March 2007: RETURN HOME to ENCANTO
Since returning to Ecuador, we have been going, going, going. As the lingo goes, we have been very busy (“Es muy occupado.”). We have been puttingin long twelve hour days, sunrise to sunset, filled with finishing up the boat, catching up on school, and putting our home back together.
- Finished all exterior painting by George Stewart’s crew
- Painted, by our Captain, the edge chime black with the underbody painted in the usual red anti-fouling paint.
- Installed the newly made fiberglass baffles for the water tank.
- Installed new zincs.
- Fixed the water pump and impeller for the sink.
- Bought spare zincs and impellers in Guayaguil. Thanks Susan!
- Ground to bare-steel the bilge area and repainted it in toxic, anti corrosion paint, several coats needed. Nasty stuff!
- Fix the refrigerator pump.
- Organized menus and meal plans for six months.
- Cleaned up the interior of the boat; scrubbed and re-organized every storage area into a zoning diagram of products and goods.
- Took at least 50 lbs of stuff off the boat…books, clothes. Stuff we never use.
- Completed School Exams #60- Included subject texts in art history, history, science, math, geography, language arts, literature and poetry.
- Shop ‘til I dropped--adding provisions and rations for five people. How much milk, Tang, rice, beans, flour, sugar, canned foods, garlic and snack foods will that be? Clos boxed red wine is nowhere to be found. All the cruisers have bought the shelves clean. We have a little time, so the next shipment may arrive before we leave…. otherwise, it may be more Cuban Rum for the Captain at anchorage.
- Stowe all the provisions: This was Sami and Gaby’s job: to label and date, all goods, remove all labels and packaging wraps. The glue on labels are attractive to cockroaches so all canned good’s labels are removed. All cardboard boxes can harbor cockroaches or their eggs so all boxes are removed, even the cereal boxes. Then, they dispose of all packaging waste while we are still on land, as we will have little opportunity for waste removal on our passage.
- Submitted our on line, IRS Taxes. Thank heavens for Turbo Tax submissions.
- Freeze meats in the Yacht Club Restaurant deep freeze so we can still enjoy Argentinean beef and Ecuadorian pork, three weeks from departure.
- Bought more and different fishing lures. Maybe we will have better luck catching fish, especially since we’ve provisioned under an assumption that we won’t catch Mahi Mahi, Wahoo, or Dorado.
- Re-fit and repaired the dinghy cover.
- Installed the new wind indicator at the top of the mast.
- Made new mosquito nets for the cockpit entryway and stern window.
- Re installed solar panels and all the gear that usually sits on deck.
- Re installed port lights.
- Painted the last 20% of the interior floorboards the purple-blue color.
- Wash down the entire boat.
- Prepare for Splash Down.
We hope to splash back into the water in a week. It has been one “hell ‘uv a visit ‘n Ecuador.”
Soon, we will be living in the water and getting our sea legs. We are looking forward to the gentle motion of the tides and currents. Did I write “gentle motion”? No more daily climbs up the twenty-foot ladder. Although, we have to say, it has been great exercise to strengthen our leg muscles to climb to the boat- a dozen times a day, ride our bikes around the marina and use our arm muscles to hoist 500 lbs of provisions, up by rope, hand over hand. There are NO weaklings on s/v Encanto.
We have NOT sail much this year. As we looked back, we have spent the year with three land trips to California, our six weeks land trip through Peru, our two weeks tour to northern and central Ecuador, our three months in Bahia de Caraquez and our five months in the boatyard of Puerto Lucia Yacht Club. Our last long passage was eleven days, our sail from Panama to Ecuador. In November, we sailed for three days, from Bahia de Caraquez to La Libertad. So, in total from June 2006 until April 2007, we have sailed a total of fourteen days. Definitely, it is time to move on to explore new territory in Encanto’s “ballgown”.
Time to sail west.
We must depart before Judy turns into an “Illegal Alien” (again); her visa expires on April 15th. The longer we stay in mainland Ecuador, the less time we will have in the Galapagos Islands.
We will splash and then await the arrival of our crew who will be flying in to join us for “THE” six months; this could an incredible way to spend her YEAR of the BOAR. We are very excited with the new addition to our crew.