All work and no play

Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador

In contrast to the incredibly busy month of December, the new year has ushered in a much more sedate pace of life. Part of the reason for this is that there are fewer cruisers around just now, especially here at the western end of the estuary where Paradise is located. The marina, which seemed quite full when we first arrived, is now all but deserted. We are the only people actually staying on a boat. We would also have left by now, if only going as far as taking a mooring closer to Bahia, except for a series of setbacks on the boat maintenance front.


The most serious of the boat issues has been the cockpit drains. Early in the month of January, while doing some reorganizing of the cockpit locker, I came across a badly worn hose. After removing everything from the locker and hiring a local guy to go in there and remove the old hoses (it is a very tight fit for me), it turned out that it was not only the hoses that were bad, but also the fittings on both ends were totally rusted out - the result of using steel fittings in a salt-water environment.

The thru-hulls themselves appear to be OK, made of bronze, but the attached bronze valves are completely unusable due to being effectively welded to the rusted remnants of the steel hose adapters. My guy was able to screw one of the valves off, but the other one was impossible due to its close proximity to the exhaust hose. Before I let him cut it off, I decided to make sure I had a replacement plan in place. I needed new hoses along with some sort of hose fittings for both ends.

Thru-hull with valve removed

Valve that came off easily
 

Valve that does not come off easily
 

Drain holes at the back of the cockpit

 

Nasty glued-in rusted-out drain pipe

 

Begging rides into San Salvador whenever they are offered and scouring the aisles at various hardware stores confirmed that there was no hope of locating 2" bronze fittings. So as a backup plan, I snagged some PVC fittings instead, and downsized the size of the hose slightly. Weeks later, with all of the materials at hand, I had the mechanic cut the old valve off. I then managed to squeeze myself into the locker and proceeded to install all the new pieces, with the help of copious amounts of epoxy, silicone and heavy-duty hose clamps. All in all it doesn't look half bad now!



PVC drain replacement - epoxied-in

 

New PVC fittings and drain hoses

 

Our poor weathered bowsprit is looking much better now as well. We found a carpenter who was able to repair a lot of the cracks in the wood, thoroughly sand it to smooth perfection, then cover it all with a couple of coats of epoxy. Hopefully this will extend its useful life a few years.

Before

After

 

Looking good!

 

We have a working VHF radio again. Against all odds, I was able to buy an in-stock sailboat VHF antenna at a marine supply store in San Salvador (the same store we were trying to find last month when I managed to half destroy our rental car while going the wrong way down a one-way street - the details of that adventure are just too complicated to go into here).

Two trips up the mast and I had the new antenna installed, working perfectly as far as I can tell.

Of course, the most anticipated project was the new sail cover and lazy jacks. Doyle sailmakers came through on time and it was shipped from Barbados on January 20th via FedEx, arriving at the El Salvador airport one week later. One trip into San Salvador and two trips to the airport, along with lots of pleading, begging, threatening, an incredible amount of paperwork and significant amounts of cash later, the sail cover was released from customs into my welcoming hands. According to everyone we talked to, including the agent we had to hire, getting something through customs in just over one day is some sort of "miracle".

Over the last week I have gradually installed the new cover. This necessitated a couple more trips up the mast to install some new pad-eyes and blocks, then removing the sad remnants of the old cover from the boom and finally persuading the new cover onto the boom with the new lazy jacks and all, and we are almost done. It looks pretty good but will need some final adjustments with the sail raised. We also have to modify the front cover piece a bit because when I measured the circumference of the mast, I did not take the protruding winches and mast-steps into account. Oh well - it is almost perfect...

 

 

We are finding that work, especially outside on the deck under the unrelenting sunshine, is a very slow process, requiring frequent breaks to cool off and rehydrate. As a result, it never seems as if we accomplish very much, given how long we have been here.

The weather here in fact has been a bit cooler in January than in December. Daily highs are still in the mid 30s during the day, with lots of humidity, but a lot of the nights have dropped into the low 20s, which actually feels cool to us now.

We have managed to do a little socializing with the few other cruisers around, Sunday gatherings at Casa L&L and a few lunches or dinners out, finding a couple of restaurants we had not known about before, but generally Susanne is complaining that she is not having enough fun.

To try and alleviate this "no fun" situation, we made plans to get out of the marina and head to one of our friend Bill's moorings this morning on the early high tide. Unfortunately, while idling, waiting for slack water to arrive, the engine overheating alarm went off.  The temperature gauge confirmed that all was not well and with tears in our eyes, we shut the engine off.

 

The good news is that the alarm works, something I have been sceptical about ever since our false alarms a few years ago which forced me to replace the temperature sensors and gauge several times. The bad news is that the engine is actually overheating, for reasons which are not yet known. Needless to say, we are once again firmly attached to the dock here at Paradise, until further notice.

 

 

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Hectic December

Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador

 

 

After a couple of days attempting to get acclimated to the brutal heat and humidity, we started tackling a few of the known, and some new, issues on the boat. I had one of the mechanics here take on the resurrection of the Mercury outboard (I thought it best given my unfortunate track record with said motor), while I got the dinghy launched, then took on a similar project to service the Honda generator (I really must learn to get all the old gas out of these things when we are going to leave them for any length of time). We had success on both fronts.

 

 

I have scrapped the old staysail cover and removed the staysail itself until we find someone who can make us a new cover. For the mainsail cover and lazy jacks, I have researched and found a design I like the look of, from Doyle Sailmakers. Oddly enough, I had to order it from their Nanoose Bay location on Vancouver Island - the Cradle Cover itself will be made in Barbados and shipped to me in El Salvador sometime around the end of January.

 

The bowsprit, now stripped of all of its finish, is in great need of some TLC. I have a quote from a local carpenter but I have yet to gather the supplies he needs before he can get started. I am hopeful that a planned trip into San Salvador tomorrow will yield some results.

 

Inside the boat, the problems that I had previously posted as having solved themselves apparently did not actually do so. The bathroom sink drain stopped draining (which also put our shower out of commission). In the process of removing the plugged hose, it just ripped apart in my hands. I lucked out on this problem though, when the mechanic at the marina found a perfectly sized piece of exhaust hose that he could sell me. I replaced the hose and all is well. As a precaution, I also replaced the drain hose from the kitchen sink since it is the same size and I have been worried about that particular hose for years.

 

Emboldened by that success, I decided it was finally time to tackle the rebuilding of the head (It has never worked that well since the last time I serviced it and it was getting worse all the time). I did a much more careful and thorough job this time, replacing every part I could find in the rebuild kit, regardless if it seemed necessary or not. When complete, the toilet worked like new.

Unfortunately as soon as I tried to use it, the outflow hose became totally blocked - this was sort of a low point in the month for me. Because the thru-hull valve for that hose has been completely seized for several years now, I could not simply remove the hose without risking a boat-sinking event (Yes, I know this problem was inevitable, but I had hoped we would get to somewhere where we could get the boat out of the water before it actually arrived). It has taken me almost a week and a half, working with a couple of borrowed drum augers (plumbing snakes) and many gallons of Muriatic acid, to get all the crap (literally and figuratively speaking) out of that 5-1/2 foot run of hose. I promised Susanne that I would have the head working for Christmas, but I was a couple of days late.

 

Other, smaller issues included fixing a non-working burner on the propane stove, replacing a non-working cooling fan on the refrigerator and a similar one on the Engel freezer. Note that as soon as I had the fan working well on the Engel, it stopped working altogether - there is a small chance that I might be able to find a refrigeration guru somewhere that can fix it but as of now it is still out of commission. One of the cabin fans was making a lot of annoying noises - I serviced that so now it is making even more noise. We found a colony of termites in the floor, around an access panel for one of the water tanks - I managed to kill a lot of them and drive the remainder somewhere where I can't get at them.

 

 

One other issue that I have not even contemplated yet is the VHF radio antenna which has disconnected from its wire at the top of the mast and is now somehow dangling up there.

 

On a pleasanter note, the last two weeks have been extremely busy for us. For some reason, the El Salvador social scene has been in overdrive - that is in part why we have not made more progress on many of the maintenance projects.

 

There have been the usual pot-luck Sunday suppers at Casa L&L, plus additional days spent there for Christmas (a special treat hosted at Lou and Lynn's home for about 90 locals, a lot of them young children), and a gala pig-roast on the 27th. In between, we have joined other cruisers and local expats for suppers at Bahia del Sol and lunch at one of the palapa restaurants in the estuary (that is a long ride from Paradise Fishing Lodge in our little dinghy).

 

 

 

 

Our friend Bill's birthday

 

 

 

 

 

On the 29th and 30th, we joined a few friends for day-trips, the first day to the towns of La Palma and Suchitoto (which we had been to before) and the second day to Ilobasco and San Sebastián (where we had not been before). Long days with a rented van and driver, but enjoyable nonetheless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday, we took in the New Year's games on an island in the estuary, then joined some cruisers for the party at the Bahia del Sol resort for New Years Eve. The fireworks up and down the estuary were spectacular.

 

 

Futbol, with a unique, challenging field

 

Dance contest

 

 

Today is just about the first break we have had in a long time, so hence this post. Originally, I had intended to use this opportunity to start cleaning up and reorganizing the boat after the incredible mess I have made of it over the last few weeks. Unfortunately, I started with the cockpit locker, only to discover a scary torn hose on one of the cockpit drains. This needs to be replaced but it is in a really awkward place for me to get to - the last time I worked in that locker, I thought I was going to get stuck down there permenantly, and I was a lot more flexible then than I am now - I may have to farm this job out to some younger, smaller person this time. But today is Sunday, so nothing is going to happen right away regardless.

 

 

Susanne's latest indulgence

 

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Posted with Blogsy

Estuary times

Paradise Fishing Lodge, El Salvador

As promised, our friend Lou (and his driver) collected us from our hotel in San Salvador on Wednesday afternoon. We made a stop at a Super Selectos grocery store to pick up a few provisions for the boat, then picked up a load of Papusas for lunch and were whisked off to Casa L&L (Lou and Lynn's house on the Estero Jaltepeque) where we stayed for two nights.

 

 

 

 

 

We hitched a ride to the Paradise Fishing Lodge marina on Thursday and spent a couple of hours evaluating the state of the boat, starting up the refrigerator and getting a few things opened up and such. It was a pretty sorry sight, with the disintegrated sail-covers and stripped down woodwork, but overall things were not as bad as I feared - the problems I had encountered during my short visit last spring, particularly with the sink drain and non-functioning head seem to have fixed themselves over the summer - a nice surprise.

 

We could not spend much time on the boat as we had to leave to meet another expat couple who have bought a place on the estuary - as cruisers, we never turn down an invitation to anything. We had a small impromptu afternoon party at their place, which is still under construction but does offer a pretty nice pool.

 

Today, Friday, we have moved onto the boat and are rediscovering the joys of a hot, humid climate with no air conditioning. The actual temperatures are in the low 30s but with the humidy, it feels more like 40. I have started on some of the preliminary work on the boat, taking the staysail off and getting the dinghy pumped up. Tomorrow, I should have a better idea of just how much trouble we are in.

Susanne has managed to get a few cupboards cleaned out, but just sort of ran out of steam around noon. We have rented a car, which was delivered to us here at the marina, and used it to go out for a late lunch at Mar y Sol restaurant - that will be our main meal for today!

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