It is now time for us to leave and make our way to La Paz. The morning of December 7th we pulled up the anchor and put the fishing lines out and we were off for another great motor sail ride. There was not enough wind to take the jib cover off so we put up the main for a little help and some stability. This leg took about fours. We were starting to get close to the entrance to the La Paz channel and it was time to bring the fishing lines in. When I started to wind up the drag line on the carbon fiber tube we hooked a nice sierra mackerel. We brought the fish in and filleted it and put the hook back out and turned a wide circle to try to catch another one, but no luck. The next stop is Marina De La Paz for fuel. This is where it gets real interesting. We take on about 50 gallons of fuel, start the engine and the no water to the engine alarm comes on and Russ looks back at the exhaust and we have water so he runs down and taps the gage and it turns off (this is not the first time that it has gotten stuck), I untie the dock lines. We get about fifty feet away from the dock and Russ tells me to get the anchor ready to drop in case the engine decided to crap out. It was running rougher than a cobb and the a RPM's were oscillating from 400 to 900 at full throttle. It sounds like a fuel problem. We limp over to Virtual Marina to pick up an anchoring system aka... mooring. Now the really big fun begins. Let me paint the picture. The foredeck (bow of the boat or pointy end) now has the spinnaker pole on the starboard side and the yellow electrical cord for the windless and the line that goes to the anchor block are all on deck just inside the spinnaker pole. Got the picture? I am on the bow with boat pole extended and in hand to pick up the mooring. No problem right! Well you're wrong. I get the mooring and I yell back to Russ to put the engine in neutral and come forward. The boat keeps moving and is pulling the boat pole out of my hands. Well, I am pretty strong but not strong enough to hold onto a mooring with the hook at the end of a boat pole with a 29,000 pound boat moving forward. So I did what any other woman in my position would do. I tried to walk back with the boat pole but was unable to do so due to all the stuff on the deck. I got pulled down to my knee with the life line under the armpit (boat still moving) and pulled along the life line for about a foot until the boat pole finally got pulled out of my hand down into the water. With the engine still not working I scurried back to the cockpit to get the GAF HOOK. Now we shall try this again. They say that third time is the charm well for us this day twice was the charm and we actually kept the gaf hook on board. Russ said he put the engine in neutral. He thought it was current. One can not always tell if it is neutral by the feel of the gear shift. Neutral on this boat is hard to find.

With the mooring on and we are secured Russ asked me to check the water temp. The temp is at 230 degrees, now that is a lot hot not a little hot. For our Pathfinder 50 horse engine 200 degrees is normal.

Phyllis from Apolima came over and as she was getting on board the bilge high water alarm went off. I of course pumped the bilge and everything was quiet again.

I bet you can't guess what happens tomorrow. Russ decided to address the fuel issue first. First thing with fuel problems is to check or change the fuel filters. Since the Racor fuel filters had not been in a year he thought it prudent to change all filters. Yes they needed it. With that complete he started to check into the bilge high water alarm problem. He discovered that the engine did not have ANY water in it and the bilge full with antifreeze water, hence the 230 degree water temp. He put water in and started the engine; he could see a steady stream of water and tracked it to a copper pipe. It turns out that the fly wheel cut through the pipe. He disassembled the pipe and discovered that the fitting where the pipe goes into had a "U" shape chunk missing probably due to electrolysis. Now with parts in hand he now knows what tomorrow's day will be like.

You are probably wondering what I was doing while he was tearing the boat apart. Ok, Ok, I'll tell you. I went to Wal-mart with Phyllis to do some odds and end shopping. This way I stay out of Russ's way and he has no one to bother or interrupt him.

Today December 9th I went up to Katty's, which is a person who makes custom dive skins. You can pick your color scheme from solids to prints. I did not see any that struck my fancy so she told me to go to the fabric store and get what I wanted and come back. Soooo, off I went. I found some two sided printed lycra that I liked for 55 pesos per meter. I needed two meters. This is about $4.00 dollars a meter. With fabric in hand I start my hike back to Katty's. Katty took my measurements and $300 pesos (about $28.00) later; I have a pick up date of Saturday morning. I left Katty's , started the hike back down to the malecon and over to La Costa Restaurant for the SASS (sisters acquiring sailing skills) meeting. This weeks meeting was about "First Aid Aboard". It was a very informative meeting.

Russ meanwhile went in the opposite direction. He walked up to Lopez Marine to talk to Amish about flexible fuel hose. Amish directed him to a volkswagon dealer in mid town for the hose fitting (pipe fitting). I purchased the correct fitting and then the volkswagon dealer directed me to the opposite side of town for high temperature water hose. I missed them by five minutes. Now I have to wait for the two hour siesta to end. I finally was able to purchase the hose. I walked about a half a mile and caught a bus back to with in a quarter mile of the marina. The cost of the bus is 8 pesos ($ .75). Tomorrow I will tear the boat apart again to install the collected parts of today.