May 2017 | MONTH IN REVIEW

Here's a quick summary of what we were up to this month.

• The rainy season came early this year and was officially announced on May 12th.

• It's been almost 9 months, and we're still working through our ever growing list of boat projects and repairs. We're slowly making progress, but many times it's like we're regressing {big time}. It's one step forward, few steps back.

• We spent a lot of time re-assembling the engine, but hit a roadblock with the alignment of the alternator belt. We spent another couple of weeks troubleshooting it.

• We also replaced the insulation in the engine compartment, serviced the steering wheel chain, replaced the nuts and bolts at the base of the jib stay and back stays (read '8 Bolts in 5 hours!' post).

• To be honest, it's been kinda hard trying to keep motivated. The never ending work list really takes a toll on us.

• We met our friend Rene on S/Y Yoyo again whom we met when we first arrived in Powerboats in 2015.

• We tried our best to complete the jobs before our 2nd visa extension expires (June 13th). But realistically, we knew it wasn't going to happen, so last week, we bought the cheapest tickets we could find to Miami, Florida.

Check out our posts this month:

How to Remove Rust Stains from Fiberglass | FSR Review

8 Bolts in 5 Hours!

Recipe | Alex's Famous Salad

April 2017 | MONTH IN REVIEW >>

June 2017 | MONTH IN REVIEW <<

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Photo of the Day | 2017-05-27

Here's our photo of the day! Super-sized bag of chips from PriceSmart in Trinidad @ 425.2 grams! 😃 Placed our 4½ inch teddy bear in an attempt to illustrate its size. We're used to the usual 184.2 gram bags, you can imagine how our eyes lit up in delight! 😆 {okay, so Alex will deny that his eyes lit up, but he sure had his fair share of the chips}

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Recipe | Alex's Famous Salad

Alex's Famous Salad

If you're salad lovers like us, do try out Alex's salad recipe. It's famous! ;) Finally decided to post this so that we could share it with our friends and family. A healthy, hearty dish for you and your loved ones.

Serves: 2-4 people

Ingredients:

Base Salad

•     1 Red Onion (finely sliced)
•     1 Red Capsicum (diced)
•     6-8 Tomatoes (diced)
•     4 Cucumbers (preferably Lebanese - sliced)
•     1 Apple (Granny Smith or Pink Lady - diced)
•     1 Eggplant (cubed & pan fried)
•     ¼ cup of Cashew Nuts (roasted, unsalted)
•     Handful of Snow Peas (sliced)
•     ½-1 Avocado (cubed)
•     Cheddar cheese (cubed)

Season With

•     Salt
•     White Pepper
•     Fresh Lemon/Lime juice
•     Olive Oil
•     1 tablespoon of Apple Cider Vinegar (optional)
•     Sour Cream (optional with chicken)

Variations (choose at least 5 others)

•     Handful of Alfalfa/Bean Sprouts
•     Handful of Baby Spinach
•     4-5 Red Radishes (sliced)
•     1 small White Radish (sliced)
•     4-5 Eggs (soft boiled & chopped)
•     4-5 White Mushrooms (sliced & pan fried)
•     Chicken (pan fried & cubed)
•     Coriander (chopped)
•     Bok Choy (chopped & pan fried)
•     Asparagus (pan fried, but still firm) 
•     Zucchini (cubed & pan fried)
•     Feta Cheese
•     Smoked Salmon

Method:

1. In a large bowl, add all the prepared ingredients.
2. Season and mix it all up.
3. That's it!

In this combination we (by "we" I really mean Alex) made the base salad with bean sprouts, baby spinach, red radish, white radish, mushrooms, chicken and sour cream. See photo's below.

Radishes, Snow Peas, Capsicum

Apple, Cheese, Baby Spinach

Cucumbers, Onion, Mushrooms

Tomatoes

Pan fried Chicken breast

Cut Chicken into cubes

Season, Mix & Enjoy!

We hope you'll enjoy this recipe!

If you made this, we'd love to hear about it! :)

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8 Bolts in 5 Hours!

Today we replaced 8 bolts at the base of our jib stay (the stay on which the jib is set). It took us 5 hours to complete the job! Yes, that's right 8 bolts in 5 hours. 

Very glad we decided to change them though, because 6 out of the 8 bolts were so badly corroded that when we tried to remove them, either the head of the bolt or the nut at the bottom snapped off; a couple of them even snapped off at both ends!

Corroded bolt snapped off at both ends

Base of the jib stay (view from under the boat)

A close up of the bolts replaced on the Starboard side (excuse the Sikaflex mess)

It was a real hassle but definitely necessary. We shudder to think what might happen if they snapped off at sea. It would without a doubt be a real challenge. Not one that we'd want to take on if we could avoid it.

The next day, we decided to replace the 8 bolts for the back stays as well. Fortunately, none of those bolts were as corroded as the ones on the jib stay so replacing them were easy peasy.

Before (port side)

After (port side)

The Old vs New - Nuts & Bolts

Just another typical day's work on the boat.

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How To Remove Rust Stains From Fiberglass | FSR Review

 

If we're not fixing leaks or fighting corrosion, we're cleaning rust stains... and we have a lot of them on our deck {oh! the horror}. Mostly from our stainless steel deck fittings and screws! Wait a minute.. doesn't stainless mean no stains i.e. no rust!? Um... no.. {sighs} Alex was quick to enlighten me that unfortunately stainless just means stain-less i.e more resistant to rust, staining and corrosion than regular steel! {oh.. :( so it still stains.. just less.. hmpf}

One day, on one of his many "shopping" trips to Budget Marine, Alex decides to buy this tub of FSR Fiberglass Stain Remover ($85.50 TTD). A non-abrasive light bluish stain absorbing gel, made in USA. According to the manufacturer, it's safe to use on white painted surfaces even gel-coat; great for exhaust and waterline stains, removes oil, rust from stainless steel stanchions and railings as well as road dirt from RV's and boats. Sounds fantastic!

So I put it to the test. The instructions were simple enough. I used a sponge (you can also use a brush or a cloth) to apply the gel on the affected area; left it to work its magic for about 20 minutes (or more) and wiped it off (you can also rinse off with water). No scrubbing required.
 

Before

Several applications for the tough spots

After - What do you think? Probably could do with another round?

I would say it works, those stains from the cleats have been there for quite some time (as we left Raptor on the hard for 16 months). It took several applications, but remove them it did {well most of it}. The less stubborn or more "recent" stains, came off in one or two applications.  

Besides cleaning off the rust stains, we had to re-bed the deck fittings. This meant digging out rotted wood in the deck core (this happens because the fittings weren't bedded properly the first time), filling it with epoxy, re-drilling the holes and re-bedding them with sikaflex, but that's another story..

If you're looking to clean rust stains without much elbow grease and don't mind spending some money, you can get this on eBay (~$15.47 USD), Amazon (~$13.64 USD) or your local chandlery/hardware store.

This was our experience with FSR. Hope this helps. If you know of any other way to remove rust stains from the deck/fiberglass, we'd love to hear it! :)

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