Monday 21 January 2013

Help us build our educational center

Thanks to a donation from the Friends of Waldorf Education in Berlin we have been able to resume work on our after-school educational project here in Sauce Peru.
Rafters are going up to support metal roofing with skylights and we are installing this traditional dome-shaped oven so the children can learn bread and pizza making.
We are still short of funds to complete this building project so we have launched a campagn on Indiegogo for $6000 to allow friends and family to participate with ease in making donations large and small.
Please see   http://www.indiegogo.com/lourdesjibaja-facebook  to view a short video about this project and please consider making a credit card donation acceptable in any currency.  Thank you Robin Stevens for making the video!

Sunday 20 January 2013

Jungle catamaran update

This 10 meter (33ft) one-of-a kind sailing catamaran project now is finished as far as the basic structure connecting the two hulls is concerned.  I have also put on roofs with temporary plastic as we are supposedly in the rainy season here in the Amazon basin, although it has not come on too strong yet.  It's mostly been pretty dry lately.  Later I'll find some thicker roof material.

Still to do is put seating/storage lockers in the starboard hull, wrapping the mast (a straight tree trunk)with reinforcing epoxy and fiberglass cloth before stepping it, making and installing centerboard and rudders and finishing installing  the deck.

Photos at right show where I have installed deck boards made of topa (known as balsa wood to model-makers) as an experiment to see if they are strong enough.  They seem plenty firm at 7/8 inch thick and I have ordered more to complete the platform.  It's the lightest wood available as I don't want the boat to sit any lower in the water.  I've also tried out an area of bamboo strips which also seems strong enough and has the advantage of being readily available here, cheap, fast-growing and adds to that jungly look I'm after.

In the cruising photo are Lourdes' daughter Thais and friend Anne who have just left us by bus for a long ride to Brasil after being in Sauce for a month.  They are both carpenters and helped us with various woodworking projects.