady he was to meet when there.
Anyway, off we set one gorgeous Saturday morning. It really was a magnificent day, the sky deep blue with a few lovely cloud formations, the water was calm and so reflected the sky and mountains, the distant shores were a mix of deep greens from the vegetation on the mountain slopes.
We were one of a number of cruising boats heading into 
Texas Bay for the weekend as Texas Mike was having a going away dinner on Saturday night and then a big barbeque on the Sunday to celebrate the opening of his new restaurant across the bay. After anchoring we set off to explore the bay, Diana and Lane in the kayaks and John and I with Jacques in the dingy. We enjoyed motoring along the narrow canals through the mangroves, past the homes of the local folks and out to 
the lake. Most of the weekend was spent this way, exploring by dinghy or kayak, swimming, relaxing 
aboard Atlantic Ranger listening to Jacques collection of music videos. It as all very enjoyable!
The evening spent at Texas Mike’s was fun as we also met up with other friends and chatted. The food was excellent, both at Texas Mikes and aboard Atlantic Ranger. The local Mayans came around selling their exquisite woven baskets. We each bought a few. Others 
bought coconut buns, which were great for breakfast. We travelled back on the Monday after all of us having had a wonderful weekend.
India:
Aeeshah was pulled up at RAM marina at the beginning of the month. We moved into one of the cabanas at Catamaran, one called India. India is a wonderful place to stay. It is at the end of the dock from where we kept Aeeshah.
So now we just leave the dingy alongside the dock outside India. The inside is all varnished wood, even the ceiling. There is a great ceiling fan, AC and quite adequate furnishings. So we are quite comfortable, far more so than if we had tried to stay on the boat in the boatyard and after the work that has been done to 
Aeeshah, it really would have been near impossible to stay on her for some of the days……more of that later.
Chico was totally confused!
We locked him in India and set off with the boat to RAM, returning much later in the day. Upon being let out Chico walked quickly along the dock towards where Aeeshah his 
home, had been that morning. He literally looked over the edge of the whole empty dock space as if he thought we had hidden the boat under the dock. Then he promptly jumped onto Lane and Diana’s boat – Dreamsfloat – which was along the other-side of the same dock, as if he wanted to move onboard. Poor fellow he was quite confused. However this only lasted for a short period and he is now very accustomed to living in India and having the whole island at his disposal. 
To date he has caught and brought in 3 rats, 2 dead and 1 alive, which I promptly chased out of India. He loves being out in the evening and early morning. He visits the pool each late afternoon to watch us as we “swim” and chat with everyone else. He has made friends with all the workers, cruisers and many of the hotel guests. He has even learnt how doors are opened and tries to do the doorknob twist with his paws. Chico is a very adaptable, happy fellow!
Quirigua Visited:
Quirigua is one of the major testimonies to the Mayan civilization and a visit to this ancient Mayan site was announced on the cruisers net one morning. Fortunately it was scheduled for a day we were free from boat work. A bus was hired for all who wanted to go and we travelled in relative air-conditioned luxury to Quirigua
Quiriqua is completely different from what most people would consider to be a Mayan site. 
Instead of the iconic tall pyramids, Quirigua has stelaes, – tall stone carvings that have stood for over 1,300 years.
“The monuments, called stelae, contain hieroglyphic texts describing significant calendar dates, celestial events such as eclipses, passages of Maya mythology and political events, as well as important social and historic events to the development of the city. Not only does this text give a better understanding of the rise and fall of Quirigua, but also describes the span of time between 426 AD to 810 AD making it possible to reconstruct parts of Mayan history. During its brief time of erecting stelae, Quirigua was one of only two cities to regularly erect monuments marking the end of five-year periods.”
The area has been inhabited since approximately 400 BC, which is considered the late pre-classic age of the Mayans. The people who settled in Quirigua are believed to have come from Tikal. At the center of Quiriqua is the Great Plaza, around the Great Plaza, the Ceremonial Plaza and the Plaza of the Temple.
You can see the 
acropolis, which is perfectly intact and right across from it you can see the sleeping quarters of the city’s rulers. The people of Quiriqua were famed for their jade works. For reasons, which are not clear, Quiriqua entered a period of decline. It is really known at what time this occurred, maybe it was due to the arrival of the European conquerors, or the control of the jade route had been taken over by others more powerful. The city of Quirigua has retained its ruins and vestiges of dwellings but was taken over by the jungle until being “discovered” and restored.
We started the tour with the basic history of Quirigua and then we followed our guide around the plazas, acropolis and the different stelae, of which there are many. The most important 
monument is Stelae D. It is also the most intact stelae because it was found toppled on the ground. The figure depicted in Stelae D is King K’ak Tilw Chan, who was the “kings of kings” in Quirigua. His claim to fame was his defeat of the rival city of Copan (in Honduras).
The carvings are quite amazing in their intricate details. Plus when you imagine the work that went into detailing the stone it is really incredible! To me one of the amazing features was the ancient tunnel, or underground 
system of caves and tunnels which apparently leads for 
miles and miles below the earth to other areas of Guatemala. The Mayans used this as an underground roadway, but it is now sealed off as the drug trafficers had been using it for smuggling.
We toured the site for several hours and I enjoyed all of the tour despite the intense heat of the day and being surrounded by jungle with little breeze.
River tributaries:
John and I had little to do when the boat was 1st hauled and so we explored a few of the river’s tributaries.
We dinged up and explored the areas hoping to find the howler monkeys, which we could occasionally hear. Alas, we never did see the monkeys, 
but we did find cattle and saw some lovely countryside. Oh and we saw many, many birds.
John’s Birthday:
Arrived and we were deep into boat work, doing a full working day, so we had thought we would leave any celebration to later sometime.
Well thanks to our friend Peter, who saw the Face book birthday message, a celebration was arranged. Everyone was waiting for John, in the pool, when we returned from working at RAM.
It was arranged that we would all then head off to Sundog for an evening of music and dinner. Sundog had several cruisers playing music and singing. The music was songs from the past plus many with a western flavor, quite enjoyable. We all had a good time and John had his Happy Birthday after all.
We have since enjoyed other musical nights at Sundog with other friends, 2 of which we 1st met 5 years previously and set out across the Gulf Stream with them.
Aeeshah hauled:
Aeeshah was hauled on September 2nd and work commenced immediately. All at once we had the mechanic, carpenter, gel coat person, rudder expert, etc looking at what was to be undertaken.
It was decided that the bottom had to be striped of all the paint. 
Why? Well there were multiple layers of paint from multiple years of paint application.
John knew we had a few “blisters” – areas where the bottom was softer due to water. So the first step was sand blasting the bottom. This took several days, and boy
is it messy….. muck was everywhere, but as a result it was found we had many more blisters than John had determined.
Apparently many years before Aeeshah must have had areas patched, but who ever did it did not patch correctly. So the whole lot had to be redone – ground out, left to dry and then re-patched.
The grinding out of the areas took several days. Then they used a device that could read/sense the water within these areas. Of course they read in the red at first. We then had to wait for these areas to “dry” – get into the green.
Well nearly a month later and finally our bottom was all more or less in the green zone. The next step was filling the holes; they
were then ground flat and sanded smooth. Next came the sealer coats – 3 of them. Followed by more smoothing by hand sanding, then the bottom coats were applied, 1, 2 and 3. From there comes the new lines at the water line and the sides.
Finally we get to the polishing and lastly the waxing. All this work was by the marina workers who are really incredible in their standard of 
workmanship and stamina. We have never see such a high standard of work performance!
Meanwhile, Walter – the carpenter created a new worktop to go onto of the stove. He created and erected a new shelf unit. It is made of teak, intricately detailed, stained and varnished so it looks like an original part of the boat.
Walter then rebuilt the cupboard unit under the sink in the aft head. Due to water damage it had begun to fall apart aka rot. His finished work is just amazing! It is made of proper wood and looks the same but, better than the original. Even the Formica is totally matching.
Finally Walter built steps to fit onto our ladder. It had previously had just stainless rungs, which I felt were quite slippery and dangerous. Again he did an exemplary job. In my book Walter is the best carpenter.
The rudder had been dropped and was to be refitted with the same bushing, but this time around our mechanic advised affixing it with fiberglass.
The engine mounts were to be replaced by him too, but John went ahead and did the job, as he needed work. John also replaced the aft head plumbing, a dreadfully smelly, disgusting job, but it had to be done as it was totally clogged up. Plus John did numerous other maintenance jobs that had been left.
Meanwhile I repaired and remade canvas/sunbrella pieces. Many zips needed replacing and seams needed re-stitching. We also had new dingy chaps made, (cover for dingy), but the canvas man we chose took quite a while to get started and even longer to finish. He did do a great job though.
And we had the anchors and chain re-galvanized too!
Our intention is to get the cockpit cushions covered, plus a cover made for the entire bow, but we will go to another canvas man for those jobs. As of writing now we are very close to being back in the water with Aeeshah.
There are only moments. Live in this one. The happiness of these days. – Kate Millett
I am sure there are other versions of happiness, but this one is mine. – Lynsey Addario
