Dinner Invitations

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Dinner Invitations

I received 2 dinner invitations for this week, so have been a busy boy! New Year's Eve, at midnight, my taxi driver friend, Edgar called to send me New Year's greetings, and asked me to return to his home for dinner again. We agreed to Thursday which is 3 King's Night, and in many places in Latin America is a big celebration.
So Thursday night, Edgar picked me up at 7pm and took me to his home where we enjoyed a lot of rum and Cokes, a bottle of wine, good company and a wonderful meal, again prepared by his oldest daughter, Perla. Shrimp, beef steak, mashed potatoes and vegetables, followed by a piece of cake I had brought for the table. It was a very nice, and long night, as Edgar and I, alternately joined by either of his sons, or Perla's boyfriend, sat for several hours finishing the bottle of wine, the bottle of rum, and some beers. The next day was a quiet one for me, and when I saw Edgar next, he agreed that his had been quiet as well.
This is their Christmas tree, which was trimmed in the corner of his deck.

Perla and her mom

The table after dinner -

Also, Jim and Norma, friends on s/v Mi'Lady had invited Paty and I for dinner there, and we agreed to Saturday night, instead of attending the cruiser's pot luck. Norma loves lasagna, but is too much to make for just the 2 of them. It was great.

We joined them about 530 for cocktails in the cockpit. Paty was in a playful mood - not too shy when around friends she likes!

My camera is just slow enough that after I clicked the button, Jim and Paty could duck out of sight. Nice friends, huh? 2 mischevous kids - that's what they are!

Does this really need a caption?

Norma hard at it in a very hot galley, preparing the salad - with a smile.

A certain white boat rat, named Rico, who is getting pretty friendly now, after ALWAYS barking when I approached their boat. Now, I get licks on my fingers, and yes, Rico was slipped a few scraps from my plate during dinner.

We returned to the cockpit after dinner for a smoke, while Norma dished out the ICE CREAM! Ooh, what a decandent luxury for those of us who live on boats!!!

A great dinner - great friends.

Life is goood!! And so was the lasagna!

To each, thank you for wonderful food and good times. I love my new life!

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About Annah Foster

Annah Foster is a 1980'ish Morgan 462. She is a USCG Documented vessel and the year on the document is 1979, which I believe is the year the keel was laid. She is known as a ketch, which means she has 2 masts, and the aft mast is forward of the rudder. She also is a center compartment boat, which means the helm is located between the 2 masts, which are, by the way, the main and the mizzen. She is equipped with roller furling on the jib/genoa sail which is the big triangular sail on the front. Her empty weight, or rather displacement, is 33,000 lbs, which is fat for her length. Mr. Morgan believed in thick fiberglas for strength and I am told that at places it is often found to be 2 inches of solid fiberglas. Her keel has encapsulated lead weighing 8,000 lbs.

She boasts 2 staterooms, - v-berth forward with separate head and twin beds aft with separate head, including the famous bathtub. The configuration of the aft stateroom could easily be changed with a change in the mattresses to an almost queen berth, port to starboard, but currently she has twins, running fore and aft, with 2 large mattress cushions separating them. There is also a ladder and sliding hatch aft for egress in an emergency, to the aft deck, which I call the back porch. I bought some director's chairs for it and have sat there many evenings enjoying a drink and sunset. The aft deck is also the location of the propane gas grill, storage for the 2 outboard motors, Yamaha 4hp 4cycle, and a Yamaha 15hp 2 cycle, which power a new Apex Lite 10'6 inflatable dinghy, which can hang from the installed davits.

The main sail has 2 reefing points on jiffy reefing and the mizzen has 1. No lines lead to the cockpit but the jib, main and mizzen sheets.

She has a Switlick 6 man life raft mounted aft the mizzen mast. And, an emergency tiller aboard.

She is equipped with a Perkins 4 cylinder diesel engine, powering a Hurth transmission and turning a 4 bladed Max Prop, which feathers when sailing, and reverses pitch in Reverse so that she has the same thrust as in Forward. One unique design flaw is that the propeller shaft exits the boat at 3 degrees off center, making the port prop walk in reverse, even worse. The engine is equipped with about a 90 amp alternator with a very good voltage regulator.

She also has a Westerbeke 5.7 kw diesel generator, which produces 110 v AC power, and charges the batteries thru a 40 amp charger. I also have a Honda 1000 watt gasoline powered generator for emergency 110v, and an automotive battery charger aboard.

She came with an old Windbugger wind generator, not quite perfectly mounted. Stowed in the V-berth, there is a replacement AirX marine wind generator and 8 foot mast waiting to be installed, along with the controller, and 2 solar panels, which are half the possible wattage the controller can handle.

She has 3 4-D AGM batteries for the house bank and a type 18 start battery - all are 12volt.

The 4 gallon water heater will heat with both engine cooling water and 110v AC power and is equipped with a mixing valve to prevent scalding.

Tankage - Water - 110 gallon port and 85 gallon center tanks
Fuel - 175 gallons
Range when new at 2250 RPM is almost 800 nm.

Currently, her refridgerator and freezer are 110 volt AC, with several holding plates each which must be manually started and stopped. She has waiting to be installed, 2 Cool Blue 12 volt systems, with automatic controls, but truthfully, I don't know where the new holding plates will fit.

Electronics -
She is equipped with 2 VHF marine band radios, one at the helm and the other at the nav station, with repeater at the helm, and a hand held low power VHF 'walkie talkie'. Also, at the nav station, she has a Single Side Band HF radio - SSB with a Pactor 2 modem making her capable of downloading NOAA weather fax and Sail Mail emails and Grb files. onto a dedicated IBM laptop. She has as primary a Raymarine E-80 Chartplotter at the helm and a smaller Garmin Chartplotter for back up at the helm, a handheld Garmin Chartplotter, and an older Furuno GPS at the nav station. She has an older Raytheon black and white 24 nm radar at the helm, with a repeater at the nav station. She has a RapidFix 406 EPIRB, emergency locator beacon, that is hand activated. She has a new Clarion AM FM CD player, with input for computer or MP3 player on 3 sets of individual speakers - cockpit, salon, and aft cabin.

For those who do not know me, I named her for my parents - Annah Margaret and George Foster Doak. It is through their beneficence that I am able to live this dream and I felt that I should dedicate my boat to honor their memories.