Welding the deck

Here's a little insight in what we are doing. Please don't show this to your local professional welder, he might get upset. Still we do what we can and it will be good enough.
As you see it turned out there wasn't only small holes where the rivets were, but also more serious problems. This is a series of photographs I took while putting a new piece of steel in the deck.

Under a railingpole I found this hole. I cut the weak part out.
Pretty rusty.

I cut out a new piece from a steel plate.

And it fits! Now it' only a matter of welding.

I attach the plate at two points to fixiate it in the right position.

And here we go.

Turns out I should have cut out a little more, it's still a little thin there. Well, it's learning by doing...

...and it was 40 degrees hot.

On the hard

On friday we hauled out Barracuda and put her on the dry at Marina Manzanillo, Cartagena.
We started on the teak-deck which is very rotten and therefore leaking. The wood is all off now and we're derusting, as soon as I can get a cable I'll start welding the holes.
We made some good progress so far, unfortunately it started to rain a lot which makes working impossible and turns the boat (with all the holes in the deck still open) into a dripping cave.

New plans

It's settled now: Olly and I are going to cross the Panama-canal next spring and sail through the Pacific until Australia. In order to fond this trip we'll return to Saint Martin and work as much as we can during the winter season to save up some money. We're also trying our hand at finding sponsors; if anyone out there has tips and tricks or ideas for us, don't hesitate, tell us!

I will fly up there begin of October and Olly is going to join in November after a visit home. Barracuda is going to stay here in Cartagena on the dry while we're gone.

In March we'll come back and go to and through Panama as quickly as possible, heading for Galapagos.

The adventure goes on!

Cholón

Last week we sailed the odd 15 miles down to Cholón, where there's a nice and calm lagoon. It was nice to relax a little bit after all the city-life. We went with our friends Henrik and Christine from Birka and had a great time together.

Here's some photos.