Recommissioned Enough
- sondrawinter
- 10 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Our second week back home had us completing tasks on the boat to make life on the Rio Dulce as comfortable and fun as possible. In addition to shading our boat and getting our “car” back in order, we continue to explore Hacienda Tijax and the nearby area.
Through Thursday, September 3, 2026
As Jimmy mentioned last week, we are back home on Utopia after an incredible two-month trip away. I am now reunited with my laptop and can post blogs under my own name.
Since Utopia will be stationary for the rest of the year our recommissioning has focused on livability. Then in January we will complete the process by putting the sails back out and de-pickling the water maker.
For now, here is a summary of recent highlights and notable boat projects.
Highlights
Rain Rain Rain
Not long after we left Rio Dulce, the seasonal rain had arrived in force, and we returned to a world where the water was at least two feet higher.
During our first week home there were downpours each night that stuck around until the mid-morning or continue on through the day as well. One person explained to us, if I understood his Spanish correctly, that the water is about 18” above normal for this time of the year. Some of the walkways in Hacienda Tijax were submerged requiring finding new ways to move about the grounds, or to just wade through water.
Flooding is not apparent in the forest, but the streams are running full and everything is very damp. During our hikes, both Jimmy and I have been reminded just how slippery wood boards can be. His fall was rather nasty as he had a sore shoulder for several days. I managed to twist around and land on the palms of my hands which felt fine by the time we finished our hike. Now we slow down when crossing wooden bridges and boardwalks and have managed to stay upright.
Heat Heat Heat
While our first week at home was filled with lots of rain, the second week was much drier, allowing the heat to return in force. Outside projects, hikes and walks into town are done in the morning, then after lunch our air conditioner comes on, and it is time for inside projects.
Lunch Outing
Why would this be a highlight worth sharing? Well, it involved a lot of speaking in Spanish and a fun boat ride.
Casa Caribe is a restaurant at another eco-lodge located across from the Castillo de San Felipe de Laura, about two miles upstream of our marina. Since there are no roads to their resort, they offer a lancha service. This required calling them to request a pickup. I made my request in Spanish, feeling pretty good, but then he responded to me. I thought I heard the word “closed” and was just generally confused. Eventually we stumbled through my language impediment, and he sent a lancha down to pick us up; later on I come to realize that the man I spoke to was probably the one at the helm. (Here is a link to a Spanish tips YouTube page that hilariously describes this phenomenon).
The ride to Casa Caribe was fun as we headed under the longest bridge in Guatemala, passing houses and other marinas. It just felt so nice to be out on the water in a boat.
After we enjoyed our lunch in a very pleasant setting overlooking the fort, it was time to pay our bill and return to Tijax. Once again, there was a lot of confusion on my part when I tried to pay the bill. I thought she said “muchacho” and assumed I misunderstood her. However, this time I heard correctly, but did not figure it out until the lancha driver showed up to take the payment for the meal and to drive us back. He was super kind and mostly spoke slow easy Spanish with us, encouraging us to keep up with practicing speaking Spanish.
New Spanish Conversation Group
Afterwards, one of the other cruisers and I have started a Spanish conversation group. We meet three days a week, for about 30 minutes to try to only speak Spanish with each other. This way we can practice without too much embarrassment or stress and learn to work through “freezing up”, a normal part of trying to speak a new language. It is not graceful speaking, but at least we are getting some speaking practice accomplished.
Projects
Holding Tank Ventilation Repair
While trying to replace the hoses in our holding tank ventilation system in June, the connections broke off from the holding tank and from our carbon odor control unit (Big Orange). We were unable to find a pipe extractor tool in town, so we purchased one while in the States, but it fell apart as soon as Jimmy began to use it (he did say it was very cheap). In the end using an adhesive, he cobbled together a homemade fitting using items around the boat and attached it to the holding tank. Fingers are crossed that it will last a while. Unfortunately, we will need to buy a new housing unit for the Big Orange system.
Anchor Locker Cleaning
This should have been a straightforward project not worthy of mentioning, and it nearly was. Apparently, it has been a long time since this task was last completed because once we got everything out of the locker, we discovered a lot of debris (shells, plastic bits, sand and mud) in the bottom, which had blocked the drain holes. Borrowing the dockmasters leaky work boat, Jimmy sprayed water from the hull back into the locker clearing out the clogs. While we were at it, we rinsed and inspected our chain, rodes, snubbers and various shackles used for our ground tackle system. Most of our chain looks rather rusty and may need to be regalvanized one day, other than that, everything seemed to be in good working order.
What made this job not so great was our water source. The marina water is heavily chlorinated, which we rather not spray onto our rusty chain, plus our hose barely reaches the locker, so we opted to use our anchor washdown pump which pulls straight from the adjacent water. With a lack of pump out services and low-level wastewater treatment systems in the area, we felt a little squeamish as the water splashed all over us. As soon as we completed the project, we took long showers up at the resort to rinse off the rust, dirt and questionable water attached to us and our clothes.
Dinghy Recommissioning
This project was expected to be not as gross as the locker project the previous day and we planned ahead by putting on our swimsuits before getting to work, which involved the following steps:
Untie the dinghy from where it was lashed to the forward deck
Attached a halyard to the dinghy painter and hoist up the dinghy vertically until the pontoons where higher than the lifelines.
Push dinghy out over the lifelines.
Lower the dinghy to the water, turning it so that it lands bottom side down.
Get into dinghy and push the dinghy around neighboring boats until some dock space and be reached in the dinghy.
Tie dinghy to dock. (Thanks Trisha for pulling it out from under the dock while we worked on steps 7-11!)
Uncover and unlock the outboard engine located on the stern railing on Utopia.
With aid from a davit, hoist the outboard off of the stern rail.
Tie a painter around the prop shaft of the outboard.
While Sondra pays out the line from the davit, Jimmy stands on the dock holding the painter, pulling the outboard to the dock.
Jimmy and another cruiser carry the outboard to the dinghy (thanks Mark).
Sondra sits in dinghy to align the outboard to the dinghy transom while the guys lower the outboard to her, and she secures the outboard to the dinghy.
Push and pull the dinghy back over to tie up to the bow of Utopia.
Lower fuel tank down to dinghy and hookup fuel connections.
Gather other items needed to test out outboard.
Cross fingers and pull outboard starter cord.
We were quite lucky as the outboard fired up quickly. After a quick zip out to the river and back to Utopia, we tied up the dinghy and headed over to the pool to cool off before lunch.
The Jeep in its natural habitat. Pool at Hacienda Tijax Eco-Lodge.
Deck Tarps (and Piscina Dip)
Now that the dinghy is no longer shading the foredeck we needed to set up a tarp to help cool the cabin, and to keep the rain out of the master berth. It was hot, hot, hot and when finished, so, instead of doing a long hike as planned, we walked a pool located in the forest created along one of the creeks, which we simply call “the little piscina”. The walk there was slow as we were very tired from the tarp project, but getting into the very cold water was quite refreshing and magical. The waterfall was flowing well, and the pool was completely shaded, surrounded by lush vegetation. Once again, we feel fortunate to be at Hacienda Tijax and its great amenities. Feeling refreshed, we walked at a nice brisk pace back to Utopia for lunch.
Utopia now sports two tarp tents. The little piscina at Tijax.
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