Nov 11th San Juanico. I am getting tired watching Russ buzz around fixing things so I decided that I would go bake a cake. Today is FIX IT day for Russ. Here is how his list went: 1. Re-Fuel - Take the jerry jugs of fuel and siphon it into the tanks. 2. Flopper Stopper System - This requires taking the spinnaker pole and attaching it to the mast using the spinnaker halyard on one end, the other end attaches to the mast with a specialized fitting. Then you swing the pole out to the side. Now you attach a pennant line with the drogue shute (parachute) and immerse it about 5 feet in the water. This system is suppose to stop you from rolling violently from side to side. 3.Leak - Trace the leak to find where the water is coming from. 4. Tighten the Life Lines He completed all tasks except one, the Life Lines.2 He had to put corrosion block on them to break them loose. He will try tomorrow for this. Now task three was a little tricky. He check the engine compartment by laying down on his side and with a mirror watch for the droplets of water and d etermined that it is coming from farther back in the boat and that could only mean the exhaust system. He climbed down through a lazaretto that is approximately 18 X 20 to get to the exhaust, using a mirror on a handle to track the water allowed him to see the bottom of the fitting. The result is that the plastic fitting to the exhaust pipe is cracked. The solution is the one and only permanent cure 5200(adhesive) and a hose clamp. Now we wait for it to cure. There are about nine other boats here in the anchorage. It turns out that the Tucson Sailing Club is here. Sea Peace with Maggie and Stew on board are the largest boat a 51 center cockpit Irwin. Maggie called on the radio and asked; what are the ingredients to a margarita. Well you know I had to tell her the recipe that Juniata gave me and it is:
2 oz of Tequilla
1 oz of Controy
1 oz of Damiana (Mexican liquor and I have not found it in the states)
3-4 Limes
Sugarr to taste
Water Instead of limes

I use Tang, Limon flavored (you can't get that in the states either). However, Limeade will work also.

Maggie said that she was going to make them for the party. We asked WHAT PARTY? Then she asked who she was talking to so we told her and then she invited us to the Tucson Sailing Club party aboard her boat. That is how we found out it was a sailing club. We went over and met everyone and what a great group of people. They invited us to join their cruise. They come down to San Carlos twice a year once in May and again in Oct or Nov and go for a three week cruise. They keep their boats in Marina Secca San Carlos. We came back to the boat and watch the last cd of Horn Blower.

Nov 12th Caleta San Juanico. Don the weather guy on the ham said that the wind will be from the west up to 25 knots in the canyons and Geary the weather guy said that he does not see what Don is predicting and predicts that the wind will be out of the East or Southeast. While sitting at anchor this morning and watching all the Tucson Sailing Club leave and head to Puerto Ballandra we noticed that the wind had filled from the East Southeast so we picked up anchor and moved to the end of the bay in hopes to have a little more protection. This also will give us west protection also. Russ has been dremeling the wood under the stove so the oven door will open without a hitch and now he just brought the torch up to help un freeze the lifelines so they can be tightened. Now for breakfast, it is chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting and a glass of milk. The breakfast of champions. We took the dogs ashore and let them run and play on the beach and of course they tried to dig their way to china. While they were playing we built a fire and burned trash. The dingy floated off the beach and I had to run after it. Lucy decided to run with me. I was running in mid calf high water and she was jumping and hopping to get to me and on one of the jumps she went completely under water and decided to swim to me instead of jumping or hopping. I picked her up and put her in the dingy. The vessel Third Day with Rich, Lori, Jason, Amy and the kitten Cortez on board anchored by us and we invited them over for happy hour. It turns out that it is Rich birthday and they brought some clam stuffing, clams on the half shell, pineapple upside down cake and I made brochette and ginger peach cream cheese all to go with crackers. We had a great evening. The wind decided to turn and come from the west at about 25 knots.

Nov 13th. We were having a conversation with Third Day on the VHF radio about weather and Sorceress broke in and joined us. Third Day left for Isla Carmen. We up anchor and moved over to the north side of San Juanico. There are four boats still anchored here they are Physche, Sorceress, Whakuna, Windward. The anchor is down and set. We have not decided if we are going to Puerto Ballendra for the norther or staying here. I am reading and Russ well I bet you can guess what he is doing. Yep, boat projects. Kathy and Steve off Physche came over to say hi and I asked them to come aboard. We had a nice introduction and visit and made plans for happy hour with Margaritas and Snacks at about 5:30. Sorceress called us on the radio to apologize about breaking in on the conversation. We had a little chat and found out that they are RV Campground hosts. So they will give us more information on this. Happy hour was a hit. We had great conversation and snacks. These guys are really fun. Physche invited us over tomorrow night to their boat for happy hour if we are still here.

Nov 14th. We decided to wait out the Norther here and have Sunset Happy Hour with Physche and Sorceress. According to the weather guys Gary and Don said the Norther should start blowing tomorrow from the north about 25-30 knots and will not let up until Tuesday afternoon. It looks like we will probably move on down the Baja on Wednesday. We shall see. I read some more and Russ is downloading the weather fax information to weather. We both collapsed in the V-berth for a nap. I am now working on the log while Russ is getting the dingy ready to go ashore to let the dogs run. Hope you all are getting the spot tracker and looking at the view we have.

Nov 15th. We took Taco and Lucy ashore to go for a walk with Sorceress and Phyche. We walked over the hill on a path to the other side to the North anchorage La Ramada. The wind was blowing about 30 knots. The dingy ride home was calm. It always is when going down wind. Sorceress came over to see the boat and we had a great visit.

Nov 16th. Today at 12:00 we went ashore to burn trash with Sorceress. Then Sorceress, Psyche and I went for a walk around the hill to the west beach. Russ is staying to attend the fire. It was a nice walk. I saw an Ospry with a fish in his talons. Russ went back to the boat and charged batteries and made water and did boat stuff. After the walk I went back to Psyche to play some Mexican Train Dominos. The rest of the day was spent reading. We had winds up to 20-25 knots.

Nov 17th. Today started out somewhat lazy for me, although it started out just the opposite for Russ. We have not been getting all the solar power out of our solar panels so Russ had to trace out where the problem was. He started with checking both battery banks and it turns out that only one bank was getting charged. He then checked at the battery switch to confirm. Sure enough it appears that the switch may be the problem. Naturally the boat was built around the battery switch. It took at least one hour to disembowel the electrical panel (which was not designed to be removed) to get to the switch. The brand is Blue Seas made in Europe and is metric. Upon investigating, it fell apart into many springs and brass fittings. Oh well were cruising, there is plenty of time to put it back together, which he did. An hour later the switch was put back together to find out it was working perfectly. It turns out the problem was 29 years of tarnish on the battery lugs that had to be sanded off; after everything said and done it is now working as designed. Meanwhile, I am doing laundry. It always looks like the little Chinese laundry girl has been here with the laundry hanging off the lifelines with clothes pins. The rest of the day was relaxation. There was a meteor shower tonight and we got to see a few of them. Watched a movie and went to bed. Wind today is up to 30 knots. It looks real nasty out in the sea. Glad we are anchored and protected. Eric on Sorceress brought over some Kaomycin diarrhea med for Lucy. It did help. Thanks Mary.

Nov 18th. Russ got up and turned on the ham radio receiver to receive weather. The Norther has moved on so we are a go to leave and head to the next anchorage making our way south. We got the boat ready to leave and then said our goodbyes to Psyche and Sorceress. One would hope that we see these guys down the road. They are exceptional people and we enjoyed every minute spent with them. We just caught our first fish on the cedar plug. It was a tuna. It keeps flipping in circles trying to get off the hook. Well unfortunately it paid off for him because he got off right at the last moment. Note to self: Make sure they are surfing before bringing them in. It was a lazy sail to Isla Coronados. We put the dingy in the water and took the fur kids to the beach and walked. This is by far the cleanest beach I have ever seen. On the dingy ride back we saw angel fish in about five feet of water. Now it is showers for all, yes including the fur kids.