While en route out to the anchorage a few days ago we heard a noise that we both dreaded...a cracking noise from the tiller region. Upon close inspection our tiller had delaminated, meaning that we have to fix our current tiller or buy, beg or steal another tiller before we can leave La Paz on Pisces. A plea out on the morning radio cruisers net for a tiller source was unsuccessful, so we laid out our options:
1. Buy wood in La Paz and make a new tiller.
2. Order a tiller from the States and wait for it to be made and shipped to La Paz.
3. Fix our broken tiller to get us through until we put the boat on the hard for hurricane season for the summer, and come back home and figure out what we want our ideal tiller to be for next season.

We decided to go with option 3, and we are on day 4 of the (re) creation of FRANKENTILLER.

Installation of our e-tiller while we fix our regular tiller

Day One: Sanding the tiller, drilling out the holes for the new bolts

Day One cont: First round of epoxy.

Day Three: Dry fitting the tiller to see if our repair job will be sturdy enough

Day Three: Tao crew comes over to check out the sturdiness of the epoxy job
Day 4: First round of varnish with the tiller suspended on the foredeck so we can varnish it all at once.