Several more months

                                          14 Oct. 2017
Greetings loved ones, 
Since the end of may, when last I posted, we've continued to stay busy. With some work, some travel and some working travel. 

In March, a young couple, Jordan and Desiree, arrived in Isla Mujeres on their 30 foot sail boat, Atticus. Shortly after their arrival a "nortè" blew through and Atticus drug anchor. She ended up dragging into one of the marinas, doing a bit of damage to a couple of other boats. This is how we met them, as they were going around thanking everyone who had helped, with apologies and assurances that Jordan would repair the damage they caused. When Capt Johne found out Jordan has fibre glassing skills, he asked if Jordan would want to work with him on an up coming rudder job. Jordan was excited to have the work even after I told him that Capt Johne is a perfectionist and can be difficult to work for. Within a month they had moved to the dock here and have been our next door neighbours ever since. 

This past year has been the year of the rudder. Johne has built, or rebuilt, 5 rudders in the last 18 months. After we got back from Ft Myers, early in June, he and Jordan started on a huge rudder for a 55 foot sail boat that had run aground off of Cuba. 

At the same time, our friend Melissa, a Nova Scotian, who spends quite a bit of time here on Isla, came to stay aboard Second Star for a bit to learn more about boat life and whether it suits her.

June 6th I made a trip up to VA to help my family with huge, on going, project of clearing out the house my parents moved out of after 37 years of stuff collecting. When I got back on the 13th, the welding work was almost done and it was time to start foaming and fibre glassing. It took a couple more weeks to finish the rudder (I don't think Melissa is so sure about this part of boat life) at which point Bob arrived for a couple of weeks of "vacation". I don't think Bob has ever made a trip to Second Star that he hasn't done boat work and bled, and this was no exception. While the guys finished up the keel work Melissa and I started getting Second Star ready for sea. When the job was completed, both Second Star and Atticus headed down to Bahia Ascencion for some fishing, snorkeling and much needed relaxation. It had taken a full month (a little longer than expected) to completely rebuild the rudder, pull the boat out in the yard, fix the damage to the keel and re-launch. 

The trip down to Ascencion was pretty nice. Melissa hadn't done much if any boating and, while we had some rougher conditions in the evening, overall it wasn't a bad trip. She said she enjoyed the good parts enough to make up for the not-so-good parts.
We had a very pleasant week down there. Bob and Johne got to do some good bone fish stalking. Jordan went with them for one of those trips. Jordan, Desiree, Melissa and I got some good snorkeling in. There was reading time, dolphin watching, some napping and some good meals.

We headed back a couple of days before Bob was flying out so we could troll on the way and stop in Cozumel over night.  The weather was beautiful and the fishing wasn't bad. They were catching a bunch of frigate mackerel and a couple of false albacore. It was all catch and release, but I think they had fun.

When we got back in cell phone range, we received the very sad and shocking news that Johne's cousin Armida had passed away. As I mentioned in the last updated, we had just seen her on our trip to Indian Wells in March. It was very difficult to wrap around the idea of her being gone. 

When we arrived at the marina in Cozumel I boched a simple docking and damaged the starboard bulwark by putting too much pressure on the cleat. Trying to set all that aside, we went into town and had a pleasant dinner. And the next day we had more great weather to finish the trip back to Isla Mujeres. Bob headed home the next day and shortly after that Melissa went back to Canada for some family stuff. 

As soon as we got settled back in it was time to start the next rudder job. This one was a pair of small rudders for a 42 foot sailing catamaran. Johne made templates and got the "back bones" welded. Then Jordan made "foils" which hold the shape. After that comes foaming, sanding,  glassing, sanding, fairing, more sanding...and bottom paint.   

Before mid - August we'd finished that job and we were waiting for the next weather window to make another run to Ft Myers. Jordan and Desiree needed to take care of some stuff in FL also, so, while Desiree needed to be there by a set date, they decided Jordan could ride up with us. 
The weather was mostly great for the trip and Jordan was excited for the chance to fish on the way. The first day, less than 40 miles out, they caught some nice tuna. The second day we came across a big box of some kind floating in the middle-of-nowhere gulf of Mexico. We trolled passed it and right away they called "fish on". I brought the throttles back, put her in neutral, and watched a very excited Jordan bring in his first Mahi-mahi. We made a few more passes and they brought in several more Mahi before we moved on. All in all a successful trip up. 

The 2 weeks in Ft Myers was hectic. We had lots of stuff to gather up and get loaded aboard. A road trip to the east coast for supplies for the next big job. And trying to get in as much visiting friends time as possible. 

Desiree was able to join us for the trip back which made for a luxurious 3-on 9-off watch schedule. There was more successful fishing and we made the trip in record time for this direction. Capt Johne managed to use the gulf stream in our favour which is almost impossible coming this way. (For more detail on the trip back see the Captains log, posted in September).

We got back at the end of August and I had less than 2 weeks before I was flying up to VA again for my family "beach week ". There was a damper on this year's gathering because Darrin couldn't come due to some major issues his girlfriend is having. But the rest of us had a lovely time.  The weather was mostly beautiful in spite of the threat of hurricanes. We had beach walks, pool time, puzzles and games, Thai body work, stories, movies and lots of great meals. I'm very close to my family and it's wonderful to get to spend time with them. 

More sad news came while I was at the beach with my family. Our friend Kay, who had travelled with us through the Panama canal a few years ago, had a heart attack and passed away suddenly. Kay was very loved here on Isla, in TX, and, I'm sure, everywhere she touched. She is missed.

I got home from that trip on September 18th. Since then, most of the focus has been on the current big job, which is a wet deck extension, similar to the one on Second Star, for a 58 foot Bertram. The first part of the frame work is shaped and welded, and some preliminary fibre glass work is done. Now we're waiting for the boat yard to be ready to haul her out.

When this job is finished, we're planning another run to FL. After that there is talk of heading south again. Colombia, Panama...who knows? The adventure continues.