Dribble

24 Comments

I’m not at all proud of this score, but I am proud of that 2 on the final shot. Coming through in the clutch.

Indiantown is a fine small town—it’s nothing special, but I’ve got nothing to complain about either. It’s got a nice hardware store, a modest grocery, and a smattering of gas stations and crappy food. The one thing, though, that stands out here is this taco truck. Best we’ve had north of the border. For the past month Lowe has lived off of their tacos de asada, I’ve devoured countless tacos al pastor, and Ali has developed an unhealthy addiction to their asada gorditas. Ouest may be the only one who is burnt out on the place. What makes me even happier is that there is a Burger King across the street that doesn’t do a quarter of the business this little truck does.

An original non-functioning alternator. I finally replaced that. When I finished I marveled over the fact that this was probably the single easiest repair/replacement I’ve ever done on any vehicle ever. Every bolt came off without issue. Every wire reached where it needed to go. Every terminal was well marked. The new adjusting arm fit perfectly, and the belt slipped right on without a single busted knuckle. Seems too good to be true.

This is Dribble, our marina turtle. He is the strangest turtle I’ve ever seen. Whenever we come out on deck he sees us and swims right over, like a dog would get up off a couch and run to the door when his owner comes home. We fed him by hand a few times off the swim platform, but after watching the gators slide down the weedy banks and disappear into the water 50 feet away we decided we needed to put an end to that practice. Now he just gets lettuce thrown to him.

I’ve never in my life worked on a project in which I had, the right tools, or a proper workspace. This is me about to cut some Starboard with a borrowed 40 year-old jigsaw. Fortunately, after the first cut a guy stopped over and told me there was a table saw tucked back in the trees at the back of the marina. I now believe in angels.

The bimini was built with these channels to hold eight solar panels. I’ve only got the first four here right now while making sure everything is going to fit/work.

Okay, this was the last time we were feeding him by hand in the murky water.

This project took quite a few hours over a few days. By the end I don’t think Lowe was all that excited.

The welder wanted to put two more bars across the front of the bimini where you can see the ratchet straps in the picture below. All biminis have them for side-to-side support, but we didn’t like the looks of them. So I thought why not just use a couple ratchet straps while you are actually underway? So this is that first attempt. It works perfectly. Cranked down tight there is no side wobble. However, now after seeing it, we’re thinking instead of putting in a couple of wires—like standing wire rigging. Nice and thin so they’ll hardly be noticeable at all, and won’t take away from the view out the front of the boat.

So there are a few things still to finish. I need to router the edges of the white panels, finish wiring up the solar, add the other four solar panels, and bolt all eight of them down. But for now it just feels good to have shade again.

Another Grand Banks showed up. Looks like he could use Ali to help him get organized a bit.

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24 Comments on “Dribble”

  1. Seeing your photo of the murky water around your boat, and seeing the photos of the destruction from the hurricane in Panama City gave me a flush of anxiety – for all those human beings seen wading in water deep enough for an alligator.

    1. We find it amazing that the marina does not have one sign warning of alligators. Even in Mexico they had warnings! Minnesotans like ourselves forget the dangers of fresh, murky Florida water. We saw them every night not far from our boat.

    1. Thanks, Peter. Yes, we stopped hanging off the docks and boat after we saw a couple of big guys swimming around the marina.

  2. I just had to zoom in on the Menu on the very hot looking taco ? truck❗️Ever try the Tripa, Cabeza, or Lengua❓

  3. That guy on the other Grand Banks is probably saying “poor people, they don’t have any stuff!”

  4. Wow, We finally made it on the road. And after 4 months we have returned home. This is the first time I have read your blog since I left. I will have to try and catch up. I know we just missed you when you were in Portland. I think my son missing his friends was the only major issue. Otherwise we would have kept going. My son is in school, and after talking to his teacher, I wish home schooling was not illegal here. Good to hear you are still enjoying it.

    PS: My wife likes Ali’s sunglasses.

    1. Homeschooling is not illegal in Oregon or anywhere else in the U.S.A. We’ve homeschooled 4 kids over 25 years in 5 different states and now via RV in just about every state. Became Texas residents as they have NO requirements. https://hslda.org/content/laws/

  5. Whoa, there!
    Is there some kind of mini bosun’s chair hidden in that shot of you working on the bimini? From this angle it looks like you are defying gravity! 🙂

    1. Sweaty left hand had me. It was about 50/50 whether or not I’d end up in the hospital during that portion of the project.

  6. Ahh, I thought that might be the case upon further reflection. I’m aware of the difficulties of homeschooling in Germany. Crazy as our country seems at times, we should never take our freedoms for granted. This country and its people for the most part are not what’s portrayed by the media nor the microscopic # of politicians and those in power that are out of touch with reality. Those of us that travel full time know this!

  7. Aren’t your kids Mexican? Assuming so, do they even require homeschooling? Putting that aside, your kids are getting a fantastic education!!!

    1. Yes, Maureen, they are Mexican and Americans. It is a slippery slope, all the laws, etc. Which is why we stay out of all the talk/groups about it – to each their own, and for our own way of doing it as well. Our main goal with our kids – BE NICE, BE HAPPY, LEARN EVERY DAY, TAKE SMART RISKS, TAKE STUPID RISKS, BE BRAVE, BE SMART and TRAVEL. This is the short list for sure.

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