Making Progress

While it was not a very exciting week, I made some significant progress on several fronts.  I got the prescription for my intestinal woes and am now about 2/3 through the regimen.  Feeling better, but still not back to normal.  Jorge finally returned to finish putting new turnbuckles on the lifelines, which was a real breakthrough.  And, I completed or achieved milestones on a several minor projects.  I even managed to make a few interesting little discoveries in town.  Evenings brought thunderstorms, some with pretty heavy wind and rain.

A thunderstorm comes through!

Between getting supplies and going to the medical center,

I did quite a bit of bus travel.  Sometimes they are pretty crowded!

There are two bus routes across town to the Romantic Zone.

One parallels the malecon, the other runs along the back

side of town along the mountains and through a tunnel.

I took that route for the first time this week.

I went to A Page in the Sun for coffee and books while I waited

for the doctor to write up my prescription.  It's a pleasant place

across the street from Lorenzo Cardenas Park.

Humorous sculpture in Lorenzo Cardenas Park

More sculpture in the park

The water taxi pier near the end of malecon

in the Romantic Zone

This puzzling scene was along a pathway from the main highway

to the beach in Puerto Vallarta.  The wall is one side of a building.

The pathway followed a small creek to the sea.  It was

popular with the egrets.

A new superyacht arrived at the marina this week.

Back on humbler craft, the owner lays on the second maintenance

coat of Cetol Clear Gloss on the starboard rub rail.  Hurray!

That's it for this year's full maintenance coats!

Hurray again!  Jorge finally returned to finish up the lifelines.

Maybe he sensed I'd given up, and since I owed him $300,

he thought he'd better follow up.

He's actually a good guy, but like Chava,  way too busy.  And,

in the Mexican way, tells your what you want to hear to be

happy rather than telling you the sad truth.

Using his portable roller swager to make the swages

on the new turnbuckles.

Finally, all the lifelines are properly rigged with adjustable

turnbuckles.

The second genoa winch (starboard side) serviced.

Like most jobs, the second one took half the time.

Another "finally:"  first two galley locker doors refinished

in mirror-finish gloss varnish.  It took many coats, with

careful sanding between each one.  But, it was something
I could do when rain threatened.

Hard to see in a photo, but it's a nice improvement over the

"before" on the left.

Doing the routine topping off of the batteries led to solving

a mystery and a surprisingly difficult-to-solve little problem.

One of the two brand new jerry jugs I had bought for storing

distilled water for the batteries leaked.  Probably a defect unless

it happened upon a very sharp edge in its storage cubby.

It explains the mysterious puddle of water I found on the

floor of the engine room a few weeks back that never

reappeared despite several hard rains.  I replaced this

with a heavier duty jug, and once again drilled a hole in

the top handle to allow for pressure changes that had

crushed a previous jug.  All  I want to do is store some water!

It was past time to check on the prop shaft packing gland.

Prior to any adjustment, I had to bail the water out of the little bilge sump

and wire brush the packing gland to clean off the gunk and corrosion.

Got the fishing rod holders polished and remounted on my

new stern rails.