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Larry's LogThursday we woke up late, almost missing the morning net here since we were out so late last night. After breakfast I started getting everything off the stern rail. We had hired someone to polish the stainless steel around the boat and I wanted him to be able to do as much of it as possible. So I took off the solar panels, one of the engine mounting pads, the barbeque grill, the differential GPS antenna holder (never used) and some other things. The gates, stanchions, pulpit and stern rail were in need of some TLC - there was some rusting that I hoped would come off. I think it should be OK once cleaned, polished and waxed. In the early afternoon we took off the bimini so he could clean the support rails for that and also because it needed some repair and a good cleaning. We then put up the awning to get the boat in some shade. It hadn't been too hot but in the bright sun, the deck got so hot you couldn't step on it. Diane then continued cleaning the canvas. Diane had brought our boat papers to an agent yesterday but today the Port Captain came by see the boat. Since he didn't speak English, he brought a young lady who worked for TBS, the agent we used for our check-in. He just wanted me to sign a document and checked to see if we had our Venezuelan flag up, which we didn't have up yet. He asked about that and we said that we understood that we needed to be cleared in first. He said OK and then I went to the Internet place while Diane continued talking with them and then continued with the canvas. At the Internet, a few computers setup within the Mini-mart at the marina, I checked email and did some other things. The amazing thing about the email was that there were over 600 junk messages! It took almost 45 minutes, with a pretty good connection, to delete them all. That evening we went to the restaurant in the marina again for dinner but this time it was a whole group of cruisers who went. On alternate Thursdays they did a pseudo-buffet and had some pretty good food. We had ordered shrimp and it was good, although breaded and deep fried, which Diane doesn't like much. We had a good time though since we saw a lot of our friends there. The next day was another workday in the marina. I finished getting everything off the rail and took down the dodger. The guy we hired for the day to clean the stainless steel showed up at a little after 9. Duglas was a pretty good worker and did a good job although he missed a couple of spots and kept leaving used pieces of the wadding (from the Nevr-Dul, the cleaning stuff) around the deck even though Diane gave him a plastic bag to put the basura (garbage) in. He did drop 2 towels overboard but we got those back and once he dropped the toothbrush he used for cleaning the tiny spots in to the water. Getting that back was interesting - he slipped under the lifelines and hung on while he grabbed it with his toes! He worked until a little before 5 (with an hour break for lunch) and we paid him his wage and he said he would come back tomorrow at around 9 also but only wanted to work to about 4 since it was Saturday. No problem, we figured that the majority of the work would be done by then anyway. He had finished the port side, the pulpit, the stern rail and the wind generator in one day so the only other thing was the starboard side stanchions and some small pieces like blocks and such. While Duglas did all that, I removed the lower shrouds from the deck (one at a time of course) and inspected the turnbuckles and rod heads, and cleaned and polished them. I regreased the turnbuckle screws and then reassembled each one - then moving on to the next. I did the 4 lower shrouds and would finish the upper and intermediate ones tomorrow. I might have done more but either Diane or Duglas wanting something interrupted me several times. Diane did some more of the canvas in the morning but then went to drop off laundry at a place in CMO that did it reasonably. She then went to pay for our clearance papers, which we had already from when the Port Captain came by, and to check on the price we would pay at Maremares Marina. That was the very nice one with a gym, tennis courts, wave pool, etc. She wanted to go there to enjoy the facilities but it was more expensive and they weren't as negotiable as she hoped. Looks like well stay at Bahia Redonda - I like it here anyway. We were also promised a side-to slip soon, so we won't have to climb over the bow. Doing that isn't hard for me, and not too bad for Diane, but people with shorter legs have a hard time. Diane got back around 5 and started to get dinner prepared. Tom, from Mima, was coming over for dinner and she was making lomito (filet mignon) and carrots (we hadn't had them in months). Steph was back in the States for a visit for a few weeks. They (Tom and Clem, their beagle) came over around 6 and we had a good dinner and a nice visit. I drove them back in the dinghy after dinner and a glass of port (Clem didn't partake). Next day was also very tiring, with Duglas coming at about 9 and finishing the stainless and me doing the remainder of the shrouds and also the backstay. Diane finished washing the canvas. At least we're getting things done. In the morning though, I first went to the swap meet that was being held at the little mini-mart here at the marina. There wasn't much there but I saw Tom (Mima), Peter and Lanie from Marnel 4 who had come in a day ago, and Dan from Sojourner, who had been at Maremares for about a week. They and Spice Island Lady, also now in PLC, had gone to El Golfo de Cariaco, where we went last year, and they enjoyed it thoroughly. We had also loved it there. We were pretty busy on the boat all day, and except for Diane going to pick up the laundry, we were all working from 9 to 5. In the afternoon though, we saw the people from Orient Canvas in the marina and called them over. We had some work for them and explained what we wanted - the bimini needed restitching and the sailcover needed some new Velcro and some patches where the awning chafed against it. We also wanted some other things made and asked for a price. He said he would get back to us on it and so we continued with our work. Duglas finished at about 5 and we said 'adios.' He was a pretty good worker and a nice guy and if we needed to use some more somewhat unskilled labor we would call him. We were both glad we had him do the stainless steel - it wasn't really hard work but time consuming and we had many other projects to tackle. Sunday and finally a very lazy day finally. We didn't do much except read and relax. We did go over to Plenum for a little while to see the varnish work Elia did, and it was really very good. He was still working on another boat but hopefully he would be able to do Destiny in not too long. Diane and I went to the pool in the afternoon but it rained, first time since we had gotten here and the first time we had been rained on in months. It was the beginning of the rainy season in the tropics. The next day was pretty busy although we combined some relaxation in it. The morning was busy with Diane doing more cooking and me starting a new project. I wanted to put lines on the external locker hatches to be able to hold them open without having to search for a small piece of line or bungee cord. The anchor well lid had one like that already but the attachment was very rusty and about to fall off and was just screwed into the fiberglass and into the core, which was probably now almost disintegrated because the padeye was just screwed through the fiberglass into the core without any bedding or epoxy to protect it. I used my Dremel tool to cut the padeye on the anchor well hatch and drilled larger than needed holes for the new padeye screws in all the locker hatches. I then cleaned them up with alcohol and mixed some epoxy. I wetted the balsa core with unthickened epoxy and made up some thickened epoxy and put it in the holes. Diane had gone grocery shopping with Plenum and after I finished with the epoxy, I went over to Mima and played a game of chess. Tom and I hadn't done that in a long while and it was nice to get away from the boat and think about something else for a change. I got back about 5:30 and then Diane and I went to the potluck barbeque held at Bahia Redonda every Monday night. We had a nice time and there was some pretty good food brought by other cruisers. The next day was a fairly busy one for me although Diane wasn't feeling too well and so stayed in bed much of the day. I only did some miscellaneous things; no projects, but I got some things done. Diane felt better later in the day and we had Elia over for drinks in the evening. He was the guy Diane met in Trinidad and was recommended to us to do varnish work. He was a very nice guy and spoke English fairly well although I tried practicing my Spanish. He was still working on Pipe Dream and estimated another month before he finished completely. He also estimated 2 -3 months to do the entire interior of Destiny. We talked about whether he could just do the cabin sole and he said that was a possibility, especially when we went to Caracas (for my Lasik surgery) or to Merida (now in question since they had severe floods and some damage recently). Another pretty busy day again. I was occupied with fighting the dreaded "Venezuelan Brown Rope" syndrome, as Bud on Gonzo II named it. Even though it had rained, the lines on the boat were still a dirty brown from the Sahara dust that blows across from Africa. So I took down the two jib halyards, the spinnaker halyard and the main sheet and washed them with the same solution as we used on the canvas. I also scrubbed them lightly. The deck turned brown from the runoff. Once finished with that, I pulled out the anchor and chain onto the dock to scrub and rinse that off. There had been some growth on the chain and I also wanted to get some of the accumulated salt off it. Before I put it back, I also wanted to clean out the anchor locker and perhaps change the anchor well drain hose. It started to rain though after I cleaned the chain so I just left it on the dock and went to take a shower. That morning, Diane had gone shopping at a store she hadn't been to before in the morning with Janice and came back with some goodies. This store was a small one but had some nice stuff, including a lemon meringue pie (not as good as some, but not bad either). We had invited Tom over for dinner again (we were having enchiladas) and I went over to Mima for a game of chess and then to bring him back. (I won the 2 games.) Thursday I continued with boat projects again, I started on the anchor well drain. It was clogging and still had the unused T connector where the forward holding tank vent had been attached. The vent line, that had poured water into the boat through the drain on our way from New York to Bermuda, was something I had wanted to address for almost three years. I wanted to remove the T fitting and the vent hose since the holding tank was no longer there and the hose was simply folded over on itself at both ends. Since the anchor and chain were off the boat (from the scrubbing I had given them yesterday) I figured this was a good time to try. Of course, the drain, fitting and hose were underneath the anchor well and could only be accessed through the small locker door forward of the V berth. I had to move all the bedding, the V berth cushions and crawl up to "the pointy end" to get into the locker. I also wanted to clean out the chain locker since that had never been done. To begin the process, I tried getting the hose clamp off the drain hose at the top - it barely moved but eventually came off. The clamp at the bottom of the hose, on the top of the T fitting, was rusted closed. I had to use a large vise grips to twist the screw out and then pry the clamp off. All this had to be done with just one hand since I couldn't get in the locker with more than my head and one shoulder. Anyway, after about an hour, I had the hose and the fitting off. I then discovered that it was 3/4 inch hose, not the 1/2 inch that I had thought. Luckily, I had a nylon fitting that fit both the threaded opening in the hull and the hose. I got out the new hose and a heat gun and got everything on. I then cleaned out the locker from years of accumulated dirt. There must had been about 4 inches of dirt at the bottom of the locker that I had to scoop out with my fingers. I also got the vacuum and tried that. After the new hose was in place, I got the chain back in the locker and put the anchor back on the bow. I was careful to get the chain arranged evenly so it wouldn't pile up under the windlass and block the hawse. Another job to cross off. Diane had gone to visit another boat to find out about Merida (they had just come back and we wanted to go soon) and do some other errands so I put the mainsheet back on and then put the forward cabin back together. By then, it was almost 3 so I just relaxed and read. She came back about 4:30 and rinsed some laundry she had been soaking and waxed a few more stanchions. I hoisted the dinghy and called it quits for the day. |