May, 2008

Cartagena, Colombia

We are currently in the Club Nautico Marina getting projects done.   Today we are switching our anchor chain from the two anchor lockers.   The chain we have used the past several years is getting rusty, so we are switching over to the un-used chain.    We are going to also re-mark our chain.   We painted it last time in 25' increments, but the paint is gone, so we are going to try cable ties and paint every 50' this time.

While working on our motor mounts, Sonny noticed our exhaust pipe from our engine rusting, so we are going to have Bianey make us a new one.   That was a good catch.   Being out to sea, with a boat load of water and without a motor would not have been fun.   Another thing for our list.

Bianey said we were the first gringo's who have come with him to church.

After church, he invited us to his nice home for lunch.   His wife, Jessica, made a delicious meal for us.  It was tender carne, rice, patacones, and potato salad.

Bianey and his family are very special friends to us.    After lunch at their home, they came out to the boat with us.  A very good day with a very special family.

Yoselee and Elizabeth at the helm of Valentina

We have a neat story to share.   We received the following email recently:

We mounted one of our solar panels today and installed the mixing elbow for our engine that Bianey made.   The motor sounds very good.   We are anxious to get out and test the motor mounts.

Happy Birthday today to Chase, our six year old Grandson. We wish you a fun day and a big year.

We called today to check on our boom vang, and they said it was ready.   So, after numerous previous trips on the bus over to look at it, it is finally completed.   We are so excited!  The owner of the machine shop, Vicente, speaks very good English, and coordinated with us and the hydraulic man to get the correct amount of oil in the hydraulic mechanism.   It cost us $250,000 pesos, or around $125.  Much better than $1,200 - $1,500 in the US.  We are thankful.

We have been advised by several people to move our SSB tuner.  It is currently mounted on the outside back wall of our quarter berth....right next to our autopilot drive box on the inside wall.   We have had to repair/replace our drive box twice since we have been out, and the problem appears to be due to the fact that it is so near our SSB tuner.   Also, when we are underway, to check in on any SSB net or talk on the SSB, we have to turn the autopilot and GPS off, or the boat goes in circles.

So, today we cut a large opening in the quarter berth wall to move the tuner further away from the autopilot.

It rained today for the second time since we have been in Cartagena.   The rainy season is arriving late this year.

Sonny and I joined Mike and Gloria (S/V Respite) to attend the Catholic mass in one of the beautiful cathedrals in Old Town.   We didn't understand much of the mass in Spanish, but the church sure was beautiful.

A group of us, Dan and Trish (S/V Eventura), David (S/V Bruadair), and Mike and Gloria (S/V Respite) went to the Naval Museum in Old Town.   It was interesting to hear the history of Cartagena and the battles that were fought.  Our guide, Iris de Jesus, spoke English, so it sure helped.

We then went to Crapes and Waffles and had a delicious meal with chocolate ice cream with chocolate syrup on top of a waffle.   It just does not get any better than that!

We discovered today that our boom vang started leaking hydraulic fluid again.    ;-(       Not good news.  But, Sonny called the man who worked on it....and he said to bring it back to them.  So, we will.

We went on a dinghy adventure to show S/V Icarian and S/V Respite how to get to the ship yards in our dinghies.   They both need to haul out in the near future.

I worked on the enclosure this afternoon.   Almost done, making headway.   Hope to finish tomorrow.  Will post photos.

 

Our Friend, Beseata
Beseata is our favorite street vendor.		She walks the streets daily wearing her very large sombrero pushing her cart of fruits and vegetables and "loudly" chants, "Papayas, mangoes, aguacate, pina, banano, plantano" and whatever else she has on her cart that day.
We buy mangos, papayas, and pineapples from her regularly.     Papayas are 2 for 5,000 ($2.50), pineapples are 2,500 ($1.25).  She is more expensive than others, but, we like her.		Recently, we did not see her for 3 days on the streets and got very concerned.  She said she had been very ill. But, she is back on the streets and all is well. ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

We carried our boom vang back to the guys this morning to see if they can repair it again.  Hopefully.

Esteban also finished on our dodger and two side panels today. 

Things are getting done.

Rainy Season has arrived!   It is good though, just a nice, slow rain after the lightning. 

Life is good.

	Old Look
	New Look with Shade Down

Solar Panels:  We previously had 2 Shell 75 watt solar panels on top of our arch and now we have added 2 Kyrocera 130 watt panels on top of our hard bimini.  On a sunny day, we will average 120 amps from our solar panels.  We also purchased the Outback MX60 controller to monitor the amps to the batteries.

We have room on our bimini to add 2-3 more solar panels in the future.   We will need a few more batteries if we do that.   We love our solar panels.  Lots of  power that is maintenance free.

We also had Bianey make us some fender holders we have just added to the arch.

A bunch of us went out for Mexican food at a local restaurant.  The food does not compare to our Tex/Mex in Texas, but is was great Mexican food for Colombia.

It was Dave and Sherry (S/V Soggy Paws), Sandy (S/V Namaste), Brian and Marilyn (S/V Icarian), Mike and Gloria (S/V Respite).

We just rested on the boat all day.   Did not even get our dinghy down.   Sonny did beat me (again) in farkle though.

Kay made another gas can cover today.   Two more to go.

We sat in the cockpit this evening and just enjoyed the activities around us.  The Colombian naval base, near us in the harbor, had four ships come in after dark.  The submarine came in yesterday.  They are so interesting to watch.  This huge sailboat, S/V Gloria, belongs to the military also.