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Melissa & Dave - Adventures at Sea

The canvas is back!

Several weeks ago we sent the entire cockpit cover off the boat to be re-stitched.  The cover was 5 years old and the fabric was in great condition.  But the stitching was shot.  The last time Dave removed and then zippered back in place one of the front panels, the zipper started to come completely off the panel because the stitching was so fragile it was all fraying apart - having been completely ruined by the sun's UV rays.  It wasn't clear whether the manufacturer had just used regular thread rather than the Sunbrella thread that has the same UV resistance as the Sunbrella fabric itself or not.  Odd that the Sunbrella fabric is just fine while the stitching is totally shot.  In any case, before leaving the US we had fortunately purchased a industrial sized spool of Sunbrella thread that matches the fabric.  Preparation being the better part of valor and all that.  So while we didn't realize how soon we would need the thread, we were happy to be able to give it to a shop here and have the whole thing resewn.  In addition, we had Uncle Bob bring down with him a new sheet of Strataglass so that we could also have the front windshields replaced.  The Strataglass is expensive and most of the windows were still in ok shape - but the front windows affect safety since you peer through them the whole time you are underway.  They had a few crinkles in them at eye level that were driving Dave nuts, so we decided to go ahead and replace them when we had the whole thing restiched.

It was a bit weird to hand the entire cockpit cover (worth maybe $5000) over to someone you can barely communicate with.  However, Donir Garcia came highly recommended.  So between some google translated printouts and much pointing and gesturing, we hoped that we were able to communicate what we wanted.

We had originally agreed that the work would be done Tuesday this week.  But a message was delivered to us Wednesday that Donir would return on Friday morning.  Saturday afternoon he showed up.  Actually for Central America that's pretty much "on time".  Donir had brought his wife and daughter along - probably because they planned to spend the day at the beach.  We learned Donir's place is 60 miles away - so making the trek here was almost a whole day's adventure to begin with.  The family insisted on several photos on the boat with the completed work now fastened back in place.  The $1000 in labor we paid probably representing a boon to the family's fortunes.  The price was fair given how much labor it took to completely remove all the old stitching and replace it.

Its nice to have the shade back in this heat!

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