Amira on the go
Whether it’s reports from distant lands, crossings, or repairs on board: The latest posts appear here on the blog. Older experience reports and articles that appeared on our tracking page will be added to the archive little by little.
The trip home to Germany turns into a nightmare: Renate's father dies, Peter ends up in the hospital with a broken vertebra, and the number of doctor's appointments jumps from a planned 11 to 20. In the end, it also becomes clear that Peter isn't getting enough air at night.
Sailing-Amira.de has also been affected by the global wp2shell security vulnerability in the WordPress website software. “During a security audit, we found concrete evidence that your WordPress site was compromised by this attack and that files and/or databases have been affected,” the web host informs us.
Guatemala – It’s the rainy season on the Rio Dulce. And it’s lightning season. That can be dangerous for our Amira and the other boats. One lightning strike and all the electronics are destroyed. We’re getting the first jobs done on the boat and preparing for our trip home to Germany.
Guatemala – Our Amira is pulled out of Rio Dulce and rolls as if by a ghostly hand across the shipyard grounds. “Go back to the starting line!” is the command. We are back there, where we were a year ago.
Peter is becoming increasingly forgetful. This is related to Parkinson's. Sometimes he confuses Sylke with Maria, sometimes he talks about Mexico when he means Colombia, and sometimes he leaves the gas flame on the stove. Until an egg explodes.
Guatemala – Hurricane season has begun. We are heading to safety in Río Dulce, Guatemala. On the journey on a night as black as jet we are accompanied by loud flashes of lightning.
Building our homepage is making me break a sweat. Three systems are getting in each other’s way. The artificial intelligence ChatGPT helps, but in the end it has me consult another AI—and when that doesn’t help, a human. Still: the site sailing-amira.de is now online.
Utila is considered a diving paradise. Together with Belgian sailing friends, we head into the underwater world. Marian Van Roy captures our dive in pictures. Here are the photos.
At the Cayos Cochinos, one of the most beautiful anchorages in the world, we discover them: cockroaches! The battle against these creatures, which can transmit diseases and trigger allergies, begins.
In the Cayos Cochinos Marine Protected Area, plastic bottles and other trash pile up in some places. Canadians Melanie and Eric rally 12 sailors and 23 locals to clean up the beach.
The Garifuna in the fishing village of Chachahuate on the Cayos Cochinos don't just live from fishing. They've built a "restaurant row" on their small island. Behind the huts, entire families cook huge amounts of fish, plantains, and coconut rice with beans.
On Cayo Mayor, an American guides us across rough terrain to the village of East End. Garifuna live there – a people of Afro-Caribbean origin.
Instead of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba, where we originally wanted to go, we land on the Pig Islands (Cayos Cochinos) of Honduras. We don't see pigs here, but a Boa rosada - a Pink Boa that only exists here.
On the trip from Isla Mujeres in Mexico to Utila, Honduras, we almost get stuck in the strong Yucatan Current. It takes us forever to get past the island of Cozumel. A break in the surreal world of Punta Allen does us good, and dolphins bring us luck.
Mexico – We want to have Japanese food at a Japanese restaurant and end up in a large treehouse jungle complex: the Azulik Project by architect Roth. To eat sushi, we have to first take an adventurous hike, through the jungle. a18> first take an adventurous hike through the night - over stone and wooden
