Busy Days

Still here. These last couple of weeks have been busy. I figured I could skip a few posts. Paula has been having such a good time writing so I just let her fill in. I have direct-mailed to many of you instead of posting here (reasons below). She gets more feedback than me anyway and I figured nobody would miss me. (sniff)

As expected, the dynamics of the days here have changed a bit. The PBO (poor bloody owner) has seen fit to leave the boat in my care (I know... what was he thinking) and we are now on our own till June. We got busy with some final orientation, systems to cycle and keep an eye on, and instructions on some projects that I will do in case I get bored(ya right). He doesn't leave his baby very often, and I wanted him to feel like he left it in good hands. #1 rule- NO Daycharters! Bummer, I might have been able to make some serious cash. I do have rights to the dink, so we can go adventuring when we feel like a Robinson Crusoe picnic.

Thunderstorms are a hit or miss every day(hopefully they all miss - yuk yuk). I wake up, look around and see what the day brings me. We have had a few days of some fantastic varnishing weather again and I hated to let them pass. I rapidly prepped all of the newly installed (lightly coated) blocks, the 4 deck blocks (which are getting beat up and needed to be done) and found another raw block(no coats) hidden under the mainsail cover that I missed on the last varnishing round . I also pulled out 2 new raw blocks stashed in the anchor locker and thought they would survive better down there if they were coated a few times. All 10 of these took me 3 hours just to varnish.(not counting sanding). I got some sun credits that day even tho I tried to keep under the covers as much as possible.

There are many more to do but these are more important to get coats built up on them because they are new. On good days, I can get two coats on them. Today I could see rain was coming so I just covered them as the first coat was just skinned over and they should be ok. If weather looks like it will hold(being good) I'll go for the bowsprit next. I do have some detailing below for when it rains, but that can be done anytime.

Paula also has her chores. One of them is keeping up on the
winch drums. If you do one a day and it's not all that tough of a gig.

Then there's the binnacle (compass, pedestal & cover assy). THAT's a whole different game! Pics of that later.

I'm also have to train P in spare time. She's got the rum&coke down pretty good, and we are working on some other fruity/tropical things. Being on such an icon we have to be prepared for the drop-ins. While we don't let just anybody aboard, there comes a time we must be social. We need to always have stuff ready on hand for instant snackies and nibbles for social hour. Having more than two beers in the cooler is important for criminy sakes!

This internet connection has been less than bueno. We are talking back to worse than 28k dial-up days(when it does work). We ummm... 'borrowed" better wifi than this on our way down the coast. Most of the time a page loads halfway and just stops. If I get lucky eventually all of the parts might get loaded in the next 3 reloads. Trying to save a page through the blog editor has been an equally fun time. I've lost many a few updates, links to pics and just time retyping alot of them. Sometimes (like right now) speeds are great, and I can get things done. It's not my wifi, its a server side or a load issue. I can be up in the bar just feet from the access point and it would be the same. Sometimes the DNS doesn't even resolve(page not found). There is only one provider here in CR, and talking to others up and down the road says they all have the same issues and the provider just doesn't care. It's as good as it gets. If it doesn't work now, I just try again later.

Thanks for looking in on us.
Byron & Paula
Boatsitters Especiale