Year 6 of Cruising!

As the Mahi crew makes plans to rejoin our boat in Guatemala, it is hard to believe Joe, Ethan, and I are now into our sixth year of cruising!  Time has certainly flew by since moving aboard in 2015.

Where is SV Mahi?  Mahi is in the Rio Dulce area of Guatemala, specifically at Tijax Ecotourist Marina in Livingston, Izabal.  We highly recommend Tijax, the staff there is second to none!  We are looking forward to seeing our friends at the marina, also check out how the boat has done during our pandemic absence.

What a year 2020 has been!  We were initially delayed flying back to Guatemala in January, when Captain Joe had another retinal bleed.  First time this happened was on New Years Eve, 2015, with his other eye.  His retina specialist advised us to stay in California so Joe could be followed in case he needed surgery.  So we rebooked our trip back for March, 2020.  Well, we all know how that turned out.

While home, we have stayed busy.  I started a mask making group, and personally sew masks for my local hospital, doctors, medical staff, friends, neighbors and family.  Joe built a treehouse and zipline for Ethan, plus stayed busy teaching Ethan 5 days a week.

Despite staying home and being socially distant, I made a trip to our local superstore in mid June, noticing that I was one of the few customers wearing a mask. You can guess that despite being so careful, I came down with Covid-19 the last week of June. It was 8 weeks before I left the house again.

Now, 4 month later, I still do not have a sense of smell, my sense of taste is messed up, and I’m still being treated for some painful neurological symptoms. I still wheeze. The doctors do not know if time will help or if this is now my new normal.

This was the sickest I have ever been. What is weird about Covid-19 is how it affected my lungs, but also other systems in my body. Some symptoms were there all the time, and some changed frequently. It was very strange. The only symptom I did not have was a high fever. So now I am a long term CoVid cruiser; one would rather recuperate on our boat, live at anchor, and allow the white sands and turquoise waters heal my body and soul. My stamina is a work in progress.

So what are our future plans for Cruising? Once we get back to Mahi, we have to get her whipped back in shape, put the sails on, take care of needed maintenance, then get a survey for insurance, haul out and do the bottom. My favorite thing is getting a custom dinghy lift/solar arch made and installed.

Then we will leave Rio Dulce and head to Mexico, then back to the Florida Keys, and over to Bahamas. From the Bahamas, we may head to Panama or to the Honduran Bay Islands, then back to Rio Dulce. We will see. All depends on what countries are open and what Covid restrictions they have.

Hope you will follow along here on the blog, also on Instagram (Sailing_mahi) and Facebook (SV Mahi) Regards from Joe, Carla and Ethan, SV Mahi