Our Amira rolls over land

RAM employees pull the boat from the river / Byron parks it with millimeter precision

By Renate Rüger, June 28, 2026

Our Amira drives up a small hill, stops, turns, and rolls around the corner down the slope – as if by magic. This might seem eerie to an unsuspecting observer. But Byron has everything under control. The foreman of the RAM Marina has the remote control for the boat’s mobile carriage hanging around his neck. Using a joystick, he steers our Amira with millimeter precision across the RAM premises and through other boats.

A RAM worker pulls the Amira on the mobile carriage.

For us, all this happens suddenly, as the workers had taken a long time to safely position the arms of the mobile carriage under our Amira. With a different frame and a special cart, they had pulled the boat out of the water of the Rio Dulce in the morning – an elaborate procedure. Since the next step was delayed, we had gone for a coffee. And suddenly, the Amira was no longer in its previous spot.

The Amira rolls down a small slope across the shipyard as if by magic. — The Amira rolls down a small slope as if by magic.

We know how everything works and who does what from last year. Back then, the Amira was taken out of the water this way for the first time. It’s all déjà vu. Sadness spreads among us. Cuba, Bahamas, where else did we want to go after the hurricane break in Rio Dulce? We were supposed to go through the Panama Canal at the beginning of March and then to French Polynesia. Nothing came of it. “Go back to square one!” it says now. We are back where we were a year ago. “Don’t think about it!” says Peter. “Hey! We will set off in November and be in Panama in December!” Besides, we had a great time with Peter and Dorothée from our buddy boat Pia in Belize and Mexico, as well as with other friends in the Bay Islands.

The monohull Jericho is carried away in the travel lift so our Amira can park. — The Jericho is transported away in the travel lift to make space for the Amira.

The Amira continues. Now Byron stops her. A small sailboat named Jericho is where the Amira is supposed to go. RAM employees are already walking towards the monohull. Everything is prepared. The Jericho is to be lifted with a mobile crane, a so-called travel lift. The textile straps under its hull are already secured. Now it is lifted, the workers pull the stands from under the boat. The Jericho hangs, swaying slightly in the square box of steel beams. The travel lift starts moving, drives to the side. Now Byron steers our Amira again by remote control, narrowly passing another catamaran and then precisely into the “parking box.” The mobile carriage is removed, the stands are set. A few minutes later, the travel lift sets the Jericho down in front of our Amira. We are in the second row, surrounded only by boats on dry land.