March ‘98

*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!

March 1, Sunday
Mazatlan

We’re getting to be pretty regular at no school on Saturday and Sundays. I guess that’s what happens when there are kids around. The thing I don’t like about it, is that it makes me realize how fast the weeks are going by. John puttered around with this and that, small projects. One of the fresh water lines broke, well, slipped out of the hose clamp – no telling how much water we lost, as the engine was running, so we didn’t hear it to know until the bilge pump went off.
Samie went to the pool with the kids. Tonight, they all got together to take pictures. Fun group of kids.
Oh – I was interviewed today by Sarah Zale, Never-Never Land, she’s writing a book about women cruisers and those with children aboard.

 *I’ve tried several searches for Sarah Zale’s book, but to no avail. I found an author from Tucson named Katie Sarah Zale, but her books are more poetry driven and unrelated to the cruising life. I’m uncertain if Sarah went under another pen name or if the book wasn’t published or some other situation. If anyone reading this knows where to find it, please let me know!
I remember this being a fun night taking photos with the gang. Meghan and Caitlin from Shadowfox were there, as was Robyn from Impossible, Lexi from Odysseus as well as Max and Trevor from See World.

March 2, Monday

Happy 43rd to me!

John waxed the side of the boat. Other than that and school, not too much happening. All the other kids went in to the water park – so Samie was kinda down about not going.
We went into town – Jan on Jayda let us use her car – did a little shopping and saw Titanic, very good. Angie, Angela, baked me some lemon bars.
Goon called.

*I assume I didn’t go to the water park with the kids because they often went into town without any adults. Meghan, her sister Caitlin and brother Alec were the oldest three and usually in charge of the pack. Mom and Dad weren’t comfortable with me going into town without any adults present, so I wasn’t allowed to go on those occasions without. At the time, I was resentful and wished they’d let me go, but now I completely understand and would likely make the same call if I had a kid.

March 3, Tuesday

We woke up to a real thick fog this a.m. We moved over to a power and water dock early, we are parallel to park on Dock A. Foxen, Pete and Tracy got in this a.m., it’s her B-day today.
John changed all the oil and sprayed down the decks. I defrosted the freezer and sewed up 2 wind-scoops. Samie was out and about all day.
Shine called.

*This would have likely be one of those days when Mom probably "paged” me over the VHF radio to call me home. Remember, the radios were all on the same station in the marina and the calls would often echo throughout, so occasionally I’d hear something like: “Wandrin’ Sam, Wandrin’ Sam, it’s time to head home for dinner!”

March 4, Wednesday
Mazatlan

Samie did the net again this a.m.
The beer truck still (we’ve been waiting for 3 days now) hasn’t shown up – so John and Pete, Foxen, headed in to town. Of course, 10 minutes later, here’s the beer truck.
Our engine parts came in today, John put on the new thermostat housing.
I was typing a 2-page letter to Nanamuk and just finishing up when John started the engine and dumped the computer – shit!
Samie goofed off all day with the kids (after school) and since we’re on the power dock and closer, she’s out again tonight. They all gather up on the walk-way by the office.

March 5, Thursday

Normal day – other than it was cloudy all day.

*I’m at it again with uncanny timing and these entries! I happened to pick this back up the same day I randomly decided to watch the Titanic. Too funny.
I remember as much fun as this season was in Mazatlan with all the kids, it was tough at times because they were all able to do things I wasn’t, so I often felt left out.

March 6, Friday

Really cloudy today.
Samie did the net, then we moved over to Dock 4 – again – no power or water – we’re right next to Foxen.
Jim and Kitty, Summer Wind, came in today via the bus to pick up their van. Hal and Angie came by and we all visited, then later all went out for tacos. Nice to see them again.

*Ha! I do vaguely remember this moment in the dinghy. 😆I was able to bring the dinghy back under me and work my way over to the dock without going for a swim.

March 7, Saturday

John painted – after scraping – the wind vane post, also repainted the lengths on the chain. Always busy with something.
Jim took us in to the meat market, we spent $667 pesos on 12 pork chops, 10 ribeyes, 4 chickens, 5 kilos of burger – it filled the freezer right up.
Samie is on the planning committee for the St. Patty’s Day party here for the marina crowd. She’s enjoying that.
Jim, Kitty, Hal, Angie, Megan and little Hal all came over and we BBQed some great steaks. Enjoyable evening.

*Pretty sure I have always loved helping plan events and putting things together. It can be a lot of fun!

March 8, Sunday

Big day for Samie – I finally gave in and let her shave her legs. She’s been asking for 2 years now – she’s all smiles!
Samie, Ray, Soul Coaxing, and Monica, Vagary, went in to the church today to talk to the Father about blessing the boats on St. Patrick’s Day – a tradition, I guess.
John sanded the cap-rail and polished brass.
Samie and I spent the afternoon at Angela, playing Scrabble with several kids. She’s over there tonight watching a movie.
I faxed Jazz in New Zealand.

*Ahhh, the coming-of-age milestones of girlhood! I think I managed my first shaving experience without any cuts or knicks, which is impressive! Perhaps that’s why it took me so long, I was being extra careful. What an exciting day for young me, ready to be “all grown up.”

March 9, Monday

Samie went into town with Monica today to buy supplies for the St. Patty’s Day party. So we are busy tracing and cutting shamrocks. Later, she went with Angela and Sea World to the aquarium.
John painted the cap-rail and ran the engine to equalize the batteries – we have a bad one. The engine made a clanking noise a couple different times, but he thinks it’s no big deal.
Me – I sat on my butt and read all day.

*Some days are made for reading. 😉

March 10, Tuesday

John put a second coat on the cap-rail and the hand-rails.
After school, Samie and I went with Angela to the El Cid pool. Much nicer and warm water.
Lee and Glo, Papagayo, although traveling by land this year – come by for a visit. Nice to see them.
Since we are not on a power and water dock, we have been going up to the marina showers – saves hauling that much water to the boat.
Nice day, a few high clouds - 85°, only a light breeze – beautiful!

*Sweet Glo! I had such a short time with her, but there is something in me that softens and, well, glows a little when I think of her. ✨ Some people are just magical that way.

March 11, Wednesday

Happy B-day Cammie.

Lexi from Odysseus and family went back to the States for a couple of weeks – they are from Chandler – small world. Because Samie was saying goodbye, it was 2 pm before she (we) were finished with school. John found the bad battery and replaced it ($60 US / $504 pesos)
Pete and Tracy, Foxen, came over (all the way from the next slip) and we had Dominos Pizza delivered. Watched Men in Black, not that great.
Another humid, partly cloudy, 90°, wonderful day.

*I like reading about what new movies we were watching for the first time - I can remember how I felt the first time I watched them. I remember liking MIB and oh, what a treat it always was to get pizza delivered to the boat! That is one thing I miss about not having access to so many conveniences all the time - some of the simplest things became such a treat! Like a favorite snack or delivery pizza or a new movie. They were much easier to relish and be excited about. Of course, I am grateful for the fact that I can take a quick drive to get almost anything I need, or order in online, but it obviously doesn’t hold the same appeal when you don’t have to wait for it, work to find it, or travel for it. I wonder what ways I could find to bring these types of treasures back into my life - like taking less advantage of “because I can” or “on a whim” purchases. Maybe make myself wait a certain amount of time before I treat myself to something… 🤔

March 12, Thursday

John re-torqued the engine today. He also took the netting off of the bow-sprit – we may take it off all the way around, too.
Not much else today. Oh – Samie and I got 200 shamrocks cut out for the party on the 17th.

March 13th, Friday

Of course, John worked on “this and that” all day.
Myself, Samie, Angie, Hal, and Tracy (Foxen) went to El Cid, but nooo, they wouldn’t let us in this time. So we settled for the other pool, where Big Hal pulled out 5 scorpions off the bottom, all dead. Later on, Angie, Angela, and I played scrabble with several kids.
Samie freaked out when she went in the bathroom – there was a HUGE wolf spider on the wall. It ran around the corner and hid, we tried to kill it, but it’s still hiding in my room. Probably in my dresser drawers.
I went up to the “full moon howl” – OK.

*We lucked out with many resorts that would let the cruisers use their pools, despite not staying at the resort. Sometimes, like this, it was hit-or-miss. Not sure if it depended on who was in charge that day, how many rooms they had full at the time, or some other circumstances. It could have even been as simple as whether or not they saw us arrive from outside the resort vs. straight from the hotel.

March 14, Saturday

John went into town with Dan, Jayda, to have the injector checked – bad. They also stopped at the lumber yard; he said it was amazing. They cut the pieces exactly how you want and it’s cheap.
So we’ll build the box for our garage while we’re here next year doing the FM thing.

March 15, Monday

I’m a couple days behind here and I don’t remember what went on today.

March 16, Tuesday

Angie, her mom, Connie and I went to El Cid Marina for a small fashion show. At 3 pm a lot of us got together to get the veggies ready for salads, etc. tomorrow.

March 17, Tuesday

Happy St. Partick’s Day.

At 7:30 am, Samie and all or most of the kids, with Sandy, Sirrius, and I were blowing up balloons – tying them to yarn and stringing them around the tent post. Also decorated with the shamrocks and set up tables.
I went to the 10 am mass, then a priest went around in a panga to bless the fleet, a tradition. Pretty neat with dozens of dinghies following along. 1:30 pm was the sailing dinghy races in the big turn-around area between docks 6&4. We watched from the stern of our boat, almost had one of them bump us.
3 pm, Samie and Jeanette, Soul Coaxing, stamped all the paid customers for the dinner. Excellent dinner: roast pig – with the apple in his mouth – potatoes, carrots, salad, bollios, chicken and hot dogs for the kids. John was one of the four bartenders, all having a ball. There was another bonfire to end the day. I do believe a good time was had by all!
Unlike yesterday, when the wind blew 20k – today was perfect with only a light cooling breeze and a warm temperature.

*So much fun! I truly loved the environment in Marina Mazatlan, especially, there was always great community there. The real estate around the marina was sparsely populated at the time - no resorts or shopping centers, nothing bringing in tourists or even people from town, really. So it was pretty much just the cruisers there, our own little group of people to gather and do as we please, for the most part. Like a tiny little village of visitors, coming and going with the tide.
I’ve said it a thousand times before and I’ll say it a thousand times more - I am so deeply grateful for this wonderful bit of cruising life I got to live. It will always and forever be the greatest treasure of my life, as it has so much to do with who I have become and how I have chosen to navigate through life. Thank you, Mom and Dad! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!! 🥰

March 18, Wednesday

In the showers this a.m. I met a lady from Fiddler’s Green who has a brother living in Flagstaff, of all places. Small world!
John dove the bottom and scraped all the barnacles off this old, bad paint.
Spent a couple hours with Lee and Glo, Papagayo, - they are leaving in their camper in the a.m. for San Carlos. We had another pizza delivered tonight.

*Pizza, pizza!

March 19, Thursday

It’s Little Hal’s, Angela, birthday, #6. I made him a banner and Samie had all the kids sign it. Angie had all the kids go on a scavenger hunt. 2 teams, Samie’s team – with Meghan, Caitlin, and Max, won.
Dick (marina manager) gave him the piñata that didn’t get done on St. Patty’s Day. Then there was cake. Everyone had a ball.
At 7 pm everyone – Shadow Fox, See World, Angela, Hop Toad, Samie and I all went in to Chile’s Pepper, a restaurant down the beach in the Gold Zone. Shadow Fox took a bunch of CDs and we all got crazy and had a ball dancing. Got home at 10:30. No more busses running, so we all hopped in a “red truck taxi.”

*So much fun! I’m surprised we didn’t get around to the piñata on St. Patty’s - we must have been having too much fun to even notice!
I love that the restaurant let us play our own music, that’s awesome. I’m bummed I don’t entirely remember going to the restaurant - I know I definitely would have been so excited to get to go with everyone.

March 20, Thursday

Slow day, - lots of wand’rin and enjoying.

March 21, Saturday

A group of us went to the beach – Samie got too far out on her boogie board and one of the huge (surfing-size) waves knocked her board flying. I was headed out to her, there was a surfer (not in our group) helping her stay afloat as the waves crashed over them. He got her far enough in to me. She was pretty shaken up, as was I.
John’s been working on a piece of wood for Samie’s desk.
I love the way the Mexicans water the trees and other greenery here at the marina. They drive a water truck around with a man standing on top holding a pressure hose and giving everything a good wet-down.

**This was a crazy day. In my recollection, more actually happened than what I think Mom realized. Not only were the waves kicking my butt, but there was undertow at work, too. Lexi had almost gotten taken out by the undertow earlier, and I remember a big fuss of everyone gathering around her as they got her back in on the beach safely. I don’t remember anything else about it, like who was able to bring her in or how long it was that she was struggling, I just remember her getting back to shore.
When it happened to me, I ‘m pretty sure I was with the boys from Hop Toad, talking/playing. I remember I could touch bottom just fine one second (them being a little closer to shore), then the next moment it was just GONE. I went to touch my foot to the bottom and ended up fully submerged when there was no sand to be found beneath me. Then a set of waves started coming in and I started to panic a bit. I didn’t really know the trick about ducking under the wave in order to not be bowled over by it and so I was in a bit of tug and pull, being taken in a bit by the wave, only to be pulled back out by the undertow. I don’t know what happened to the Hop Toad boys, I was too focused on the waves. I tried opening my eyes a few times underwater to see what was around me, but was also scared of what I would see. Then one of the waves caught my boogie board and the leash gave way so I didn’t have anything to hang on to to help keep me afloat. I remember my poor momma panicking on the beach, waving me in, hollering for me to get my butt back to shore. Not sure she realized that the undertow had me. Then all of a sudden there was this local kid, not much older than myself, I don’t think, who was there with me and helped me swim closer to shore. He didn’t have a leash on his boogie board and also lost his to a wave as he was helping me. I’m getting emotional thinking about it - I quite possibly owe my life to that kid and I can’t remember even getting a chance to thank him for being the one to see me and come save me. I really hope we did thank him and I hope he is well and that life has been good to him, wherever he is. ❤ I don’t remember much about getting back to shore except for mom’s understandably scared and panicked chiding about being more careful and I think maybe a couple of the other kids like Meghan being there and glad I was ok.

March 22, Sunday
Mazatlan

Samie had Bridget, Tracy and Caitlin, Shadow Fox and Lexi, Odysseus, over playing music and building with Legos. Lexi got back last night. I had Mom take our mail to their house in Chandler last week, so we got mail today.
John cleaned the garden off the bottom of the dink.
The weather is not too bad inside here, but the north wind is a-blow’en out there. See World, Dean, Gay and boys left yesterday around one or so – tonight they came back in. Come to find out, See World only came back ‘cause they were predicting northers; they never really came up.

March 23, Monday

I went into town with Jan, Jayda, in her car – also Carrie and Bob. We hit Sam’s Club and Commercial; spent $1,400 pesos -  but that should be it up to San Carlos except for beer and fresh stuff. Once it was all put away, I was beat. It’s amazing how that wears us out.
Pete and Tracy, Foxen, brought steaks and potatoes over, I had pork chops and salad – we had a BBQ. It’s been enjoyable having them as dock neighbors. They are from San Francisco and have been to a lot of different countries delivering boats – always an entertaining story to tel

March 24, Tuesday

Well, it was a morning of goodbyes and see-ya-laters. We’ve been here 5 weeks having a ball, and it’s hard to leave. I’ll especially miss Angie, Angela, we spent a lot of time together. Samie is also having a hard time leaving the kids, though some will be right behind us.
We waited until 2:30 pm, when the dredge in the already narrow entrance shuts down for only a half and hour. Jayda was in front of us and made it right on out. However – we had to wait for two party boats – big, wide-bodied, trimarans – coming in. In trying to hold off, we bumped into Por Que No in El Cid and put a 2” scrape in his cap-rail and a 12” scrape in our hull stripe, just missing Samie’s window on the port side. We talked to him later on the radio and there’s no problem. I had climbed over our life lines to fend off, but not fast or strong enough. The swells are not bad out here, so the entrance wasn’t bad at all. By 3:30 we were anchored in 16 feet in front of the islands. The boat sure feels strange moving on the hook – good strange.
This is the time of day that we are normally wand’rin the docks – Samie and I are bored! But that won’t last long.

*Without a doubt, one of the hardest parts of traveling is the goodbyes. Sometimes you meet people you know you will never see again. Sometimes you are certain you will see someone again, but weather and other circumstances take those liklihoods away. It is the most bittersweet thing. ❤️‍🩹
Oof, navigating that entrance into the marinas was always a bit stressful. That’s awesome that Por Que No was really cool about everything.
It always felt so strange to be at anchor after being in the marina for an extended period of time - always feeling the boat moving this way or that with the swell. It’s amazing. 🤗

March 25, Wednesday
Mazatlan to Muertos

Very peaceful night on the hook last night. We weighed anchor at 5 am and headed around the south end of the island. Dan, Jayda, got some kind of line or something wrapped in his prop. Once that was free, it was about 6 am before we were really underway.
We have some sort of vibration above 1400 rpms. John even got in the water to take a look at our prop and shaft – everything looks fine. The main GPS didn’t want to get going at first, so we also have the spare out.
About 9 am, we had dolphins, common and spotted! The water is such a clear blue, we could see them beautifully!
It was flat calm until around 2 pm when we picked up 10k WSW – by sundown it was blowing 20k WSW. It was around 4:30 when we shut the engine off to check the oil, because the oil gauge was showing a little low. Oil looked fine, but while letting it settle in for a good reading, we actually sailed for half an hour.
The night stayed fairly peaceful, although the engine was vibrating, or actually, John thinks the vibration is in the drive-line, possibly. We don’t seem to be making as many knots of speed as normal and when the engine is off and we’re sailing, the prop is not turning very fast, which causes some drag.
Come to find out – we have picked up a piece of rope somewhere and it’s wrapped around the prop! John managed 4 hours of sleep and I got 2. Somewhere out in the middle of the crossing, the wind shifted to 10k – on the nose for several hours. It was a pretty lumpy, and at some point, the plant decided to throw dirt down on the salon cushions. Thank God the whole pot didn’t fly out and down!
I ate ¾ of a bag or pretzles on this trip – I’m not sure I ever want another one.

*It was rare for us to be under sail without the engine running! The Star is quite hefty, it takes her quite a bit to get her up to a decent speed under sail, so we usually motor-sailed. I bet it was quite peaceful to be only under sail for a while. Dad had his work cut out for him on this trip, trying to figure out what was going on.

March 26, Thursday
Mazatlan to Muertos

The oil is still not registering right on the gauge, so to be on the safe side, John has been adding more oil – now it’s spewing out when he checks it. Great, we just rebuilt the head and put on a new oil gasket. Every time he shuts it down to check the oil, I have found that it’s really pretty nice to be under sail power only. It takes about 20k to move this big old boat though, and it’s slow.
Samie spilled her cereal all over the cockpit – messy.
Down below looks somewhat like a disaster. The veggie net even popped a curtain rod off, so that was about to all go flying.
We are starting to think that the only problem with the oil is a bad gauge and it’s over-full.
The wind has shifted to 15-20k WNW, so it’s been a crossing being close-hauled.
John was trying to take a nap at 11 am when “Casper” decided to go on strike. It keeps locking up. So for the next 7 hours we hand-steered – what a concept! Samie was at the wheel for 4 hours. She is really good at holding a course – unless she gets side-tracked!
About 5 hours out, the wind shifted again, NW, 10-20k – nice, smoother ride. The last hours drag on forever, especially once you spot land on the horizon. 15 miles out, we start avoiding the fishing buoys with surface lines. The first one I barely saw in time.
Jayda has been pretty close to us the whole way, we move along about the same speed.
We finally made it in and got the hook down at 6 pm. 37 hours total, but probably 3 hours was spent slowing or stopping to check out the oil problem.
The actual passage was nice enough, though a little lumpy. The problems with the oil, Casper and vibration made it on the worrisome and stressful side.
After a quick so-so clean up of the boat and dinner, it was lights out! Best news was that with all the water coming over the forward decks – Samie’s cupboards are all dry!!

*This is one of those days that getting into anchor would have been such a relief, knowing we had made it safe and could now figure out what was going on in the safety of some beautiful harbor.
Casper is what we called out auto-pilot, since the wheel would move on its own accord and looked as though a ghost must be at the helm. 🙃
Oh man, you can tell we were a bit scarred from the number of times my cupboards had gotten soaked in the previous years! It was such a relief after every wet crossing that everything was still dry and didn’t need to be sopped up, washed, and dried over and over again!

March 27, Friday
Los Muertos

What a beautiful morning, got to see a pretty sunrise.
As soon as the dink was in the water, John found the big ole line wrapped around the prop. It’s a wonder we made it in – who knows when or where we picked it up, but I’m sure it was there most of the way.
Samie got a slow start on school, so we never made it to the beach today… mañana.
John changed the oil, he probably had too much in there, all because the gauge was goofy.
Around 5 pm, I put the binoculars on a boat coming in, it’s Christina. We’ve been looking for them all season. Tom Pearson from Lakeside, Az was sailing down this year. His crew from San Diego was Keith Kinkenbush, also from Lakeside. I told John “You’re not gonna believe who’s coming in.” Anyway, they came over for a while; Jayda was also here. Nice visit. Small world when two boats from Lakeside, Az end up in the same anchorage in Mexico, all on the same day, all un-planned! Pretty cool.
The wind blew 15-20k from the north most all day. It’s a lot colder than the mainland.

*What serendipitous magic, to arrive in the same place on the same day, fully by chance. I love when life does that kind of stuff.
It’s funny, I would go on to end up being roomates and dear friends with Tom’s daughter, Becca, in my early twenties. We never met during these earlier years, we just ended up in the same social circle at some point and hit it off really well. I lived with her and her then boyfriend on and off for around 8 years - we had some really great times together!

March 28, Saturday

It really does feel good to be on the hook again.
Now that we’re out of the marina – the ham nets come in a lot better. John got back to doing 3838 net, also the weather bunny for Sonrista.
He and Dan, Jayda, went fishing – no luck. We ran the engine for a while – all is well.
See World came in today around 9 am. They had an oil leak, so it took them a while to make it in with only 5k of breeze. It blew 8-10k SE all day, so it got a little lumpy with the open bay. The bar is down 12 points from yesterday. A front is gonna go through up north - hope it doesn’t hit down this far.
We went to the beach for a short walk, it was already 4 pm.
Well, the wind picked up at 9 pm, 20-30k SW all night. We were awake until around 1 am, then finally dozed off.

*Something about cruising life that has me thinking is how much time and energy is spent registering and responding to the elements, the weather, surprises with equipment or otherwise, etc. Things are constantly changing, moving, breaking, adjusting… all of the things. It can be exhausting, but I think a major blessing in it is that oftentimes it keeps your mind so busy that you don’t have time to get too bummed out about anything for too long. I think that an equal and opposite curse of a more sedentry life is that your mind often has too much time to ponder, to worry, to debate or argue with itself. I like the idea of almost always having something to figure out or address, someone new coming or going, having to keep up on weather updates or learning about some new place to explore. I’m certain this has a lot to do with my getting bored with routine so easily.

March 29, Sunday
Los Muertos

It’s still blow’en this a.m. although around 10:30 it did shift to the NW at 10-15k until early afternoon when it again sent SE 5-10k.
John went fishing while we did school, again, no luck. Then we took Max, See World, to the beach around the point. Jayda also went in their dink. We found some pretty cool shells, sea urchins, and I found a perfect star fish. We left Samie at See World for a while. Happy hour at Jayda. We are all ready to head to La Paz in the morning. It’s now 8 pm and the wind is once again howling out of the SW 20k all night.

*Oh, you know little me with my big ‘ol crush was so excited to spend time with Max! I’m surprised I don’t remember much about it.

March 30, Monday
Los Muertos to La Paz

After listening to the current weather, we left Muertos at 7 am along with Jayda, See World, Christina and 2 other boats that were in the anchorage. Once in Ceravo Channel, it was snotty and got worse! The entire trip was 20-30k NW just off our nose. Casper, the auto-pilot, only worked for about 20 minutes, so John hand-steered most of the way. We had a full main up and I found it too hard to steer with the high, lumpy seas. We had things flying everywhere once we made it in to Lorenzo Channel with the swell running cross-ways now. Once we made the downwind run, it was much smoother. Of course, we met the ferry at that point. We never enter or leave La Paz without seeing the ferry. We had to anchor way up front by the pier – it’s crowded in here. We have salt everywhere – it was another one of those “Thank you, Tony” days. We were blow’en smoke out of the engine exhaust like big clouds coming in the La Paz channel. Shit! The 9-10 hour trip took us 11.5 this time, we were anchored at 6:30 pm..

Pretty sure Tony was the name of the yacht broker who helped us find The Star. There would have been a great many days that they were thankful for him!

March 31, Tuesday
La Paz

John called Tim at Navopache, he has a job for the summer, mid-May. Gary says he’s sure I do, but call back in a couple days.
John found the problem with the oil and the smok’en. We ordered a new engine fuel feed pump. It’s worn and allowing diesel fuel to get into the engine oil. We had another extra 1.5 qts last night.
Samie spent some time on Jayda, she likes their laptop computer.
We moved our anchor this morning, only a little closer to the docks, but in this wind chop, every little bit helps.
The wind wasn’t that bad today, 10-15k, then calmed down at sunset.
We went into the Dock for dinner with See World, Jayda, and Christina. We heard all the stories from Tom and Keith, first the electric windlass didn’t work, then they wrapped the jib sheet around the prop, next the batten blew out of the main – no auto pilot. When the prop fouled, he had to go overboard in all that slop – that takes guts! It was a real nice get-together, I’m looking forward to spending more time with Gay on See World as we go up in the Sea.