Today I started putting up some shade

and I know they don't look like the picture below, but then, the GREEN FLASH doesn't look like any boat you've seen either.

This is the front 1/4 of the boat... and since they are pointy at that end (usually), I used a triangular sail by itself to cover the triangular shape of the boat... at that end, like I said. Because the sail itself it connected to the boat, I put the sailshade at the top of of the hull and propped up the center to get some air circulation underneath.

Sails are designed to get power from the wind and I don't want that. I want the boat to stay in the position and place that it's in now and not some other place (or position) after a big gust of wind. As I progress with the building of the FLASH, I'll raise the shade to accommodate. But so far, this seems to work OK. The "feels like" temperature was hovering at 112 when I did this today. The afternoon sea breeze helps, and I wanted to install this shade while the wind was blowing so I could see the effects it had on the stability of the boat on its stands.

Also today I stopped by the Yarda Los Calambres (Yard of the Cramps) to pick up some more steel beams for building infrastructure - possibly stuff to hold sails up, or make work tables and such. Picking around in this place is fascinating stuff, but wear old clothes.

Back on the Mooring, Back on the Books

The BLISS boat is back on the mooring after a month of dockside work. I left the camera on the boat for some reason, but maybe will pick it up later today. The outboard really needs some attention and I have a bunch of paperwork to do (ugh!) because of the !$%# business. Also, the generator has finally arrived from Michigan via Nogales and I will need to find a spot for it out at the rancho. Did I mention that it's huge? Weighing in about 1,000 pounds, it takes up most of the space in my pickup. I'm going to have to hire a crane to put it in the boat, but the little crane I installed on the pickup does a good job of what I have to do with it now. The genset came with meters, filters, spares, but I haven't seen a technical manual for it yet. I was able to download a users' manual from the Westerbeke website, though.

I may have to get a liter of coconut ice cream to get me through this. That and my camera.

Still comfortable temperatures in San Carlos, thank God. How I despise being cold.