The one month courtship with my new ELANgant lady friend is working out well. We are getting ready for the Honeymoon. I have decided that her name will be “Fleetwood IV”. The name has been used for several models of Cadillacs and Pontiacs my first car was a 1950 Chevrolet “Fleetline”. Fleetwood is a well-known travel trailer. It is an English family name and towns in England, Canada and the USA. I almost forgot Mac’s pop band named after my boat.
I moved from the Happy Iguana marina, 6 days after I arrived there, to the Manglar Marina. The only way to get to town from the Iguana was by lancha (water taxi). I slept in town for 3 nights and when my transfer money cleared, on to the boat. The shopping area with supermarket and hardware stores is just outside the gate of the Marina Manglar. I call it my Frog Pond.
The harbor master is Jean Claude Danois and most of the customers are French. I feel very comfortable here, like a fish in his favorite environment. Jean Claude organizes barbecues for the guests, we bring the ingredients and the tableware. And often other French sailors in the neighborhood come to join us here.
There is an active morning VHF radio check in with weather report, activities, buy & sell, etc. Every Tuesday morning there is flea market, “Pass it on” where sailors deposit there surplus items and purchase these treasures. It is well run by volunteers and the proceeds go to local charities. I checked out a Karaoke and Marguerita evening. The last time I dipped my toe in this was in a very similar setting in 2009 in Luperon on Hispaniola, another hurricane hole with also a sizable semi-permanent fleet. I had put the lyrics of “La Malaguena” on my phone, but they had it on their screen, part of the verses were not what I know. But it worked o.k. I had learned it when I took guitar lessons from a Spaniard in Los Angeles in 1957. The Kingston Trio made it popular in the early sixties. I retained nothing of the few cords I learned on the guitar. I gave it one more try in 2006 when I was in the Philippines where they have excellent guitar builders. It did not work anymore. Instead of staring for hours over the same horizon, I could be singing and stringing from the cockpit to the moon and the dolphins.
I have found a RC church a 10 minute walk away. St Antonio Marie Claret church.
My first visit was an experience. The first 20 minutes I was standing up with everyone singing as if I had ended up in an Evangelical or Pentecostal service. Hand clapping, arm waving. Obviously an adjustment made to compete with the growing protestant type of services. Check: https://youtu.be/Wehii4Zxeb4
On the Sunday after Christmas “Feast of the Holy Family” A one minute 15 second video.
After my recent experience of empty churches in the Netherlands to witness this joyful event, with young families is proof of the importance of the Family integrity.
My shopping list is down to a folding bike and a life raft. I have my rowing inflatable, and a 2nd hand Aries pendulum wind vane. A harness, jack lines, bosun chair, some tools, table ware, bedding etc.
I found a local metal worker to make the frame to mount the wind vane to the transom. He has a job to finish but I should have it in a week or so. In the mean time I have repaired the blade of the wind vane to keep sea water from soaking into the foam core. I am very familiar working with epoxy but that only comes in two quarts. So, I used polyester resin and glass cloth. Which is available in small quantities. I am impressed with the one hardware store that mixes colors from bulk in two part urethanes/catalyst and reducer. I needed less than 10 ounces. The same for some blue paint that I need as background under the white lettered decals I have for the boat name, web site, home port. I never expected to purchase a white fiberglass hull.
On popular demand, I made a 9 minute YouTube video of a walk through the boat.
As soon as the wind vane is installed I plan to take off. I will try to make a short stop in the Hemmingway Marina on Cuba. About a 4 day sail from here. But this will depend on the trade wind strength and direction. I tried this in March 2017 but gave up and peeled off to the north. But the trade winds are not quite as strong a month earlier. I’d like to try and see if I can find any leftovers of “Fleetwood II”.
I wanted to share with you that the Los Angeles fire catastrophe hit hard home for me and my 1st wife. Our very first home we moved in to after our (another) honeymoon in June 1959 on 503 W. Terrace Street, Altadena is gone up in smoke and ashes. As you can see the Street View picture is nearly identical to the one taken more than 60 years earlier. A rare treat that the occupants were still as satisfied as we were. The three Birch trees I planted are missing.
Google Street View. 503 W. Terrace
In the upper left corner of this picture you see part of the JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) division of the CalTech university. The Moon walkers. My wife Joan worked here as a data processor on the Mercury project when we lived on Terrace street. I was drafted in January 1961 and sent to Fort Lewis near Tacoma, Wa. Joan ended up working at Boeing in their Aero Space department. The JPL campus escaped the Eaton Fire.
Stay tuned. I will turn my Satellite tracker back on once I start moving. You can find the directions to find me in the right upper corner of this web site.