Manzanillo, June 24th

This was quite an exciting day for us. We had gone yesterday and picked out the lettering for Fortuitous' name, and today Flavit was going to apply it. Of course, they didn't have the same lettering as we'd had, but we thought we'd found something we liked as well, if not better.

First they place it in position and measure to see it's centred etc. Then they remove it from the backing, spraying it with soapy water.

Almost there!

Reminds me of wallpapering and worrying about getting all wrapped up in it!

There we are!! We are renamed!

This photo is a bit blurry, but they are so happy with their work!

The name is on both sides of the bow, now, and we are now getting ready to do the stern. Lots of measuring going on. Bet Flavit wishes our name weren't quite so long!!

Remove the backing and apply! It's kind of scary because those names cost us about $75! I'm guessing that's still half the price of at home!

Squeeze out the bubbles and flatten!

How does that look?

Applying Canada!

Here we are!! But, drat!!! Right after this photo, Gato (on the right) was cleaning up and drying the handiwork and rubbed off the centre "a" in Canada!!! What!!! We'll have a new "a" tomorrow!

A group shot, with us, of the entire crew. What a great bunch of guys and terrific workers!!

Here they all are, front row sitting, from left: Tuty, Jorge, Carlos, Flavit. Back row, from left: Blake, Jorge, Willi, Gato. Most of these guys have worked on our boat 5 1/2 days a week for the last almost two months!

We bought them some after work drinks...mostly a couple of beer, but some only had coke. Should have been champagne for the renaming but the local store didn't have that!

Willi and Tuty chilling. Most of the crew are 30 or less. Tuty is our age...that would be 40!

Carlos...he tries to teach me some Spanish words for various tools and I teach him some English. He gave up on scissors because he couldn't say it at all!

Gato wondering if he should have a beer. After he "cleaned" off our middle "a" in Canada, he said, "No beer for Gato!!"

I guess Tuty's wondering if he should go for that second beer! Today we also bit the bullet and are having our glass in our main hatches replaced. We've already sprung for new plexi in the little ones in the salon, but every new job seems to sprout another. We can't possible have all new hatches except for the largest ones, can we!!?? So, now we're $400 poorer for new plexi in the large ones too!! Yikes!! Time to go home!!

This is our main salon with the new headliner. The small hatches aren't completed yet.

We are never without problems of one kind or another. We already had one major flood, when the nav station became a swimming pool. This is the remnants of the second one. These are all our expensive cruising books drying in our apartment. What a mess. The new propane box didn't yet have drainage holes. We had rain, you guessed it...the box filled with water (even though covered with a tarp)...the water siphoned through the openings where the propane hoses go...into our cabin. The water dripped everywhere and poured over all our expensive books! You don't want to know how Ralph took this one!!

Just to finish off, I have to show you some close up photos of our "apartment". Don't get me wrong, I'm very appreciative of being able to live where we have air conditioning and can come and go as we work on Fortuitous...but this apartment is not up to my usual cleanliness standards. This is our kitchen sink and blow-torch...er stove. Those of you who know me well will realize, just by viewing these photos, how I feel about this place...words are not necessary!

Suffice to say, the place needs work!!

Yuck! What's living in there???