PREPARING TO MOVE ON
18 October 2005

It is that time of the year when we bid good friends “Aloha”.  Some, we expect to never see again and we will hold them in our memories as good times spent together.  Others we expect to see, but possibly many months from now.  We are reminded of the old saying, “Distance makes the heart grow fonder.” And the third group form short-term separations; we expect to see them at the next anchorage or the next country. One cruiser’s departure remark was simply, “You ain’t rid of us. We’re sticking to you like gum to a shoe.”

We never expected to stay six month in El Salvador. After three years of cruising we clearly have made the switch to a lifestyle that flows without schedule or daily deadlines; a schedule based on the seasons and the weather.  We have spent the rainy season in El Salvador and the subtle change has been in minute distinctions in temperature, humidity and occasionally the breeze velocity that whooshes through the estero (estuary).  

I once worked with a famous New York City Artist who came to Palo Alto, to work on a campus piece.  She wanted to design a piece using trees native to the USA eastern coast, so that a bit of “seasonal reflection” could be brought to the campus.   Her impression of California was that the state was without seasons and thus “needed” an Easterner to “bring” California that “cultural experience”. Definitely and surely only my opinion, she had an elitist and native perspective. Her impression and blanket statement that California did not have seasons meant that she needed to visit for a longer time and travel to other parts of the state.  I guess, she would say that of El Salvador. One of the spin-off benefits of having lived here for six months is experiencing the tropical weather patterns, even with its unusual aspects, unique to 2005.  

El Salvador is a tropical climate that remains more or less constant throughout the year but rainfall changes greatly with the seasons.  The temperature changes more from day to night than it does from season to season.  Altitude is the primary determinant of the climate and El Salvador spans three different weather zones.  The “rainy season”, also known as invierno (“winter”), runs from mid-May to October. Rain has come in predictable spurts, usually in evening drenches, but the sunshines nearly everyday. As many of you have read, the unusual steady daily rains this year compounded by eruptions of Volcano Santa Ana and the spinoff affects of Hurricane Stan have washed out many homes and roads throughout El Salvador and Guatemala. The dry season, or “verano” (“summer”) begins in mid-November and continues through mid-April.  This is the time to see the blooms on the coffee bean shrubs and the Izote (national flower). Someday, we may come back to El Salvador so we can enjoy the “verano” and visit the many places we did not get to on this trip.

Highlights of our stay will be many, good memories will be of the people we met, the cruisers, the ex-patriots, and the native El Salvadorians and the adventures had with them. Although a generalization, the people of El Salvador are trustworthy, friendly, supportive and generous.  Cruising in El Salvador has left us with wonderful memories and the desire to return, someday in the future. Our highlights:

• Waiting through Hurricane Adrian, with no damage.
• Watching incredible rains, lightening and thunder storms with no damage.
• Riding the chicken buses – “Its gonna be a bumpy ride.”
• Picking ripe mangos by the apron full, at Colette and Murray’s island home.
• Canning jars of Mango Chutney with friends.
• Traveling with historian, Jorge Martinex through Western San Salvador; the Mayan archaeological site of Joya de Ceren and San Andres.
• Touring the coastal zone of La Libertad and Sonsonate and driving up into the alpine zone with their abundant Coffee Plantations.
• Lunching at the hotel resort at Santa Leticia.
• Dancing and celebrating La Dia Para Las Madres on Isla Colorada.
• Learning how to play Mexican Train.
• Modifying Mexican Train into a new tile game called, “Johnny Low Calorie”, invented by the Erin, Debbie and Marissa Childs.
• Switching roles with the Captain— The female crew, cared for Encanto for three weeks.
• Caring and owning, if only briefly, native Iguanas (Emerald, Jade and Samson).
  Receiving the reputation as “Iguana Killers”.
• Traveling and touring the cobblestone, quaint and charming streets of Antigua.
• Lancha riding on beautiful Lago Atitlan; later to be the site of destruction to Mayan villages caught by Hurricane Stan.
• Hiking at sunrise through the Mayan ruins of Tikal, as the jungle cames alive with the sounds of Jaguars and the mimicking howler monkeys.
• Volunteering a day to assist Doctor Don and the International Rotary Club at the Children’s Hospital in Antigua.
• Learning to speak Spanish at language school.
• Living in a Guatemala family home.
• Climbing up to Volcan Pacaya and skiing down the volcanic pebble slope.
  Bartering in Chichicastenango for jade and weavings.
• Lighting candles and saying our prayers for the “fathers” in our lives on Father's Day, in the pews of Iglesia de Santo Tomas, during a sudden torrential hour-long storm.
• Slurping sweet, fresh and cheap, Lychee (tropical fruit) in Zacatecacoluca,
• Observing the night sky; Spica, Venus, and Jupiter in alignment.
• Finding the specialty shelves of Super Selecto in the Multiplaza, Zona Rosa District.
• Relying on the VIDRI hardware store to support our boat repair and replacement needs. There was the “pink Vidris” aka, girls store with kitchen accessories and the “blue”, aka boys Vidri with plumbing and lawn mowers.
• Communicating with Immigration officials.
• Fostering a sense of community among sixty boats and their independent minded Captains.
• Raising funds for the needy.
• Running for bread.
• Puppy sitting Paz.
• Sewing dinghy cover, lee cloth, flags, beanbags, and Sami Sacs.
• Chasing a mangy guest off the boat.
• Painting the steel rails on Encanto- over and over again (John feeling a bit like the GG Bridge painting crew).
• Working side by side to build a new schoolroom.
• Getting Dinghy Drivers Licenses for Gaby & Sami from tough Examiner Sahika Riley Bell and her sidekick Jamila.
• Learning how to make pupusas from the sweet and lovely Theresa at Mar y Sol.
• Exploring nearby island Mayan ruins with Jose Luis.
• Celebrating birthdays and a very special wedding extraordinaire.
• Building a five tier chocolate wedding cake that tottered and melted in tropical temperatures into two tiers.
• Catsitting for Jake, el gato Supremo and Jacob, el gato Grande (cat cousins)
• Hosting potlucks, movie nights, slumber parties.
• Becoming for an evening the Chinese Cuisine Chef’s Floating Palace.
• Buying freshly caught shrimp and homemade tamales from the locals in their canoas.
• Riding more chicken buses.
• Navigating the streets of San Salvador on our own with only a tourist map.
• Watching asphalt roads crack and spout up in crumbs, while manhole covers flew into the air during a flash flood and storm.
• Dashing through torrential rains to visit the zoo.
• Graduating from 5th and 6th grade and commencing 6th and 7th grades.
• Tripping through San Salvador, laughing, sharing and devouring many Supremo pizzas with our friend, more than a taxi driver, Jose Oserio. “Be well, my friend.”

We will make several trips to San Salvador to finalize business transactions for Medical Insurance renewals, bank statements and account management, as well as provision at the PriceSmart (COSTCO), SuperSelecto and VIDRI’s.  We will be finishing necessary boat maintenance projects, refueling the boat, refilling the propane tanks, solving the woes of the water maker, charging up the batteries, checking the rigging, hoisting the sails and checking them, changing the engine oil scrapping the hull, mending the center hatch, scouring the boat of mold and mildew.  And many days will be spent reviewing the stock in the cupboards, replenishing the provisions (food and medical supplies) and canning sausages for isolated anchorages.  And the girls have the added responsibility of independently progressing with school while not being distracted by all the other preparation efforts.

We have less than two weeks to ready the boat and ourselves for departure.  Our cruising plan is to leave on the high tide, October 31, 2005.  Historically, we are often moving forward on Halloween Day. On All Saints Day, we will be sailing under a New Moon.

Anticipating raising the anchor, crossing the bar and getting back out on the Pacific Ocean and its familiar rocking and rolling, has me anxious and worried after six months living on a calm river.  However, it is time to move on.  Adventure beckons us.

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