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3/1	Whew....these old dogs are continuing to learn new tricks.  Today, we spent all day working on the computer, ripping CDs, editing, deleting songs and creating playlists for our new IPod.  Damon on S/V Bruadair helped us get started on it. On a normal day, we live in the cockpit, but today we only ate lunch in the cockpit. We will be excited though, when we get to select our music on our stereo using our Ipod. And, no CDs. Almost there!  Our CDs are getting in bad shape after playing them so much, so often.  It will be nice.   The fish are going crazy around our boat.  I grabbed a fishing rod, jumped in the dinghy and trolled around a little bit while Sonny was starting our watermaker.  No luck though on the fishing, but I had to try. About 5 p.m. some dark clouds began rolling in.   Sonny was talking to his cousin Ronnie on Skype when I saw some raindrops.   It was so exciting, it is the dry season and we have not had rain since we left to go to Texas in December.   The lines and deck on Valentina needed a bath and it sure was nice.  Free water!  We take nothing for granted and are so thankful.
3/2	Kenny on S/V Makai came over this morning to practice some songs with Sonny on the harmonicas.  They are going to play tonight at happy hour on the Manatee.  They have totally different styles and compliment each other nicely.  It was an evening of dueling harmonicas.
3/3	Sonny completed the installation of our new stereo today and we are proud to say, it works perfectly.  So, with our IPod, we can listen to our favorite songs.  So high tech now, but what a learning curve we are going through.  We need a 9 year old to teach us how to use everything.
3/4	Just in case you think we are living in paradise....let me show you pictures of Baru, the nearest village to where we are anchored. To us, it is paradise.  Baru has some of the best, genuine people we have met.  The children are happy, content, and very loveable.    It is about four miles away in a dinghy, so we can go and stock up on supplies.  I always take my camera because it is such a quaint village. I did not get a picture of.....two men passed us riding on a motorcycle. The one on the back was carrying a large pig in his lap.   We saw the head flopping on one side of the motorcycle and the feet dangling on the other.  (I was not fast enough with the camera).
3/5	Our friends came down this weekend to their house.  It is always so good to see them.   Two of their nephews, a cousin and their families came down to relax, along with Martha's father, Efrain, our 86 year old dear friend. We all swam in the water, practiced our Spanish, and their English, and in the evening we were all in for a real treat.  Antonio made his famous rice dish in the paella pan.  It was so tasty.  Some of the very best eating we have had.  We both gained weight tonight....and our weigh in is...tomorrow morning for the week. And, a trip out to Valentina.......
3/6	OK....time for our weekly weigh in.  Oops....we both did gain.  Back to swimming and exercising on the Wii. We went over tonight, and sure enjoyed our visit with them.  Efrain talks so fondly of Valentina and his trip last year with us to Panama.  Such good memories for all of us.
3/7	This morning, on the water taxi, Tutti, our favorite wood-worker in Cartagena came down to look at the spot in Valentina's sole that is rotten.   It was a small spot when we bought her 10 years ago, and it continues to get worse, so we want to get it fixed. Tutti is a true craftsman, and works mainly with a chisel, hand saw, and hammer.   He gave us suggestions on our repair and will return to Cartagena to purchase supplies, then return for the project.
3/8	Everyday on anchor, the boat makes a complete turn to starboard.  Over time, days, months, etc. your chain is just a twisted mess and very noisy at night when you are trying to sleep. One of the worst jobs on the boat.....untwisting the chain.  Today was that day.  We went over to the dock and took our anchor off.  Then, we just started taking the 250 feet of chain out and began untwisting it by hand, over and over and over again working the twists out to the end.
3/9	After an early night, we woke early for our reservation on the water taxi to Cartagena.   We are taking in one of our hand-held VHF radio for repair and to get some groceries.  We got back to the launcha at 9:15 a.m. loaded down with groceries.  We waited on the launcha for two hours, but were entertained with the vendors selling anything you wanted, or did not want. Shopping from the dock     You can buy anything, if you wait long enough         I bought a LOT of fruits and vegetables.  It took me all afternoon to wash, cut and store them.  Our refrigerator is full. It was an evening on Manatee of music.  Kenny on S/V Makai and Sonny played the harmonicas a while, then Steve on S/V Music played his guitar and sang, and then, Manuella on S/V Paradise played the harmonica. And....I played the spoons!  Manuella showed us how the play.  It is pretty cool.
3/10	This morning, I finished cleaning and cutting the celery and made a pot of soup.   We had Kenny on S/V Makai over for a fish dinner. Then, Tom and Patti of S/V Liberty, came over.  They are leaving in the morning for San Blas, then a trip to the States.   We will meet up with them again in Panama next year. Sonny beat me in Baja Rummy tonight in the cockpit.  He has been doing that lately.  Time for my winning streak to begin.
3/11	We have made the decision to strip the old "Colombian" varnish off the cap rail and combing and have had some Bristol varnish shipped to us from the US.  So, this is the third time we have stripped the cap rail.  It is a huge job and absolutely no fun, but the rewards of having beautiful varnished teak are worth it.  That's our story and we are reminding our aching bodies of that daily.   Removing the stancions             Where the joints are, the varnish seal always breaks and the varnish starts looking bad.  So, we are cutting a 'V' shape in each joint, (there are 14 total on the cap rail) and filling the 'V' with West System.   Not a fun job, but hopefully, should make a difference. We went up to Robert and Carmen's house for dinner, along with Syd and Manuella on S/V Paradise, Steve and Ava on S/V Music and Kenny on S/V Makai.  Manuella prepared a salad out of green papaya, looking similar to coleslaw and another salad out of the flower of a banana tree bloom.  The consistency of this one was different, but very good.
3/12	We began filling in the 'V's with West System when we saw a water taxi coming to Valentina.   Tootie, our woodworker has arrived from Cartagena! After he came aboard, with his supplies and tools, we all ate lunch and he began working of our sole. We continued making 'V's in the combing and the eyebrow and filled them with West System.  All seams are now filled. Tootie continued tearing out the old boards that were rotten and cut the replacement boards to replace.  Tootie is just amazing.  He uses only hand tools, no electric saws, etc. He had some pieces of teak he needed to cut into 3/8" pieces, about 3' long.  He got in the cockpit with his handsaw and went to work.  A true artist.
3/13	This morning, we started early.  I started sanding the joints with the West System on the deck while Tootie began working below. Sonny also asked him to make a frame for our new SSB wireless radio face so we can use it in the salon, rather than the quarter berth.  He did, it took him about 1  1/2 hours while he was waiting on the epoxy to dry on the sole.   Finished, at last!  He has completed the job for us and we are very pleased with him and the quality of his work.  His charge for repairing our sole was 300 ml (~$150 US).  Of course, we paid his water taxi fair, fed him and provided a place for him to sleep on the Manatee.
3/14	Sonny and I completely stripped the caprail today.   Now, we need to go around the bottom on both sides of the caprail to sand and clean out the old caulking and sand the four wooden scrolls.
3/15	Sonny drilled the oversized holes for the screws in our stancions and we filled them with West System.  When we are ready to place our stancions back on, we will drill the screws into the West System for protection from water into the wood. I also worked on the caprail.   It is a slow process.
3/19	A day off! Sonny had talked to the other boats in the anchorage and arranged a walking tour from Cholon to Baru to eat lunch.  It is four miles walking, so it is a long day in the heat. We stopped along the way and introduced them to our Colombian friends we have met over the years on the path to Baru.   We showed them the small stores, the ATM, and of course, the ice cream.  You can get a container of ice cream, like you used to get in school with a wooden spoon.  But, it is ice cream and such a treat for us. A day in the small village of Baru When we got back to the boats, we were all worn out and ready for a good night's sleep.
3/20	No fun news to report, we have consistently been working on our caprail, stripping, cleaning, sanding scraping and taping.  We both have fever blisters from too much sun and our bodies have ached every day.  Our hands are sore and aching.   We just crash when we come inside to rest. We work in the mornings until around 2 or 3 when the wind picks up.   Picture this, you are in the dinghy, by yourself, holding on to Valentina with one hand and trying to sand with the other hand, while the waves are bouncing you up and down.  Better than paying for a ride at Six Flags.
3/21	Ten days later, our caprail is ready to put 'something' on it.    ♪♪♪
3/22	I taped the caprail and cleaned it with thinner and we will be able to put the epoxy on today. We have decided to apply 3 coats of the West System with the 207 clear hardener today for a base to seal the wood and protect it from water. Now, we can sand it and begin with some varnish.
3/23	Time to begin sanding. Sonny sanded the top with the sander while I sanded the sides and bottom by hand.  It took us from 10:30 to 4:30.  A long day and my body aches.
3/24	After conferring this morning, it was decided that we needed to do a much, much more aggressive sand, to level out the wood.  Oh no....it was a bummer of a day!   I thought I was through sanding, and another hard day. While we were discussing the method, we began getting encircled by a fishnet from some local fishermen.  They went completely around Valentina, trying to catch our fish that have a safe haven underneath us. Their party was cancelled when a boat came up, and it was the local Park Ranger.  The Bay of Cholon is a park and fishing with nets is not allowed.  So, the fishermen left very quickly after trying to explain to the Park Ranger that they wer just cleaning Valentina.  The Park Ranger did not buy their story.  Perhaps the nets gave them away.   So, we started in again, Sonny used the planer and sander and I started on the outside and bottom.  It took us until 5:30 to finish.  Whew....another long, long day in the sun. Our fever blisters are getting better though, but we are ready to be through with this part.   Hopefully, the worst is over.   Our caprail now is smooth and ready for some epoxy.
3/25	Time for some epoxy finally!   We retaped some areas, cleaned some areas, then began the wipedown to apply the West System. We put three coats on, in four hours.  But, it looks very nice.  And, a short workday.
3/26	Our friends are down and invited us to eat breakfast with them.  So, no oatmeal today!   We had a Colombian breakfast.  A green banana, boiled, then mashed.  Spread butter on top with cheese and onions.  Top with two soft fried eggs.  It was delicious. Another sanding day.....got it halfway done. Dr. Gilberto and Marta invited us back for San Cocho.  It is another Colombian dish.  It is fish soup with oyami, yucca, and plantain.  Also, we had avocado, rice, and fried red snapper.  Another delicious Colombian meal.
3/27	We took Gilberto and Martha with us to Baru in our dinghy to look at some property for sale.  It was a small lot on the water in a very dirty area for $15,000.  No thanks! We also got some marisco arapas for breakfast. After we returned back to Cholon, we sanded the other half of our caprail.  Varnish tomorrow!
3/28	After sanding in our sleep all night, we woke up early to begin our varnish project.  We put three coats of the Bristol varnish on before the wind started blowing. Just as we put our first coat on and mixing the ingredients for the second, we saw a boat coming towards us.  It was two local fishermen with the big net.  They promptly started emptying the net from their boat encircling Valentina.  Closer and closer they got.   Sonny called out to them, "No agua on bolero, pintura aoi".  They kept saying, "Tranquillo" as they dropped their net closer and closer.  Finally, we were both trying to explain to them that we did not want them close to the boatand we do not want saltwater on our wet varnish. We have a lot of balbora (catfish) and mullet surrounding our boat.  And, the mullet constantly jump and splash on the boat already,   The fishermen started beating the water with a long stick to scare the fish into their net.  After their net got hung on our keel, one of them had to jump in the water to clear it. Finally, they got their net and pulled in some fish and left.
3/29	Three more coats on today!
3/30	Four coats today....ready for sanding.
3/31	Sanded and sanded today.  We had a local friend help us today.  Our hands and backs are sore.  One more day of preparation and our final coat.  We are trying to beat the rainy season.  It is nearing quickly.  We head the thunder in the afternoons, but so far, no rain. After we came below to eat lunch, I flused our electric head.  Hmmmm....it made a different noise.  That only means one thing.  That project immediately goes to the top of the list.   So, Sonny and I started working on that.  The impeller was broken, so we replaced the impeller.  We put the motor back on, but still no water.   We thought it must have been a thru hull that has barnacles in it.  So, Sonny jumped in the water, cleaned the thru hulls.   Still no water.  Now, we started tracking back from the thru hull, the hoses, ball valve, etc.    It was the valve that had gone bad.  Luckily, in our stash of parts in our quarterberth, we had another one.  So, no problem.  Now, we are back in business. When we will do to get out of sanding.....Now.....b

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