MIRADOR IS ON THE AIR AGAIN!

Mirador's ICOM M710 radio is back on the air thanks to the great work by Servicios Electronicos Marinos in Mazatlan.  They replaced a transistor and resistor and cleaned up all the corrosion they found on several circuit boards.  The radio was repaired on time for a very reasonable fee.  I have tested it by sending e-mails via Winlink and Sailmail and by talking to HAM radio operators in Southern California, Texas, North Carolina, Florida, and El Salvador. 

I am in the process of building a new transom and seats for the Portabote.  I found a half-sheet of 5/8" and a whole sheet of 1/2" outdoor plywood at a nearby wood store.  Getting the two sheets back to the Marina was an experience.  The "pulmonia" I hired had a roof rack to which we strapped the plywood.  Both sheets went flying off the front of the rack the first time the pulmonia driver slammed on the brakes for a speed bump.  Fortunately there was no car or pedestrian in front of us so no damage was done.

A pulmonia is kind of like a Volkswagen with the top cut off and a luggage carrier mounted over the engine in the back.  They are open from waist level up and usually seat two or four passengers. Every one of them has some type of cage over their top to support a canvas cover.  There are literally thousands of them in Mazatlan.  Usually there are one or two in every block and you just flag them down like a normal taxi. 

They are called Pulmonias because they are wide open to the weather, have no heater, no windows and can be cold or hot depending on the day.  I guess someone thought it easy to get pneumonia when riding in one.

I've been doing a lot of bicycle riding and have seen all kinds of neat, out of the way places.  I don't use a map to get around but rather navigate by keeping an eye on the radio towers on the hill above the old harbor, the towers on Icebox Hill, and the steeples of a couple of the big churches down town.  I am never lost but often am quite surprised when I come off a back street and find myself at an intersection in a part of town I wasn't planning to visit.

The transom and seat project is taking longer than anticipated because the polyester resin I am using doesn't set very quickly in the high humidity.  The stuff gets tacky within ten minutes but then takes another eight hours to get hard.  So, I can only manage two applications of glass & resin in a day.  I don't have a workbench and have to do everything on top of the dock box.  That means I can't easily do all four edges of a seat at one time since there is no way to support the seat. 

I hope to be done by mid-week and then will decide what to do about traveling.  I just found out that I can leave the boat in this slip for about $144 per month.  If I can find a cheap air fare I guess I fly to Seattle from here.

I'll let you know.  But, it's almost four o'clock so I'm off to throw some horseshoes.

Here is our horseshoe area, right at the top of Dock 5.

And here is Jim from SV Kula (in the white shirt) and Dick from SV Corazon de Acero (Heart of Steel).  Jim is from Seattle and Dick is from Silverdale, Washington which is on the Kitsap Peninsula about 20 miles west of Seattle.  Dick took about eight years to built his beautiful steel Roberts Design 44 foot cutter in his back yard on top of the big hill just west of Silverdale. 

Our horseshoe games are best described as "poor horseshoes with lots of rude commentary. " We play from 4 PM until about 6 or 6:30 PM and usually have three or four two man teams with five to ten spectators.