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.

Boatwork and Bowels

Due to continued intermittent intestinal issues, I didn't do much exploring this week. I have been eating a very limited diet this week and keeping records to see if I can find a trigger for the problem. So far I've been doing better.  Time will tell.
I did manage to get a couple of nice sunrise photos and a nice video of the most torrential rain yet.  The rest was boat projects.  HOWEVER, the big victory this week was Chava FINALLY finishing my new stern rails.  As usual, his guys did really good work, and it's a great improvement.  But, it took almost three months!  Jorge is half way through putting turnbuckles on the lifelines so they can be properly tightened now that the stanchions are solid.  Still waiting for parts from the U.S. to finish.  Maybe next week.  I finished up the engine maintenance and started swapping out the turnbuckles and T-fittings for the main shrouds.  One side done so far.  It feels good to be making some real progress, but I'm getting itchy feet!

Early in the week I went down to the beach before daybreak in

the hope of finding some nesting sea turtles.  I had no luck,

but did get treated to a great sunrise!

There have been a lot of kiskadee flycatchers around the

marina lately.  This one was on the fence near the public dock.

On some days, doing the this was about all I could handle.

 Got more than 4 inches of rain in a couple of hours!

This is the gouge I wanted to cover with new trim.  I found just

the right piece of used molding last week in a marine junk store.

Same spot with newly refinished used molding in place.

Looks good!

Last item of engine maintenance after having changed oil, oil

filter, fuel filters and checking the engine zinc: changing the

raw water impeller.

The old impeller was fine, unlike my neighbor's that had missing

blades.  But that's why I change it every time I change the oil.

Mating surfaces on raw water pump cleaned and smoothed with

600 grit wet sandpaper.

New impeller and gasket installed, closed up and painted.

Jorge and his helper of SVS Marine install new turnbuckles on

the upper lifelines.

The lowers will be done as soon as the right turnbuckles arrive.

Chava's crew finally arrived to weld up new stern rails.

Here the welder is grinding off the old brackets that were used

for attaching the old lifelines.

Measuring and marking the new tubing

New top rail tack-welded in place

Welding the lower rail

Checking the weld

After tack-welding everything in place, going back and completing

all-around welds.

Buffing everything to remove the welding discoloration

and make it all pretty.

The end result (starboard side) is a great improvement.

I had decided to replace the turnbuckles and T-fittings

for the main shrouds, so on her latest visit Carol brought

new ones that I had ordered earlier.

Although the turnbuckle was looking bad, the real driver

was the T-fitting.  According to both my rigger and a knowledgeable

circumnavigator, this design is prone to failure because the threading

of the bolt into the pin is vulnerable to corrosion and cracking.

The new Hayne fittings eliminate that issue with a wrap-around design.

I've changed out the port side so far.  It's made more

complicated because I don't have a tension gauge, so

I need to go through more process to get both sides

back to the same tension as they were when originally

tensioned with a gauge.