NOW WHERE WERE WE ..........

Now where were we ......... Ah, yes .... Right here still in CULEBRA, with both boat rafted up, doing some incredible renovation on "SOUTHERN COMFORT" while "ARITA" is still home, with all of the comforts that SC doesn't have at the moment ....... SC has sawdust ...... Loads of sawdust ..... Loads and loads of sawdust, and two vacuum cleaners that can't keep up with it ..... Show you later .......




But first, you remember from the last blog entry how we rushed off to SAN JUAN on mainland Puerto Rico to meet with a former college classmate, well here we are, some forty five years later, only a little bit 'the worse for wear' ..... That college (ASOPA) was specifically established for training teachers for Papua New Guinea, with great emphasis on cultural and anthropological aspects as well as teaching English as a second language ... But the real shock came in that restaurant when two other ladies from the next table joined our little group ...... There in the photo (from L to R) is Laurie, myself, Dr. Juliana McLaughlin from Manus Island in PNG, Keith Parker, my former classmate and his wife Dr Parlo Singh and Dr. Christine Fox on the end...... Keith, Christine and I were all at ASOPA at some point ....... Now what's the probability that three ex-ASOPA people should be having lunch in the very same restaurant in Puerto Rico, which is about as far away from PNG as you can get in either direction ........ Can't even contemplate the odds ......




So back to work .......Tear out the old windows and put in new 'lexan' ..... Windows you can see through and without cracks in it ...... No more leaks .......



We bought a whole bunch of canvas in Fajardo to re-do all the canvas work, including two new Puerto Rico flags that needed stronger hems ....... Flag waving is big with us ..... And the wind tears them up, so we do the best we can to come up with the winning solutions ......



There's a sign in one of the waterside restaurants in CULEBRA that's self-explanatory, which is why the owner feeds them lettuce ....... Obviously lettuce prevents them from getting dizzy, for here was one crossing the waterway by using the overhead phone cables instead of swimming or using the bridge ..... Or maybe it was just listening in on the phone calls ....... Guess they understand 'Spanish', having been brought up here on CULEBRA .....



WELCOME TO SAWDUST HEAVEN ....... We started on the aft cabins first ....... Ripped out the dividing wall between the two cabins and continued on demolishing the aft hanging closets ...... Aren't 'sawzalls' just the greatest tools since 'sliced cheese cutters' ..... Every sailor should have one and a spare ..... There is a bathroom to port and to starboard, and one of them is to be converted to another hanging closet ......... The vanity is to be replaced with a sliding top for the "Queen's" computer desktop ..... Now the trick is to first take out the entire bathroom wall, including the door, and use it to block off the passage that led to the starboard aft cabin, thereby creating another beautiful hanging closet ....... And then to cut the remaining wall in half so as to open it up to more spaciousness ......



And here's another trick ......... To use the door trim to line that half-wall that opens up Laurie's new 'office' and then to reverse that trim for the downward part of the wall ...... I've got sawdust on the brain, but I'm sure you can figure it out ...... The door on the previous starboard aft-cabin now opens into the new hallway closet ...... This closet will have two doors because the floor hatch in the passage, that gives access to the bilge, can be opened when the closet door is opened ..... All very practical and functional ...... Don't get confused by the mirror in the passage, for that makes it look like twice the work ......



Can you taste the sawdust yet? ........ The day bed on the port side is staying put ...... But the bed on starboard is going to be enlarged by nine inches, and thus the bed frame will be moved towards the centre-line, and in so doing the centre piece 'remnant' is going to become a dresser with drawers ...... This is where 'stain and filler' will come into their own ....... This is all 'raw' working .... You're getting the inside scoop on this 'as-you-go' project .... Laurie recently found the quick sketch of when we planned it all, sight unseen ..... Though most of the planning of 'what to do next' is generally done at 3 am when I can't sleep ......



Flower break time ...... The sort of thing you can't help but notice, when you dinghy in to town to get cereal for breakfast ...... Our regular Post Office run ...... Should really make it a two-way thing ...... Start mailing off souvenir packages of
"Southern Comfort Sawdust" .......



Matching up the parquet floor requires a bit of mix and match ........ We cut out the center-line framing, then stole a bit of flooring from under the extended bunk ...... Slid the starboard floor hatch across and "Bob's your uncle!" ...... Also a damn good commercial for 'RYOBI' power tools, don't you think? ...... Oh, and there's that wall with the door in the passage, for the new hanging closet ....... Seven feet tall and on a yacht that would be called a 'Hollywood' closet .....



Bit by bit the aft cabin is coming together, and finally we can shove the sheets of extra plywood into the front cabins ........ We will use them shortly to make a large sewing table for doing the canvas work ....... O.K. moving on, before we use up all your tolerance .... Pictures of sawdust manufacturing can only go so far ......



Here's the best sawdust maker of them all ....... A home-made table-saw together with a specialized 'how to keep it on' clamp on the circular saw..... And just screw in the guide bar wherever you want it ........ The whole set-up works like a dream ..... Until you realize that all the sawdust has blown onto "ARITA", rafted up alongside ..... We need to change that .....



And we did ................. Isn't she beautiful ..... It will be difficult to part with her ....... We are already planning to paint "SOUTHERN COMFORT'S" stern in a wood 'faux' finish ...... Doesn't mean we won't miss her, but it will help ....... And all the new canvas will be the same colour as "ARITA" ....... So if we don't sell "ARITA" we would have a mini charter fleet ..... Heaven forbid ..... Then we need to put the five cabins and five heads back, and we would need all that sawdust back ........ Let's not even go there .......



Remember how we mentioned that whenever we filled the dinghy with gas, we could see this blue coral growing on the pylons at the service station, well here it is ........ Merely inches under water beneath the dinghy, in fact I took the photo looking down through the water ....... Just beautiful ........ Then again, so is all of CULEBRA, including the little township of DEWEY .....





Crystal clear water behind the protecting barrier reef becomes a playground for water sports and on weekends the anchorage at Dakity is filled with pleasure seekers ....



This is typical of the 'Puerto Rico Navy' ....... So called because on weekends hundreds of these powerboats arrive and all raft up together for a great time and the great smell of the BBQs drives you insane ........ Here's one of those pleasure seekers I was talking about ......... Isn't she cute ..... Hard to tell she's now a grandmother ......





We are anchored in that enclosed sheltered bay on CULEBRA with the narrow entrance and there's so much more that we need to explore ....... And we may get to that when we finally get over the construction part or should that read 'destruction part' .... That's our nearest neighbour on the next mooring ball ......







And those 'baby' mangoes of a few months ago, are now almost ready for the picking .............



Now we may not be 'cruising' in the truest sense of the word ....... After all, we only swing when the wind shifts, but we still have our eyes open and every day is filled with excitement and sights that keep us spellbound ...... And a great deal of pleasure comes from being able to share this with others who follow along on our blog ....... Those fish are tarpon ......
Great fish to look at, but no good for eating ....... Just received the latest update from TIMO, our boat-building buddy in CURACAO ...... Check this out .....




The hull is now complete and TIMO has moved it alongside a dock in shallow water .......... Wait for it .......



The hull is still floating on a platform made of empty drums ...... Now slip some planks underneath one side to give it a bit of a tilt ......



Attach a few stout lines to the hull ...... Do a quick double check ........ Attach the other end of the lines to the front of your truck parked on the hillside ...... And let the 'fun' begin ........








You've got to admit that everything about this guy is incredible ......... 'Scary' but incredible and ingenius ......



Now TIMO takes the same flotation platform, submerges it beneath the hull and re-inflates the drums ....... The next phase is fitting the transom, the deck and the cabin top .......



I mean ...... What can we say .............. We need a flower break ..... This is all exhausting work ...... But it sure takes 'guts' to do this ........ You are going to see them sailing before long, and you'd never know the steps it took to get there ......






Back in CULEBRA again .......... We needed more caulking for installing the new 'lexan' windows, which was sent through the mail ..... Obviously the tubes needed more air ....... Now copper is wonderful in anti-fouling paint on the bottom of the hull ..... Does a great job of keeping barnacles and growth off ...... Not so sure if you glue it on the bonnet(hood) of your truck, whether it will prevent rust and mold ..... But it sure has increased the value of the vehicle ......




A week or so ago we went to Fajardo on the mainland to see a dermatologist ........ And it went more or less like this ..... I waited in the room with my shirt off, ready for the doctor to arrive, which she did ........ She looked at my 'Captain Crunch' skin on the shoulders, arms, back and legs and in Spanish all she could say was "Dear Mother of God" ....... Over and over again, she kept repeating this "Dear Mother of God, Dear Mother of God" ....... She leaned over me in her flawless porcelain skin and big round 'Bambi' eyes saying, "Dear Mother of God, Dear Mother of God" .... And then deftly with the left hand that held a syringe with a numbing agent and her right hand with some sort of soldering iron-cauterizer she proceeded to excavate my skin cancers, while saying over and over again ........ You guessed it ..... Now there's a reason why I'm telling you all this ............ Sun, sand, surf and sailing are all a part of 'CRUISING ' and so too are the "Dear Mother of God" imperfections .......... And on the right is Paul and Laurie holding down eight sheets of Paul's PVC board in the dinghy ....... Paul is an Australian cruiser also here doing yacht repairs on his sloop, and we have formed this mutual self-help admiration society ....... We admire the ways in which we are both destroying perfectly good boats ....... To make them 'better' ......