Carla and I have been burning the midnight oil, and from both ends. The Pacific is in our thoughts and dreams daily! Carla wants to go surfing.
We accepted a small loan to get Splendid into real shape for chartering. Her hull looks like crap and it’s time to change that. I have some good hard working guys here ($20 day + lunch) and I need to put some real elbow grease into the hull. My shoulders are shot and working a 9”angle grinder with a sanding disk for 8 hours a day just isn’t going to happen, and I have a number of projects going on.
I bought a small diesel genset (Mase is3500) in trade for my not-working motorcycle and $400. It will save my main engine and run the water maker at a liter an hour, as opposed to nearly a gallon. It runs strong but needs to be cleaned, painted, rewired, and re-plumbed. It uses a Yanmar diesel engine, and the cool thing is I can buy a completely new engine for it for $600 if need be, or rebuild for just over $100. I think it will be good, cheap, dependable power.
I’m off to Panama city to buy said angle grinder 
and supplies, and will put the boys to work next week. I have to pull off the rub rail and have them strip the hull back to the original gelcoat or primer. After that, we will roll on new primer, sand, roll & tip, and sand, sand, sand some more. And yes, I’m painting the hull in the water 
I’ve had a painting breakthrough!
Spraying is just too difficult outside. The weather has to be perfect (sunny, no rain or wind), and there is a lot of stuff floating in the air 
here (dust/bugs). The problem with rolling & tipping is the lack of brushing liquid. Interlux makes a product 333 but it’s not available here, stupid expensive, and not easily importable to Panama. Well, I came across a post about mixing my own brushing/rolling liquid (thinner) and found that it (333N) is only a mix of kerosene and naphtha.
http://forums.wcha.org/showthread.php?8811-Brushing-Liquid-substitute
$52.99 a gallon or $8.00, I’ll go with $8.
Needless to say I’ll be making my own brushing liquid (thinner) for 2-part polyurethane. I’m sure it will take a little experimenting (finding the right roller, brush, etc.) to get a decent finish but this is huge!
I’m also planning on building my new ice box soon. I’d like to open a discussion with anyone interested about Aspen Aerogel’s Spaceloft insulation for such an application.
http://www.aerogel.com/markets/building.html
PDF download:
http://www.aerogel.com/products/pdf/Spaceloft_DS.pdf
I’m tired of working on the boat and want to go sailing. In March/April we will be chartering in San Blas again and running some backpackers. We will be doing local (Coasta Arriba) day charters in 3 weeks or so. We need to pay off the loan and make some cake for a haul-out. We also may have an opportunity to do whale-watching charters on the Pacific side of Panama later in the year.
If anyone wants to see Panama and take an affordable Charter $150 P/P, or $125 and you bring your own food & booze. We will really show you a good time : ) I’m thinking about running a raffle again too?
I really miss the Pacific, it is my ocean! We have been talking about the sea of Cortez lately. I could really use the dry weather for a while and I hear the spear fishing is superb.
The sea calls daily.
Sail far and live slowly!
– alex