1982 Newport 30 Mark III
$25,000 O.B.O.
Boat Name: Gypsy
Hull Material: Fiberglass
Finn Keel
Draft: 5 ft. 10 in.
Beam: 10 ft. 8 in.
70 Gallon Fresh Water Tank with new pump
30 Gallon diesel fuel tank
15 hp diesel engine
Two head sails (genoa, storm jib)
Fairly new main sail (two older back up sails)
Gas stove top (works with the local propane tanks, no need to fill up a fancy tank.)
85 Watt Solar Panel and three batteries
Perfect for living aboard (Currently two adults and two children living aboard).

So many sailboats are too heavy and fancy to sail well, you need to motor to really go anywhere. That is not the case with Gypsy, she sails GREAT and points really high.
As you might expect with a 30 year old boat (or really any boat for that matter) there are a handful of things that need fixing. But the things that need fixing have nothing to do with her ability to sail. You can take her out for a sail the day you buy her.
She’s ideal for day sailing, but she’s also equipped to live aboard. In fact my family and I (husband and two sons) have been living aboard and sailing the Pacific Coast of Central America since Jan 2011.
She’s currently located near Panama City, Panama (Isla Perico). We bought her a little over a year ago and took sailing lessons from the man we bought it from. She’s the perfect boat for learning to sail! We’ve really enjoyed our time living aboard!

A bunch of fish swimming next to the boat.

17 June 2011

When we first arrived here James arranged for a fishing panga to take us both to and from the boat or $5. When the panga came this morning he said he wouldn’t do it for less than $10. We told him no. Not long after that we heard a call on the radio, it was Jack. He was bringing us our second dinghy from Nicaragua. So we raised anchors and sails to go out to meet him.

18 June 2011

Took the dinghy to the beach to work on it. James went into town to get fiberglass and resin while the boys and I stayed on the beach. I did some sanding and cutting to prepare for when James returned with the resin.

It started raining after James returned so we had to go back to the boat earlier than planned. It was our first time launching the boat from this beach so I paddled the boys while James pushed us off to make sure we didn’t tip over. Then just as James was about to swim out to the boat he stepped on a sea urchin, or something like that. He has 20 or 30 purple slivers in his right foot.  As I was paddling back one of the ores broke in half.

19 June 2011

5:30 AM We left early for the beach today so we could get a lot of work done before it started raining. We got the bottom of the dinghy covered in fiberglass and resin. We also did some fiberglass on the nose.

Peter cut his foot on something when he was swimming. He was screaming and crying non-stop for 30 minutes so we decided to head back to the boat.

At the boat James removed some of the bolts from the dinghy to prepare for the work to do tomorrow.

20 June 2011

We went to the beach to work on the dinghy.

The kids leaving buried treasure…you know…X marks the spot.

21 June 2011

We went to the beach again today. James went into town to get some shopping done. The boys and I stayed on the beach, doing a little work on the dinghy. We got a little sunburned. When James got back he said we needed to head South. We were going to leave in a few days, but when he checked the weather he decided that we needed to leave sooner.

1:00 PM Raised anchors and sails. We stopped in Nicaragua to visit Jack.

22 June 2011

7:00 AM Raised anchor and sails.

Since we had engine problems a few weeks ago we had to use nothing but the sails. Now that the engine is fixed we’ve still been using the sails most of the time. We’re more patient and more proficient with the sails now.

10:30 AM Arrive in Bahia Santa Elena

23 June 2011

We rowed to shore and hiked to a nearby waterfall. Half of the hike was walking up the river. It was a lot of fun, the kids thought it was great! There was a pond under the waterfall that we swam in. I really enjoyed swimming in fresh water.

24 June 2011

6:30 AM Raised anchor and sails.

From 12:00pm to 9:00 pm we only did 4 miles!!  We´ve been tacking trying to round the point of Santa Elena.  But the wind was coming from where we wanted to go and there was high swells pushing us around too much.  We finally gave up for the night. We were both exhausted and knew we couldn´t tack all night.  So we took turns keeping watch.

25 June 2011

After a few hours of tacking this morning and making little head-way we decided to go back to Bahia Salinas.  There´s supposed to be a storm tomorrow night so we need to get anchored in a good spot by then.  We ´re also running behind on schedule and don´t want to worry our emergency contact.

2:00PM Back in Bahia Salinas

26 June 2011

James went into town to do some shopping and check internet.  When he tried to come back the surf was too rough, he couldn´t launch the dinghy.  He left the dinghy tied up on shore and found a fisherman to bring him out to the boat.

1 July 2011

For the last week we´ve had a lot of rain.  At the beginning of the week I set up water catchment.  So far it´s worked pretty well.  I draped a rope across the middle of the shade that covers the cockpit.  The rope hangs down both sides and goes into two 5 gallon bottles, one of them also has a large funnel on top of it.  That really helps, we need to get a second funnel for the other one.  So far this week we´ve collected about 13 gallons of water.

Yesterday and today we´ve started taking inventory of everything on the boat.

Yesterday I cleaned up the boat and put excess stuff out on deck and took pictures of the cabin, in preparation for putting the boat up for sale.

3 July 2011

James left for Playas del Cocos.  He´s going to get the boat checked into the country and get our passports stamped.

Collected 10 gallons of rain water!

4 July 2011

James had a lot of problems getting checked in.  Immigration was upset that we all didn´t come and only gave us 30 days, instead of 90.  James had to get help from the police twice because the lady refused to give him the passports back.  He had to pay $250 to a lawyer to get a statement telling what all our problems are (engine issues, sick family members etc.), why the boat and the whole family didn´t come there.   Immigration said that she had to see the boys and me before she would give us the paper work to get checked in with customs. James returned to the boat later that night.

6 July 2011

Jimmy an me leave for Playas del Cocos to finish up the boat check in.

A few hours later there was a lot of wind and rain.  James went bellow during the storm.  When he came out to check on everything, once it had calmed down, the boat had drifted 1/4 mile to the other side of the bay.

James started the engine to be able to pull up the anchors.  The large anchor had trash in it and the two anchors were very tangled.

After James got the anchors up the cabin started filling with black smoke and the bilge started filling with water (problems with the exhaust again).  He quickly got Peter´s life vest on and got him out on deck with him.  He motored for a short while trying to get a safe distance from the rocks/reefs.  Then James turned off the engine.  He was exhausted from pulling up the tangled anchors so he flagged down a fisherman.  The fisherman helped James get the anchors untangled and dropped.  James gave him $40 for his troubles.  The fisherman came back later in the evening to check on James, Peter and the boat.

7 July 2011

Jimmy drew a rainbow picture for the immigration woman.  She was delighted and gave us the paper work that we needed.  I checked in with customs and was able to get the 90 days that we needed.

2:00PM Jimmy and I return to the boat

11 July 2011

James and Peter went to shore.  They were going to go into town but we´re anchored to far on the other side of the bay.  There was a river that they needed to cross that was too deep.  So they came back to the boat and we decided to try and sail back to where we were before we slipped on the 6th.

We ran out of wind before we got all the way, but we got close enough to be able to drop anchor.  We decided to only drop one anchor so we don´t have to deal with them getting tangled.

Collected 6 gallons of rain water.

12 July 2011

8:00 AM Sailed the rest of the way to our old anchor spot.

Found a little squid in the dinghy.  A bird must have dropped it.

13 July 2011

Collected 20 gallons of rain water today!

14 July 2011

Peter and I went to town and got a cell phone and got the boat listed for sale on boats.com

16 July 2011

James fell in the dinghy, he got a large scratch from a bolt on his behind.

18 July 2011

As we were paddling to shore our other ore broke in half  (the other one broke a few weeks ago.)  James and Jimmy went into town to go to the hardware store.  Peter and I stayed on the beach.  I did some fiberglass on the dinghy and the ore that broke today.

19 July 2011

Jimmy caught his first fish!  I didn´t get a picture of it though because it wiggled off the hook before he could get it all the way in the boat.

20 July 2011

Went ashore, James went into town for groceries and internet.  The boys and I stayed on the beach and worked on the dinghy.  After a little while a family came to the beach that had two boys similar ages to Jimmy and Peter.  They really enjoyed having friends.  I fixed the other ore, the one that broke last month.  It was funny while I was working on the dinghy I started thinking about where I was and what I was doing…I´m on the beach, fiber-glassing my dinghy…yeah…I can do that.  It was even better when we made it back to the boat and both ores held strong…yeah…I did that.

21 July 2011

For the last few days we´ve been spraying the exhaust pipes with WD40 in an atempt to remove them and replace them.  Today we started banging away at them to try and get them loose.  We also removed the broken water heater that was getting in the way.

Lately the kids have been the bad word police.  The big bad words right now are, stupid, shut up and butt.  When Mommy and Daddy slip they are prompt to remind us that those are bad words.  The other day they were watching Toy Story and it says all three of those words.  And every time they were said I was well informed.  They crack me up.  Especially when they tell you the better word to say, “we don´t say butt, we say bum, remember Mommy.”

Our big focus with school lately is reading.  The kids know all their letters, the phonetics, rules like the silent E etc. But they just get overwhelmed by lots of words on a page.  So we’ve been memorizing a new list of words every few days.  I have a little bag of candy.  When they read off all their words they can have one.  Also, when we´re reading a book I stop along the way and have them read the words that they know.  It´s been a lot of fun.

There was a page in the kids work book about adding an S to the end of a word to change the tense. This page is telling about a woman who rolls, pours, sprinkles, puts and takes to make pizza. Jimmy took this as a recipe and has insisted all week that we make pizza.

Yesterday we watched the movie Joe VS the Volcano. Jimmy made is own volcano…piece by piece.

Peter passed out on the floor…it was a long day.

Peter the Pirate

Jimmy insisted that I take a picture of his tortilla. He said he made it into an elephant. I think if you squint a little you can see it.

20 May 2011
We tried to pull into the dock.  We had the nose of the boat in, then the current pulled the boat side-ways and the side of our boat ran into the back of the boat next to us.  One of the other sailors had a 50 hp dinghy.  They were able to pull us enough so we could get out of there.  Considering how bad that could have been we walked away with minimal damage.  Our side rail was bent over, but we were able to bend it back.  The other boat had their dinghy in the back which protected their boat.  They said they were able to easily fix their dinghy.  I think we were more embarrassed than anything.

At slack tide we pulled into the dock with no problems.
Cleaned the dinghy, put 15 gallons of fuel in the tank and cleaned out the bilge.

23 May 2011

25 May 2011
Yesterday James picked up the pump that we ordered. This morning we installed the pump and we have running water on the boat again!!

26 May 2011
7:00 AM James did all the check out paperwork.

9:30 AM Went full speed toward the mouth of the bay when I heard the inverter squealing.  When it stopped I saw smoke coming out of the engine compartment.  We cut the engine and threw out an anchor.  We found that one of the wires going to the alternator burned up.  It was a wire that had previously been disconnected from something and it wiggled loose and it fell onto the hot engine.

10:00 AM Raised anchor, when I went to raise the sail I found a big bat sleeping in the folds of our sail as I took the cover off. Usually I would be tough about it and just raise the sail, making it fly away. But today I squealed like a little girl. James had to make it fly away before I’d raise the sail. We sailed back closer to the other boats. Threw out the anchor, pulled down the sail. Found out we were in a bad spot. Raised anchor, pulled out head sail, anchored near Mar y Sol. After testing a few things we decided it was safe to run the engine. Raised anchor…again, motored closer to the hotel. Topped off water and oil.

27 May 2011
We made it across the bar to leave Bahia del Sol!   It was a little scary with all the big waves. I’m just glad James was at the helm! He did great!
Kristi and the kids sea sick all day and night.  The first day back out to sea is often rough.

28 May 2011
2:00 AM Storm hit, lots of wind, rain, waves and throwing up.

29 May 2011
Saw a ton of dolphins! They followed the boat for two hours! It was really cool. Saw some sea turtles too.

30 May 2011
We went below to get in out of the storm at 9:00 PM. When the storm let up at 10:30 PM the dinghy was gone. The rope broke and it floated away. It had 8 life vests in it too.

31 May 2011
2:30 PM Pulled close to Masachapa Nicaragua to call our contacts to check in. Too rough to anchor there though.

1 June 2011
3:30 AM James turned on the engine. I woke up and found a puddles of water on the floor. James noticed smoke in the cabin and shut off the engine.

6:45 AM Started the engine again. Noticed the cabin getting a little smokey again. James noticed the RPM’s dropping, thinking that was the end of the fuel, he quickly killed the engine. At the same time I noticed a puddle developing on the floor again. When we opened the engine compartment it was full of smoke, we think it was exhaust smoke. Saw water splattered around engine compartment.

8:15 AM Flagged down some fishermen. Gave them a message asking them to email it to our emergency contacts.

Lots of steady wind. However, it was coming from the direction we wanted to go, which made for a lot of tacking.

2 June 2011
11:00 PM A rough storm. Sustained some damage to the head sail.
(Since May 27th when we left Bahia del Sol there has been a storm every night. Some nights were worse than others.)

3 June 2011

Just before James took this picture he said “now show me ’stoic’” I couldn’t help but laugh.

Trying hard not to laugh…aiming for “stoic”

Close enough.

1:40 PM Dropped anchor in Bahia Salinas Costa Rica

4 June 2011
James swam to shore to explore.

4:00-5:00 PM James caught 5 fish and I caught 1, about 6-8 inches long. It was fun, free and yummy!

It’s like fishing in a barrel here. It’s hard to see but James snagged this one by the head.

5 June 2011
James went into town. Sent out emails trying to get help with the engine and to get someone to deliver our second dinghy. (Before we left Nicaragua at the beginning of the year we built two dinghies. One we took with us and left the other with some friends.)

Caught 6 fish again today.

Peter caught his first fish. We thought it was funny that little Peter caught a little fish.

6 June 2011

James took part of the exhaust system apart from the engine to be able to get a replacement part. James also took out the broken refrigeration unit and disconnected the water heater.

Those two pipes that are just hanging out next to each other…they’re supposed to be together.

7 June 2011
James went into town to find parts to fix the engine. He wasn’t able to find anything.

8 June 2011
Sailed over to Secret Cove to visit Jack. Jack had some exhaust hose. James was able to put the exhaust system back together. We still need to stress test the engine, but we have it for emergencies now.

9 June 2011
Went back to Bahia Salinas. We dropped both anchors off the back of the boat. We get a lot more wind coming through the cabin that way.

James put new hinges on the fold-down table.

10 June 2011
The kids and I went into town while James stress tested the repairs he did on the engine. So far so good.

Yesterday the kids were asking to eat some dulce (similar to brown sugar, but in a big block).  I told them they could have some after lunch.  I went to Restaurante Mar Y Sol and picked up some Pupusas to eat.  When I got back to the boat, the first thing the kids said to me was, “nothing, we ate nothing”  and Jimmy even pointed out the knife that had some dulce on it.  I asked how that got there.  He told me that the package just broke open and the dulce jumped out onto the knife and then into his hands.  I asked if Daddy gave it to him.  “No, no, no” he says, “it jumped out, Daddy did nothing”.

He’s getting so big!

Can you tell he grew up with a Mommy as a photographer? I don’t even need to pose him any more.

Jimmy
45 3/4 inches
41.8 pounds

Peter
43 inches
43.4 pounds

6 May 2011
Today we pulled all of the cushions out of the V birth (the bed in the front of the boat). They needed to air out and we also wanted to find the leak we have in our fresh water system. (The tank is under the bed.) We put Jamaica flowers in 5 gallons of water to color it red/pink. To put the water in the tank I had to move one of the cushions that was tied down to the deck. After I put the water in I turned around and saw the cushion floating away. I quickly yelled to James as I hopped in the dinghy. Thankfully I go it in time.

7 May 2011
We found out that the leak isn’t coming from the tank. But both our foot pump and our electric pump leak. So we disconnected both pumps and plugged the hoses. We’ll see about ordering another pump later in the week.

8 May 2011
We dumped all of the pink water out of the tank and ran some fresh water through it. We also decided to clean the bilge at the same time. While the bilge was open a friend stopped by to let us borrow their solar oven. While I was distracted, the boys accidentally dropped some of their blocks in the bilge. They FREAKED OUT! James helped them fish out their blocks and cleaned them while I took care of the kids.

9 May 2011
The kids learned a valuable lesson today.  They learned to clean up their toys when Mommy and Daddy ask them to.  James asked them to clean up their toys but they weren’t really doing it.  So James picked up a block and threw it to me (I was on deck washing dishes), he told me to throw it in the ocean.  So I pretended to throw it in the ocean.  A minute later Jimmy comes up and is climbing all over me and finds the block.  “Ha, ha, it’s right here” he says.  I took the block back from him and told him to go clean up his toys or I would throw it in the ocean for real.  He wouldn’t…so I threw his block in the ocean.  He started screaming and crying, I had to hold him back just to keep him from jumping in after it.  James reminded them that they needed to clean up the rest of their toys before they ended up in the ocean too.  I’ve never seen them clean up so fast and so completely.  But they were still freaking out about the block that floated away.  I signaled to James to get me an orange block.  He sneakily handed it to me.  I showed the boys the block and told them that I got it back.  I used my fishing poll to get it back.  Jimmy held the block in his hand starring at it, he looks up at me and says “it’s not wet”.  That  kid is so smart!

The kids cranky looks after the whole ordeal.

A friend let us borrow their solar oven.

Just after we put the kids in bed we realized that the anchor slipped.  So we pulled the anchor up and re-anchored.  But we slipped again.  So we decided to put an anchor out the front and the back so we wouldn’t turn around with every tide change.  While we were doing that the front line got caught up in the prop.  (All this was done at night, making it really hard because we can’t see very well.)  After James cleared the rope from the prop we sat down on deck to rest.  When our anchor slipped AGAIN!  We put both anchors in front again and put out a little more line.

10 May 2011

The kids are swimming so great!  They don’t typically wear their life vests in the pool anymore.  They also figured out how to do somersaults!  I’m so proud of them and the progress they’ve made!  People often comment about always seeing the kids in the pool.  They love the pool and spend A LOT of time in the pool, and it’s paid off.

Jimmy doing somersaults

Tonight James was putting together a Nerd Kit that he got awhile ago.  He want’s to use it to control items on the boat like a refrigerator system, anchor alert, automatic bilge pump and some other stuff like that (nerd stuff).

While he was putting it together he asked me for some more light.  We had a large flashlight that I turned on and pointed it up so it wasn’t shining in his eyes but still gave him more light.  A few minutes later he tells me he smells burning plastic, and that it shouldn’t be him because he didn’t hook any power up to anything yet.  The flashlight battery got too hot and melted some of the wires in it.  Everything turned out fine except that we lost our ten million candle light flashlight.  It just wasn’t the greatest smell to be smelling while you’re putting wires into a bread board. 

Peter, the sweat monster…that poor kid is always sweating….this was a pretty hot day though.

Jimmy LOVES scrambled eggs lately.

11 May 2011
The kids were whining A LOT today and I just got tired of and put in some ear plugs.  I went back to fixing dinner and completely ignoring the kids.  The kids kept trying to talk to me but James told them that I couldn’t hear them, that they would have to write me a letter.  So they both sat down with paper and crayons to write me a letter.  Jimmy needed a little help from Daddy to get the right letters.  Jimmy wrote, “I love you, no ear plugs”  and Peter wrote a bunch of random letters that he told me read I’m sorry, I love you, I will be nice for you Mommy and give you lots of hugs.  They were great the rest of the night.

Our friend gave us a sail car kit.  Today we finished making two sail cars, a big one and a little one.  The kids really love them!

When the kids are trying to tell me something, and I don’t understand what they’re saying, they tell me the first letter in the word. “Mom, you know, M for milk”.

Parents often say things like, “I think you’re done”. When Jimmy gets upset about us tell him not to do something he yells “stop finking”.

Lately Jimmy will have some imaginary dilemma and he put his finger on his chin and thinks for a minute, then he points his finger in the air and says, “I have a plan!”

When I ask the kids if they want something, instead of saying yes or no they say, in the cutest little way, “sure”.

The other day I asked Peter to sit down. He turns to me and salutes me as he says, “Aye, aye Captain” it was so cute!

One day Jimmy asked me for a crust sandwich. I tried to get him to clarify what he meant by that. After we both got frustrated I just handed him two pieces of bread. He then took the crust off of the bread and stuck it between the two pieces of bread…duh mom, a crust sandwich.

Something will happen like, dropping a toy, stubbing your toe etc and Jimmy will pipe in with “that happens”.

A few days ago when we went to the island to gather mangos. Jimmy tells Peter that we’re going to San Diego. “San Diego?” I asked. “Yeah”, he points at the sand and repeats, “Sand-iego”

Last week when we were at the pool Jimmy was running around without his shoes off and got a large sliver in his big toe. When we got back to the boat I attempted to remove the sliver. Jimmy scream and yelling cries out, “Daddy, Mommy’s killing me! Don’t let her kill my toe!” {Note from James: I saved him. Who wouldn’t? The splinter came out on it’s own a couple days later.}

The great thing about living on a boat is that you can move whenever you want.  Granted you have enough food, water and fuel on board.  But there’s no packing, no boxes, no moving truck…it’s great.

16 April 2011
4:50 AM Raised anchor.  The anchors were really slimy and tangled.  This is the dirtiest I’ve been after raising the anchor.

5:15 AM Start heading out of La Union.  Jimmy’s really sad about leaving, he really liked school here.

5:40 AM James noticed that at full throttle we were only going 2.5 to 3 knots.  It could be a problem with build up on the rudder and bottom of the boat.

10:20 AM The wind stopped and the current started pulling us backwards.

10:30 AM James jumped in to survey the condition of the prop.  It was covered in barnacles.  Since it wasn’t tangled up with nets or garbage we started the engine to keep from losing the distance we’d just traveled.

Captain Cool

1:00 PM We’ve made very little head-way since 10:30.  The current has been high and the winds low.  We decided to go around to the other side of Isla Conchagüita.  We’re going to clean off the rudder and the bottom of the boat, hopefully that will help with our speed issues.

4:30 PM Arrive at Isla Conchagüita
N 13 14.218
W087 44.949

When we anchored for the night James and I cleaned the bottom of the boat.  It was our first time.  James cleaned the haul and I cleaned the rudder and prop.  We quickly learned that barnacles are the devil.  We got so scratched up from those dumb things.  When we tried telling Jimmy what barnacles are his imagination got carried away with him.  At the end of the conversation he was convinced that “barkenalls” are big snake looking things with a big sharp tooth and one big eye, and if you don’t watch out they’ll get you!

17 April 2011
2:30 AM Raise anchor

2:40 AM Got under way.  Our speed this morning has improved, a solid 4 knots!
Since it was still early we took turns sleeping the rest of the morning.

5:50 AM
N 13 04.995
W087 54.592

9:08 AM
N 13 06.543
W088 03.805

12:02 PM
N 13 09.272
W088 13.905

2:04 PM Ran out of gas.  Put 5 gallons of fuel in the tank.  Bled the air out of the lines.

3:15 PM Anchored for the night
N 13 09.764
W088 20.439

18 April 2011
5:20 AM Raised anchor and sails.
We wanted to conserve fuel so we only sailed and didn’t motor, even when there was hardly any wind.  It took longer that way, but it was nice not having the motor running.  The currents and winds have been in our favor.  We’ve been able to tie the wheel and leave it for hours without having to adjust it.

We decided to sail all night.

19 April 2011
2:16 AM
N 13 11.778
W088 48.257

3:30 AM Lots of logs and debris.

6:50 AM Anchored just outside of Bahia del Sol
N 13 15.679
W088 52.251

When you pull into Bahia del Sol you have to get an escort because there’s a sand bar and breaking waves.  So they help you get the timing right to make it safely through.  We were lucky because it was a full moon.  Which means the high tide was the highest it gets, which makes it a lot easier to cross the bar.

4:00 PM The pilot boat came out to help us and the three other boats that were waiting (Kokomo, Sweetie and Sound Effect) to cross the sandbar.

5:00 PM Docked at Bahia del Sol Hotel
N 13 18.063
W088 53.529

Did our check-in paper work.  We got in trouble because we didn’t check out of La Union.  We thought that since we were staying in the same country we didn’t need to.  So we had to pay the $40 that we would have paid at check-out.

20 April 2011
I cleaned the boat.  It was really dirty!  The water spigots at the dock made it easy.  While I was washing the boat, James took Jimmy for a walk.  When they came back Jimmy had some flowers for me.  But there was one stem without any flowers.  James told Jimmy to tell me what happened to those flowers.  Jimmy told me that a deer ate them.  I turned to James and asked for a translation.  He replied, “no translation needed”.  There are four rescued deer here at the hotel.

We met a bunch of sailors today.  There’s a rally going on right now.  People signed up to be a part of the rally and they get little gift bags and stuff like that when they get here.  It’s an effort to increase sailing tourism in El Salvador.

Went swimming in the pool.

4:30 PM Moved to a mooring.

View from the mooring

21 April 2011
The kids were getting restless and they got sunburned at the pool yesterday, so swimming was out.  I took them to the island to explore.  we met a nice woman named Jan.  She had a litter of 5 week old puppies.  The kids played with the puppies until they had all disappeared, the kids found them sleeping in various corners.  Jan gave us a bunch of mangos and told us where we could gather our own mangos if we wanted to.

22 April 2011
We went to the island and gathered about 100 mangos.

24 April 2011
We rowed to the hotel to catch the bus for church.  We were so far away and the current was going the wrong way, it took an hour.  James’ arms were really sore.  It took two hours by bus to get to church.  I’m hoping it only took that long because it’s Easter.

The school here isn’t very good so we decided to homeschool the kids.  I got some info from my friend Joalea who homeschools her kids.  So far it’s been really fun.  We’re using the Charlotte Mason method.  It’s amazing how much progress they’ve made in such a short time.

Our last port had great schools and church, but it wasn’t very safe.  It’s really safe here!  But church is really far away and we can’t put the kids in the public schools, but that’s a trade we’re willing to make.

25 April 2011
We moved off of our mooring and re-anchored near the hotel.

26 April 2011
12:30 PM Our anchor slipped.

1:00 PM Re-anchored, put out 100 feet of line and both anchors.

5:00 PM We realized we were a little too close to the boat next to us.  So we moved to the other side of the channel.

28 April 2011
Moved to the dock at the hotel to work on our dinghy for a few days.

Bahia del Sol is the name of the hotel here.  For $14 a week we can use the internet, pool and get a %30 discount on food and drinks.  The kids have really loved the pool.  They’re getting really good at swimming.  When we first got here they could jump into the water and surface for a few seconds before we had to grab them.  But now they can swim 10-15 feet.

My little model

The kids got to roast marshmallows at a bonfire party on the beach.

29 April 2011
James went to San Salvador to buy a new battery.  Kristi and the kids went to Zacatecoluca for grocery shopping with the ladies.

30 April 2011
Cleaned, sanded and fiberglassed the dinghy.  There were four spots that needed some more fiberglass.

This picture looks a little gross, but it was really cool.  The bottom of the dinghy was teaming with life, it was amazing.

3 May 2011
2:00 PM Moved off the dock and anchored in front Mar y Sol Restaurant.
N 13 18.110
W088 53.714

4 May 2011
James did a shopping trip to Zacatecoluca.  Kristi installed the new battery.

Jimmy
45 1/2 inches
43.4 pounds

Peter
42 7/8 inches
42.4 pounds

After the last two exciting updates, I´m sure many of you will be happy to hear that the last two weeks have been uneventful.

We´ve actually been taking turns being sick-in-bed.  It was expected.  We always get sick when we move somewhere new.  There´s always new germs, new allergins, and new climates to get used to.

The kids love the old classic movies lately.  Two of their favoites are Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny in particular) and Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang.

The kids are getting better at doing homework.  They are also getting better at keeping themselves entertained.  In fact, we haven´t watched any videos at all for the last 6 days.

Funny new phrases,
¨What about me?¨
¨I´m just kidding  :-)¨
¨I´m melting¨ (he was sweating)

Peter has become, what you could call, a LEGO master.  Most of his waking hours are spent making trains, spaceships, pews (guns), animals etc. out of LEGOS.

Peter was so proud of how well he could float on his back.

The kids decided I needed a monster make-over.

5 April 2011

The two batteries that were hooked up to the solar panel aren´t holding a charge like they should.  So over the last few days we´ve moved things around in the battery compartment.  We took one battery out and moved the other two (the starter battery and the other sick battery) aside so we could put in the large battery that came with the boat.

We also worked on the dinghy.  When there is no current we have to pull the dinghy in close to the boat, otherwise it will bump into the side of the boat.  When the current is strong we have to let the dinghy go farther out.  We were getting tired of moving it all the time, especially in the middle of the night.  So we got two 9 foot peices of PVC pipe and tied it to the front of the dinghy like this:

Now it can swing around all day long and it never hits our boat.

March 15th
It was my turn to take the kids to school so James stayed on the boat. An hour or two after I left, two dinghies pulled up to the boat, and three rough looking men boarded the boat. They told James in Spanish, We don’t want any violence, we’re just going to take your solar panel. James tried pushing one of them off with no success. He yelled at them to get off the boat, but they didn’t move. So he went in the cabin and tried calling the police on the radio and on the phone, but got no answer. Then he pulled out the flair gun and pointed it at them and again told them to get off the boat. One guy said, it’s orange, it’s not real. But another guy knew it was a flair gun so they finally got off the boat. However they stayed just out of shooting range for about 25 minutes. Later that day we got a cable and a lock to secure the solar panel. Until now it had just been tied to the deck.

March 18th
This morning when James took the kids to school the tide was really low so he had to walk in the mud for a bit to get to the stairs. He couldn’t wear his shoes because the mud would just suck them off so he had to walk through it bare foot. He got four big cuts on his feet.
When James got back to the boat he took a swim to wash before bandaging his feet. When he was half way up the ladder he fell off because the injuries on his feet made it really hard to climb the ladder. He got a bunch of bruises and a few scrapes. Not James’ best day…to say the lease.

March 19th
The ocean has been really rough the last few days. Likely from the full moon. Tonight is the spring equinox and closest full moon in 18 years.

Over the last week I’ve been hauling water to the boat and filling up the tank. We found out today that we have a leak somewhere in the tank or the hoses. The bilge was full yesterday and today. A bummer!

We decided that the kids and I should spend the night in a hotel so we can go to church in the morning. The tide is supposed to be low again and James doesn’t want us to have to walk through the mud to go to church. Thankfully the hotel was only $20.

Mid-afternoon a boat with a family in it (husband, wife and a handful of kids) came up to the boat and just started climbing onto the boat. James asked him what they were doing and asked him to get off our boat. He refused so James grabbed a stick that was sitting on the deck and told him forcefully to get off the boat. He got off but when James put the stick down he tried to get back on the boat. So James swung the stick at him. The guy got back on his boat but stayed really close to the boat so James pulled out the flair gun and called the police on the radio. The man then threatened to shoot holes in our boat. Port Control answered the radio and James told them what happened and gave them the boat name.

A few minutes later the boat came back (He rammed his boat against the side of our boat) with the man and two navy guys, one was an officer and the other had an automatic weapon. At first the navy was upset at James for pulling out the flair gun. But then James told them that the man refused to got off our boat, OUR HOME. James asked the officer, “if I went into his house without permission, refused to leave, coming back multiple times and then threaten to harm his house would that be okay?”  The officer agreed with James and said he would have done the same thing.  James told the navy officer that he should arrest the guy for trespassing, ramming our boat and threatening to sink our boat. But he said they couldn’t do that, only the police could do that.

Next James saw the man messing with our dinghy. It was near shore because me and the kids were at the hotel. James called me and told me to go check on the dinghy. When I got there the dinghy was almost full of water. I couldn’t see a hole. So I just bailed all the water out. I came back an hour later and there didn’t seem to be more water in it. There was a spot on the back that looked like he tried to put a hole in the boat. But he was no match for out superior boat building skills. :-)

The navy came back to talk with James. They told him that he could anchor in front of the naval base. Port Control also said we could anchor near them as well. They also offered to put a police officer on the boat for the night. James had already moved in front of the navy, so he stayed there for the night.

When we were looking for a new place to live there were two things that were important to us. A good school for the kids and church nearby. This place has both of those things. But we’re seriously thinking about going somewhere else because of the security issues we’re having.

March 20th
After church the kids and I came back to the boat.  We then anchored in front of the commercial port. But an hour later the water and the wind got really rough and our anchor slipped.  Because of the weather, it took us an hour to get to a good spot to anchor.  We made sure to let out enough line and both anchors.

March 21st
We re-anchored closer to the port in a more protected area.  The port had a little paperwork for us to fill out.  So we rowed to the dock, but it was low tide, which meant there was a lot of ladder to climb up.  James climbed up but then said it was too dangerous for the kids to climb up.  There was a drainage ditch on the other side.  It looked like we could climb up that. The kids and I climbed up fine but James cut open the bottom of his foot trying to climb it.  So he just went back to the boat while the kids and I did the paperwork.

The people at the port have been super helpful.  They even took James to the nurse to have her look at his foot.

March 22nd
3:00 am The anchor slipped…again!  By 4:30 we got things fixed well enough to go back to sleep.  At 6:30 we re-anchored in a slightly different spot, hopping to get a good anchorage.  7:45 am I rowed to the dock to pay the $30 fee for staying at the port.  But I didn’t check the current before I went.  I made it to the dock fine, but I was having a hard time making it back to the boat.  So they radioed the Navy, who happened to be doing drills not far from us.  They picked me up and took me back to the boat.  It was totally embarrassing!

March 23rd
Today was James’ turn to take the kids to school.  He stopped at a little eatery that we often go to.  They asked why we had moved our boat.  James told them about the securty issues we were having and they were shocked.  They took him to the Port Captains office and yelled at the Captain.  Then they took him to the Police and they yelled at the Police.  Then James turned around and there was a TV camera crew there and they wanted to interview him about what happened.  James declined the interview because he had to pick up the kids from school.  He felt a lot better about our situation after this afternoon though.

March 24th
Last night I woke up the the sound of someone pulling rope.  I thought for sure someone was trying to steal our solar panel again.  So I hoped up and looked out of the hatch and saw someone standing at the front of the boat hunched over,  pulling on our anchor line.  So I yelled, HEY!  And the guy whipped around and said HEY back.  Then I realized it was just James.  We had a good laugh about that one.

James rowed all of us to the dock and dropped the kids and me there then went back to the boat.  When he got to the boat he grabbed the rope for the dinghy and started up the ladder.  He was having a bit of a hard time because of the cut on his foot.  He didn’t realized until it was too late that the current had picked up, the dingy was drifting away and the rope slipped out of his hand.  He swam after it, but because of the current it took him about 30 minutes to get back to the boat.

When the kids and I came back to the dock they were so dirty.  So we stopped in at the showers.  Earlier in the day I had bought a LARGE bucket.  They used it like a little bath tub.  They had a lot of fun playing in the water.

March 25th
Our anchor line is holding great.  We haven’t had any more security issues.  It looks like we might stay here after all.

I’ve been really worried about Jimmy because he hasn’t been eating very much  lately and has lost some weight.  But the last few days he’s been eating like a teenager.  He ate three sandwiches for lunch and six hot dogs for dinner.

March 27th
It’s almost a half moon now, the water has been so nice and calm, I’m loving it.  The one down side with it being so calm is there isn’t much wind.  So to beat the heat James and I have been sleeping out on deck.  It’s been kinda fun.

March 29th
James talked to the Navy today.  They said that the Navy and the commercial port are both going to start patroling the water.

Peter has started chewing on everything, his toys, the string on his backpack. The other day I caught him chewing on his shoe! I’m about ready to buy him some doggy chew toys.

Lately Peter is so sneaky. One minute he’s watching a video or playing good with his toys and the next I find him under the table covered in honey or in his room painting everything with my nail polish.

At church there was a toddler making a fuss. Peter stands up, walks over near him, tells him to shhhh and wags his finger. Everyone thought it was funny. I was a little embarrassed though.
Then when they sustained someone in church Jimmy energeticly waves his arm around to object to the sustaining.
When I went to check on them in Sunday school (the doors have little windows), Jimmy was on the floor, doing what looked like yoga or something. Another time just laying on the floor with his hands behind his head and his feet crossed. When I told James he just chuckled and said he was his father’s son.

Jimmy has become the enforcer. When I tell Peter to do something, or to not do something Jimmy will come and pinch Peter if he doesn’t do what I ask. He also decides for himself sometimes what Peter should and shouldn’t do. It’s a bit of a struggle. Because sometimes Jimmy really is helpful getting things done. But most of the time it just creates a problem.

The boys are in a cuddly phase right now. They love to sit in our lap when we’re watching movies and things like that. They also are big huggers right now. It’s nice because it’s just the right amount of cuddling.

More on El Salvador. We can buy good, American quality, ground beef at $1.25 a pound. James is very excited about that. We have hamburgers once a week lately…so yummy. There is a large abundance of fish here. So much so that they dry a lot of it. Does anyone know of any good recipes for dried fish?

Costa Rican and Nicaraguan food is a little dry and bland. Here the food is so good. Lots of flavor and the rice is moist and just a little juicy…in a good way. The Salvadoran specialty is pupusas.

They have bat rays in the bay here.  Sometimes I’ll be sitting on deck and I’ll see a bat ray jump 6 feet in the air.  It’s really cool to see.

We’ve confirmed it with a few people…we are the only Gringos in town. Something new for us.

This week (14th-18th) was the kids first whole week of school. They are doing well. They have little home-work assignments that they do pretty well. Some days they don’t want to do it, but it’s not a big deal if they don’t. The teacher just gives them a little less work the next day so that they can get caught up. Their teacher is so nice and sweet. You can tell she loves her job. She really likes Jimmy and Peter. It’s funny, she calls them by their middle names; Jimmy is Daniel and Peter is Mateo. I think it’s just a way to help them fit in with more “normal” names.

The kids ¨playing the drums¨

The port putting their boat in the water

The front of our boat

The back of the boat

The kitchen

Dinning room by day, bed by night.

The kids room

When we pulled the dinghy close to the boat today we saw a little dead fish in it.  It must have jumped right into our boat.  The kids thought James caught it and were telling James what a good job he did catching a fish.  It was cute.

We recently bought the kids some blocks.  They LOVE them.

Jimmy´s Coffee.  He thought that was pretty cool.

My birthday was a lot of fun. I got a facial, massage and a box of candy bars.

Birthday Party hats

One of the dinghies James and I built

Peter holding a parrot

We had a little vacation to Costa Rica. We stayed at a hotel with a swimming pool. The kids went swimming everyday, they love swimming.

James and the kids swimming near the boat.