Happy Hour!

Our 4 pm Happy hour has been renamed. 

 We now have a 4pm Safety Meeting. 

D6K waiting for the safety meeting

 Everyone is invited! 

Work, Work, Work.

This year because we stayed in the slip it has been a big work year for us and the good ship Slacker. We had a huge project list, including lots of sewing: awnings,

bimini, mast boot, engine work: replacing battery charger,

replacing engine mounts, adding turnbuckle to alternator,  replacing oil pressure alarm sender, service heat exchanger, adding a battery watering system,  

interior/exterior  re bed port in head, replace gaskets in main cabin hatches, replace all fresh water hoses, replace head,

                  

                                                             re caulk sink in head,

   

 add new stanchions,

                                                                        varnish,                                          

varnish,

                                           

                                                                         and varnish!

                                                                 

                                                         replace entire headliner

                                                                         v berth

                                                                under nav station

    and main cabin. 

We are now getting the boat ready to spend the summer without us, our work season has almost begun!?!  

Mazatlan Carnival 2012

         The theme of this year’s carnival is the   La Fiesta de los Imperios, a celebration of the Empires. The parade is divided into three sections. The Chinese, the European and the Roman.  All the floats and dancers were one of those groups and had costumes celebrating that dynasty.  The start of each group was a float that looked like stone and all the people on the float made to look like statues, it was very impressive.



The goddess on top of the first Roman float  



The Roman "Statues"





The "Statues" on the European Float



 The float was made to look like Notre Dame complete with gargoyles



      We spent the last few days and nights enjoying the fun of Carnival. The parade was just fantastic and the bands and party are always great. The first parade is the big one and there are over a million people who hang out on the street to take part .We enjoyed the parade from a ringside seat with Tom and Mary Ellen from Equinox.

The day before is the start of Carnival with the Burning of Bad Humour, and then the Combate Naval, a laser and fireworks show

the other Julie and Rafi enjoying the fireworks

The following day is the 2nd parade. It is shorter and much more low key. We were at the Olas Altas area and the parade is so close you can touch the floats and participants. The street vendors are all out and we found our favorite Taco Pastor 5 for 30 pesos



one of the puppets





Slacker and Mystique




John and Terry with the Pacifico girl



What we do with all our spare time

So what do we do all day you ask?   


 First we take out about 75 bungs in the trim

Then we take out all the staples that held up the old headliner ( we think they were paid by the amount of staples they used)

Then we carefully take down the old fabric

Then we cut out all the 35 year old plywood that the termites have found to be very tasty

We then use toxic substances to make sure the termites don’t like the new wood

Then as we are resting and contemplating the raw fiberglass in the ceiling...

you notice some strange things


a shoe print,

a half of a jigsaw blade,

and a paper match.

All permanently attached to the ceiling of Slacker (boy I wish we could hear the stories of those things!) 








We then use the fabric that we cut out as a pattern to cut the new headliner

Then try to fit the fiberglass panels back into the space without banging up the interior

Slacker Power & Light

On  of the reasons we traded our Honda 1000 for a 2000 was to power a larger battery charger.  Well I finally got the new changer installed.  To really complicate things I decided to keep the 30 amp charger in addition to the 55 amp I was installing.  Why you ask?  Well, you got to have a spare and why not have it aleady in place? 
Of course this required a remodel of the entire area. 

Left to right;
Iota 30 amp charger with breaker
Iota 55 amp charger with breaker
BlueSea fuse panel for "always on" circuit's
50 amp breaker for ham radio
125 amp breaker tying all this to the house batteries
Not shown but on that same wall are the Icom tuner and C40 solar regulator.
The manual bilge pump hose removed for claritity.  I would really like to relocate that pump some day.

All of this is in the starboard cockpit locker, nice and dry. 

Reggie the hedgehog

So to all you boat owners,  as you know marine epoxy and adhesives are very expensive and most of the time you only need a little bit, so the rest of the tube goes into the fridge or locker for the next use.  Invariably the next time you try to use the tube it is clogged and won't come out.

The Slacker solution:   

use bamboo skewer to punch a hole in the tube,

squirt out desired amount, reinsert bamboo skewer. Repeat as needed.



our hedgehog Reggie