Projects have been in full force this week. Or at least as full force as we can make them while we wait for suppliers who function on Caribbean Maybe Time. Monday was yet another holiday in Cartagena so no stores were open. Tuesday, Bill managed to borrow a jigsaw from another boater so he made a huge leap forward in the building of the benches. Our benches that we had made in the Dominican Republic were rusting through and I refused to paint the deck until all rusting items were replaced with nonrusting items. Earlier in the year, we obtained a quote from a local to rebuild the benches using aluminum. When the quote came in at just under $2000.00, we almost choked! Bill then put on his thinking cap and figured out we could reuse the galvanized grate from the current benches (does not rust) and build new frames for the bench out of teak which would outlast both of us. He located a lumber store and we purchased all the teak for just under $150.00! Next came the challenge of woodworking power tools. Bill called my dad, the wood worker, to bounce ideas of what would be the easiest way to build a bench with limited tools. Next step was to purchase a jigsaw from the Home Center. On the first cut of the teak, Bill realized the jigsaw we had purchased was not going to be powerful enough to get the job done. So, he resorted to using the Sawzall which is a tool with little to no finesse. The Sawzall is a killing machine. If you need something demolished, you choose the Sawzall. If you want to build a bench, you do not choose the Sawzall. Once again, boat life choices are based on necessity and what is available at the time. As I sat on the piece of wood to hold it as still as possible, ear plugs in place, Bill began whacking away with the Sawzall. I felt like I was in the fat burning shaking machine from the 1950s! I quit before the Sawzall did. The next day, we spotted the wood worker who had done our galley in the fall. We flagged him down and asked if he could cut the wood pieces for us. He generously took the pieces over night and brought back beautifully cut wood the next day…at no charge! Much easier than the Sawzall. Which leads us back to Tuesday when Bill borrowed a heavy duty jigsaw to finish the job. From that point on, the job went smoothly and one bench is completed! We forecast that the next bench will go much more smoothly and should be done in only a few days.
Our most exciting (to us!) project of the week is pulling down the rusted bimini/solar panel structure that covers the entire back deck. As I was removing screws, the posts were literally falling apart onto my head and black water poured onto the deck. I am not sure how it is still standing but we are replacing just in time! We are replacing the rotted posts with fiberglass posts so no more rust! Bill had them cut to size so it was time to assemble. He decided to tie the old bimini to the boom (holds the bottom of the sail) so we could just cut out the existing structure, install the new structure and secure the solar panels. Always sounds good on paper. As spaghetti arms Sally tried to hold the new crossbeam in place, Bill lifted the old structure and attempted to slide the crossbeam on to the top of the vertical post. Not an easy task when the old structure weighs 100 pounds and Bill could only use one arm to lift. And let’s face it, I was not exactly stellar help! After several tries, some Sally whining and a couple of blows with a hammer, section one was in place. When we started our project again the next day, things did not go well. For every piece we got installed, two pieces would come crashing down. In the end, Bill ended up using the trusty Sawzall to demo the old bimini. So, tomorrow, will be reconstruction with zero shade on the back deck…not going to be a fun day tomorrow! During our down time, we have been gathering a couple of quotes for painting the deck. In order to paint the deck, we will need to relocate to a working marina and move off the boat while the work is being done. I began looking for apartments in the area with air conditioning and a swimming pool which is the only way I am going to survive another summer in Cartegena! Month long rentals in Cartegena are difficult to find as most places are nightly rentals for the tourists. When our foreman who has been overseeing all our boat projects came to discuss the deck painting, the conversation was very interesting. First, he speaks no English and my Spanglish does not cover construction words. He is a madman on Google Translate. He pushes the microphone button and talks on and on into the phone for at least two minutes. Then, one or two sentences show up for me to read or listen to and they rarely make much sense. It took us ten minutes to convince him that we did not need the bottom of the boat painted. Just the deck. Then, he moved onto doing the teak and the deck. We don’t need teak, just the deck. Then, he moved onto doing the teak for “free”, doing the deck and painting the top of the boat from the waterline to the deck. I would like to say this type of negotiation was unusual for him but this is how all of our negotiations have gone. By the time we finished, we had settled on teak for “free”, strip old paint off deck, repair any damaged areas, prime, paint and marina slip cost included. He also said he was going to find us a place to live with a swimming pool. Can’t wait to see this quote. Whatever he comes up with, all I have to do is stare at him blankly and he immediately cuts it by 25% and then we usually settle at the 50% cut point. Another guy who we did not know also came to give us a quote. He was very quiet and reserved, spoke no English, nodded a lot and left. Since the boat currently looks like a bomb went off, I’ll be surprised if we hear from him again. Wish us luck this week with getting our shade restored! Happy Mother’s Day to all! ***No blog next two weeks....I'll be on a cruise with my daughter! Happy Mother's week to me!
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When we returned from our last trip, we found the marina full of new cruisers. Some cruisers sail alone. Some cruisers join large groups. Most cruisers form a group of like-minded sailors and you join, leave, rejoin the group, leave, etc until the group is so far spread across the world that Facebook updates are about all you get. We met our main group in Luperon, Dominican Republic, when we were there for the first 5 months. Some were added along the way but the core group stayed about the same. We never planned travel as a group but we always seemed to end up in the same places. Our group has gone with the wind over the last year and we have been on our own again. One couple made it to New Zealand but are selling their boat to go be better grandparents. One couple flew back to Australia for a year and are now in Mexico. One couple had a situation where the wife did not want to be on the boat anymore so she is in Mexico and her husband sails during the season and lives with her during hurricane season. Another couple sold their boat and are building a house in Idaho (also near the grandkids). As a result, our Colombia stay has been pretty uneventful until recently. When we returned from Argentina, we found Tuesday Burger special night at the restaurant invaded by a group made up of six or seven boats. They ranged from people from the US, Canada, South Africa, Egypt and the Philippines. They had all traveled as a group from Mexico to Colombia. Bill and I had ordered our burgers before the crowd arrived. They all joined us at our table and it was quite a scuffle as tables were added and chairs were shifted. When the waiter came out, he looked as if he was going to cry. In his broken English, he explained, “We have nine burgers. We had eleven but now nine.” Bill and I kept quiet with our knowledge that we were the ones who had stolen two of the eleven burgers as the others figured out how they were going to split 9 burgers among 14 people. After some shuffling, they figured it out and all was well.
Besides just the enjoyment of meeting new people with different stories, new boaters mean unexpected perks. Our neighbors had just purchased a new boat in Panama and he was ordering an updated Starlink system for his boat. He had a used Starlink which he did not want anymore so we quickly told him we would love to buy his old Starlink. After a few negotiations, we loaded the Starlink onto Galt, plugged it in and it is amazing! Hats off to Elon Musk! We have not had internet this solid since we left the States. The good news is that whenever we get to the next country, I just go online and change our country and our service continues. It will work on the water as well so that is an extra safety feature for us. So nice not to worry about communications as much anymore! Graceful Sally fell off the boat again a couple of weeks ago and yes….I had my just-purchased-in-Chile phone with me. A dockhand walked by and waved at me and said, “Hello!” as if I was just in for a swim fully clothed. I told him I needed help which took a bit of Spanglish to relay. The marina has no ladders so it makes it difficult to get out of the water unless you are a 20 year old male who can just hop up on the back of a boat without a thought. He pointed to the neighbor’s boat because their sugar scoop (the back step on a catamaran) was lower than Galt’s swim platform and he said something in Spanish that I interpreted to be “pull your old ass out of the water onto the neighbor’s boat”. When I gestured that I was a wuss and had no upper body strength, he then jumped onto the neighbor’s boat and hauled me onto the deck. Just then, the neighbors emerged to see what was going on and my humiliation was complete. They noticed I was bleeding on my leg so they brought me an icepack (rich boat with an ice maker….good choice for me!). Meanwhile, the wife grabbed my week old phone and shoved it into a bag of rice hoping to save it. When Bill wandered back from the store, he helped me get back over to Galt and we spent the next few days counting bruises and wondering, “now how did a bruise get in my armpit?” We wish we had the fall on film because there are so many unanswered questions! The rice did not work so I had to go buy another new phone. No more phone off the boat without a water proof bag! As May rolled around, many of the boat gang sailed off to the Eastern Caribbean but they left behind a few stragglers to keep us company for a while. The restaurant has figured out their supply chain so everyone gets a burger on burger night. No need for a mutiny. We are spending our days on boat projects and I’ll keep you updated over the next few weeks with some pictures. No pictures this week because the chaos on the boat is hard enough for us to stand without holding the image forever in a picture! May the 4th be with you and Happy Cinco de Mayo! |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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