August 2010

Ralph had the opportunity to stop in Cartagena on the return trip from Santiago Chile. There are a few more completed projects, and some underway. I have posted a few new photos of Fortuitous' facelift, both inside and out.

Construction in progress of our underseat boxes.

Completed bookshelf where the aft cabin/cockpit doors used to be.

Finished cabinet in the V-berth.

Finished propane locker.

Aft deck still needs to be gel-coated.

Finished cockpit.

Cabin windows repainted.



The rest are photos of what a terrific job has been done with paint and gel coat. Just look at that shine!!!

Leaving Fortuitous and Cartagena

We were right down to the wire on Saturday morning. We were scheduled to fly out to Bogota at 5pm, and the boat wasn't moved to it's (hopefully) final spot away from the work area. There were still tarps to first take down, and then put up, water tanks to drain, dinghy to put on board, etc. What a rush!!!

They were supposed to be moving us around 1 pm, so the gang put in a few hours of work finishing up bits and pieces. You can see our new propane locker aft, in this photo. That's our mizzen in the foreground.

Willi with tape in hand!

We didn't even have time to take real photos of all the finished and almost finished projects. We're very pleased with the results of all this work...but it really was a lot of work!

Here, we've finally been moved! But, by the time all was said and done, we had to leave the crew to haul the dinghy aboard, cover it, and re-hang all the tarps. We were just out of time. We don't like to leave things that way, but have confidence in the crew!

This is the view from the steps to our room. She looks great!

Flavit and Willi wave good-bye to us as we get into our taxi! There are still odds and ends to finish outside, but we trust Flavit and his crew and are confident all will be OK. There is at least 2 weeks of work for Tuty inside. We have left it all in his capable hands. It will be interesting to see what's what when we return.

In retrospect, we'd probably do this job again, but not with time constraints...just keep working on it until it's done. It was hard to leave Fortuitous in an unfinished state...but what can you do? Everything always takes longer than you think. Seeya in January, Fortuitous!

Last Renos to Fortuitous, July 2010

If you remember and earlier post, once we'd been "renamed", Gato had rubbed off the centre "a" in Canada...We were from Can da for a few days!

Here we are, "re-a'd" and with the monitor mounts in place. The window frames are all painted and look great too!

The new lettering is a slightly different font, but we think we like it even better.

This is the new arrangement for the cockpit. The small doors into our aft cabin used to be here. You can barely see our new hatch at the top of this photo.

This is the new propane/storage box on the stern. Not quite finished, but almost there. The newly varnished grabs are there with their new covers.

The crew are re-sealing our toe rail. Some of the caulking had to be removed in order to do a good job on the gel-coat.

Carlos and Jorge hard at it.

Meanwhile, Tuty is busy making our V-berth storage cabinet. The little block in the centre of the photo is his pattern for the corner moulding.

Lining things up with bits of string...it's amazing what equipment they can get by without.

We purchased 3-ply and Tuty veneered it with teak. What a great job!

Here's the corner moulding being put in place.

The side of the cabinet, with the corner in place.

Last fitting before trying it inside. Once he was ready, the entire thing barely fit through the companionway and into the forecabin. Not sure if he'd planned this to just fit, or we were just lucky!!

These are the tools he uses! The cabinet is to the right.
Unfortunately, this is a bit blurry, but it's the only shot we have right now. This is the almost finished cabinet. He trimmed around the doorway, and also the door, so it is a really nice finish.
I looked up from my cleaning and saw these feet in the window!
We have a shot of Greg almost like this one! This time it's Jorge finishing up inside the lazarette.
There he is! He fits a little better than Greg!
We built in the air conditioner to help keep down the mildew and mold. We'll see how that has worked when we return.
These are our new cockpit cushions. We needed new ones because of the different layout...and the old ones were 30+ years old.
These are our new settee cushions. I think I still like the older style, with the buttons, better. But these are much firmer and it would not look right with the buttons.

Cartagena in June

Cartagena is truly a beautiful city. We love it here! Below, find some paintings waiting to happen...I'm really looking forward to turning some of these photos into watercolours of some sort.
The balconies are just beautiful! Here, in front of a nice one, is a typical tiny taxi.

It's a joy to walk through Old Cartagena...well, except for the heat and humidity!

Ralph waiting for me to stop taking photos of balconies.

Not done yet! Some of the wooden ones have huge beams.

This is the square just as you enter near Torre del Reloj, or the clock tower.

Wonderful fruit wagons everywhere...but very little good fruit in the supermarkets. Obviously, everyone buys from these carts.

Bouganvilla cascades from the balcony.

And yet more.

Colour, colour everywhere!!

Yes, these are avocados! There as large as the papayas we get at home and they are just as good as they look!