Raven in the work yard - let the work begin!

Well we have been here in MX for 1 month and 4 days and yes the boat is STILL in the work yard, no surprise. We have found a couple more things to fix then originally thought but that is normal everyone tells us. Being in the boat work yard is a toxic environment (if your not grinding fiberglass or painting with something toxic, someone else surely is). I have yet to find the FUN in it but we are able to work in shorts and a t-shirt (still 80 o here on Dec. 17) so I take the good with the bad. The most exciting thing I've done (that made me happy) was figure out the water and plumbing systems on Raven. Next is the electrical. This I do when painting all the cabinets and lockers gets overwhelming (which usually involves some kind of yoga-cat-sleeping-on-his-back-move, with a paint brush and flashlight, none the less). Currently, Scott is busy grinding the bottom. I have got the deck all ready for sanding and painting (after we rebed some hardware).

We are enjoying the weather, meeting old friends and new people (other people from Colorado, fellow Westsail owners, etc., not that there needs to be an excuse) and even having fun with our hotel owners, workers and fellow guests (we've managed to put the kayak in twice, go birding, hang out at a bon-fire and enjoy many bar-b-ques complete with tequila and Mexican guitar music!). We even met a couple that knew of Raven when she had her 2nd to the last owner. They were happy to meet her nice new owners and are looking for any history for us - they even dropped by an article about how she sustained her hull damage; in hurricane Lester in 1992 - she broke free from her mooring and hit the only section of rock along the shore. Ironically, for me at the same time, hurricane Andrew on the east coast of America was hitting my parent's year old house after they moved to South Carolina (only, also causing minimal damage).

Hilo has adjusted to his new life. It did take him 4 days (usually only took 1/2 hour in other places) to relax and start purring again. He is doing so well with his new dental 'disability' (had 1 fang removed and a molar in the back just before we got here) that he managed to kill a scorpion in our room. While we are glad he is protecting us and happy he did not get stung we were a little disturbed to even see a scorpion - welcome to paradise! Then he wouldn't touch his brand new 17 lb bag of cat food, the same kind he's been eating for years. 3 days of this I finally smelled it and it had gone rancid (even the stray cats wouldn't eat it), smart little guy he is. Luckily, for everyone, one of the 4 stores we had explored had a large bag of good cat food on the shelf.

Our Spanish is improving slowly with help from the many books we brought with us, Ray - our sailor friend we met back in June who grew up in South America and the women at our corner store that makes yummy tamales. Speaking of, we had a fun Thanksgiving of a Mexican potluck bar-b-que complete with tamales. For Christmas we plan on watching the 'parade of lights' with some fellow boat work/ people form Colorado. Parade of lights is when the sail boaters decorate their boats with lights and sail around Honeymoon Island here by San Carlos. And yes, Christmas is very low key here - meaning only the Americans decorate their houses (I've seen 3) and since we have no TV we haven't been bombarded with commercials. We are enjoying it.

Well I should go since we are paying for internet service by the minute (until we get a wireless card). Happy Holidays to everyone. We miss you all. Wish us luck with the boat work - hope to see some of you out here sooner than later.