A crappy person, Lionfish culling, and what I don't do while at sea anymore:)

What kind of schmuck gets this gig, not professional at all.

Invasive species gets a lickin', Lionfish.

Here is what I an now not doing while at sea; thanks to Micheal Penner for this, Protecteur supplying Algonquin


     When we decided to do this sailing full time I was in my 40's in debt and only had a small, 25 foot boat, our first boat, with no name. We called it a training boat.

     While sailing the Coronado, I jokingly said to my wife we should get a bigger boat and do this permanently. She said that was a perfect plan. Plan? What plan?

     She became the driving force behind the whole thing. Took a decade to become debt free, that was hard, very hard. She found us an affordable blue water cruising boat and we were able to cut the docklines on my 55th birthday!
 She was 46. (Youthful but still my boss!).

     On our living room wall we put up a huge whiteboard some thing like the size of a sheet of plywood.

     There was no rules for what went on the board; destinations, projects, courses and things we wanted. You get the idea, it was a brainstorming conference which worked out quite well. Things started out quite organized but as with all things sailing, it literally started going askew. Thing wrote down in a rush went on at an angle etc. We never erased a thing when it was written even though we used dry erase markers.

     We didn't erase anything because we felt if it was important enough to put it on the board in the first place, it should remain even if we discarded the idea later, who knows, it might become favourable again!

     We only put four destinations on it;
-Turkey
-Rio Dulce, Guatemala for hurricane season
-Machu Picchu, in Peru, Machu-Picchu.
-Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, Angkor Wat

    We are in Rio now these past 8 months. Work is slow as I get two small pensions we parse out the money sparingly. Wouldn't have it any other way. At 57 I am retired and doing what we planned!!! 

    

Insecurity at its most highest, a 'WTF?' article, and a capsized ferry

Wow, as a sailor from a different Navy, I can only imagine the resentment and lowered moral brewing here, how to hide a warship from a Leader who doesn't like its name department. 

Why, just why, Eyeball tattoos.

A tragedy in Congo, Capsized ferry.

Having trouble getting decent weather to allow me to remove more portlights so we can seal the better. Nothing goes as planned on a sail boat. 

An expensive loss, and an unusual video and a new patch

I moan and cry when I lose a tool over the side. I can't imagine this, superyacht falls off a ship. Also, one has only the need to see this once in a lifetime for a sense of fulfilment, wolverine carrying a goats head. This should be a 'must have' on serious cruising boats; easy patch!

Old laptop, some work

Old picture of 'No Gridlock" when we just bought her. Nothing to do with this post at all.

The heat has abated somewhat with severe nightly rainstorms here in Guatemala...no new leaks but my oh my the old ones are just torrents.

So we started rebedding our port-lights, (windows), starting with the two small ones because I only had a small tube of sealant handy. The starboard one came off easy with nary a hint of sealant to be seen. Smugness set in. Do another the following day.

The following day; removed bolts, glass won't budge. 3M 5200, or God Glue, was used as a sealant. An hour job stretched into over 3 hours. Got the glass off but it took major elbow grease to remove what was left of the old sealant.

Four large port-lights remain but have to wait for pensions to be deposited to buy larger tubes of sealant.

Dinghy: Motor transom clamps were seized on so I had to saw them off. Drilled out the bolt remains then found out I had no metric taps to clean the threads. (10mm). Dinghy has new leaks plus I grounded it over a fire anthill. Ask me how I found that out. Go ahead, ask me:(

Don't ever buy a RIB, (rigid Inflatable Boat), sure, they are not tippy but they are not hardy in the least. Got plans to build a hard, nesting dinghy.

Tried splicing rope but it has been so long I had a complete mind wipe. Re-reading Brian Toss' rigging book again.

Laptops are dropping like flies. Acer, Abus not reliable. Now on the old, venerable Panasonic Toughbook with Linux and Ubuntu loaded. Slow, but weather proof.

Things to do in the next year while we stay in Rio Dulce.

Things to do

Empty fuel tank via polisher into jerry cans and clean out said tank. There be growlies growing in there. I have opened the tank, felt the dirt in the fuel the the polisher fuel pump stopped working. It is working now, I just have to get off my ass.

Re-attach jib roller furling. Need new sheave (pulley) on top of the mast plus a new halyard (rope).

Install dinghy davits. Shudder. That won't be an easy job. Crawling in the lazzarets to install backing plates and nuts will be a nightmare.

Fix BOTH deck hatches. I cracked both with my damned weight smashing down on them in rough seas. Curse my masculine physique.

Re-bed (re-seal) all port lights (windows). Drip, drip..drip....drip, dripdripdrip.

Learn to use the fucking sewing machine and make covers for our sun damaged jerry cans. And maybe a new bimini.

Find and patch leaks in the dinghy....again. Folks, buy a hard dinghy, trust me.

Remove all fluids from engine, and flush the cooling system with muratic acid and try and get the operating temperature down from 190 to a respectable 160 degrees F.

Remove dinette table, sand down and re-varnish.

That is not all but will do for now.

Renewing our Guatemalan Visa

It was a hairy, scary journey from Frontera, Rio Dulce to Livingston in order to renew our tourist visas. First off we get in overcrowded chicken buses then grab a launcha.

On the way there, a Collectiva, a chicken bus, identical to the one we were on was totaled, with a couple of dead bodies hanging out of the wreckage. We decided to take a launch back after our overnight stay in a hostel.

The actual re-checking in was simple.

It was fun except for the deaths. That scared the shit out of me.

Over heating Perkins

190 F, or 95 C, that's how hot the mighty Perkins have been running.

Obviously something is blocking the circulation somewhere, I am suspecting growth in my raw water thru-hull.

Or it could be a heat exchanger blocked.

Or the oil cooler has build up.

Or the closed loop, (anti-freeze/coolant), has scaled up.

Or the exhaust system has a carbon build up and is restricting flow.

Well, the raw water pump is new, I removed the heat exchange and descaled it, not that it needed it and the discharge out the exhaust seems good.

Soooo, I will try the easiest, (seems to me), way first. I will examine the exhaust system.

Then I must drain the closed loop and oil sump.

Remove the oil cooler and inspect and clean then install the oil cooler.

With the oil cooler installed, I must rig up a way to flush the closed loop of any build up. I have ideas.

Good thing we are here in Guatemala for a year or two as this is going to take some time. This does not even come close to the amount of upper deck work that remains to be done in order to continue our journey to wherever.