Deb & I are preparing for our annual cruise. This year we will be visiting the San Blas (again) and then on to San Andres, the Columbian islands, and the Bay Islands of Honduras. As expected, there are a variety of things that need doing before we leave. Here are the details of a few of them. The bottom paint we applied last year is still doing great - the bottom is spotless and we can still make 6 kts on one engine. The topsides were another story. They were GREEN. Everything down here molds - even fiberglass. I borrowed our neighbor Bill Tucker's power washer and what a difference it made! I used over 300 gallons of water total (water maker and rain catchment both working well) but the topsides are shiny and white again. We also used the power washer on our shade curtains (also green) and they look brand new as well. Thanks Bill! We are excited to have our hookah working reliably again. It had been acting up last year. It would run great and then, for no apparent reason, quit. When I started it up for Mark & Colton, friends of our neighbors who were visiting Panama, to try, it once again ran fine then died. I tried replacing the carb to no avail. (Dave had brought it down for me last Spring as a logical culprit) In desperation, I took the engine in to Gilbert, a local Panamanian who fixes any kind of motor. He totally fixed it by changing the spark plug! Now, I had checked the plug and it looked great, but Gilbert said he has seen this before on similar motors - the engine starts fine and after it is hot, the plug develops a short internally and it dies. When it cools off, it runs again. That seems to have been the case as it has not died once since replacing the plug. Gilbert apologized for charging me $20 "just to change a spark plug", but it was WELL WORTH IT. What would it have cost if I had taken the motor to a repair shop in the US? And would they have fixed it? During our daughter Curry's recent visit, we sailed Always & All Ways down to our island for a couple nights. It was the first time we had taken her out in some time. I immediately noticed that the wind indicator was not working and when I looked aloft, the reason was obvious - a large bird must have landed on the indicator wand and broken it. It was now hanging at about 90* from its intended position. The weather was calm, so while we were tied to the dock of our island, I climbed the mast and retrieved the sensor. The cone shaped piece that screwed to the mount was sheared off right at the end where it pressed the connection together. It was a clean break and I have had good luck with Locktite Super Glue for Plastic, but I doubted that it would stand up to tension directly across the glue line, so I first used the Superglue for Plastic to re-establish the cone and then reinforced the joint with JB Weld and and some fiberglass cloth bridging the break. Today I returned up the mast and reinstalled the sensor. It is working fine. Next in line for repair is the RAM mike at the helm. Ours has quit transmitting, though it receives just fine and the base VHF at the nav station inside works fine. The contacts where the remote plugs in had corroded and no amount of cleaning has remedied the situation. Of course, the model we have is now obsolete and so we have to buy a new VHF as well as a new remote mike and extension cable. Fortunately our friend Paula is still in the US and will bring it all back for us. My brother, Dave, helped with the research on replacement and will order the parts for us and get them to Paula. Just to make things interesting, I got to do some fiberglass repair as well. While we were docked at our island, our friend, Capt. Ron, was returning Deb & Curry to the boat after garden club when he rammed us tearing a big hole in the stern just above the water line. He was approaching at a rather high speed (as always) and when he dropped it into reverse the engine died. I had my foot out to catch them, but realized that the force was likely to shatter my femur if I tried to stop them at that speed so I absorbed as much of their energy as I dared and let the hull take the rest. The 'D' ring on Ron's bow punched right through the fiberglass. I could not find either "tiger hair" or "bondo" in town, but I was able to get polyester resin, fiberglass matt, and gel coat. The next day we anchored off the little island just outside our bay where there is nice snorkeling and while Deb & Curry laid in the sun in the tramp and snorkeled, I attacked the repair. I ground down the hole to create an appropriated taper and laid up about 10 layers of matt and resin and pressed it into the void. Once it set, I ground it down again and filled in some more layers. Next I added talc to catalyzed resin and made my own 'bondo' to smooth things out. After grinding that down as well, I applied gel coat. It was nice working with polyester resin as I could get it to set up hard in about an hour allowing me to nearly complete the repair in one day. It was also nice to do the repairs at anchor as I could jump in and get rid of all the fiberglass dust after each step in the repair. Since then I have sanded the gelcoat down and it will need a second coat to get it blended in, but at least it is structurally sound and water tight now. Our friend, Cynde, has returned after 4 months due to a life threatening illness and a prolonged convalescence and we are so happy to see her. I think she will come with us to David when we go to buy provisions for our trip. With everything else that is happening (like Paula's return, a Super Bowl party and a birthday party for Deb), I suspect it will be mid February before we actually get away, so check back then as we will update this blog frequently once underway.