No it is not what you might think at first. The bar in Livingston is
famous amongst sailors that want to go up the Rio Dulce. It is a sandbar,
just in front of Livingston in the mouth of the river. It is 6 feet deep
and that can be a problem for sailboat with a draft of 6 foot or more.
There is sometimes a buoy but from there on you have to go more or less a
straight direction. It can be a bit annoying, because you don’t have much
water under your keel to cross the bar.
We arrived tired, cold and wet at the outer edge of the bar at 1.00
o’clock at night. The visibility was poor and I decided to drop the anchor
and wait for the early morning to enter Livingston.
We had a nightcap and were very happy that we finally arrived at
Livingston. The anchor hold perfectly and we had a typical sleep after
being at sea for a couple of days. That is a good deep sleep. Windshifts
and rain squalls were still there as latent alarms, but as soon as I
realized we were at anchor before the bar in Livingston, a was fast asleep
again.
In the morning at 6.00 o’clock the fishermen came back from sea and made
a lot of noise to find out if we were ok or if they could earn 50 dollars
to tow us in. We could have slept another half day but not with the
attention of the fishing float coming in.
So we slowly ate some breakfast and prepared to cross the bar and anchor in
Livingston to start the check-in procedure.
At 8.00 o’clock a French aluminum boat was circling around us. They
wanted all kind of information about the bar, the check in-procedure and
more info about the Rio Dulce. Two male persons, one spoke only french and
the other spoke dutch too.
We lifted the anchor and took them with us over the bar to my preferred
anchor-spot close to the nice hotel with ownership/management in
Belgium/Guatemalan hands.
Officially you have to call the authorities on channel 16 and then wait
till they come to your boat. I never have the patience to do that. I tried
it the first time I came into the Rio Dulce, but when they didn’t respond I
did my own “tramite” in town. That is what we did on this rainy day too and
the officials were happy to stay dry inside.
In two hours we were legal in Guatemala and 500Q (70$ US) poorer.
We got to know our colleague sailors as Michel the French captain/owner
of the boat and Karel, his dutch mate.
They left Havana and stayed 3 days at anchor in the Mexican Chinchorros
atoll, about the same time we were at anchor for Xmas in Baia de
l’Ascencion. They spend last night in the bay of Puerto Barrios. Michel was
in a hurry as he had to catch a plane from Havana to Paris the 6th of Jan.,
Karel planned to stay for a month in Guatemala.
After a breakfast/lunch in Livingston we went back to the boat to
prepare the trip up the river the next day.
Livingston, view from the boat.
I discovered a completely dirty filter and clogged fuel-lines from both
tanks. I would have to repair that first before going to the Rio Dulce. I
had a number of options with my two tanks, one empty and one full, each
about 40 gallons.
- I could clean the line of the full tank
- I could buy some new lines if available in Livingston
- I could fill a jerrycan with fuel and make a provisional rigging
with the jerrycan in the cockpit.
I discussed my plans with Michel who was a mechanic by profession. He
came with a fourth solution. He would be happy to tow me to the Rio. I
think he found it useful to have a friend with knowledge about the Rio
while arriving there. I said I would think about it and would give him my
decision early next morning.
We had a good dinner and some wine in the hotel/restaurant and went
early to bed.
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