Monday, December 25, 2017

Merry Christmas to all! Having some fun with Michelle & Tony. They've been super helpful with our bowsprit and other projects. Working vacation for them...great project break for us.

At the Dulceria - candy store to buy our piñata!

Next, filling our piñata with candy
Michelle with a small bag o'cheetos
Asked the local policeman to take our photo.


Pre-margarita festivities
The creche in downtown Guaymas

Santa statue for sale
at the mercado

Sombreros at the mercado

Selecting our ceramics purchases, tableside shopping

Charly's Rock in San Carlos

Friday, December 15, 2017

Ni para ti ni para mi: Another Lesson Learned

Arrival at the Marina Seca boatyard, covers intact
Removing dust-prevention
When you're in another country, sometimes it's better not to disagree with your hosts. Okay, pretty much all the time.
Arriving at the Tetakawi Mountains, Sonora

So another life lesson learned. I get a lot of those moments. When discussing the price of a project with our electronics installation engineer, we started talking total cost. Having been to the ATM a few times since our arrival, I knew the exchange rate to the 3rd decimal. So when he quoted an exchange that was quite a bit lower than what I'd been seeing, I let him know he was 'wrong'. (He was offering us a much better US $ to peso conversion rate.)

When I realized my error some hours later, I had to laugh. Between my scruffy Spanish and my bad math, we would be paying substantially more than he was asking. The next day when he arrived to complete the project, I decided to eat crow and fess up to my mistake. He knew my error, of course, and quickly offered:

Ni para ti ni para mi

as the resolution to the matter, we negotiated half of the discrepancy so we only paid half of my error. Direct translation:

Neither for you neither for me

Maybe I've learned to keep my brilliant ideas to myself. Well, for anyone who knows me, that might only happen occasionally. But a lesson learned gives me pause every time.

Infamous "Loncheria Doney", Guaymas

Jamaica (hibiscus flower) juice & Tacos California at Doney's
And so on to our boat projects. We've had an action-packed month here in Guaymas. Dirt yard, windy days, gnoshing on great tacos, catching up with friends all working on their boats - almost all with the mutual goal of splashing. Sooner rather than later.

L to R: 2 old ports (teak trim), new aluminum
port, port removed (old layer of yellow hull paint)

Removing nasty old ports, standing on empty oil barrels and borrowed boards
We've installed 4 new ports so that's a total of 10 and one hatch cover that we've replaced over four years. Leakproof 'windows to the world' are a good thing.

Salvador assessing our electronics package
We had new electronics installed so now have working radar (mandatory), new chartplotter and instruments for wind, depth and other important data. We look forward to enjoying the latest electronics that all work.


Furler removal
from bowsprit 

Old bowsprit pre-project

Taking down the beast, slowly and carefully

Grind-o-matic man AKA Mike



Luis and Mike at the machine shop
assessing the new anchor setup
Check out the scaffolding & blocks
Along with other smaller projects inside and out, we were getting closer to splash time when we decided 10 days ago to take down our bowsprit and completely refurbish it. Our friend George helped with the cumbersome project of lowering the bowsprit, standing on scaffolding that is not OSHA approved. Mike spent several days grinding off 4 layers of different color paint, removing a ton of old hardware and the rotten teak boards that need replacing. Luis reconfigured the anchor support at his machine shop and now we're getting the aluminum painted and prepped for reinstallation.
Worn out teak, bright new Caoba

It's not Santa, it's Mike in
the anchor locker at the bow
We bought new Caoba (Mexican mahogany) wood milled to slats that meet our dimensions. We've both sanded those boards to perfection - which are now ironically spotted by rain laden with red Sonoran dust to add a dash of character. Next comes the exact cutting of each board to fit the aluminum base, then adding new SS hardware to support the whole thing. Then, up goes the bowsprit (we hope George won't hide from us when it's time to raise it).

Yesterday I completed another boat-love project to clean and polish about 150 feet of stainless steel (it'll look good for a short time until it's bashed by salt water) and today begins my cleaning and oiling project of the teak toe rail, grab rails and cockpit trim.

Happy camper post-mariscos coctel

Digging into mariscos coctel
Believe it or not, today is Friday we hope to splash on Monday, God willing and all things considered. Just in time as our friends arrive from Vancouver WA on Sunday for 11 days. They're thinking fun and frolic in the sunshine. We're thinking how nice to have visitors that distract us from our work.

Painting the chain - color coding each 30' increment
Leif stopped by on his way from Canada to
Mazatlan - here we are sharing a
moment with our 2012 Baja Haha backpack
Not what it looks like - epazote from the spice market
Around us in the bustling city of Guaymas, Christmas festivities are in full force. I did buy a poinsettia (noche buena) to add a bit of color to Pura Vida.

And I sought out epazote from the great spice market downtown. It's an herb that reduces flatulence when you make a pot o' pinto beans, so never a bad thing when you're sharing a small living space. I bought the minimum 100 grams, which was .30 US and was way more than we needed so I gave some away to 2 boating friends.

Time to wash the dinghy so we can raise her in time for our anticipated splash - we hope on Monday 18th. More later when we are hopefully floating on the sea.
Celebrating our new ports with a bit of holiday swag

Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas a wonderful 2018!