Vltava at sunset


The beach at San Fransisco Island


We have had a few exciting months here on Vltava and I need to talk about it. I have had to deal with a lot of mechanical errors on the boat and it has been great because I am learning new skills and gaining confidence whenever i come up against a new challenge. I can't say it enough about how nice it was to have Tim around when things went wrong. nothing was broken for long and I got spoiled. He is doing well in the states and is hoping to be home in a few months. maybe I can try to fix all the things that were working when he left???? I have had a lot of help from friends in the anchorage and always have a great group of people to get ideas and help from. I got a really good kick in the butt when my friend Ryan came down from Loreto to visit. Not only is he TOO much fun but he is a very hard worker who is ALWAYS in a good mood!!!!! He really helped me focus on things that needed to be done and helped to motivate me to actually do them. He and his sister have a kayak adventure business down here during the winter months. Check out bajakayakadventures.com to really see what they are all about. We have been talking about combining a kayak sailing trip sometime in the near future which is really getting me excited. While Ryan was here he cleaned up the hull by reefing out old bungs and seams that had rusty fasteners behind them. He then treated all the rusty spots and then sealed the areas he had worked on. I am finishing the job by filling the seams and holes and then will sand and paint. I am really looking forward to making her bright! The school program is getting exciting also. I have found a guy named Jack on the sailing vessel water dog who is helping me write up a science curriculum to take to the kids in San Evaristo.(Actually, truth be told, Jack is doing all the work and I am just jumping up and down in the side lines!) He has 14 hours of really cool science experiments having to do with everything from electricity to the constellations! i am calling it a week long science extravaganza!!! I am especially excited because I always get to see the kids when we drop off cool stuff for the school but I never really get to see the stuff being used. This time we will use all we bring and I can't wait to see all those kids get excited about science! Jack is a really exciting hands on kind of teacher and I am looking forward to seeing him in action! We are going to be doing this at the end of April, after the kids get back from spring break. We are hoping to get other boats to come with us so we can give all the kids a good sail while we are there. I am hoping Vltava will be ready to go but I need to do a lot of work before then. The biggest thing is to clean the bottom. I have some friends who are willing to work for food but may change their minds once they get out here. I am also worried that cleaning the bottom may create new problems that I need to be able to deal with. I am planning on putting in another manual pump just in case the cleaning opens something up. That is about all that is going on down here. We are very busy with school, projects and work but always seem to be able to work in some fun along the way. I will add photos of Ryan working his booty off in the next post. Bye, Allison