View from the Top
15 November 2008 | Amy was pulled up the mast and enjoyed the view
Capt Rich
Still anchored in Bahia De Los Muertos the kids spent the entire morning working on schoolwork some math, English, reading aloud, and writing in their journals. For "recess" they spent some time on deck and since Amy did a great job (no whining or complaining) her reward was a ride in the bosun's chair to the top of the mast to retrieve our lost spinnaker halyard. She brought along a camera and really enjoyed the ride and view. After lunch we will dingy to shore and explore the small town with the crew of Bay Wolf. Bay Wolf is a Santa Cruz 50 racing boat from the Bay Area and Capt Kirk and Sachi are cruising with their two kids Miya (age 11) and Romi (age 8). Our average speed has been around 5kts since we left San Diego, but even in light wind the Santa Cruz 50 is easily averaging 7kts, so we usually end up leaving a few hours ahead of them to even have a chance to keeping up. We plan on this same early departure from Muertos when we make the 60 mile trip to La Paz.
I asked Lori if she had anything she wanted to type up for the blog and got a dirty look as she was grading the kids paperwork and getting their next materials ready. Schooling the two kids takes quite a bit of prep time, which has fallen into Lori's responsibility. I would be glad to let her work on the oil leaks and in the bilge, and trade for the role of teacher, but then the mechanical items would fall apart, as would the kids educational structure.so it's a good division of labor.
Yesterday I made my first batch of bread form scratch using the sour dough starter given to me for my birthday. I split the dough into two halves with one half going into a standard bread loaf pan and the second half being turned into cinnamon rolls! So this morning for breakfast, we had French toast made form the cinnamon rolls and it was GREAT. The bread is finishing up it's rise and will be cooked today, but I'm a little concerned about it's lack of proofing, oh the difficulties of cruising.
With no wind in the anchorage, we have been running all of our fans along with three computers all morning long. The great news is that the solar panels are STILL putting amps into the batter bank and that's even with the Ice Box refrigeration unit keeping the freezer box cold and the fridge at a perfect 40 Deg! So needless to say, we are happy with our 260W of solar. We only go negative during the evening hours.100AH negative to be exact for last night.
We will make some more water when we head to La Paz, but we have been using fresh water like the grasshopper in the famous "Grasshopper and the Ant" parable. Perhaps the grasshopper also had a 45 Gal/hr water maker?
I was trying to get the some of the kids journal entries posted today, but with all the other work they had, they didn't have time to edit their entries after I typed them into word. So you guys will have to check back later for those.
Again, no photos with this post made over the Ham Radio...but I have a great one of Amy at the top of the mast and will update this post when we get to La Paz.