Tourists in Cartagena, May 2010

We have not had a lot of time to be tourists in Cartagena, but we have a few photos to share. We hope to have a bit more time, now, as we can't work too much while they are busy grinding and sanding. I MUST take more photos as it's a painters dream in Old Town!
They have the most fabulous fruit and veggie wagons!
You can buy almost anything off some wagon or other! Fresh coconut milk being served here.
Beautiful old doors!
Balconies of wood or stone...just a beautiful old city. It is completely surrounded by walls of stone, and the streets are very narrow.
Here I am looking for the emerald of my choice. I didn't buy here, but found a ring I loved in another shop.
Coffee in the plaza.
No, this is not out of the Wizard of Oz, although it appears to be the tin man in the making! This is yet another vendor...not sure what...with the garbage guy/sweeper-upper.
Grapes anyone? I do wonder how well those hand-held scales work?
Pop or beer, anyone?
This is the view out the door of our favourite breakfast spot, Cafe Luna Nueva (New Moon), on Calle Media Luna (Half Moon). $3.50 buys you fruit, juice, coffee, scrambled eggs (ham, cheese, onion,and tomato), a slice of cheese on the side, and toast and jam. Even get free coffee refills here, something they don't normally do here...I think it's because we've been here so often. We discovered it when we flew in from Panama City.
The sweeper, again, talking to the tailor across the street from our restaurant.
We have fallen in love with this kitten, across from the restaurant too. This is Greg's shot. I worry, as we sit there, about her running off into the ever-present traffic, as she is playing with something on the sidewalk. I don't want to be there for that.
A pair of pants for you in no time at all!
This fellow sits all day hoping someone will pay him for his statuary.
Hats and more hats!

Bags and more bags...

Candy and more...well, you get the picture!
More of the architecture in old town.
You can buy pop, water, and even beer on the streets from these guys.
The jewelery vendors taking a break.
During our stay here, the tall ships came in. This guy is selliing anything to do with that, hats, shirts etc. His suit is entirely covered with knots.
Ralph bought a hat from him, he wandered off, then we did too. We weren't 5 minutes away from where we'd met him, and he approached us again to buy a hat...we said we'd just bought one...he finally recognized us...I guess all us tourists look the same!

There is a lot of poverty here, although we feel very safe in Old Town.

Real silver...really??

Ice cream too.

These are the tiny little taxis in Cartagena. We had one of these, with Greg's bag strapped on top, and his wake-board and guitar on our laps....the trunk is full of propane gas tank.

This is a typical delivery in Cartagena. There are carts like this everywhere, some pulled by donkeys.

You can buy some time on a cell phone from this young lady. I guess business isn't that good, right now.

Woodwork anyone?

Another deliver of something-or-other.

We were very lucky to be in Cartagena for the arrival of the tall ships. There were boats from various countries including the US, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, etc.
We boarded the Mexican ship to have a look around.
It is very hot, and I'm trying very hard to be interested in various bits of rope and hardware...but, as you can see, I'm not very good at looking interested in this. Although, I must say, they are beautiful.
The Mexican ship, from the Brazilian one.
And, vice-versa.
Captain Ralph!
Loved the buckets, though!
Figure heads on all the various boats.
Here is the entire armada. We saw these on a different day.
The Colombian ship.

Captain Bligh...er Ralph!

This is the reason we didn't get to board any of the ships here. Apparently, every kid in Cartagena was on a field trip here on the same day we chose to view them.

The Coast Guard keeping an eye on things. They have 3 times 350 hp outboards...can't get away from them too easily!! That's it for this installment. More in the coming days.

Manzanillo Marina Club, Cartagena May 2010

We arrived, without incident, at the dock in Manzanillo Marina Club...not sure why they call it a club? We were given way points for the entry into the channel as it is very shallow. The points were very poor as at one point we saw one foot below the keel...a little too shallow for us! Since they only have one foot tides, there's not going to be much water coming in to float you off if you ground out.

At the dock, after much confusion about where/how we were going to tie up. We thought we'd go right into the travel lift dock, but that was not to be. We had to fit in between two boats on their dock (one boat left shortly after...maybe we scared him off? It didn't look like a lot of space, but turned out just fine...except for the "crew" who got their shirt in a knot about where/how many/how high the fenders had to be and where/and how the dock lines were to work! Maybe I'm too old for this or??
This is the travel lift area. It is a very small lift, and the dock is quite questionable, in Ralph's opinion.
They maintain they have repaired it, underneath. It was difficult to see, so that may be true. But, on the surface, the steel looks in pretty bad shape.
Here we are ready to be lifted. Unfortunately, we ran out of batteries in the camera when they were removing the mizzen. One fellow went up on the forks of the fork-lift as it came up to the mizzen. He tied a rope around the mizzen, below the spreaders, and then to the forks. Then they lifted it off Fortuitous. Never in Canada!!
I get to watch it all from a distance...just what I like to do best!
Ralph inspects Fortutious' bottom as they are adjusting the blocks and stands to support Fortuitous on the hard.

We have removed the bow decoration in preparation for gel coat and painting. You can see the colour difference since 30 years ago.
This is the tail end of Greg, as he has crawled in the lazarette to undo the bolts for the side boarding ladder. Nothing is easy! He's left Fortuitous now...so not sure who's putting those back on?
Flavit's crew is meticulous about fixing possible problems. We have the best of the best for all the jobs being done on Fortuitous. We decided to stick around now to do all the jobs as, in the fall, they are all super busy and it is much harder to get the workers you want.

Here, they are looking for blister damage but it was all quite minimal.
One of the fellows is grinding off all the bottom antifouling and old barrier coat. What a job...wonder what the life expectancy is of one of those fellows?
Here we are having our dinner at our "diningroom table". It must be all of 2' square! These are not the best of accommodations, but at least we have air conditioning and we are in the boatyard. It would be so much more difficult and expensive if we had to live in town, eat out, and take taxis every day. One downside is we're not sure how many ants we have eaten so far! We get rid of some, and they materialize somewhere else! had to throw out my entire stock of basmati rice...can't get that here either!
A little cramped for three.
We have bits and pieces of Fortuitous everywhere.
Ahhh, nothing like the high life!
Meanwhile, back in the yard...one of the first jobs almost accomplished! Gel coat being applied.
Fortuitous' stern coat...no more stripes there. That was tricky, making sure we had all the measurements to repaint the lines as they were.

Flavit applying gel coat to Fortuitous' starboard side.
He and his crew are amazing workers! They work 8 till 5, with a one hour break for lunch, five days a week...and a half day on Saturday.
Sanding her and shining up the gel coat. It's amazing how good it looks so quickly.
All finished the sanding of the gel coat! Wow, what a shine! She looks brand new!
Cleaning and washing off the ever-present dust.

What do we do next??
Here are the doors from our cockpit into our aft cabin. We decided to remove these as we don't use them, except for ventilation. We have a walk through down below, so they're really not necessary. We also wanted to remove the tiny port in the head and put a hatch, on top, instead. We'll also put a hatch in the deck where the old one is above the doors.
This is what it looked like when the closed it all in.

This is inside, above the nav station. We will have the carpenter build us some shelves in here.

A few days later, they've extended the seating on the starboard side and around where the doors used to be.

This area is also undergoing changes. The combi (the large instrument to the right of our companionway doors) is useless, so we are removing it too.
Here we are in the process of that...notice, just a bit of dust!
Flavit taping up to paint the stripes. It is a very difficult job to get them just right...not just one stripe but 5 along the sides of Fortuitous.
"Gato" working hard too!
Epoxy has been applied and we have a new barrier coat!
Last of the taping and plastic protection being applied, before painting.
Meanwhile, others in the crew are prepping the mizzen for painting. We had some dry rot under this mast, so we had to remove it. We decided to paint it since it was down anyway.
The new paint job! Old paint stripped, one coat of etching primer, another of regular primer, and then the topcoat! They also are cleaning the mast steps.
OK! Almost ready to paint.

Greg has been working hard on sanding and varnishing the grab rails. We removed them for ease of gel coating the top deck and to rebed them for any leaks we've had.

Inside, all the headliner has been removed and we've been cutting insulation and cementing it to the ceiling.

Tutti, our carpenter, has been re-doing the ceiling framing that had rotted out with various leaks over the last 30 years.

He has cut the panels for the ceiling and has tacked them in place. These panels will be covered with thin foam and then vinyl. They will be held in place with teak strips. This will make it much easier to take apart if, God forbid, we have any more leaks!

Here we are all painted! They did a beautiful job! However, there is one problem...I'm not sure I like the colour of the main stripes. It was supposed to be mocha, but seems a little too pink for my liking. Greg and I had the same reaction upon seeing it for the first time, "It's just a tad pink, isn't it?"

The jury is still out, but we are investigating repainting. We don't think it's their fault as I OK'd the paint. I haven't had a chance to look at the samples again, but we'll see.

It looks even more pink in these photos...really depends on the lighting. I'd like it more beige. Ralph's colour blind, so no help there.

To be continued...