Yesterday was another slow sailing day with our best average hour being 3.7 kt and our slowest, 1.0 kt. We did a fly-by of the boats anchored at Juncalito and had some of our best sailing in the cove there. The wind got lighter and lighter as we passed the Nopolo resort area but we were still creeping along. John lost track of the time, and even though we finished the run motoring, it was too late to buy a fishing license by the time he got to the office - they must have closed up mid-afternoon.
We came in yesterday so we could get up early and go to the "farmer's market" people had been telling us about all week. Well, it turned out to be more or less the local tiangue, with more produce than usual, especially for its small size. We loaded up on: broccoli (3), cabbage (1), cauliflower (1), green peppers (2), limes (12), cucumber (2), avocados (4), tomatoes (8), jalapenos (4), poblano chiles (2), another type of small, yellow chile (6), carrots (6), onions (6), asparagus (2 bunches), zucchini (6), bananas (6), eggs (2 doz), and goat cheese. In order to make this last until around the end of the month when we might get to Mulege to restock most of it has to go in the fridge. We left out one avocado, the tomatoes, cabbage, onions, bananas, and eggs, and managed to fit everything else in the fridge along with four cans of beer, four liters of water/juice, yogurt, and the salad dressing, margarine, mayo, lunch meat, and cheeses we already had stored there. Our fridge is nine cubic feet. This means that most of the food has to be taken out in order to get at anything not stored right on top of what is essentially a misshapen hole with a lid on it. Coming home from the "grocery store" isn't a simple thing to do when home is a boat!
Cool Nature Stuff: We got to see an osprey dive from it's perch on top of a cactus straight down into the water (just like a tern!) and pop back out with a fish in its talons because we happened to be sitting out in the cockpit before sunset enjoying a beautiful evening. I'm pretty good at spotting osprey, and John picked up the binoculars and commented on how it was sure moving it's head around looking at something, like it was getting ready to fish. But the way it completely disappeared under the surface of the water took us totally by surprise! And during our slow sail to Loreto we were accompanied by a huge school of some small sardine-like fish. They were right at the surface with mouths wide open, making that fish fountain splashing sound whenever parts of the school broke the surface in unison. They kept up with us for a few minutes until we got a bit of breeze and Nakia left them in her wake.
Boat projects: John had been assured by another boater that pouring muriatic acid into the head periodically would clear out the calcified stuff that builds up when urine meets salt water. So one night he was a little overzealous in trying to clean our Lavac head by flushing two liters of industrial strength muriatic acid (complete with skull and crossbones on the bottle) through it. But he lives under a lucky star, and the manual bilge pump (which is black) for this boat is the exact same pump (white) that the head uses, which is where the parts broke (including one side of the housing). He cannibalized parts and now we have two "mixed race" pumps! Also, lately our Garmin 65 GPS has begun turning itself on, usually during the night (beep, beep, beep), and even tried turning itself off once when we were underway. The PWR/STAT button must be sticking somehow but there doesn't appear to be any way to access it for John to take a look. And a quick check of the web found that Garmin doesn't even make this model anymore, so not only can't we get a plain old GPS, but we have to get a chart plotter just to replace it!
Decks and bright work: What? Are you kidding! John's still burned out from all the work last winter, and is taking a much needed hiatus from the big stuff.
Fishing: The sailing has been too slow for any big ones like dorado (not that we've heard of anyone else catching those) and he hasn't been out trolling much lately, so we're eating rice and beans these days - kidding!
Linda and John