As we proceeded to spend money "like it was going out of style" to get SIESTA ready for her cruise home, we frankly left the cosmetics work out, with a very low priority.

However, our burgundy hull stripe was looked pretty sad and got worse with all the sun and salt water, without its regular wax job. The red paint was just SHOT, and the boat looked pretty sad at Marina Palmira in La Paz.

As we were preparing to leave for Florida for our holiday vacation, some Mexicans, hungry for work, approached us about waxing and polishing. Just to see what we happen, I asked Servando and José if they had experience in painting with polyurethane paints using a brush. As it turned out, they had just completed a paint job on a luxury sport-fisherman, right next to us.

When we looked at the quality of their work, we asked for an estimate, and upon getting it, we put together and printed an Excel spreadsheet with the quoted materials and labor costs, stipulating that the boat stripe had to painted prior to our planned arrival back in La Paz on the 10th of January of 2002. I paid for the materials in advance, and the bulk of the labor was to be paid upon completion of the job.

As it turned out, after sanding and priming the stripe, the red paint was applied with appalling results. We got an email in Florida from the sailboat CHULA MULA reporting the disappointing results to us. When we arrived back in La Paz, we met with the Mexican paint team to discuss options. They proposed that they take the boat out of the marina, anchored it nearby, while they would spray paint the stripe from a small floating platform.

We got everything ready and prayed for no wind and calm seas. As it turned out, by the time the heavy gasoline compressor was mounted on SIESTA's deck, and all the masking material was applied, it had started to blow. We anchored off the marina, and I watched as the compressor was started and Jaime got ready with his spray paint gun. I was about to call the whole thing off, when the chief painter, Jaime himself, stopped the proceedings and asked that we return to the dock without spraying. I was glad that I was not the one to call it off, although if Jaime didn't, I would have.

We were anxious to leave La Paz and start our journey south to the Mexican mainland. There was a chance that, during the winter season, there would be no calm weather such that the spray painting could be done. I explained that I may have to leave before the boat was painted, given my schedule, which was discussed up-front. They understood and agreed that it was fair if I had to leave before weather permitted the completion of the paint job.

As it turned out, the next day turned out to be a dead calm day, and the paint job was completed. We were very satisfied with the results, and everybody was happy!

Take a look at the pictures...

Before the paint job:

Going through the "painting experience", a spray paint gun job, anchored off Marina Palmira in La Paz:

After the paint job: