{"id":8321,"date":"2026-07-18T07:22:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T05:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/?p=8321"},"modified":"2026-07-19T10:04:39","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T08:04:39","slug":"rainy-season-on-the-rio-dulce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/rainy-season-on-the-rio-dulce\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainy Season on the Rio Dulce"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Rainy Season on the Rio Dulce<\/h1>\n\n

Lots of water, lots of lightning, lots of work on the boat \/ Next week we’re heading home to Germany for vacation<\/p>\n\n

By Renate R\u00fcger, July 18, 2026<\/p>\n\n

Guatemala \u2013 <\/strong>Rain is pounding on the corrugated metal roof\u2014hard, loud, and faster and faster. More water pours down, pelting and thundering so loudly that we can no longer hear our own words. At the RAM Marina, there are two apartments, each with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a shared kitchen-living room. We\u2019re staying in one of them. It\u2019s better than sleeping on the boat right now, especially since we\u2019d have to walk through the rain at night and navigate all the stilts the boats rest on to get to the restrooms. It always rains at night. Sometimes just in bursts, sometimes almost nonstop all night long. During the day it\u2019s better\u2014it\u2019s hot and humid, and usually sunny. But when it rains, it pours, and it feels like a thousand stings on our bare arms and legs. It\u2019s the rainy season on the Rio Dulce. And it\u2019s lightning season. That can be dangerous for our Amira and the other boats\u2014a single lightning strike and all the electronics on the boat are destroyed. For milliseconds, the boatyard lights up\u2014once, then a second time\u2014followed by thunder a second later. Often\u2014far too often\u2014it crashes right above us. We flinch every single time. Is our Amira still okay? <\/p>\n\n

\"The
The typical view from the caf\u00e9 of the gas station. Sailors meet here regularly. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

To Germany in more than 42 hours<\/p>\n\n

We\u2019ll be escaping this weather for six weeks and leaving Amira behind. We\u2019re going on vacation in Germany and are looking forward to seeing our kids, parents, and friends again. The countdown is on. We\u2019re leaving on Thursday. As always, the trip from Rio Dulce is quite arduous: 8:50 a.m. by tuk-tuk<\/strong> to the bus<\/strong>, a seven-and-a-half-hour ride to Guatemala City (270 km), around 5:00 p.m. from the Litegua bus station to the hotel<\/strong>, up at 3:00 a.m., check-in at the airport at 4:00 a.m., 6:15 a.m. departure<\/strong> for Houston, Texas. By then, we\u2019ll already have been on the road for over 21 hours. 10:19 a.m. landing in the U.S. ( <\/strong>time difference +1 hour), lines at U.S. passport control, hauling the suitcases onto the conveyor belt for the connecting flight, the remaining eight hours of waiting<\/strong>, 6:20 p.m. departure<\/strong>, landing in Frankfurt the next day at 11:15 a.m. (time difference +7 hours)\u2014after a travel time of 32 hours. 2:15 p.m.: Train<\/strong> to Berlin-Spandau; 8:00 p.m.: Arrival; then on to the Airbnb via subway<\/strong> and on foot, waiting for the keys to be handed over. All in all, a trip that would theoretically take about 42 hours using four modes of transportation. Theoretically, that is, if all the scheduled travel times were met\u2026 Deutsche Bahn had already announced a 28-minute delay on Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n

\"\"
Nelson (left) and his colleague Oscar hoist the generator up, while Peter makes sure the machine stays balanced.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Working in the Hurricane Hole<\/p>\n\n

So there are better \u201churricane holes\u201d for sailing to Europe. But we deliberately chose the RAM Marina because we know the people here. And that\u2019s probably why we\u2019ve made more progress on the boat. Nelson and Oscar removed the heavy generator from the hull; a RAM employee used an excavator to lift it from the boat onto the ground, where it\u2019s been sitting\u2014and, unfortunately, is still sitting\u2014waiting to be picked up for a thorough cleaning and overhaul. Chris is currently installing the hydraulics for the autopilot, for which Caesar had to have a special mount custom-made. Ryan has inspected our rig\u2014the mast, boom, and support wires\u2014and plans to fix the issues he found on Sunday. <\/p>\n\n

\"Oscar
Oscar is attaching our generator to the excavator bucket.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Water from above, but not from the faucet<\/p>\n\n

We\u2019ve been busy, too\u2014we didn\u2019t just watch World Cup soccer games and go out to eat last month. On the boat, we were constantly taking things out of and putting them back into the cabins to lay cables and do similar work; in the apartment, we fought off ants and a scorpion; we cleaned and covered the boat for its \u201csummer hibernation\u201d; and we repaired the protective padding on the dinghy. Peter tried in vain to install the new switch for the water pump\u2019s pressure regulator; in the end, he had to replace the entire pump with a new one. Now all that\u2019s missing are the support rings for the hoses so that everything is watertight and we can run water from the faucet again. <\/p>\n\n

\"Peter
Peter adjusts the protective padding on the dinghy.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Meanwhile, I spent four days working in vain on the Sailing Amira blog to make sure everything would display properly on a tablet in both portrait and landscape modes, as well as on a cell phone. The page previews looked good, but the result on actual devices was a disaster\u2014because the preview just didn\u2019t work. You have to figure that out first, and then repeat the whole process more or less by feel and rough estimation. What\u2019s still missing now is checking the PC translation, and so on and so forth. <\/p>\n\n

\"Sailing
Chris is helping to skim off the water in which the lithium batteries are submerged.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

Lithium Batteries in Water<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s the same as always, and just like with everything else on the boat: One problem gets solved, and a new one pops up. Or another one is discovered by chance, like the rusted-through pipe fitting the other day, or the three lithium batteries sitting in water before that. When we discovered them, we were already worried that the water might flow over the batteries and damage them. The cause: a small pump designed to drain condensation from the air conditioner. Sabine in Bocholt already has a replacement ready for this defective part. We still need to get many other parts for the boat in Germany, as well as medication for the Pacific crossing. <\/p>\n\n

\n\n
\n
\"Peter<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Rainy<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Rainy<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Rainy<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Peter<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"World<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"World<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Ant<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"What<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Christ<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Nelson<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s pouring rain along the Rio Dulce: It’s the rainy season, and that means it’s also lightning season. We’re working on the boat and plan to fly home for vacation next week\u2014a grueling journey of over 42 hours. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8323,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,178,324,1],"tags":[329,325,179,326,328,181,327],"class_list":["post-8321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-on-board","category-caribbean","category-repairs","category-unkategorisiert","tag-autopilot","tag-generator","tag-guatemala","tag-rainy-season","tag-rigger","tag-rio-dulce","tag-work-on-the-ship"],"wp-worthy-pixel":{"ignored":false,"public":null,"server":null,"url":null},"wp-worthy-type":"normal","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8321"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8338,"href":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8321\/revisions\/8338"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sailing-amira.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}