I just paid the yard bill installment at Cabrales in north Mexico. Argh, it’s just about a YEAR the boat has been sitting on the stands. But Ruby and I are down here now, getting things ready for our early October launch. It’s really hot during the afternoon, so we hide out in the air conditioned customer lounge. In a bit we’ll go back and work on getting both the main and dinghy motors started (and running smoothly). The main motor wouldn’t fire this morning so I’m doing some troubleshooting.

The nice beach is about five blocks away, and we’ve been hitting it for an hour or so each day. Ruby the water dog, at 8 months now, is a great swimmer. Fun to watch her body surf a bit. I should get some video for you guys!

Here’s the latest from the boat shed, just before coming back down to Mexico. The re-done floors you’ll see in this movie now look good back in place. Enjoy.

This time you guys get one video from Ravenswing in Mexico, and one from the boat shop back here in California.

Here’s the final big work push on Ravenswing at Cabrales Boatyard in Puerto Penasco. Want to ride along in a huge Travelift crane? Well just have a watch here…

(PS, the handsome white-locks dude is my Y2k co-worker Tom, who convinced his dear wife to drive south from Scottsdale into the desert to visit a boat sitting in the dirt. SOOOO good to catch up with Laura & Tom!

In this one, the restored Lido 14 sailboat goes to a new owner in Newport, CA. There are very active Lido fleets in Southern California, so I figured the boat should probably head back to the land where she was built. I didn’t get much response advertising here in the SF Bay Area, but once I let folks know delivery was available on my way through to Mexico, it was easy to find a buyer down south. And the orange ski boat finally got finished up, just in time for our kids’ visit from Denver. Griffin, Taylor and their Goldador (Lab x Golden Retriever) Goose will be playing on the CO lakes with their new-old boat now. It looks pretty good for 52 years old!

So while we sit here making boat videos, we’re on pins & needles with the wildfire situation in the Sierra. Wishing strength and fair wind to everyone in harms way. The climate has changed, people :(