Maintenance/Cruising Log - September 2015

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan, and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

I listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

Today was not an especially productive day as far as DREAM AWAY projects go, but I did get a lot accomplished towards getting the August Maintenance/ Cruising log finished, in spite of Google and their documents! My method of doing the monthly updates for the last 2 years has been using Google Docs. I would write all of the verbiage, upload the photos, and it was a very good resource to use. I would then download the Google Doc as an "html" file, make a few changes to adhere to the style of my web page, and I was good to go. I spent more time working on the log, than formatting and coding.

About a year ago Google changed their way of doing the Google Docs. There was so much more code in the downloaded "html" file it was getting cumbersome. I had decided I was going back to my old method of using the vim text editor to create the Maintenance/Cruising Logs. The real kicker this month was another problem I found with Google Docs.

As you probably noticed, the August Maintenance/ Cruising log was quite a big file. It had over 375 pages and over 310 photos in the log. When I attempted to download the log as an "html" file, it would not download! It just went off to never never land, and did not download the file. In frustration, I separated the Google Doc into two files, and they both downloaded!

When I went to the Google Docs faqs and asked for help, I actually got some help. They did not know why the file would not download, but they did say they were happy they could help after I told them about separating the file into two files, and was able to do the download! I asked about file sizes and download sizes. They did not know what the download files sizes were, but the file size of a Google Doc is 1 Gbyte.

My best guess is that you cannot download a Google Doc to an "html" file that is over 100 MByte. I say that because my two downloaded file together were over 100 MByte. So if you create a Google Doc of 1 Gbyte, and you would like to download it, all you have to do is break it up into files under 100 MByte, download it, and then put it all back together!

Enough whining, I did get some work done on DREAM AWAY. I managed to get the fourth coat of varnish on the two pieces of teak wood in the shop, and all of the teak wood trim around the two hatches in the aft cabin.

Sometime around 1630, I went off and took a shower, returned to DREAM AWAY, and fed dinner to Jillie and Jordie, made myself an adult beverage, and prepared my own dinner. After my dinner and cleanup, I spent another couple of hours on the August Maintenance/ Cruising log.

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan, and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

We listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

Today I needed to remove the stainless steel life raft rack, SCUBA compressor, and the SCUBA compressor rack from the deck on top of the aft cabin. It was necessary to remove all of these items, so I could get the cabin top and sides all sanded. Once all of the sanding was done, then I will apply white Gelcoat to the exterior cabin top, and the two hatch holes in the aft cabin.

Both the life raft rack, and the SCUBA compressor rack are through bolted in the aft cabin. Where the bolts come through the overhead, I have covered the holes with varnished teak wood pads. I have to remove all of the teak wood pads to gain access to the nuts on the bolts holding the racks to the cabin top.

While working on the wood pads, I noticed a problem with my Leatherman Super Tool 300, which I just refer to as my Leatherman. The Leatherman has a neat feature that when you expose a tool, it locks into place so it will not fold back onto you fingers while you are working. The lock on one side was not working, so I needed to repair it before I cut a finger off! I could see the problem, but I had to remove a pin, remove all of the tools on that side, and bend the locking spring back into place.

I got the tools removed, and the spring bent. Now the fun was getting all of the tools in place, and the pin back through all of the tools, so I could get the screw holding the pin in place. I eventually got it done, and then went back to work on the original project? ....... What Project! Oh Yes, removing racks!

I removed all of the teak wood pads, and then removed all of the bolts holding the racks to the deck. Once the bolts were removed, I applied pieces of duct tape to the underside of the bolt holes, in the aft cabin. This will keep dust and dirt from falling into the aft cabin while I am working on exterior of the aft cabin.

I then cleaned up and vacuumed the aft cabin, and put all of the tools I was using away. Before making any more of a mess on the interior or the exterior of the aft cabin, I applied the fifth coat of varnish on the two pieces of teak wood in the shop, and all of the teak wood trim around the two hatches in the aft cabin.

There was a slight change in the amount of pieces to be varnished! I have noticed with semi-gloss varnish, different manufacturers have different ideas of what semi-gloss is. I noticed the semi-gloss varnish I am using now, did not match the semi-gloss of the eight teak wood pads I had just removed from the aft cabin overhead. I had two more coats of varnish to apply, todays fifth coat and tomorrow's sixth. I decided I would apply two coats of varnish to the eight teak wood pads I had just removed, so all of the teak wood in the aft cabin would be the same.

Now the inside work was done, I had to get to work on the outside. First item was to put the plastic covers over the aft cabin hatch holes. I did not want any debris to get on the wet varnish.

With the two hatch holes covered, I pulled the bolts out of the Life raft rack, and then removed the rack itself. I put the rack on the dock so I can move it out to the shop.

Next fun project is to remove the SCUBA compressor cover, then the SCUBA compressor itself, and finally the SCUBA compressor rack. I had already decided to put the SCUBA compressor on the aft deck in place of the two orange storage barrels I keep back there. I lifted off the SCUBA compressor cover and set it aside.

With the SCUBA compressor cover removed, I unlocked the SCUBA compressor from the rack. As a security issue, when I first installed the SCUBA compressor, I welded a piece of stainless steel chain to the rack so the SCUBA compressor could be locked to the rack.

I moved the barrels up to the forward deck. I then lifted the SCUBA Compressor off of the rack and set it on the aft deck. I then put the cover back over the SCUBA Compressor.

With The SCUBA Compressor removed, I was able to remove the rack. I set it out on the dock so I could take back to the shop.

The last item was to put pieces of duct tape to cover the exposed holes in the deck to keep water and rain out of the holes when I am not working on the cabin top.

I got my shower stuff, picked up the two racks and took them back to the shop. I then went and took a much deserved shower. I went back to DREAM AWAY and had a nice adult beverage. I then fed the kitties and then myself

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan, and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

I listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

Before and after breakfast, I spent a fair amount of time getting the update on Kathy from Kitty out to family and friends. The schedule Kitty is trying to keep so she can care for Kathy, and help around the house is keeping her pretty tired. I am actually starting to get worried about Kitty's health being affected.

When I finally got the emails out and my emails all caught up, I started on a really fun project. About a week ago, I purchased two bags of cream to make some ice cream. When I made the fresh strawberry ice cream, I only used one bag, and saved the second bag of cream. Today I finally remembered I had the second bag, and decided to make another batch of ice cream.

I had some peanut butter, so I made a batch of peanut butter ice cream! When I got it all mixed up and poured into a container, I took the container up to the freezer in the ranchito. The ice cream will freeze faster there, than in my freezer on the boat. It could take up to 24 hours for the ice cream to freeze on the boat.

With the ice cream project complete, I moved on to the install the covers over the holes I made in the aft cabin overhead for the bolts of the new stainless steel grab rails. I had brought two of the four covers I had fabricated into the garage on DREAM AWAY.

With the ice cream project complete, I moved on to the install the teak wood covers over the holes I made in the aft cabin overhead for the bolts of the new stainless steel grab rails. I had brought two of the four covers I had fabricated into the garage on DREAM AWAY.

I drilled two holes in each of the teak wood covers large enough for a #8 screw to go through. I then placed the teak wood cover over the hole in the overhead, then drilled a hole in the fiberglass pan. That hole was smaller than the hole in the teak wood cover so the screws would hold the cover on the overhead.

With that project out of the way, it was time to go to the shop, and apply the sixth coat of varnish to all of the teak wood pieces and covers there. While I applied the varnish, I had Bertilda watching me do my work. Bertilda is one of the guardians daughters.

When I finished the varnish application in the shop, I went back to DREAM AWAY and applied the sixth coat of varnish to the teak wood trim around the small and large hatch holes in the aft cabin. Since this was the last coat of varnish to be applied to the teak wood trim, I removed all of the masking tape after the varnish application.

I cleaned up from the projects, and put all of the tolls and equipment away, and took a much needed shower! Yes, you guessed it, I had an adult beverage, feed the kitties, feed myself, and worked on the Maintenance/Cruising log for September, and then went to bed.

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan, and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

I listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

After breakfast, and catching up on all the emails, I got started on the aft cabin project. My plan is to remove all of the hardware on top of the aft cabin, sand it all smooth, and apply a couple of coats of Gelcoat.

I removed all of the masking tape around the teak wood trim for the hatch holes yesterday. I did not take any photos of the outside of the hatch holes with the tape removed. I corrected that problem this morning.

I know you are probably saying, you just put on the new stainless steel grab rails, and now you are taking them all off! I wanted to know where all of the hardware went before I applied the Gelcoat to the exterior of the aft cabin.

I had already removed the rack for the life raft, and the SCUBA compressor rack, so all that remained were the grab rails and the cleats on the top of the aft cabin. Like the holes that were in the deck after removing the rack for the life raft, and the SCUBA compressor rack, I applied tape over the holes on the exterior and the interior.

To get to the nuts on the bottom of the grab rail ends, I had to remove the teak wood covers. The starboard grab rail is over the head, so part of one cover is removing the light in the head. Once the grab rail was removed I reattached the cover, and replaced the light in the head. Since I was working in the head, I also removed the cleat, that is also over the head.

I also taped up plastic bags in the large and small hatch holes to prevent any dirt from falling into the after cabin, and also in preparation to apply Gelcoat to the inside of the hatch holes.

I also cleaned out the spaces around the small hatch hole where the hinges were attached. I had put lots of sealant around the hinges. I need to fill in these spaces with a filler putty to make the base for the new hatch smooth.

After a long days work, I went and took a shower, that was much needed! Of course I fixed an adult beverage, and then went up to the outdoor kitchen to cook my dinner of baked fish, grilled potatoes and grilled corn. Just when I finished cooking, it started to rain! I just made it back to DREAM AWAY with a hot and dry dinner!

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

We listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

Today was pretty much a day of sanding on the exterior of the aft cabin. It was necessary to sand off all of the paint I had put on, and to smooth out the Gelcoat I had applied previously. I also spent a lot of time sanding and cleaning up the pads for the boarding ladder. I never properly finished them off, and they needed to be done. In a week, when I actually apply the Gelcoat, you will see a difference. It is hard to see any difference between when I started to sand and when I am finished.

Next fun project is to cut two fiberglass pads off of the top of the aft cabin. These were originally installed as hold downs for an ice chest. The ice chest was sometimes used for its intended purpose, and sometimes just for storage.

When I installed the SCUBA Compressor rack on the aft cabin deck, there was no more room for the cooler. The two fiberglass pads became pads that grabbed your toes! I have intended to remove them, but just never seemed to have the time. With all I was doing to the aft cabin roof, this seemed like a great time.

I got out my big reciprocating saw, put in a long saw blade, and cut off the two fiberglass pads.

Since the reciprocating saw did not cut off the fiberglass pads perfectly flat, there was a lot of sanding to get the area where the pads were, flat. I will also have to apply some finishing putty to fill in the cut marks and other imperfections.

While I was engaged in all of this cutting and sanding, there was a Guatemalan Navy patrol boat going up and down the river at a very slow speed. I had to take a picture of the patrol boat. If any of you have ever worked in the Gulf Coast oil fields, you will recognize the vessel right away. It is definitely a modified 65' crew boat. The other give away were the engines, definitely Detroit 12-71's.

I was done with the cutting and sanding for the day, but now the clean up started. For now I am piling all of the tools and supplies in the mid cabin. Once I got all of that put away, and it was a lot. During a work day, you do not realize how much stuff you get out, a tool here, a few pieces of sandpaper, a file. When you go to put it all away at one time, it is close to overwhelming!

I had all of the ports and hatches closed in the aft cabin, so I just used the hose to wash off the top of the cabin and the decks. Now it was time to wash down me, so I went and took a shower, and came back to DREAM AWAY. I fed out two cats, and of course an adult beverage for me.

We had made a plan earlier in the day to get together in the rancho to play rummikub with the other boaters in the marina. We had a good time, and I actually won a game. We played until the bugs got too bad, and we went back to our respective boats.

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

Did not have the Rio Dulce Cruisers net this morning, because it is Sunday.

Today is another day of sanding and heavy duty grinding. As if I do not have enough sanding to do, I have to apply some finishing putty around the pads for the boarding ladder, also where the fiberglass pads were cut off the deck.

I put two globs of the finishing putty on my mixing board, and then add the cream hardener when I am going to use that specific glob. I mix up several globs of the finishing putty and apply it to the boarding ladder pads, the area of the cut off pads and several other places around the two hatches that need some repair.

While I let all the applied finishing putty set up, I got into my serious grinding project. Around the small hatch hole that had the wooden hatch on it, there is a lip. This lip is about 1/2" X 1/2", and is solid fiberglass. This lip was great for the wooden hatch, but it needed to go so I could attach my insert of Extren Fiberglass plate.

I got out my big angle grinder, with a 6" pad and a #24 sanding disk. It was the afternoon, so a good wind was blowing. This would keep all of the dust going one direction. It did not take very long to remove the lip with the #24 disk pad, but oh what a mess it made.

Take a close look at the following two pictures. The first has the lip around the small hatch hole, the second photo shows the lip gone!

I spent another hour sanding on all of the places where I applied the finishing putty. Naturally, I did not fill in every place, so I will have to do another application of the finishing putty tomorrow.

Like yesterday, I had the aft cabin closed up, so I put all of the tools and materials away, and then washed down the aft part of DREAM AWAY to get rid of all of the dust and debris.

Also like yesterday, I went and took a much needed shower. I came back to DREAM AWAY and fed the cats and prepared myself an adult beverage. I had soaked black beans all day, so I prepared the stuff to go with the beans, and cooked them in the pressure cooker. I only cooked them four minutes, with a slow release, and they were ready to eat! While I was waiting, I worked on the Maintenance/Cruising Log.

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

We listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net. I also made the announcement of the Monday special at Hotel Kangaroo/Las Mexicanas.

Today was sort of a kick back day, in that I did not make any progress on the aft cabin. Worked very hard on emails, trying to get everyone caught up on Kathy's condition. Once I got that taken care of, there are my regular emails, and just running a family to be handled.

On one of my trips to the rest room, I noticed Andreas practicing with his throw net. It is not as easy as it looks with those big nets.

I also worked on the Maintenance/Cruising Log, but before long it was time to get dressed and head out to the Chili Cookoff being held at Bruno's. The Chili Cookoff is all part of a fund raiser by the local cruising community to help support the local medical clinic.

Every one else at the marina had already left, so I got into my tender, and went upriver and docked at Bruno's.

I found the table where Andreas and Birgit were sitting, and discussed the lay of the land. You could purchase raffle tickets for Q5 each, but you had to purchase them in lots of five. It was the same to sample the chili. Tickets were Q5 each, but you had to purchase five at a time.

I went and purchased five raffle tickets and five chili tickets, and got my first sample of chili. I actually had five different samples of the chili. They were all good, but I preferred the first one prepared by my friend Lennie, from Texas.

During the chili eating and sampling, Christina showed up, so we had our Monkey Bay Marina table complete. I went back for some more raffle tickets. They had a special going. If you purchased 20 raffle tickets, you got a bonus of five more tickets. It was for a good cause, so I spent the extra Q100.

Andreas and Birgit left before the raffle, since they did not purchase any tickets. Christina and I waited out the raffle, and I actually won a bottle of rum from Ingrid's Tienda!

With the raffle over, and the remainder of the festivities slowing down, Christina and I got into my tender, and went back to Monkey Bay Marina.

I went and took a shower, and came back to DREAM AWAY to feed the cats and of course fixed an adult beverage for Jim! I talked to Kitty via Skype to get the latest news on her and our friend Kathy. The news is not good. Kathy was moved to a Hospice facility so they could better regulate her pain medication, and keep a constant watch on her. Kitty and Craig were doing OK, but it was very tiring for both of them, and Kathy was not able to swallow her pain medication.

Besides the chili I ate at the Cookoff, I also ate a hot dog with slaw, so I was not very hungry. I had cheese and crackers for dinner, and worked on email again before going to bed!

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

We listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

Kitty had emailed me a request. She wanted me to varnish her desk! Her desk consists of a piece of plywood that hangs off the mid cabin berth. The monitor sits where the mattress would go, and the desk holds her keyboard and mouse.

I took the hardware off of the desk, and took it out to the shop. I sanded the piece of plywood down, and then applied the first coat of varnish to the bottom of the piece of plywood.

Today was not very exciting as far as pictures go. I spent the whole day sanding the roof of the after cabin. I did one application of some of the finishing putty, but then I was sanding other parts while waiting for that to set up. As I said in a previous entry, it is very difficult to see any change from start to finish on the sanding! At the end of the day, I covered the hatch holes, and washed down the after portion of the boat.

Like I said, showing before and after shots of sanding is not very exciting. Then as usual, I was off to the shower to get all of the dust and goodies washed off. There is no doubt the showers at Monkey Bay Marina are the best on the Rio Dulce.

I went back to DREAM AWAY after visiting with the other boaters in the ranchito, and fed the cats, and then I had a salad with a nice hot bowl of black beans for dinner.

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

We listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

This morning, as I walked up to the restroom, John, the Monkey Bay Marina manager, was high up in the rafters of the ranchito, repairing the thatch in the roof. There was some bad thatch, and also some holes that appeared. Holes in the thatch are leaks, so they needed some work.

As I continued my walk out to the restroom, I came across this beautiful flower. With a little research, it is an Iris

When I got back to DREAM AWAY, I got out all of the tools and material to apply some of the finishing putty to several places on the aft cabin top. Most of the places were around the boarding ladder pads, but there were several other small places.

While the Finishing Putty was setting up, I went out to the shop to apply the second coat of varnish to the underside of Kitty's desk. Same routine as before. Sand desk with #220 sandpaper, wipe down with the tack rag, and then apply the varnish.

When I finished the varnish application, I went back to DREAM AWAY to prepare for the application of Gelcoat to the inside of the two hatch holes, and to the piece of Extren Fiberglass plate I am going to use for the new metal hatch over the small hatch hole. The hatch holes were already masked off, and had plastic bags taped in the holes to keep excess Gelcoat from falling onto the bunk of the aft cabin.

I mixed up a pot of Gelcoat, using the 2% rule for the catalyst, and applied it to the two hatch holes and the Extren Fiberglass plate. It was very difficult to apply the Gelcoat to the underside of the large hatch hole, because of the lip. I could not see where I was applying the Gelcoat. The first coat was not going off the way I expected so I mixed up another batch of the Gelcoat, but nearly doubled the amount of catalyst. I applied this second coat of Gelcoat, and it seemed to go off much the way I expected.

Now it was cleanup time! I got all of the pots, stirrers, and brushes, all cleaned up with acetone. By the time I got all of the tools and materials put away, the Gelcoat had kicked off, so I could put the covers over the hatch holes.

Yes, you guessed it, time for a shower, adult beverage, feed the cats, and feed Jim, not necessarily in that order!

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

We listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

The day started out for me, when I got a text from Kitty telling me that our dear friend, and Kitty's best friend, Kathy, passed away this morning at 0500 my time. Her passing was not a surprise, but when it actually happens, it is a sad event. Kathy was a sweet and wonderful person, and she will be missed. Kitty is especially sad, because Kathy was a true soul mate.

First thing after breakfast and cleanup was varnish. I went out to the shop and applied the third coat of varnish to the bottom of Kitty's desk.

Next item on the list is to redo the plastic bags I had taped into the two hatch holes. As mentioned yesterday, I could not see well enough into the large hatch hole to apply the Gelcoat properly. I determined I would change that today. I also noticed that some of the debris that was in the bags in the hatch holes had blown up onto the wet Gelcoat, before it dried yesterday. Before I removed the plastic bags, I sanded smooth the inside of the hatch holes.

I then removed the plastic bags with all of the debris in them from both hatch holes. In the large hatch hole I masked in newspaper to keep any errant Gelcoat from getting on the teak wood trim. With no bag in the large hatch hole, I will be able to see where I am putting the Gelcoat. I just put a clean plastic bag in the small hatch hole, since I had good access to the part on which I was applying the Gelcoat.

Now I was ready to apply another coat of Gelcoat. I got out all of the material I would need to do the application. I wiped down the two hatch holes with the tack rag to remove any debris.

I mixed up a pot of Gelcoat using a new bottle of catalyst. I made this batch a bit light on the catalyst, since I was not sure how it would react. I applied a coat of Gelcoat to both hatch holes. The batch was setting up a bit slow, so I mixed another pot with a bit more catalyst. I applied this pot of Gelcoat to both hatch holes, and was able to cover up all of the spots I had missed on my application yesterday.

While I waited for the last two coats of Gelcoat to kick off, I decided to catch up on a few other small projects, just so I could get the parts off of my work bench. One of the projects did not remove anything from the workbench, but it was necessary. That was the laundry. I did a one load of laundry in the washer in the ranchito, then brought the washed clothes back down to DREAM AWAY to dry.

Next on the list is to replace the hatch spring on the after after deck box. That hatch spring had gotten bent the wrong direction, and had not worked properly for many years. Now that I am replacing the last teak wood hatches on DREAM AWAY, I have some spare hatch springs. I have promised two of the hatch springs to our friends on TANTALUS. That leaves one for me to install in the aft aft deck box.

Like most boat projects, the hard part with the project is getting all of the tools and materials out so you can accomplish the task. I looked at the project first and went and got all of the tools.

Since the hatch spring I was replacing, and the hatch spring I was installing were exactly the same, no modifications were required. All I had to do was un-install the old hatch spring, and re-install the new one, and the project was complete!

The Gelcoat I had applied to the hatch holes had kicked off, so now I got busy in filling the indentations for the hinges around the small hatch hole. These indentations were made for the hinges for the teak wood hatch I am replacing. There are two indentations on the front and two on the back of the hatch hole.

I used duct tape as a dam at each indentation. With the four dams in place, I mixed up a batch of polyester resin, cabosil, and some short pieces of fiberglass. I mixed in enough cabosil until the mixture had the consistency of a mixed cake batter.

I then poured this mixture between the hatch hole and the dams I had made. I stuffed the mixture down into the area, and made sure all four of the dams were full.

While waiting for the resin mixture to kick off, I got busy with another project. I had purchased 10 gallons of diesel on my last outing to town. I needed to measure the status of my starboard fuel tank, and then pour the 10 gallons into the fuel tank.

I measured the starboard tank, and it contained 35 gallons of fuel. I added the 10 gallons to the fuel tank. Hopefully doing it slowly, by the end of the year, I will have both 80 gallon fuel tanks full.

Last project for the day, is to actually finish a project started several weeks ago. I had cut and varnished several pieces of teak wood to cover some holes I had made in the overhead of the main cabin. When I was installing on of the covers, I realized I had varnished the bottom side! I now had the cover properly varnished, so all I had to do was install the last cover to finish the project.

I got out all of the tools and hardware needed for the job. I measured the cover, and drilled the holes in the cover, and the main cabin overhead for the screws. I then installed the cover to complete the project.

Well, the project was not technically finished. I had made a bit of a mess drilling the holes in the overhead. Since I had to get out the vacuum cleaned to clean up that mess, I vacuumed the entire boat!

When I got all of the tools put away, and the vacuum cleaner away, The project was officially finished. And the time was right to sit down for a few minutes and enjoy an adult beverage before taking a shower.

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

We listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

After breakfast, I checked the resin mixture I had applied yesterday to the hatch indentations around the small hatch hole. It was still sticky, and had not completely kicked off. I either had bad polyester resin or bad catalyst.

Since I was not sure of my problem, I decided to head into town and purchase new polyester resin, new catalyst and Gelcoat. I got into the tender and went to the concrete mall, where I docked. I purchased new polyester resin, catalyst, and two cans of spray foam at Pintorsa. I then went up the mall to Comercial W&L and purchased a half gallon of white Gelcoat and a can of finishing putty with new cream hardener. While I was close, I went to the veggie stand just outside the concrete mall. I purchased some much needed fruit and veggies. I also purchased four bags of fresh oranges. I went back to the concrete mall dock, got into the tender and went back to DREAM AWAY.

When I got back to DREAM AWAY, I changed back into my work clothes. I mixed up a small batch of the new polyester resin and catalyst, and brushed it over the resin mixture I had on the small hatch hole indentations.

While waiting for that chemical reaction to take place, I went back to the shop and cleaned up the hardware and fasteners I would need to install the big hatch back into the hatch hole on the aft cabin deck. I used my own bench grinder because the wire wheel on it is stainless steel, and not mild steel. I also applied the first coat of varnish on the top of Kitty's desk.

While I was in the shop, the resin mixture I had on the small hatch hole indentions had set up. It was hard enough for me to sand, so for the next couple of hours I sanded on the indentations, and other areas of the deck of the aft cabin. When I got it looking pretty good, I put the two covers over the two hatch holes. I then got out my hose and washed off all of the dust I had created from all of the sanding. I also washed out the four ports on the aft cabin.

After the wash down, I removed the cover from the large hatch hole. I put the butyl rubber tape sealant around the edge of the large hatch frame. I installed the hatch into the large hatch hole and screwed it down. I put the screws in pretty tight, but not too tight. I will leave them for a couple of days and then tighten all of the screws again. This will insure a good seal.

Now that I had the large hatch back on the aft cabin, I would get some ventilation until the bugs came out. Getting a screen on the large hatch was on the list!

I got the area all cleaned up, the tools and materials put away. It was time for an adult beverage and a shower.

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

We listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

After breakfast, I went out to the shop. I did the routine of applying the second coat of varnish to Kitty's office. I went back to DREAM AWAY to get started on getting the piece of Extren Fiberglass plate glassed to the top of the small hatch hole.

Since this is not my first rodeo, I know that dams have to be put around the inside and the outside of the hatch hole so the liquid resin does not run all over the place. I have also learned that it is best to use wide masking or duct tape for the dams, and then fold the tape over so it does not stick to the work piece during the dry fitting stage. I also tape newspaper on the inside of the hatch hole to prevent any of the polyester resin from running down onto the plastic already there, and putting a hole in it!

The procedure I use is to cut out pieces of fiberglass mat, three layers thick, to have between the base around the hatch hole, and the piece of Extren Fiberglass plate. I put the cut fiberglass mat in place, then do a dry fit of the Extren Fiberglass plate. When I am satisfied with the fit, I remove the Extren Fiberglass plate, and remove the fiberglass mat.

With a good dry fit, I mixed up a batch of polyester resin with the new catalyst. I then wet out the hatch hole base, and start applying each of the three layers of the fiberglass mat. I wet out each layer of the mat with a good volume of the polyester resin. When I finally get all three layers soaked with the polyester resin, I realized that the mixture was starting to go off! This is not a good situation! I immediately applied the piece of Extren Fiberglass plate to the wetted out fiberglass mat. I was just in time.

This new resin and catalyst, does not adhere to the 2% rule! Normally you mix 2% of catalyst to the amount of polyester resin that you have. This mix started to kick off sooner than I expected. It could have been a real disaster. The good news was I did not have to wait for the resin to kick off!

Since the resin kicked off so quickly, I was able to remove the exterior and interior dams. I trimmed up the hardened resin mixture around the inside and outside of the hatch hole. Naturally it was not perfect, so I mixed up a batch of finishing putty to fill in the imperfections. Apparently, I had another tube of bad cream hardener, because this finishing putty did not kick off! I will have to remove it, and apply some of the new finishing putty I purchased yesterday.

I did hold out some hope the finishing putty would kick off, so I went onto a new project. Yesterday I purchased four bags of fresh oranges, and I wanted to get them squeezed into juice. I must admit, I do enjoy a cold glass of orange juice cut with a bit of rum!

I loaded up the oranges, our KitchenAid Stand Mixer, juicer attachment, knife, cutting board, bowl, funnel, juice container, and went out to the outdoor kitchen to juice the oranges. It was a success, and I nearly got two quarts of juice!

Of course now I had to drag everything back to DREAM AWAY. When I got to DREAM AWAY, I needed a break, so I had a glass of cold orange juice with some rum! I put all of the tools and material away, took a shower, fed the cats and myself. I Spent some time on the computer and also talked to Kitty via Skype.

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

Did not have the Rio Dulce Cruisers net this morning, because it is Sunday.

Not a very exciting day today. I did apply the third coat of varnish to Kitty's office top. The remainder of the day was spent working on the September Maintenance Log. As usual it is way behind.

This month I started doing the log completely on my computer, and not using Google Docs. It has taken me a while to get settled in the new way of making entries, but I am getting there.

While I set at the Nav Station working on the Maintenance Log, my female cat, Jillie, likes to lie down on the edge of the freezer, and sleep. If I do not touch her, she starts complaining!

I did have one diversion during the day. Efrain, the guardian here at Monkey Bay Marina discovered a porcupine in a large tree just by the outdoor kitchen. It was very close, so I rushed off to get my camera. As it turned out, there was no need to rush, as the porcupine stayed in the tree most of the day.

I did some research, and the animal is actually a Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine. Anyway, I took a couple of photos, just in case you never saw a Mexican hairy dwarf porcupine.

After a full day on the computer, I relaxed with an adult beverage, a rum and fresh orange juice. I then took a shower, and dressed the wound on my foot. Kitty wanted to see a photo of the wound with a 1 Quetzal piece next to it, so she would have some idea of how much the wound has shrunk

Just after I went to bed, it started to rain, and it really rained very hard. I waited for the rain to stop, and then I went out and pumped out the tender. Good thing I did, because it was pretty full of water.

When I first got up, I noticed the orange glow in the shy. When I looked outside, there was a beautiful sunrise taking place, so I had to take advantage, and I snapped a couple of photos.

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

We listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net. I also made the announcement of the Monday special at Hotel Kangaroo/Las Mexicanas.

Worked on the Maintenance Log for about 30 minutes, and then had breakfast. I needed to go into town, so I got changed and went out to the tender. It had rained some more over the night, so it needed to be pumped out again. When it was dry, I cranked up the engine and went upriver and docked at Bruno's. I first went to the Despensa Familiar to get some groceries. I then stopped at our normal veggie stand and purchased a couple of veggies and some fruit.

On the recommendation of Birgit and Andreas from the yacht MUKTUK, I went down plastic alley to a lady that sell chickens. Birgit and Andreas said she has really fresh chicken livers, and very good chickens. Kitty does not like chicken livers, and does not even want them cooked on DREAM AWAY, so I saw this as my opportunity. I love chicken livers!

I purchased a pound of chicken livers, and a whole chicken. The whole chicken was for the freezer, but the chicken livers were for dinner tonight. After this purchase, I went back to the tender, and back to DREAM AWAY.

A little explanation about "plastic alley". This is a name given to an alley that runs from the main road in Fronteras to the river. The vendors in the alley sell other items, but the preponderance of stuff sold are plastic items, thus the name. If any boater on the Rio Dulce says go to "plastic alley", we all know where they are referring.

Once back on DREAM AWAY, I changed into my work clothes. I went back to the shop. I applied the fourth coat of varnish on Kitty's office desk top.

Back on DREAM AWAY, I had to get busy on removing the bad finishing putty. Actually it was not the putty that was bad, but the cream hardener. I threw away that tube of cream hardener, the old catalyst, and the old polyester resin. From now on I am using only new fresh product.

Scrapping away the putty that did not set up was lots of fun, but I finally got it all removed. Since I applied the finishing putty in a couple of batches, each succeeding batch, I mixed more cream hardener. That caused some of the finishing putty to kick off properly.

Now I got out the new finishing putty and the new cream hardener. I mixed a couple of batches of the putty, and applied it around the base of the hatch hole.

While the newly applied finishing putty was kicking off, I taped a plastic bag around the small hatch hole. I knew I would be doing a lot of sanding to make it all ship shape, so the bag would keep the dust from going down into the aft cabin.

I went down into the aft cabin. I had to apply some of the new finishing putty around the edge where the Extren Fiberglass plate and the hatch hole base came together. To do this, I had to put out the tarp in case any of the putty fell. When I went into the aft cabin, I found my helper asleep on the job. In fact he barely woke when I spread out the tarp!

I mixed up a batch of the new finishing putty, and applied it to the underside of the Extren Fiberglass plate in the small hatch hole.

With the putty applied to the interior portion of the hatch hole, I went back outside to aft cabin deck, and started in to sanding on the putty that I had applied to the small hatch exterior. I also sanded around the boarding ladder pads. I had applied some putty to some small dents and dings in the area, so I sanded those area also.

It was getting late, so I stopped the sanding, put all of the tools away, and put the cover back over the hatch hole. I got the hose, and washed down the aft cabin deck and area to get all of the dust off of DREAM AWAY.

It was off to a shower, and back to DREAM AWAY, after visiting with the other boaters in residence at the ranchito. We were firming up our plans for tomorrow's Guatemalan Independence day cook out.

When I got back to DREAM AWAY, I fed the two cats, and then I had dinner. I had rice, steamed broccoli, and pan fried chicken livers. They were wonderful, and I thoroughly enjoyed them. I was holding off on deciding what I would cook for a meat at tomorrow's cookout. I decided I would grill out chicken livers!!

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

We listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

It had rained again last night, and water was dripping out of the center support of the hard bimini frame. This is because there are holes drilled in the top of the support frame to secure the Starboard to the frame. These holes allow the water into the aluminum support, but of course the water cannot get out until it fills up with water. I decided I would fix the problem by drilling a hole in the bottom of the aluminum support frame.

It was a clever idea, and it worked, except for one detail! I drilled the hole in the wrong end. Now the water drips down into the main cabin. If I had drilled the hole in the other end of aluminum support, the water would into the cockpit. I will fix the problem, when I have more time!

While I was busy working, Birgit and Andreas from the yacht MUKTUK went into town and purchased me Q20 worth of fresh chicken livers. When they brought them back to me, I marinated them, and put them into the refrigerator until this afternoon's cookout.

The Casa Guatemala grocery boat came by very early this morning, so I was caught unprepared. I got it together and was able to purchase what I needed. They normally arrive around 1130, and this morning they came by at 0915.

After they left I went out to the shop and applied the fifth coat of varnish to Kitty's office desk top.

Back out to DREAM AWAY to get to work on the aft cabin top. Yesterday I had done a pretty complete job of sanding around the area of the little hatch hole. I mixed up a batch of the finishing putty, and applied it to several places that needed more attention. While that putty was setting up, I went over the whole cabin top with #80 grit sand paper. I was working to get the whole cabin top ready for the application of the Gelcoat.

While I had done the sanding, the putty had kicked off, so I sanded it all down. It was all looking pretty good. In situations like this, I could be applying putty and sanding until it was absolutely perfect. I use the 36" rule, if it looks good from 36" away, it is perfect!

It was time to go into the aft cabin, and sand the inside of the small hatch hole. I spread out the tarp on the bed, and got out the shop vacuum. I use the vacuum running all the time while sanding inside. This keeps the dust way down, and the cleanup is not much of a problem.

I had all of these holes in the overhead of the aft cabin. Between the overhead of the aft cabin and the actual fiberglass cabin roof, there is a lot of space. In the colder climates, this air in this space causes a lot of condensation. This condensation causes all kinds of rot and mildew problems. When I can, I use spray foam and put it into these empty spaces, as this does not allow air between the spaces, and then there is no condensation.

The holes I had in the overhead to bolt down the SCUBA compressor, the life raft, the cleats, and the grab rail, I am going to use the spray foam and fill as many voids as I can.

This spray foam does a good job of filling the voids, but once it is released from the can, it just keeps expanding until it reaches its limit. If you spray it into a void, and the void fills, the foam will keep expanding out the hole you sprayed the foam into. Be careful and be prepared.

I already had the tarp spread out in the aft cabin that would protect from most spills, but I had to put some newspaper in place in case the foam came out from the cleat hole. Another hint about this foam, if it comes out where you do not want it, let it go until it completely kicks off. It is so much easier to cut away the hardened excess, than to try and wipe away wet foam.

I got out a can of foam, and started spraying it into the holes in the overhead. I did a little bit at a time, and then went back to first hole and added some more foam. I continued to each hole, until all of the foam was gone.

I went up and took a shower, and got cleaned up. We were going to start cooking for the Guatemalan Independence Day celebration around 1600. Once I got back from my shower I cleaned up the aft cabin, got all of stuff together and went up to the outdoor kitchen. I had made some Black Bean Pico de Gallo as an appetizer. It turns out Christina had made some guacamole, and Birgit and Andreas had chopped some fresh veggies.

Initially we had so much food in appetizers, we did not cook, but just sat around the rancho and talked. After an hour or so, Birgit and Andreas brought out a special appetizer, which was anchovies and sliced avocado in a wonderful sauce. It was a taste treat!

With so many wonderful appetizers, we did not actually start cooking the main meal until 1900. Christina cooked a small pork loin, Birgit and Andreas cooked pork ribs, and of course I had my chicken livers. Christina had also made potato salad, so we had quite a meal to celebrate Guatemalan Independence Day.

When we finished stuffing ourselves, and telling stories, we cleaned up our respective dishes, and stuff, we called it a night. We are already planning our next celebration which will be October 3rd. We are going to have a pot luck on German Unity Day. There are three boats in the marina presently with boaters on them. One is American, (Texas) and two are German, so the celebration seemed appropriate.

I started off the morning with my normal ritual of getting on the Internet, answering email, and checking the weather, while making a pot of coffee. When the coffee is started, I feed our two cats, Jillian and Jordan , and attempt to brush their beautiful coats.

We listened to the Rio Dulce Cruisers net on DREAM AWAY. The net is everyday at 0730 except Sunday. It covers all of the local news and events, and a good source of local information that matter to cruisers.

I did my announcement for the specials at Backpacker’s Hotel on the Rio Dulce Cruisers net.

After breakfast, cleanup, and all of the normal domestic chores, I got to work on the aft cabin top.