Planetary Exloration on Senta II

Vessel Name: Senta II
Vessel Make/Model: Ericson 39B
Crew: Nancy & Sven
Extra: This blog will temporarily pick up from where the www.grenander.com blog left off after our Retina Mac suffered a memory failure. Don't ask where the "p" in exploration went but do tell me how to put it back in, if you know :-)
Home Page: www.grenander.com
05 April 2015
02 April 2015
26 March 2015
14 March 2015
03 March 2015 | Marina Papagayo, Costa Rica
26 February 2015
19 February 2015
18 February 2015 | Marina Papagayo
16 February 2015 | Papagayo Marina, Costa Rica
15 February 2015
13 February 2015
12 February 2015 | Marina Papagayo, Costa Rica
05 February 2015 | Playa del Coco and Marina Papagayo, Costa Rica
Recent Blog Posts
12 April 2015

Still windy and we are staying, plus thanks to Dan

It has been a hectic few weeks. We had the issue with the exoneration paperwork and the National Car Reantal overcharge and then need for a survey for new insurance.

05 April 2015

Varnish and condo time !

The cabin sole has been beginning to show some real wear and the companionway door was looking like it should have used a lot more sun screen, so it was time to get ready to varnish.

02 April 2015

Mess -> hotel stay

Now that we know we are going to stay here in Papagayo Marina for the summer we went to work on some chores.

01 April 2015

We got the exoneration paperwork !

Yes, it is April Fools' Day, but we don't think it is a joke.

31 March 2015

No bad faith contract needed ?

We finally got our misappropriated Marina Papagayo National Car Rental refund. That only took almost a month and a lot of reminders and an angry complaint letter. Talk about substandard service !

26 March 2015

Cultural whiplash

This is another surprising turn of events. We're almost getting whiplash !

Mess -> hotel stay

02 April 2015
Now that we know we are going to stay here in Papagayo Marina for the summer we went to work on some chores.

The first chore is the cabin sole. Yes, we know the picture above is upside down. The iPad seemed to think that was the proper orientation and given the mess onboard we can't disagree so we left it that way.

We last varnished the cabin sole some time in 2012 we think, when we had a land-based place to stay overnight. The fumes from the Epifanes varnish are bad enough when you are applying the varnish with good ventilation. Sleeping on board while the varnish cures is not a pleasant thought so we booked a condo in the marina for two days. Once Nancy had arranged the room we started vacuuming, wet wiping, sanding and wet wiping again.

The cabin sole is fortunately the most forgiving varnish job on board. We use a matt or satin finish to reduce slipperiness a little bit and the lack of a mirror finish helps hide imperfections. The surface is also underfoot (or we have other things to worry about !) so we tend to not look at it as much as some other surfaces. The job is still major as the sole is one continuous surface from the "aft stateroom" all the way forward to the v-berth and it all needs to be done in one application.

Of course, almost as soon as we'd prepped the surface and poured the varnish the courier from MOPT arrived un-announced and wanted to deliver the exoneration paperwork and get paid. Nancy was exceedingly nice and didn't let her displeasure show any more than to point out that he really should have called in advance. While she was dealing with the paperwork and payment I tried to finish the work she had to interrupt, before the varnish had time to cure too much to be applied.

The result was certainly not perfect but it will help protect the sole and we'll apply one more coat today.

In the evening we were invited up to the restaurant by Van on m/v Sunday Morning (another Nordhaven 55). Sunday Morning and Giddy Up (yet one more Nordhaven 55) are both headed down toward the canal and Van wanted to thank us for keeping an eye on their boats, rescuing one floating fender, chasing off flying varmints and just sending them occasional e-mails to let them know their boats were ok.

It was a great evening and now we have more friends to visit on the other side of the canal, either by boat or on land. We'll have to start writing the places down !!!

We learned yet more stories about the local officials' misdeeds and by now we have stories from eleven boats in the last two months and that's just from boats we have personally met !! That topic will have to be the subject of a separate blog entry but the bottom line is that the stories we'd read about Costa Rica are being borne out. We'd originally planned to bypass Costa Rica altogether and would have done so if the Papagayos had not clobbered us. Our official interactions during checkin were painless, but that is obviously the exception.

Now we get ready for one more day of prepping and varnishing.
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