Yesterday the weather report had Henriette coming our way mid-week so we left Isla Ventana (where we had been joined by two other boats in what is typically a one boat anchorage) to go to the village for laundry and water. Before we had even cleared the islands John heard a loud yowl from the bow area and rushed forward to find Ziggy with his head stuck under one of the teak handrails. We tried twisting and turning him every which way but we couldn't get his head to slip out backwards, and his belly is bigger than his head so even though he got his shoulders through, he couldn't go the rest of the way. We even tried greasing his head with oil before John got out the tool box. We were in as much a panic as Ziggy was, and so John took a hammer and chisel to the underside of the rail to chop out enough wood for us to slide Ziggy's head out. Fortunately we were sailing in very light air so Nakia took care of maintaining a course all by herself. I took a few scratches and Ziggy spent the rest of the day washing off the oil, seemingly none the worse for the traumatic experience. John's hoping he grows up soon so he can't get into any more tight spots.
We had a quick change of plan after that, fired up the motor, and headed straight for Puerto Don Juan where we are currently neighbors with 24 other boats waiting to see what Henriette is going to do. Fortunately it doesn't look like it's going to be much for us, especially when you look at what Felix is doing to Central America. But we take no chances, so our sails are off, we have a tandem anchor set (a first for us), the hurricane anchor snubber is on, and the decks are mostly clear. Ziggy doesn't know what to make of his bare bones jungle gym and quickly learned how to walk the balance beam (our now bare main sail boom).
Assuming nothing comes of Henriette, we'll hang out here until Thursday or Friday and then go on into the village.
Linda and John